thoughts from sunday afternoon

a splitting headache, brought on by teeth-grinding dreams of my former workplace. i hope those stop soon, but i suppose my brain is still processing and getting rid of the poison of that place. because poison is what it was. a truly diseased atmosphere.

spatterings of rain buffet the windows, followed by fleeting periods of sun.

in all a good day to stay inside on the couch, watching a new scandinavian cooking marathon on BBC lifestyle. they've all featured the earnest andreas viestad, with his fresh, clean norwegian look (as if he'd just wandered off a mountain) and his amusing but charming accent.

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i'm mourning that i've finished jonathan franzen's freedom. mourning a little bit how it turned out and simply sad that it's over.  good books are like that, aren't they? like a friend you don't want to see leave. i may have to dig through the boxes of books and find the corrections so i can reread it and wallow a little bit more in that very midwestern sensibility. i realize franzen lives in new york, but he can't really escape his midwestern roots.

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it was quite amusing watching the eurovision song contest last evening and following the conversation about it on twitter. most of the entrants were nothing short of heinous and azerbeijan won, leaving me wondering if i should have paid more attention in geography class (not that we had that in the US, since we're brought up to believe we're the only country on earth). but i honestly didn't think azerbeijan was in europe.

if you're not familiar with the eurovision song contest, i think the closest we have in the US is the miss america pageant - where costumed people of limited talent perform and pretend to have ambitions of bringing peace to the world. true to form, the azerbeijani winners have expressed their wish to "bring europe together" (apparently with central asia if my map is correct).

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husband is preparing the barn next door so we can bring matilde home and discovered the source of the strange poo i had seen near the cats' dish. it seems our little hedgehog has moved into the barn as well and has been helping herself to the cat food! she had made a little nest underneath some plastic tarps. husband uncovered it, but has built her a new little more protected spot. meanwhile, little penelope (as i've taken to calling her), curled into a ball and held as still as could be. it's amazing the way they don't run.

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so i leave you to nurse my headache and work a little bit more on my felted stones, which is about all i can manage as long as the headache persists. enjoy the rest of your sunday. if i can get rid of this headache, i will too.