New Year....

Happy end of 2008, kids.

All told, 2008 was not a bad year. Sure, bad shit went down, (but this is me we're talking about here, what do you expect?) but all in all, not bad.

2009, however, better rock my damn socks or I am going to have words for the universe.

I am getting married in less than 7 months. I found a photographer I love, and I am hoping, fingers crossed, that they are 1)reasonably affordable 2)not assclowns 3)available.

Currently, I am sitting on the couch in my bathrobe, my nose threatening to tear itself off my face in order to get a better angle for bringing the pain to me. Stuffed up, wiped raw, forcing sneezes out of me (when there isn't just the huge sneeze lead up and then.....nothing. I HATE THAT.) and making sleep all but impossible.

After openly weeping in my kitchen yesterday morning from face pain and sleep deprivation, I made J go to the store to get me some Night-time liquid cold medicine. Which I then took a long pull off of and passed out. Slept for 11 hours, and felt much, much better for it. I plan on doing the same thing again tonight. (Because nothing says "Happy New Year!" like an over-the-counter-induced coma, right?)

T has to work tonight, so he will be ringing in the new year all alone, standing in the kiln control room, hating his coworkers.

Anyway, it doesn't seem like a holiday today. All I know is that I'm looking forward to messing up my deposit slips at the bank for the next three months. (I wrote 12/31/2007 on one today....I better get my shit together.)

Well, happy new year, readers. May 2009 be happy and prosperous to us all.

In Lieu of Christmas

How to play:

* Answer each of the questions below.
* Surf over to Flickr and type your answers (one at a time) into the search bar.
* From the choice of pictures shown only on the front page, click the one that moves you
* Once the page with your picture opens, copy the URL.
* Surf over to the Mosaic Maker, set up your mosaic, and paste in your URLs.
* Click “Create!”
* Save the image, upload it to your favorite picture site (if it’s not Flickr), and blog away.


The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you attend?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. Where would you go on your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. Choose one word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name?

Holiday

If given the opportunity, I would gladly, at this moment, punch whoever made the executive decision to NOT PLOW the city directly in the face.

This city has 11 plows. Nine of them are at the airport. NOTHING is plowed, the roads are horrible, and people are morons.

This is a city that is not ok with snow, and they are acting like it.

I have photos, but I'm not uploading until I get home. Currently I am using the slowest laptop on the planet, which belongs to T's oldest brothers girlfriend, while sitting alone in the family house. Well, the cats are here, but I don't know that that counts.

Anyway, have a Merry Christmas. Be safe, be warm, and punch a road crew executive in the face for me.

Save the Driveway

We spent all day yesterday shoveling the driveway. (read: All day=About 2 hours in screaming wind and really cold temperatures)

Shortly after we finished, it started snowing again. Thanks, nature.

I have photos of the hilarity-T using a drain spout cover (you know, the things you put under your gutter drain to make the water a river out into the yard rather than a driving drill like stream?) to move the majority of the snow, the wind hurling large clumps of snow back upon us, T intentionally hitting his baby brother J in the back with five pound clods of snow.

Oh, did I mention that we were all in our jammies with snow boots and hats on while doing this? Only the highest of class over here.

Anyway, the boys are out shoveling again. It's warmed up considerably, making the task easier in that the snow isn't adhered to the concrete by a layer of ice, but harder because now the snow weighs three times as much.

Being that T explodes every time he sees me do anything that could start to be considered physical labor, I am sitting in the house, drinking coffee, blogging and watching Anthony Bourdain. There are worse things.

**************************************************

No one in our house has been sleeping well. T keeps falling victim to the sore ear--the cause of which is sleeping on your side at a weird angle. I have been falling victim to sleeping in weird angles at all times, making my arms fall asleep, my shoulders hurt, my neck hurt, and, most of all, my hips hurt.

I wake up angry and limping toward the coffee pot, reaching for a tylenol back. (Yes, I eat something with the tylenol. I promise. Pills on an empty stomach nearly killed my mommy(well, hers wasn't just empty, but void of anything non-liquid if you catch my meaning) so know better. Promise.)

It doesn't make for a happy household, A cranky from waking up every two hours for no reason, T clutching his ear and demanding answers from the pillow, me staggering around with creaking joints.

It also doesn't help that no one has left the house for days. Like, at all.

Hopefully that will change today. Hopefully the weather is DONE.

