Potty parity, at last!

Just a quickie....

Yesterday I attended a Microsoft Launch Event for IT Pros and IT Executives. It was held in Spokane, so I had to leave at 6:30 AM and didn't get home until 7:15 PM, hence no blogging or commenting, but it was fun. Regardless of what you think of Microsoft or their products, they do know how to do these launches. The event was a promotion of Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Exchange Server 2007, as well as the other updated products like Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server, Microsoft Dynamics & CRM, and a few other products. I have to tell you, the new stuff is pretty cool. In fact, I went from not being too enthused about Vista, to wanting to run out and buy it today. It was a great sales pitch, and I'm a pretty receptive audience (I've been called gullible). I'll go into the products in a subsequent post (I have a meeting in less than an hour), but I thought I'd share this one incident.

The event was directed at 6 different audiences. The largest of those in the morning session was the session for IT Pros. The auditorium held between 500 and 800 people, and it was full. SRO in fact. There was a break midway through the session. I decided to wait until the end of the break to even attempt to use the restroom, deciding I'd rather visit with other IT Pros than wait in a long bathroom line. You women know what I mean. The break was nearly over, so I headed to the restroom. As I neared the restrooms, I felt as if I had entered an alternate universe. There was a HUGE line outside.....the MEN'S room! These men looked like a deer in headlights. They were so confused. The women were walking in and out of the restroom very quickly, while they stood in a line that seemed to not move at all. I went into the ladies' room, where there were several empty stalls. The two or three other women in the restroom were commenting and laughing about the line for the men's room. Justice!

It dawned on me, when I reentered the presentation hall and looked around, that probably less than 10% - maybe even only 5% - of the audience was female. And surprisingly, almost all of the women in attendance were over 40. Where are the young girls? Why aren't women getting into IT? The ratio of men to women was pretty much the same for every session held that day. Sad. Ladies - IT is fun! And you don't have to worry about waiting in line to use the restroom!

Step away from the scissors!

Oh, how I wish someone had said that to me this morning. Had they stopped me, I wouldn't look like the kindergarten version of Gina. I would look like the Gina in my profile photo instead. But there was no one around to stop me this morning. Here's the sad tale.

I had decided to go "bangless". Everyone is doing it, (see photo) and it looks so great. I figured it was time to do away with the bangs, get a hip new look. I had pretty much achieved my goal, as far as doing away with bangs was concerned. The hip new look, not so much. My bangs had grown out, and it was not a good look on me. In case you hadn't noticed, I have a rather large forehead. I don't have a beautiful, chisel-featured face like that of the lovely Kelly Rowan.


Being the impatient Italian that I am, I took matters into my own hands. Now, I am not a novice at this. I have trimmed my bangs before, and had them turn out just fine. But I've never actually cut bangs into a head that had no bangs. That alone should have stopped me. It didn't. I got out the scissors - not the nice, sharp kind that professionals use. No. I have those old barber style scissors with the little hook thingee on the thumb hole... you know the kind, right? And I've had these for probably 20 years, so you can imagine how sharp they are. That was mistake number one.

I parted off a very small section of hair for my bangs. I didn't want big heavy bangs like this photo, and with my thick hair, that happens a lot. That's just too many bangs for me. So, I took a very small section of hair, pulled it down straight, and then started cutting from the side of my face toward my part, in an angle, like I've seen my hairdresser do a million times. I cut them longish, or so I thought. I no sooner let go of the hair after I cut it, and my bangs sprang up almost to my hairline! I looked like the 5 year-old who decided to cut her own hair, and whose mom had to try to fix her chop job. Actually, I looked just like I did when I was 4 or 5, and Mom would cut these horrendously short, crooked things that were supposed to pass as bangs. Oh. My. God. What had I done? And how could I fix it? Well, how else?! Cut some MORE bangs, only longer, to cover my blooper. Makes sense, right?

So, I take another small section, pull it down, but this time cut them a lot longer. Perfect! But how insane was I to think this would work? The short ones are just so short that they are unhideable. So now I have these silly longer bangs that sit over the "5 year-old with scissors" bangs. It's so sad. Fortunately, once I washed and dried my hair, I was able to camouflage my hack job, for the most part. So, here I am without bangs, before my hack job:

and here I am after the hack job. Sad, isnt it?

Like I said, I needed a savior, someone to shout, "Gina, step away from the scissors!" My hairdresser father would have a stroke if he saw me.

A few updates

A sense of accomplishment

The huge project I have been working on at work is nearly finished. One significant portion of it has been completed. The other parts shouldn't take much time at all now. And with the help of my technology-guru/former protege and longtime friend, who now works in Connecticut for ESPN, and who, at age 26, is making ovver $80,000 a year, I have migrated from a software-based firewall solution that ran on a 7 year-old PC which was slowly dying, to a hardware firewall that is awesome. My entire network is running so much better. We also finally were able to connect the branch to us via a VPN tunnel, which means our entire active directory is working perfectly now. That is going to be total Greek to most of you, but trust me, it's way cool.

