i feel like i can't blog unless i have a picture to post

so here's a random one from christmas:

i love reading other people's blogs. but i love them more when they post pictures. and i don't want to have a boring, text-only blog. so i feel like i need to have a picture to accompany each post.  which is probably why i'm not posting more often.  i've been too busy to spend much time in photoshop lately. so random pictures it is.  and short, choppy sentences.

aislinn is feeling better. she still has a mean cough, but she's not feverish anymore. it's so hard to watch how a little cold wracks all 12lbs of her. it's so much more traumatic to her little body. but she's weathering the storm and will be back at daycare tomorrow.

this weekend i decided that i was going to clean the house and take pictures and post them for you guys, because we've been in the house for two months and i still haven't shown you guys the Wallpaper O Horror.*  this weekend i honestly got closer than i ever have before, but clearly it wasn't close enough. i got up on saturday morning and cleaned and swept, vacuumed and dusted, and did about 5 loads of laundry. but by then it was afternoon, and autumn wanted lunch. and then there was a parachute project involving bread bags and string and old GI Joes. and then it was time to take autumn back to her mom's, and aislinn needed a nap, and then some friends came over, and they had wine, and the next thing i know it's sunday and there's a sinkful of dishes and baby toys all over the floor.

i have been unusually manic about cleaning lately. i've always been compulsively tidy, but lately it's gotten really bad. i think part of it is because i watch "Jon and Kate Plus 8" (which jake LOATHES, by the way, so i have to DVR it and watch it in secret when he's not around), but that show makes me think, "oh my god, that woman has eight children and she mops her kitchen floor three times a day? that means i am a TERRIBLE HOUSEKEEPER!" and then i find myself standing in my kitchen at 9:00 p.m. with Jon and Kate Plus 8 playing in the background, scrubbing every. last. spot. off my ceramic cooktop.

the inauguration is tomorrow. what are you guys doing? we haven't made any plans yet, but i want to do something festive. on election night we broke out a bottle of special edition bourbon:

i can't think of anything inaugurally appropriate to cook tomorrow night.  i mean, it has to involve chicken, because i think that's the only thing i have in my freezer.  except for some venison, which i am totally intimidated by and haven't thawed yet because it just looks so ... bloody.  and bambi!  but seriously the only political food i can think of is senate bean soup, and i'm not in the mood for that.  

ideas?

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*it is virtually certain that i'm going to post pictures of my wallpaper and one of my readers is going to comment, "hey! i hung that wallpaper in my house! intentionally!" and then i'm going to feel terrible and next time we see each other it's going to be awkward, so i'd just like to apologize in advance for that.