Last week I said that I was thinking of throwing some things in my garden because we have been having an unusually long January thaw. So of course it snowed today, just a reminder that the January thaw cannot be trusted. Within an hour we had a couple inches, then it switched to rain and melted away. It is teasing me…

Thoughts of Spring planting aside, today was fun. It is the second week in a row Damian’s 2 1/2 year old cousin Emily came over to play. Damian loved it. Emily seemed uncertain but I think she had fun too. Damian’s hugs are more like tackles at the moment which can be a little overwhelming. Ginanne (Emily’s mom) came over too of course, it is nice talking to another adult… She gave us over a booster seat with clip on tray for Damian, it is the kind that straps onto a kitchen chair. Finally I can put his high chair in storage.

Mommy Advice Moment: Do not buy a special high chair for your baby, just buy the kind that straps onto a kitchen chair. It saves a ton of space and you can easily take it with you when you go visit friends.

In other news, I’m going to be a bridesmaid in July at my friends’ wedding. So exciting! This is the first wedding I will ever attend (unless my handfasting counts) so it’s a little nerve wracking too. I’ve settled on my dress though, which will be emerald green; my mother-in-law is going to make it. She is also making Andrea’s gown, which I can’t wait to see!

Which means I have a goal to work towards as far as my postpartum get-in-shape plan goes. I work better with goals. My father sent us some money for Christmas/my birthday which we used to buy a wii and wii fit plus with balance board. I cannot say with certainty if it is helping me work on getting back in shape, but it is certainly helping me drive away the winter blahs and move more. Damian loves it too.

Video evidence of that love, just in case you’ve ever wondered what a toddler looks like playing a wii. If you have played wii fit plus, Damian is doing the obstacle course here. He loves when the wrecking ball hits his mii.

OMG Mommy, the world is covered in icecream!

Yay icecream!

Om nom nom nom!

What the heck?! This doesn’t taste like icecream!

Yesterday the sun was out for the first time in a few days and the deck had dried enough for me to sweep up all the elm leaves. I swear that tree has dropped 80% of it’s leaves in just the days. Damian thinks falling leaves are awesome, once I had swept them all into a corner Damian planted himself right in the middle of the pile with his kettle and stuffing them in it and throwing them in the air. Elm leaf tea anyone?

With our early cold shock this year and then our neighbor’s cat’s apparent addiction to carrots and kale greens, the Winter garden has not faired well. I have decided to retired it for the season and hope to have better luck with the help of chicken wire next year. I mulched it with leaves from the deck since I figured the deck leaves are most likely to be weed free, because let’s face it, I don’t like weeding!

I am glad that I swept the leaves up yesterday, today we are having our first snow of the season. It is not sticking but our deck is quite slippery when covered with soppy leaves. This afternoon I have another appointment with my midwife and then we are going to carve our pumpkin for Halloween. In other words, stay tuned for photos of Damian playing with squishy pumpkin guts!

I’m curious, are you celebrating Halloween? What are you (or your children) dressing up as?

Today is a good day for Spring Cleaning, mostly because a little more the two inches of snow fell last night, so there is no way I am going outside! The nice thing about the weather warming is that all that nasty white stuff has melted off for the most part by now, leaving us with beautiful huge mud puddle slushies. Wouldn’t Damian have loved to dive bomb into ones of those (meeting his daily dirty quota all at once.) Granted, even I may have had the urge to go jump in one, but alas I have no wellies – do they make orange ones?

Anyhow so today has been mostly an indoor day, diaper changes, pizza dough making, pantry organizing, breastfeeding, laundry folding, mopping, sweeping, washing and otherwise boring-to-the-eyes-of-others housewife stuff. All while listening to mind-rotting progressive radio no less. I blogged earlier too I suppose and I identified ones of the birds in my yard using WhatBird. I think. I am 99% sure they are White-crowned Sparrows, but the site said they are only around here in the summer. They must have been confused by the snow, I can relate.

Anyhow, to overwhelm your boredom receptors even further, while I was doing all this stuff, I realized that I lack the necessarily lists to keep track of what the heck I am doing. Enter igoogle.

