Jen got a whole bag of these neat little hand-warmers sometime before Christmas from the mother of one of Lexy's classmates. They work on the same principle as the wheat bags we have floating around the house - you put them in the microwave for a couple of minutes and then soothe your aches away with soft warmness. I finally remembered to take one of the hand warmers to work, thinking that it would be nice to have out there in the cold february dark. Once at work I discovered that somebody had taken the carousel out of the microwave, and that somebody else had evidently had a little trouble keeping their coffee in the cup while heating it (the coffee maker bit the dust a month or two ago...) I looked around for something to put between the hand warmer and the puddle of coffee inside the microwave. In the end, I stuffed it inside a coffee cup and started heating it. It promptly caught on fire, sending smoke out into the room. I turned off the microwave, removed the charred cup holding the even more charred handwarmer, went to the bathroom and doused the whole mess with water. Oh well... at least we have more of them.

cds I listened to while wishing my hands were warm: Raw Power "Burning the Factory", Amalia Rodrigues & the History of Fado, Tracy Chapman "New Beginning", and Laibach "The Occupied Europe Tour 1985"

now: Simon Fisher Turner "The Garden" soundtrack