Short week, first run, gifts

On the way to work Tuesday: dark clouds in front of me, 

sunshine behind

Tomorrow is the last day of the working week for me before four days off. *happy dance*  I don't have anything special planned. Just stuff. Maybe crossing a few things off my Christmas holiday to-do list that didn't get done while I was on holidays. 

Tonight I went for my first run/walk around the Tan for the year.  It's the first time since I've been back at work that I've had the energy to even contemplate a run. I probably walked more than I ran - my lungs were willing, my legs less so - but that's better than sitting on the couch for an extra half an hour. And I do walk super fast. 

I forgot to mention that the calendar my online friend Erin sent from the US has arrived, along with an extra little present - a word nerd book called Who Put the Butter in Butterfly...and Other Fearless Investigations into Our Illogical Language. How very thoughtful! 

The calendar has very fetching photographs of Erin's home state of Oklahoma, including  lovely autumns scenes and picturesque waterfalls. (No, there are no pictures of corn as high as an elephant's eye...Sorry, I couldn't help myself) To my surprise, the calendar mentions Australia Day on January 26. Quite unexpected. 

It includes holidays of other countries too, such as Burns Night in Scotland, which is the day before Australia Day. Burns Night probably isn't as dangerous as it sounds. *googles*  Oh, it celebrates Scotland's "national poet" Robert Burns, who penned Auld Lang Syne. It's traditional to eat "haggis, tatties and neeps" (the latter being potatoes and turnips). 

According to some random site I clicked on, this is what happens on Burns Night: 

The haggis is carried into the room on a silver plate and a piper pipes the haggis into the room, while we are eating people recite and sing Rabbie's songs.

Haha...but also...WHILE WE ARE EATING PEOPLE!!! I thought it sounded dangerous. Punctuation matters!

Speaking of eating, we had black rice with dinner tonight for the first time. It's black until it starts to cook, and then it turns a really dark purple. The flavour is much the same as brown rice, but it's meant to be even more nutritious.