Since we put the electric blanket back on the bed the other night, every time we don't see the cats in plain view, we know they're probably upstairs, sleeping. Last night I didn't know where either Bob or the cats were, so I snuck upstairs and found them all taking advantage of the electric blanket.

Tonight, I came home from work, warmed up leftover Chinese food for dinner, then went straight upstairs to bed. I ended up napping for four hours, and now it's nearly 1:00. Not a very good schedule for someone who has to be up at 6:30 to go to work in the morning, but I suppose it won't hurt me to do this occasionally.

I think the reason it makes me feel a little uncomfortable (mentally, not physically) goes back to childhood and having it ingrained into me that once you were in bed, you didn't get up. To go to the bathroom, I guess, but that was about it. Even now, if I wake up in the night and can't go to sleep, I don't get up. I just lie there, wakeful.

And it would never occur to me to get up and eat something, no matter how hungry I was. Television shows or commercials showing people up in the middle of the night raiding the refrigerator in their pajamas are completely foreign to me, although as I wrote that I had a memory of a phrase from my childhood: "bednight snack." I'll have to ask my mom (or my sister, probably--she has the best memory) if she remembers what that refers to--obviously a corruption of "bedtime snack" and "midnight snack." I don't suppose we were ever up until midnight . . .

I took my knitting with me over to Dennis and Pam's house on New Year's Eve, and knitted about twelve inches on my scarf. It's going pretty well. The yarn is beautiful--a subtly variegated brushed acrylic in shades of muted purples, greens, rose and yellow--sounds awful, but looks lovely. And Julia and I went to the paper store over lunch yesterday and I bought a few more rubberstamps, some handmade papers, some tinsel cord and an embossing tool. I had dug out my box of stamps and papers over the weekend, and last night I spread everything out on the dining room table and made some stuff.

Four cards. The problem, for me, is two-fold: the biggest hang-up is getting everything out, i.e., going to all the trouble of finding all the pieces and finding a place to work. I dislike leaving my stuff spread all over the house--I'm not much of a housekeeper, but I make an effort. And then of course there's time. Not finding the time, really, but taking the time.

I enjoy doing creative things very much, but it is an effort. Once I get started, ideas come pretty quickly. It's just that getting started is sometimes difficult, as it is with most things, I suppose.

Anyway, I did do some things that I'm pleased with, and I'll probably do some more in the next couple of days. And I have about a foot and a half knitted on my scarf, so I feel pretty happy with my progress.