The end is near

Youngest Son's date of departure is looming large. In less than two weeks, he will be winging his way to France with his fellow students. He has finalized his Spring Break plans. He will be traveling to Rome for two days, then to Florence for two days, then to Milan and the Lake Como region for 4 days, then back to Paris - in the company of 5 females. They have arranged their hotel rooms in Rome and Florence, and a really cool hostel in Lake Como. They have booked all their tours, with the exception of the Sistine Chapel, though they will get that arranged soon. I have purchased an unlocked GSM cell phone for him from eBay. I have ordered his prepaid France SIM card so he can use the phone in France. There are some pretty cool sites for getting all this stuff at really great prices. He got his youth hostel membership card yesterday. Now we're still trying to figure out which rail pass to get. His last class is January 30th. Then he has to move out of his dorm room, move back home, write a paper on Seurat and pointillism, print it to take with him, pack, buy any last minute things he's forgottene, and then leave on the 3rd of February. There really is so little time, and I'm starting to get stressed out. Breathe, Gina, breath.

The leaky roof

I came home Friday night, looked up at the living room ceiling, and was pretty pleased. It was almost completely dry. I thought to myself, "hey, this may be okay after all." That was wishful thinking. I went into Youngest Son's bedroom. The water had moved from the middle of the ceiling to the bottom, where the wall meets the ceiling. Almost the entire length of the ceiling where it joined the wall was wet. The wall was wet at least 3, and in some places 6, inches down. Fortunately, the wall is cedar, so we didn't have to deal with wet sheetrock - in that room. The ceiling in the spare room was similarly wet. The cedar walls there are painted, so you couldn't see the wet cedar. Our room was another story. We have sheetrock on the east wall. There were these four big streaks down the wall with a bubble of water, like a blister, at the bottom of the streak. You could see how the water had slowly inched its way down the wall, separating the paper on the sheetrock from the sheetrock itself. Evenutally, the blister of water hit the edge of the sheetrock where it meets the sliding door frame, and then dripped onto the floor below.

The ceilings and walls are all dry now. The stains on the cedar will blend in over time, and will eventually look like wood grain. The walls in the sheetrocked rooms will be repainted. Why the roof leaked it still a mystery. Friday night it snowed 8 inches. Saturday, we raked the snow off the roof on the east side of the house about halfway up the roof. There was layer of ice about an inch or two thick under the snow, but that shouldn't cause it to leak. Everyone has a layer of ice on their roof. The Spouse thinks it was a weird weather fluke. We had those high winds, some snow, rain, ice, and more winds. He thinks something weird just happened that caused the leak - maybe even snow being blown into the rafters from the gable ends during the high winds, that eventually melted. It's possible. I'm still having the roofer come look at it to make sure nothing is amiss. The roof looks fine from the ground - no lifted shingles, none missing - so really, it is a mystery. I'll post photos of the damage.

An enjoyable birthday bash

Saturday afternoon, we headed for Spokane to celebrate Oldest Son's 35th birthday. We all met at the Olive Garden downtown. The party consisted of Oldest Son's family, Daughter's family, Youngest Son, us, and Daughter-in-law's sister and her boyfriend and daughter. The food was great, by the way. We had a really fun time with everyone. Then, too quickly, it was time to head back home. It's hard to believe OS is 35! Wow.

Unbelievable video

Sara, of No Accuser, has this video on her site. For those who haven't been here, I'm putting it here too. This is just unbelievable. I know the feeling of having your seemingly invincible SUV (in my case, a Suburban) start sliding uncontrollably. It's not the fault of the driver when that happens. If you can, you aim for a snowbank and pray you stop so you can put chains on - if you have them. This must have been one icy day!

Portland Drivers on Slick Roads

I really didn't need this

This morning, I was rejoicing in the fact that I accomplished what I set out to accomplish this week, relative to work anyway. I was saving a program to VCR from TiVo for my girlfriend at work, so I was sitting in the living room watching said program as I saved it. I happened to look up at the ceiling, at which point the words "Oh.My.God!What.The.Hell?" escaped my lips. We have cathedral ceilings throughout the house. On those ceilings is tongue-and-groove cedar. And as of this morning, lots of wet spots. I freaked out. I went to check the rest of the house. Every room on the east side has several wet spots on the ceiling. The west side is fine. This is not good. For 20 years we had a cedar shake roof. We decided it was time to replace it about three years ago. We went for a very nice, 30-year warranty, composition tile roof. And for the first time since we built the house, we have leaks. And I'm talking dripping onto the brick hearth leaks. No more rejoicing. Oh, and did I mention, it's snowing to beat the band today? Yeah, it is.

