Cubs finished their birdhouses last night, and they look fantastic. They painted them wild psychedelic colours and then stuck on hippy flowers and dinosaurs. One enterprising little boy painted "Bird House for Rent" on the roof. The others told him very seriously that birds don't have any money.

Rachel's been quite sick, had to take her down for a pronouncement of strep throat and a prescription. To add to the 10-yr-old-taking-pills fun, Jazz has a bladder thing so we've been having to feed her penicillin too. At least with a dog you can pry her mouth open and throw the pills in. We contemplated doing that with Rachel, too, might save time and the tears would probably be shorter, too. Ok, I'm being callous. I feel sorry for both pill-taking beings. But I wish they'd just swallow the damn things and be done with it. Jazz will take the pills if we hide them in something relatively meaty, she sussed them out of ground beef tonight, but gobbled them down in pork chop bits yesterday. Rachel has worked her way up to being able to swallow a half a pill with water. At first we were feeding her bits of bread and getting her to swallow the pills that way...

Saw the sun on Friday, and again today, about ten minutes each time. It was cloudy all weekend. Soon it will be a bit lighter during the day. The darkness has seemed long. I lack energy. Read a lot. Neglect things. Still, it's the middle of January now. By the spring equinox there will be 12 hours of daylight. Better get on with that, sun.