I have used my igoogle pages as my home page for several months, since it displays my most frequented news feeds, a twitter gadget and my email on one page. I didn’t realize that there were some other really cool gadgets out there too though. I found a wonderful To Do List one today, so I put three of them on my homepage (did I mention I like lists?) One of my daily chores, one of my weekly chores and one for the monthly/seasonal chores.

So far it is working fantastically well, because every time I sit down to waste time work on my computer, I see my to do lists and am guilted motivated to get back to work!

Speaking of getting back to work…

Taken while gathering reeds on Oimelc for Brighid’s crosses.

Last night I had a dream that Raveness (I read her blog over on livejournal) was giving me a tattoo in Greg’s (my father-in-law) office, he has a CPA business. For some reason Greg’s landlord had rented out half of the building to a tattoo parlor. There was a glass wall down the middle. Though Raveness was present through most of the dream, I don’t think we talk about anything substantial. We were talking though.

The tattoo was bizarre to say the least. The central design of the tattoo was encircled by one of my sun designs but it seemed to be shifting around, as if the rays were real. Raveness was just finishing the centeral design when I came into the dream. It was a snake in the form of a waxing crescent moon. It’s tail was the top point of the crescent, the body coiled back and forth to make up the main middle section and the head was the bottom point. It was holding a lantern in its mouth. The tattoo was on my back, behind my manipura chakra (solar plexus.) I mention this chakra because I remember thinking specifically about that in the dream. The snake was a part of that chakra, that thought made more sense in the dream.

At one point I got distracted and when I looked back at the mirror the “moon” was full. The snake was coiled in a circle, head in the middle, it’s eyes made of stars. The eyes were more more then eyes though, they seemed to be holes in me and the stars were inside me, shining through. At the same time, the eyes seemed to be looking at me too. Not sure where the lantern was at this point, maybe outside the sun disk…

Though the dream was black and white, the tattoo seemed to shine like tarnished silver, but it hinted at gold tones too, the same hues as Mexican gold. The whole tattoo seemed to have a life of its own, but it was definitely drawn on my skin.

Michael came by to pick me up. We were living with my mother, or she was living with us, I think the latter. I was trying to figure out how to hide it from her because I was concerned the moving tattoo would freak her out. I also didn’t think she would approve and didn’t want to make any waves. Then in the middle of those thoughts, the roof suddenly collapsed, snow came pouring in (we have had over 60 roof collapsed from snow load around Spokane in the past week, so this isn’t as random as it seems, as it has been on my mind recently.) My brother was standing at the edge of the hole in the roof for some reason and saw my tattoo.

We all got outside safely and he came down from the roof and teasing me that he was going to tell mom. At that point I didn’t really care anymore though. Marko (my boyfriend before I was with Michael) was in the crowd outside, which I noticed only fleetingly then, but seems to be hanging on my mind now that I am awake. My thoughts were drifting at this point between being really pleased with my tattoo and being worried about Greg’s work. Everything felt so surreal.

At some point during these thoughts I woke up.

In the past three weeks we have had nearly 60 inches of snow, that makes this the snowiest December on record for Spokane. Up until now it had all been dry snow but yesterday we had over five inches of heavy wet snow, we might have 5 more tonight. Three roofs around town collapsed today. Our roof was creaking on and off too, a little disconcerting, but I think it was just the wind since it has not made some much as a peep today. I called management about it though, not that they are going to do anything, I have been calling them daily about my busted dishwasher and still nothing. In February we are probably going to start to look for a house since our lease is up at the end of March I think. Hopefully all this snow will have given way to Spring by then.

I just realized that it is only 10 more days till my 23rd birthday (January 9th.) I don’t usually think about my birthday that much but for some reason it seems particularly exciting this year. Not that I have anything special planned. Maybe I will make myself a cake.

I have been under the weather for a few days, hopefully that will go away before my day. My back pain went away as mysteriously as it showed up, leaving behind general aches, pains and a scratchy throat. Can’t wait to feel better so I can get back to learning to bellydance. I still have to get out to the store to buy knitting needles so I can start working through my dvd about that. Learning to bellydance and knit are on my dreamboard for projects to accomplish this year.

