We're really into the countdown to the end of the month--and year.

Twenty-eight days of December gone--three to go. I've got my new calendars at the ready for Monday.

My "something-a-day calendar" for 2007 is a Word a Day. It's always fun to see what new words can be added to one's vocabulary, not to mention there's usually a bit about the word's origins.

I'm a word junkie--my default internet page is A Word A Day (which has a link on this site). It's only five days a week though. Luckily, my new calendar doesn't "cheat" and double up on weekends, like some of the "a day" calendars do.

Twenty-eight days is approximately a lunar month. Correction--I just checked the dictionary and it says the lunar month is about 29.53 days. On the other hand, a solar month is defined as 1/12 of a solar year. We will not get into why the various months have different numbers of days.

But, since the word "year" came up, are you aware that the leap year "rule" is NOT "a year evenly divisible by four?" There's an exception to that one too. It does not apply to years ending in 00--they have to be evenly divisible by 400 to get that extra day.

I went into New Orleans this afternoon and my route took me by the University of New Orleans. I've commented on the old Navy housing which served as temporary homes for many students, and how badly some (many) of these were damaged. But it was twilight and I couldn't see (until today) that the trees and green stuff are all gone. At the moment, there is an entire neighborhood of two-story rectangular boxes. Some are in a state of major disrepair, while others are being fixed up again. But shrubbery, trees, etc. are gone. When things are done, the houses will look really good with their new siding. There are several neighborhoods where it looks like everybody got new siding and all the new-looking houses are quite attractive.

Ouside there is some sort of feline "discussion" going on. I just got BadCat back inside, and the discussion continues, so I guess it wasn't directed at her. There is a pretty longish-haired black cat that comes over here sometimes, and then my neighbor has cats which have an outdoor "pen" area. There is also a longish-haired stumpy.

With all the disturbances with trees and woods, we need a few cats wandering around to keep the rodents that have been driven out of the woods under control.

And tomorrow is another prime number.