holiday rush

Ah, the holiday rush season. When there aren't enough hours in the day. When the weather turns just nasty enough for you to not want to go out and brave the slush or ice and wind chill.

Thankfully, I'm pretty close to done.

It was 1 degree when I pulled into the office parking lot this morning. 1. No wind chill, just 1. I had left my office window a crack overnight, and it froze a few branches of my kalanchoe solid. Solid. I couldn't even bend the stem or the leaves. I clipped it and tossed the affected sections--this had happened before, to another branch, but it had thawed by the time I reached the office, and left a bedraggled, very sad-looking limp branch behind. Not this time. Thankfully, my kalanchoe is quite healthy--not overgrown, by any stretch, but could stand to lose a few branches around the outside.

I leave a window cracked because I've got a very long, narrow office. I've got three windows rather than the usual two, and a very long bank of heater right below the windows. So in such a long, narrow office, I've got tons of heat source and nowhere for it to go. It builds up in my office and gets really, really warm. Thus, I usually have a window open in the winter.

I realized this morning that I multitask to an absurd degree. I realized this while I was watering my plants, blowdrying my hair, and brushing my teeth at the same time. I think that sums it up right there.

In other news, my office avocado tree is almost as tall as me. It comes up to eye level on me, and its pot isn't even very high. The one at home, on the other hand, has decided to grow out instead of up. It's got two branches that are threatening my walking space from bed to bathroom. I wonder how the one I gave Dax (last year at this time? the year before?) is doing: I haven't seen it since he brought it inside for the winter. And if I haven't told you my coleus story yet, I should really do so. But enough plant-y ramblings for today.

Oh! I also brought the fountain that B. gave me in college to the office, finally (no readily available space for it at home). I've run into some technical problems, though, so although I've got it set up and water in it, it's not running as of yet. We'll see if I have time to take a look at what's wrong before the holidays really hit.