Damian has been doing well, he decided he wanted solid food instead of one of his nursings today. My little guy is growing up! I have had two or three people ask me when I am going to wean him lately, or suggesting that I do so, which I don’t really get. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding for at least one year and as long as mutually desired by mother and child beyond that and the World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding for at least two years. I think they have more weight in my decision then someone’s uninformed opinion. So no, I am not going to be weaning Damian any time some.

I bought Michael a songbook called Songs for Earthlings and it arrived yesterday. I am really pleased with it. It is 390 pages of Pagan songs and chants for all occasions, including sheet music. There is a section on music theory in it so I am trying to learn to read music with it. I got Michael a keyboard a couple years ago so now he has some stuff to actually play with it. If you are into Pagan music, I really recommend it, it is the only one like it out there I think.

Anyhow I’m going to go sit with Michael while he plays Deep and Fallow.

We are listening to the news on the radio right now. The power is out downtown, apparently an underground vault blew up, they are talking about huge plumes of smoke and fire. Avista (the power company) says it is probably not because of the snow, but definitely bad timing. People are not stopping at the lights (which are out) and that is causing even more problems. No numbers on how many are without power, Avista’s office lost power too (ain’t that ironic?)

My prayers go to the people now without heat on this Christmas Eve.

Mayor Verner declared a state of emergency for Spokane today. Snow is still falling, still breaking records, over 40 inches here since last Tuesday, which is unbelievable for this area. Still more expected tomorrow, maybe 10 inches, and it is wet snow now, so much heavier. A local businesses roof collapsed yesterday and I have been seeing people shoveling roofs off since. Spokane Valley also declared a state of emergency. Sounds like the governor just declared one for the whole state too.

Suddenly my UPS packages being two days late doesn’t seem so bad.

Merry Christmas?

I ran across this video on Anibunny’s blog.

It is exactly what I needed to boost my spirits this evening!

I could post about the weekend, or my usual sabbat write up, or link to my podcast but, my write up needs some final touches, as does the podcast… As for posting about my weekend, it was wonderful but I am tuckered out! So I will write more tomorrow, but I wanted to say

I should probably update everyone to let you know Michael got home safe and sound. Our van is still stuck at our friends, we will try to retrieve it tomorrow or Saturday. A coworker with a Jeep and chains brought him home, he is also taking him to work and back tomorrow as well.

The snow finally tapered off a two or three hours ago, we are to expected scattered snow showers through the night, maybe another inch or two of snow. We have about 28 inches on our patio, another two inches won’t make much of a difference at this point. Coeur d’Alene (just east of us) received just over three feet of snow. Records broken all around.

Now to dig out!

To the left, me yesterday at noon. To the right, me today at noon.

Still snowing!

It is official, the weather service says we have broke then 13 inch 24 hour snow fall record set in 1954. 17 inches! Beat it by 4 inches! It is still falling. Huge fluffy flakes, it isn’t packing snow though.

The snow is to my knees (approx 20 inches) we live on the South Hill and get more snow then the rest of Spokane. Some parts of Deer Park (outlaying areas) for 3 feet! For those who got snow, what is your total at the moment?

As promised I went outside and grabbed some photos.

Hasn’t Mother Nature decorated beautifully for the solstice? Impassable roads or not, it is so pretty!

(More photos here…)

So Michael managed to get to our friend Shannon’s house last night (thank you so much Shannon.) She lives lower on the hill then us. Michael figured he would give the hill a try this morning again.

But it was not meant to be.

We have about 20 inches on the patio right now. Michael’s van has quite a high profile but it is still not looking possible, the snow is up to the top of his tires. He started digging out at 4:30 this morning but gave up half an hour ago (2 hours later.) He is going to walk over to the arterial and one of his coworkers with a truck is going to pick him up and take him to work.

City buses are on hold right now too, 17 are stuck around the city. According to the news, the main arterials up the hill are more or less clear but the side streets haven’t be touched. It is illegal for independent plows to do city streets. I guess it is a legal issue but I wish the city would hire independent plows.

