Late, late January

I bought my first "Seattle jacket" recently--water-repellant, wind-resistant, and hooded. It will especially come in handy when I have to walk the dog (it's very difficult to juggle an umbrella, a poop bag, and a dog who wants to go in every direction--and yes, again with the poop bags; sorry!). I'm very pleased with it and find it even warmer than my winter coat from Banana Republic--and to top it all off, I got it at a discount!

Had to pay just over $700 recently for some car maintenance and repair, but once again, the repairs were due to no fault of my trusty Civic. (Instead, a mouse had chewed through the wires for my thermostat gauge.) The bulk of the work was for a timing belt and water pump replacement. My mechanic didn't think it was absolutely critical that we do it now, but I chose to go ahead with it as my car is over 8 years old. The car has been good to me; I want to be good to it. Strangely, I was really tired of my car around the 6-year-mark (I even blogged about it), but I seem to have worked through that. There are no new cars out now that tempt me (though one day I'll blog about my idiosyncratic desire for a 70s muscle car). I'm just grateful that my car has served me so well these 8 years, and I'm in no hurry to get rid of it.

I did splurge on something for myself recently: over the holidays, a friend invited us over for dinner, and he served eggnog with freshly grated nutmeg. I couldn't believe how good it was, and immediately started dreaming of nutmeg grinders. They're fairly expensive, but I did pick up a refurbished Peugeot model on Amazon for $17.20. It arrived last night and I had fresh nutmeg in my coffee this a.m.--mmmm mmm!