New Regime.....(just here at XE, not in the longsuffering US of A)

Belgian Waffle has instituted daily posts starting with down and up, in that order.  She also has taken to having afternoon tea and cake, with photos and reviews on the cakes.  The Waffle is one of my favorite curmudgeonly posters, with bonus points for being a Brit living in Belgium.  She exhibits all the best points of being a curmudgeon: prodigious sense of humor, not an angry person. 

Well, ok. 

DOWN:

The National Gallery is CLOSED today, thanks to Republican idiocy.  This means C and I can't get
the lebetzin the birthday gift we had decided upon yesterday.  We didn't buy it yesterday because I
had no $$ in the bank and was waiting for my annuity to arrive today.  (It did, thank you very much,
annuity people.)  I guess I'll just have to make her a homemade card and let it go at that.

There's some truck outside belonging to an "electric security system" who are  gonna install our fob-operated entry system.  I call it "operation lockout,"  cuz when the power goes out, as it does every winter here when a big storm knocks over a bunch of trees and the branches take out the power lines as they fall, the fob system won't work.  They call it "secure," but I call it lockout.    They could have changed the locks and gotten us all new keys for way less than they're spending on the lockout. 

UP:
An old friend finally sold her condo, which she has been thinking of selling for years!  She's not particularly ancient, but we've known each other for a long time.  She is delighted and planning to visit Iceland! 

I can go another week or two without a new haircut.  I like cutting it myself, but every now and then,
I go turn myself in to the SALON.

TEA AND CAKE:
 No photo yet, but I plan to brew a nice cup of genmaicha and make my own cake.