The snow is still coming of course, 3 to 6 more inches expected by noon. That is potentially over 20 inches for us on the hill. At my Aunt’s in Canada (Kitchener, Ontario) they are expecting that much and they live in a snow belt. Their weatherman is using a term I want to borrow, Snowmageddon!

I’ll take some pictures once dawn breaks.

So the city is treating all roads and closed right now. Why? Well because it is snowing.

We live on the South Hill (for those who don’t know Spokane, it is a 2500 foot hill in the city – Michael works at the bottom, we live at the top.) Michael normally takes Thor up but chains are required and it is backed up a couple miles and people are stalling out. He is in the Fred Myer parking lot at the bottom on the hill right now. All the other roads are closed and clogged so plows can’t get up them.

We are use to snow of course, Spokane is right between the Cascades and the Rockies, but normally we don’t get more then 4 inches at a time since we are in a valley. We have gotten 9 to 11 inches in 9 hours and they are calling for solid snow and possibly 10 more inches by tomorrow. The city puts deicer down but it is too cold for it to work (it needs to be 15°F and it is 9°F.) It has been below 14 for about a week now.

We are having a black out problem too. The power keeps browning out here.

I am not overly concerned, we do have blankets and such in the van and Michael’s boss said anyone who can’t get home is welcome to come back and stay there for the night. I would appreciate positive thoughts for Michael though. He is an excellent driver, I am just worried about those other people on the road and it is expected to get really cold tonight. And I miss him of course!

Anyhow I am going to go ahead and post this before the power dies…

EDIT: Michael managed to make it to our friend Shannon’s house and is staying there for the night.

I wonder how much we will get?

On Saturday we will be having our annual winter solstice gathering. So far it is looking like we will be fitting a record 15 (maybe 17!) people into our townhouse. I am use to at least a few people not being able to make it but I don’t think it is going to happen this year. I don’t mind really, just a little daunted.

I have so much left to do. I stayed up till 22:30 last night making snowflake pretzels and I still have one or two more batches to make. I have three kinds of cookies to finish for the gift plates and one kind of fudge. We will be feasting on pot roast, yams, a vegetarian/gluten-free dish, a pumpkin roll (or two,) egg nog, mulled cider and hard cider from Greenbluff. Most people are bringing a side dish to contribute too.

I don’t know if I have enough chairs… Or mugs…

I also need to finish my solstice cards (just need to glue them together,) ship some stuff to my mom, finish laundry (any ideas for getting red wine out of ivory jeans?) learn a ritual and finish a podcast. Well Michael has to just give it his magic touch, I already recorded it. I suppose I should find a moment to shower between now and Saturday too… Michael will help me clean Saturday morning (gathering starts at 16:00.) I suppose I also have to make dinners for us during this week too. And of course time for Damian, he makes me stop and take a breather.

I am making this all sound a bit stressful aren’t I? It is not that bad really, I kind of wish I had a hand but with some good music to motivate me I know I can get it done. I really enjoy having people over to entertain. Poor Damian though, he is watching mommy fly around doing a million things and I keep missing his potty cues for EC. Monday we had a tough day, I don’t think he was feeling very well and he cried so much and for so long that for the first time Daddy had to come home for a bit and rescue Mommy’s sanity.

Damian has been a bubbly happy little man since though and is cruising! That means he gets up against something (like the futon) and walks all along it using it for a bit of support. He grins huge when I look at him and gives lots of hugs when I need them. I sit him in his high chair with some toys so he can see what I am doing on the counter. We have started solids, he has had apples, carrots and yams and potatoes so far.

Kim (my mother-in-law) and her parents stopped by yesterday to pick up Lydia’s gift (Michael’s youngest sister) and drop off a few early gifts. Grandma Stott made us a really pretty appliquéd angel decoration, Kim made us caramel and gave me a little book, she also made Damian a stocking. I’ll get pictures of all those things later, probably on the Sunday. I’ll be making another big meal on Sunday for the Solstice and we will open our gifts. Sunday will be more relaxed though, since it will just be Michael, Damian and me.

