Happy Epiphany

If I were more organized, I would have baked one of my cardamom Three Kings cakes with all sorts of goodies hidden therein to symbolize the Magi but I'm at sixes and sevens with my furnace having broken down for 30 hours until a repairman figured out what was wrong with it. So Wednesday was pretty wretched as Veeka and I slept in 50-degree rooms until blessed heat arrived Thursday. The joys of home ownership.
Work has settled down; eerily so in that there are so few of us in the newsroom these days, the whole place is markedly colder. Didn't know 110 extra people could provide so much extra body heat.
The photo is of my niece, Carley, holding Veeka. Her younger sister, Lindsay, is to the right. What I didn't mention last time is how on Christmas Day, Carley walked into my parents' home with her left hand extended and her fourth finger bearing an engagement ring. Being that her parents are planning on a divorce in the near future, Christmas was very sad for us all but Carley's news really lightened the day. Hopes are for her to wear my mother's satin wedding gown from the late 1940s (one of my aunts wore it before my mom got married in 1950) because I sure can't fit into it. Even when I was 20 pounds lighter, I couldn't get the thing on. My whole body was just BIGGER. But Carley is pretty thin so we're hoping she can wear the dress.
Today, Jan. 7, Veeka had her first visit to the dentist and she behaved beautifully. I wasn't really happy at being charged $102 for all of 15 minutes she was there, tho.