You know, it pays to know the eBay ID's of family and friends.

Had Elaine known that was me, she doubtless wouldn't have outbid me on that lot of Iris Bromige books.   Which I won by beating her bid. 

Sad waste of good money, darn it.  Paid nearly twice as much as I'd have otherwise done.  

---

And let it be known I'm not
really annoyed!  I thought it was funny, actually.  I wonder
how often it happens?  People who know each other bidding against
each other? 

Bet it occurs more frequently than we're aware of.  Elaine and I
wouldn't have realized it except I emailed her about this neat stack of
books I'd just received, inquiring if she'd like to borrow some of
them. 

Tell you what, never mind fretting about flying, it's ferries I refuse to set a toe upon.  We don't use 'em a lot here (except in the Pacific Northwest and New England, I believe), but in much of the rest of the world they are a common form of transportation.

And they regularly sink, killing dozens, hundreds, and occasionally a thousand or more people at a time.

A plane crash that kills two hundred people is considered to be catastrophic in nature.....what does that make the ferry sinking of yesterday, then?  It appears one thousand souls perished in that tragedy.  

I got the first communiqué from Charles!  

So far he's not much enjoying boot camp, but says it's because it's "P-days", whatever those may be.  I suppose the intro stuff?  Getting shots, shaved, etc.?  He likes his RDCs (again, I forget what that stands for), has made a few friends, and is being careful to keep his mouth shut and not draw attention to himself.

Whether he can keep that up until the end of March remains to be seen. 

Still, he's alive and reasonably well, sounds like. 

Today I got to spend time with TWO of my poppets, Cole and Brianna.  This morning I first ran by Central Market to fetch some goodies for lunch, then headed to Jeanne's, as this is one of the days she minds her grandbaby, Cole:

Think she likes him?  Just a little? 

Of course, his Aunt Anne is pretty fond of him, too.  ;^)

Isn't he darling?  In the afternoon I went to collect Brianna from school, then returned to Jeanne's with her, as her daddy, Jason, was working close by; here she is, reclining at her leisure on Aunt Jeanne's comfy bed:

BTW, it's absolutely true.....she can read like nobody's business!  Was busily reading us a story about a kitten when Jason arrived. 

Before he and Brianna left, we all had to make one last trip to the nursery to admire Cole:

Overheard:  while I was posting this, Dmitry was - for reasons I'm unclear about - threatening one of the cats with being sold "on the black bazaar".

"That's 'black market,' dear, not 'bazaar," I told him.