The local news is calling for 4 to 7 inches of new snow by tomorrow. One benefit to renting is that we don’t have to shovel our walkway! Anyhow I am going to grab some breakfast and start on some chocolate chip cookies…

…but the baseboard heater is delightful!

I am looking for any excuse to turn on any heat generating appliance today. The oven, the stove, a hot sink of dishes, my laptop. Windigo is of the same mind and sleeping on top of Michael’s old monitor, which nearly puts the baseboard heaters to shame. I don’t like using extra power (or rather I don’t like paying for it) but today it is excusable to turn up the heat a little. It is a balmy 65F inside.

And 6F outside! With wind, so make that -10F.

We are to expect it to be at or below zero by Tuesday with windchills of -25F. When it is that cold does it matter if we are taking Fahrenheit or Celsius? I think Damian and I will be skipping our morning walk for a few days. When I took the trash out yesterday the wind was so cold it made my chest hurt.

Look at this:


You see the condensation? Well it is a sheet of ice INSIDE the window. All the windows and the patio door are frozen shut. Even the front door took some pulling to open. A windchill warning is in effect until Wednesday. Better keep Damian away from the patio door (also caked with ice) he will probably stick his tongue out and freeze to it!

Can you tell I am not use to this? Don’t get me wrong, it gets cold here but only this cold every 4 or 5 years (last time was the Winter before I moved here.) Maybe I should just put the chest freezer outside for a few days, save on power! When it is this cold the falling snow looks like white sand.

I know, whine, moan, complain… I am not really that upset. My pantry is getting a little sparse and weather like this seems to nudge me into wanting to stock up the pantry. (We are going to Costco this afternoon.) I do love the look of snow and ice outside (snow drift advisory in effect too) just not on the inside of my windows.

Mother Nature is such a powerful force. It has been 12 years since ice storm, maybe this winter will bring another. Hopefully not. Either way I am glad I don’t work as a parking attendant anymore. Can you say BRRRR!

Anyhow, speaking of the Costco, I need to finish my list.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

It has been snowing all afternoon, so Damian got to wear the bunting mom and grandma got him. It is a little big but he still loves it.

My neighbor took this photo for us. He pointed out how Damian matches my winter coat now. While we were outside Damian spent most of his time looking up and holding his tongue out, it was very cute. He thinks this snow thing is pretty cool.

It has been a very quiet morning. One where the overcast skies hide the sunrise. Damian fell asleep on my lap so I sat watching the silhouettes of the trees emerge from the darkness and the sky turn from black to pale gray. Snow has drifted down occasionally, almost like Winter is too lazy this morning to make a show of it. The cats are in their Winter burrowing mood, they disapprove of the cold. So does my rubber tree, it is sitting on our altar with my aloe. They are wondering where the sun went.

In February I will be sick of Winter but at the moment I am enjoying the change of season. I have be listening to the all Christmas music radio station today, I’ll admit it, I really love carols. Now that Damian is awake I’ve been sorting through Yule decorations, How is it that the lights always get tangled no matter how carefully I pack them? Damian is desperately trying to… help… me untangle them. This crawling thing is giving baby and mommy lots of exercise. My mother and grandma sent some little gifts for Damian, they are under the tree, even thought I know there are books in them, I still want to poke at them like a little kid. Must Resist.

My blender died the other day, it was a cheap one so I am honestly surprised it lasted as long as it did (four years) but all the soups and smoothies and flaxseed and fruit puree and spice mixes have finally taken their toll. It started spinning slower the other day and finally seized up and started smelling like burning rubber. As far as amusing sentiments go, I miss my blender, I used it almost every other day. No pumpkin smoothie for me today. A new one will have to wait, no way I am hitting the store today.

Speaking of food… We had a really wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with at Andrea and Pete’s yesterday. We played Scrabble, which might not seem overly exciting, but then you don’t know Andrea’s family, it was a blast. Michael and I came in last but we still feel insanely proud, I think that was one of the best games we ever had point-wise.

