ah, the house is clean. i woke up with a hoarse voice, but otherwise feeling fine. mia, our dog, tracked mud all over the carpet early this morning, so as soon as we were up and at 'em, i vaccuumed and straightened the whole house. that gave me an instant headache, but it faded quickly once i ate breakfast. breakfast today was a multigrain bagel with cream cheese and orange juice to drink. the kids and i should be swimming in orange juice by now; we've been drinking it, plus gallons of water, nonstop for the past few days. we've all got colds and i'm hoping the fluids and vit C help get us well soon. i don't want our family to be sick for christmas!

last night for dinner, i boiled four chicken thighs, pulled the meat off the bone and stirred it in with bowtie pasta, parma rosa sauce and english peas. it wasn't as good as i'd hoped... needed more sauce. while i'm on the subject of food, right now i am totally hooked on dreyer's dulce de leche ice cream. i think i'll go have some right now.