Oh, and Brian? It has snowed every year that I have been back here. (Three.) I think it snowed maybe five times here when I was a child? Yeah. (I'm sure it was more than that, but definitely not every year.)

Sigh.

Over It.

An open letter to the weather:

Dear Current Winter Weather;

In response to your latest behavioral analysis report, it has come to the attention of the residents of this particular branch of the country that you are showing signs of emotional trauma and duress.

Obviously, the best course of action we can recommend is a leave of absence, with a long rest and a reexamination of your actions as well as your motivation.

Being that you have decided to send weather typical of the mid-west and north east to us, a region known for our mild weather and gentle climes, as well as cause blizzard conditions along several hundred (at least) miles of coast line, (which is complete insanity--I mean, really? This is not the North East. Snow on the beach just doesn't happen here, let alone a blizzard.) malcontent, bordering on insanity would be our typical diagnosis.

If you do not rescind your current proposal for the week ahead, as well as have a great change in current behavior, we will have no choice to terminate you immediately.

Thank you for your time and consideration;

The Pacific North West. (And bordering land locked states)

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Dudes--this isn't cool. I have never, ever seen weather like this here--we have snow drifts. (I know that isn't a big deal in most other parts of the country....) It should be too wet, too humid here, to facilitate dry powder snow (skiing, anyone?) which can then be whipped and whirled into drifts all over the place.

The metropolis (and it's sister city) south of here is closed. Like, all roads, all businesses. Today, both those cities, as well as everything else in the area (my house, the other metropolis, and everything in between) is projected to be buried in ice, and then dumped on by snow. For the entire week. (At least. I'm afraid of the 10 day forecast.)

Some photos?



This is our back yard last night about 11pm. It's hard to see, but what you're seeing is a snow drift up against the corner of our deck.



And here it is this morning.



And again.

This doesn't seem so bad to those of you who live in places where snow is normal, I know this.

But here? It's amazing. (And shitty.)

Whatever, we're holed up and warm, we have food and blankets and heat. (For the time being, anyway. They are forecasting that the ice storm may knock out power for 'an indeterminate amount of time', especially south of here.

Whatever. What can you do but roll with it? Exactly.

Responsorial....

Alright. I have received several emails (C? Looking at you!), phone calls (Mom) and comments (Brian) informing me that our 'winter' is a joke compared to what these storm fronts are doing in the rest of the northern hemisphere. (I know this. I lived somewhere with nasty, horrible snow-laden winters. This is nothing.)

I also know that these storm fronts that are causing our community to collapse in heap of school closures, car filled ditches, falls, accidents and other calamity are then happily heading east and causing real weather problems. C told me that our storm fronts are attacking the state she lives in wholeheartedly, my mom (who lives further north) has frozen pipes and cracked windows and a car that will not start. Brian, per his comment, is expected to get 6 more inches. (Which, to those of us/you that deal/have dealt with snow on a regular basis isn't shit....if it only happens once. If you get 6 inches a day for a week you have a problem....I'm rambling.)

Anyway.....It's still snowing here. And it's dry! It's weird.

Prepare yourselves, the rest of the Northern US. It's not supposed to lay off for at least a week out here.

But I do wish that the other citizens of this fine land would get a freaking clue about how to drive in the snow. Ugh.

The White Death

It's still snowing.

Without cease.

I don't love it. I woke up this morning, it's snowing. Went to bed last night? Snowing.

And all this after I really tried to convey to Circe that this part of the country is a 'weather free zone'. Nature says: Pants on Fire.



I will have you all notice the color of the sky in this photo. (Yes, I took it though the sliding glass door in the dining room....sorry....)

This photo was taken at 9:30am. Ominous skies, that. Ugh.

So, being that it is/was cold and snowing and very cranky-making, I did what any self respecting human would. I made stew (and used up all the meat that was threatening to become freezer burned, which is good, but now the freezer is a waste land.) and hot chocolate.

And knit. And knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit some more.

I have knit myself into nerve damage. The way I hold my knitting needles rests on a part of my finger that seems to have a nerve close to the skin. The entire tip of that finger is essentially numb now....But I have lots more knitting to do. So...I improvised.



Medical tape. With grimy edges. Sigh. Such glamor. (The ring I'm wearing? T gave me that for my 16th birthday. Isn't that gross and hilarious?) But it works--I have worn a groove into it where the needle rests, but I can feel my finger tip again.