When Michael gets home today, he will be on vacation for a week. We don’t plan on doing much, but the time off will be nice. Last time he had a couple weeks off, it was when Damian was born. This week will probably be a little less hectic then that.

I thought we were done with the snow. But apparently not. It’s snowing right now.

I tried to get a picture of the falling snow, but the camera couldn’t pick it up. Jaspenelle says if we were in medieval times, her and Damian would have been declared a witch. Snow in June, I can’t believe it.

Spokane’s normal high for us this time of year between 65F and 70F but for the past few days we have been in the high 80s. Most of our water comes from snow melt and this winter we had the second highest snowfall on record, which to a certain extent is a good thing since we have had a few years of low snowfalls. However the 80F weather is making the snow melt very fast and we have seen some pretty wide spread flooding.

On Saturday Michael and I went to a few parks along the Spokane River, which is quite near flood stage. I am use to the water level on most of the dams being higher on one side then the other but most are pretty much just letting all the water through at this point.

This picture is taken across the river from Boulder Beach, a summer swimming hole. Not that you can see the swimming hole at the moment as it is currently covered in quite a bit of water. (This is what the same area looked like in March a couple years ago, that is Michael up on one of the boulders.) I believe the trail to the beach is also covered, though we didn’t cross to that side of the river. People forget how dangerous the water is when it is this high, it flows very fast and is very cold, a few people had to be rescued from the river this weekend.

Since Michael and I live up on Spokane’s South Hill, we are in no danger of being affected by the flooding but I hope all my friends over in North Idaho (where the worst flooding has been so far) will be okay. It is suppose to cool way down tomorrow but they are forecasting a lot of rain so I am not sure how much of a difference it will make as far as the flooding goes.

Someone held a door open for me today and reminded me it was Random Acts of Kindness Week today. Which was very funny and cute.

This past weekend was fun, lots of kindness! We went to a discussion group at Shannon’s on Friday night and had a vegetarian potluck. I have never had miso soup before, or tofu that I considered edible for that matter… I love this group because we just talk with no set topic, which is really nice sometimes.

On Saturday night we went over to Andrea’s for a “Medieval” movie night. We watched “Robin Hood – Men in Tights” and “The Reduced Shakespeare Company” (which was a really great comedy theater piece of three men reducing all 37 of Shakespeare’s works into one hour.)

Sunday… we didn’t do much. It was very windy, parts of Spokane declared a state of emergency because of blowing snow drifts. I feel for anyone who lives in the West Plains… We are on the South Hill though and other then the wind, the roads are (finally) clear. We went grocery shopping. The overabundance of bad weather lately was evident at Safeway though. You know the weather has been bad for way to long when the grocery store starts running out of food…. It makes you appreciate local food so much more too. Safeway’s produce department (and quite a bit of the rest of the store) is filled with signs that says “Out of Stock Due to Weather”. I think all the mountain passes are open again today though, so we are no longer cut off from the world.

They did have strawberries though, ya! They were reasonably cheap too for Winter, because of Valentines day.

I know a lot of people don’t do Valentines day because of “rampant consumerism” or whatnot, but I am looking forward to it. I got Michael a little something and I am really looking forward to his reaction to it. I ordered it today though so it might not be here by Thursday though…

I think it is important to be in touch with your relationship and the needs of your spouse all year around, but I still like Valentines because it is a little reminder of that in the middle of the most depressing month ever, of the importance of love. (Okay, before someone says it, I know, technically January has more suicides then February worldwide but the people who found that out have obviously never been delayed in the subway in Paris in February because another person jumped in the tracks…) February 14th is also Singles Awareness Day isn’t it? So even a holiday for the party poopers pessimists…

Michael and I start my Bradley classes tonight, thank goodness it is not snowing yet. I like the snow, but enough is enough! It is no longer white and fluffy, but ice. The city is running out of places to put the snow so they are piling it in a ridge in the middle of the streets downtown, this “ice ridge” was up to my waist today. For the past few days it has been warming up to just above freezing, enough to melt the ice ridge enough to coat the streets in water which then turns into a 1/4-inch thick layer of ice at night. This thin ice is unbelievably slick (or I am unbelievably uncoordinated…) and clear like glass. Some of the water is pooling by the cross walks and there is 1/2-inch of seemingly solid ice (thankfully not completely clear.) When you step on this ice though you go right though and are halfway up your calves in icy water. Urban flooding meet freezing nights!

