Where oh where has Flora been?

Good question! I just haven't been inspired to write lately. That might be because I have been producing a mammoth written document for a client and my writing mojo has been all used up at the end of the day. Usually Zena and I try to charge a "writing penalty" when a client makes us produce an actual written document - as opposed to a lovely Powerpoint presentation accompanied by a detailed spreadsheet. We much prefer numbers and pithy graphical representations using colorful arrows and text bubbles and such. Writing page after page of grammatically complete sentences is just so passe. But, there you have it. We bid this job flat fee, too, so there shall be no penalty.

Other reasons I could argue that I've been MIA:

• Weather. It has been freakish of late out here in the northwest corner of the (continental) country. One could argue that freakish weather should have pinned me inside with nothing better to do than write, but there have also been internet outages.
• Netflix. Yes, Enrico and I finally broke down and joined, first for the one-DVD-at-a-time service, but quickly upgraded to two-at-a-time. So I've spent an embarassing amount of time glued to the tv in obsessive consumption of Jeeves & Wooster episodes.
• Holidays, of course. Lovely ones.
• Music. I have obtained the Messiah score and have been diligently working to learn the alto part in advance of this year's Messiah sing-along. My voice doesn't go gracefully above the register any more, so I've had to learn to sing harmony - and let me tell you, I never appreciated how easy the sopranos had it! It's always easy to pick out the melody. The melody dominates, it's practically fascist, really. The people singing harmony have to fix upon the correct starting note in their mind's ear. Poor Enrico has heard many hours of me singing along to a set of CD's borrowed from the library. The 10-page "Amen" has come in for particular repetition, I'm afraid. But it's coming along nicely. I also recently rehabbed my clarinet and started playing again. I've ordered new sheet music that hasn't arrived yet, so it's been lots of scales and, of course, the alto part to the Messiah.
  
• I still haven't fixed my "O" key.