Wednesday 17 October

I got up at ten (I'm finding myself incapable of sleeping in much later than that, which is probably a good thing) to rain and a chill. I started a fire quickly (one match) but it didn't provide much heat no matter how much I fiddled with the flue or the catalytic converter. I kept it up for about two hours, and then sporadically through the rest of the day by sticking another log in and stirring up the embers a bit. It sort of felt pointless, especially since Ben and Ester didn't come down to appreciate it for two hours. We didn't even really consider going outside until about four, after we had dawdled and made it halfway through a game of National Parks Monopoly (I was in bad shape until I finally struck a deal with Ester for the oranges, then she began to lose money and interest, even though she had Yosemite and Yellowstone, the greens, and the "small shits"; Ben had tons of property but didn't do much trading, so he only had tents on the yellows for most of the game, eventually we agreed to more or less a draw, although he probably would have won.) It had stopped raining, so we decided to go for a walk, but by the time we were bundled up it had begun to snow. We went out anyway, cutting through the woods on the way to the general store, despite only one hat, one umbrella and two hoods between the three of us. Sue and Hanna both have new hairdos, but they didn't have tortillas (i figure I should note this, since Ben and Ester did) so we made do with a coupla limes and a Diet Coke. Dinner as such didn't really end up happening anyway, just late night mac and cheese, blue corn chips, grapes, newtons, candy corn, and the pie, which got rave reviews although it wasn't very pretty. The liquor cabinet was surprisingly well stocked (besides the expected five varieties of Scotch), so we availed ourselves and, with the aide of the Joy of Cooking (!?) headed down the road with Margaritas (not bad), Screwdrivers (hard to screw up), Bloody Marys (a failed experiment), and White Russians (courtesy of Ben, decent but too strong for any of us to finish). I still wasn't drunk: I think I'm just destined not to be friends with alcohol. Somebody (not me) suggested strip games, so we got out a deck and cycled through Bloody Knuckles, Rummy, Hearts, Ratscrew, Bullshit, and Indian Poker, giving up when Ben and I were shirtless and Ester was just in her underwear. Basically, she decided to stop playing at that point. Girls. I searched for a working flashlight so as to start up the sweat lodge, but no good. Eventually we just read as Ben requested. I read all but the epilogue of "Sotweed," and even broached "Aurora Leigh."