Wonderful!

Today a construction grader when by my work 3 times, slowly whittling away at the ice ridge, followed by two plows with their blades not all the way down. They were spreading the slush over the road, I suppose in the hopes it would melt. Where is that melted water suppose to go anyways? All the drains downtown are blocked by, you guessed it, more ice and snow piles. doesn’t matter either way, it wasn’t warm enough to melt so now we have an inch of compact ice on the downtown streets.

Lovely!

Then the parking lot I work in… The ice ruts are so bad that the smaller cars are getting high centered. Even the 4-wheel drive vehicles were getting stuck today. Of course this is my fault, since I cannot magically make the ice melt. We don’t even have anymore salt (the offices fault, not mine) and our plastic snow shovel isn’t going to beat ice, it just isn’t. Trust me people, if I could get ride of the ice, I would, I am out a lot more skating (I mean walking) in the lot then you. I do not enjoy it. It was so icy this morning that the doors on the pay boxes were totally frozen shut.

Fantastic!

I am more then ready for winter to be over. I know this snow is great for our aquifer, we had so little rain this past Spring/Summer/Autumn. Still if it warms up too fast we are going to have flooding like we I hear we did in 1996, which caused region wide damage of about $800 million. (I am so optimistic aren’t I?) I can’t wait for that two to five inches of snow expected tonight and tomorrow. Climate change, ain’t it fun? It is never going to end…

Still, in a half-assed attempt at optimism, I’ll take the ice over the tornadoes back East.

So I haven’t posted a real update in a little over a week. I’ve been busy pulling out holiday decorations and working. Best advice I can give for long term Christmas decor? Buy led light strings. They last way way waaay longer and look cooler (in my opinion.) They also cost about the same as normal light strings.

I have had Deep Blue Something’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” stuck in my head for most of the day… Was that based a movie? Was it any good?

Christmas is the busiest season for us candlemakers you know? We are working hard to save up money for the baby. All those baby items add up! Meh, damn car seats why can’t I just go Britney and sit ‘em on my lap. (Joking! I am joking!) I don’t like asking for stuff, but when in need… I am just starting to put together a baby registry on Amazon (which can be found here.)It is mostly neuter stuff since we probably won’t be announcing the baby’s sex, I may not even find out. There are so few real surprises left in the world. Christmas gifts are lovely and I adore them so much but please, if you want to get Michael and I something this year, choose an item off the registry. I would also adore any gently used baby item, I am so cool with used.

We had a first snow last night they said we would have accumulation but it hardly stuck, grrr! Still, snow! I loved snow. We are expecting 1 to 3 inches tonight, hopefully that will be accurate. It just doesn’t feel like the holiday season without some white stuff, ya know?

Ack! I am already talking holidays, we aren’t even to Thanksgiving here yet. No more of such talk till Friday then. No Saturday, I will be dead Friday. More on that later. We are spending Thanksgiving at Michael’s parents, I am bringing basil tomato polenta (so they will either love or hate me for that?) I love spending Thanksgiving up there, awesome company and awesome food. Pregnancy, the only time I can eat 2600 calories a day and not feel as guilty as everyone else, hehe!

But then comes Friday and I can do the overdose of caffeen anymore. Friday is Black Friday here in the USA, the busiest shopping day of the year when all the stores open super early with super sales. It is madness and I am working it. I have to be in the parking lot an hour earlier then usual opening managing parking in the downtown shopping district. Noooo! The extra money will be good though.

So maybe don’t expect too much Christmas cheer on Friday.
And maybe expect a Feline Friday on Saturday?

I’ll survive, I’m sure.
I think…

I just tried to use the tv remote to turn up YouTube on my laptop…
My uterus is absorbing my brain!