I'm not making this up.

The furnace went out last night. It's 52 degrees farenheit inside the house. The temp outside was 14 degrees or lower during the night. Little Artist woke up about three o'clock with croupy cough, so we tried the nest in the bed again. She was content to watch TV for kids and I expected she would go right to sleep, but nooooo! I don't know what time she finally dozed off, but it's now 11 a.m. and she's still sleeping. Meanwhile, I continue to be sleep-deprived and the only thing in the house that's warm is my lap, where I have the laptop sitting to type this.

Too bad, because we had a great day yesterday. We fingerpainted and did puzzles, among other things. Mommy had left a goody-bag with a coloring book and a couple of little "art kits"--invisible ink and such. Beware these things. The kit with the invisible ink didn't work and the other was supposed to have sparkly markers in it and the markers weren't there. I'm not sure where she got them, but I'm thinking it may have been one of those dollar-stores. Some of the items in those places are defective. You can't test them and you can't return them. It isn't fun to disappoint a three-year-old who doesn't feel good and Mommy and Daddy aren't going to be home for awhile.

I did think of an inspired solution to one of my book problems and emailed my editor this morning. At least my brain hasn't frozen over yet.