So I have secured a new job. Hooray! I'll be contracting at BP still, but in a whole different area - I'll be doing something akin to project management for one of the bigger projects. I start in mid February, thus avoiding a gap in employment, which is a relief. I really wasn't looking forward to either the financial disruption of being between jobs, nor the hassle of a long job search. Brock and I have been invited to a wedding in Chicago in late February - and, it turns out, we will both be able to attend despite my job situation. I'm surprised and pleased.

Having spent many months last year reading French feminist philosophy, I'm regaining my equilibrium through some light reading. I'm plowing through every David Sedaris book I can get my hands on - 6 in the past month, and I've just started a 7th. I'm not sure what to read next - I'm open to suggestions.

In early January, I closed down the London Freecycle group. This had been planned for 4 years, but some of the group members were upset when it shut down. Still, it's a relief to me that it's gone - firstly, because most of the other moderators had jumped ship, and often-times I was the only one around to moderate or deal with group issues, which was time consuming. Secondly, the group was tied to other people's names/reputations, which made it very difficult to just hand it off to someone else. I think the group members who miss it have started a new group, but I haven't checked it out so I don't know how that's going.

Conversely, my local Freecycle group is doing great. For the past couple of years I had been trying to pull together a stable moderating team, and we seem to have finally succeeded - so much so that if I wanted to quit now, I think I could do so pretty comfortably. I'm not looking to do that yet, but it's nice to be able to go offline for a few days and not worry about the group while I am away.

The allotment has survived the winter, and I've started weeding and pulling up dead things that didn't survive the snow. I'm starting to think about spreading compost (it's likely to take several weeks of thinking before I do anything about it), and I have bought a bunch of seeds for the new year. My extensive attempts to grow cabbage last year more or less failed, so I'm trying to grow lots of beans this year. This past year we grew some scarlet runner beans that I've been enjoying eating quite a lot, and I think it might be fun to grow more varieties that we can dry and eat, in addition to green beans that I can preserve.

Upcoming trips: We are driving to Paris for my birthday, and staying with our friend Alex. We've got tickets to see The Vienna Vegetable orchestra while we are there. We're going to Chicago for a wedding at the end of February. I think we'd also like to go to Berlin later this year, but first I need to see how my new job is working out.

Books I have read this year: The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs. Santaland Diaries, by David Sedaris. Me talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Holidays on Ice, by David Sedaris. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. Barrel Fever, by David Sedaris. Naked, by David Sedaris. Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser. Poisonous Plants in Great Britain, by Frederick Gillam.

I am missing the following Starbuck's city mugs:
US: Minneapolis/St. Paul, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Portland (Portlandia)
Europe and the middle east: Brussels, Mykonos (2), Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Lisboa, Valencia, Ankara, Antalya, Aydin, Balikesir, Bursa, Izmir, Kocaeli
Mexico, the Bahamas, and South America: Argentina, Brazil, Sao Paulo, Acapulco, Cancun (Red), Ciudad Juárez, Cozumel, Leon, Merida, Monterrey, Morelia, Playa del Carmen, Puebla, Saltillo, San Luis Potosi, Torreón
China: Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Nanjing, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shenyang, Wuhan, Wuxi, Xian
the rest of Asia and Australia: Adelaide, Bogor (India), Yogyakarta (Indonesia)
You can see photos of most of these here.