I told The Spouse about the problem when he called me at 9 AM. He's freaking out, of course. These leaks are weird, too. There are a couple of wet spots where you might expect to find them - where the roof and outside wall meet - but the worst ones are about 5 feet from the eaves, on a roof that is one straight run - a 60 foot by 15 foot rectangle, with no valleys, no skylights, nothing that could be the source of a leak. It's just one huge expanse of roof. The roofer is no longer roofing. He's general contracting, building custom homes. He isn't in the phone book any more either. But, this being a small town, it didn't take me long to find him. He's in the middle of remodeling a space for his girlfriend's saddlery business, which just moved from our mall to this new space. I found the new space, saw his truck outside it, and went inside. He greeted me with "Hi Gina, how are you?" to which I replied "not so good". I told him about the problem, and he was genuinely alarmed and puzzled. I told him I had looked for any ice dams, and there isn't an icicle to be found on our eaves. There is a small buildup of ice around the chimney, and it might account for one of the leaks in the living room, but it could not be responsible for the leak 30 feet away at the end of the house. He told me that they used a bunch of snow and ice shield when they did the roof so that ice dams wouldn't build up. He was stymied. He said he'd come look at it - when it warms up some, and the snow is off the roof. We have about 3 inches on it right now. How we go about solving this is beyond me. What's worse is, what do we do about the wet cedar ceiling? It's going to stain and look terrible. But they don't make this stuff anymore, and it wouldn't match the rest of the ceiling if we did replace it. And then there's the insulation. How wet is it? I suspect it's very wet. Hopefully, it will just dry out this summer, but still.

To make matters worse, I called Oldest Son, who is our homeowner's insurance agent, and asked him what to do about filing a claim. He suggested we wait until we figure out why it's leaking and if the roofer is going to fix it. Consumed with this problem, the date escaped me. I completely forgot today is his 35th birthday. I am such a bad mom. I called him just a bit ago, and got his voice mail. He's probably mad at me. I don't blame him one bit.

So, that's my day. How's yours going?

Busier than a one-armed paper hanger

That's me! I know not blogging for days on end generally results in reduced readership, something I can ill afford, but I am so busy right now I have little time to blog. That is not to say I don't have several topics on which I would like to blog, or that I haven't written dozens of brilliant, scintillating posts in my head as I try to fall asleep at night. I do, and I have. Sadly, they will likely never see the light of blogger. I am in the midst of a huge project at work that has required 10-hour days from me. That is not likely to change before the week's end, and you all know I don't blog on the weekend, so please don't abandon my blog as I endure this excruciating blogging hiatus. I will return with a vengeance next week. And I just might surprise you all with a post or two this week, if time permits. This hiatus also likely affects commenting and reading my favorite blogs as well, so please forgive my absence. I will miss you all very much. In fact, Rosemary and I were explaining our little blogging community today to my boss and another board member, sharing just how much we cherish the friendships we have made via blogging, and how fun it is to blog. Neither of them really got it. Too bad. We both said it's one of the most fun things we do.

Now, back to work, yet again.

I'm sorry, I can't help it

I've said this before: I am a grammar nazi. I can't help it. It's my mom's fault. She was a superb speller, and even more of a grammar nazi than I am. That last part isn't true. I think I'm much worse than she was, but you get the picture. I inherited the gene. She reinforced it through example and training. If I'm reading an article, and run across a spelling error, I fixate on it. A typo I can handle, but an honest-to-goodness spelling error stops me in my tracks. Grammatical errors do likewise. Given that I am burdened by this character flaw, I avoid reading our local newspaper. It is rife with spelling and grammar errors, let alone an unbelievable number of typos, and to my chagrin, it gets worse all the time. Fortunately, it's a very small paper; about 6 to 8 pages most days, not including the classifieds. Laughingly, they want just a couple dollars a month less for a subscription to it than it costs to subscribe to the much more substantial real newspaper (as opposed to this pretend newspaper) out of Spokane, to which we do subscribe. I do see the local paper on a regular basis, since we get it at work. I will often take 3 or 4 minutes and skim through it. Everyone in town jokes that they only read it for the obits and the police blotter. I logged on to their site this morning to check on the weather, and saw an article on the power outages we had Tuesday night. I shouldn't have. It got my grammar nazi hackles up. How many errors can you spot in the following story? I'll make it easy for you. I'll highlight them in red.

About 1,000 Northern Lights customers living south of Sandpoint were without power for several hours when BPA lost power to its substation, according to a NLI press release. Power went out about 7:30 p.m. and was back on by 9:50 p.m., said Elissa Glassman, NLI communications director. The "extremely high gusty winds Tuesday evening" Northern Lights experienced scattered outages throughout its service area. (Does this sentence even make sense? We're missing a comma, not to mention a verb or two.)

About 300 Northern Lights customers also lost power north of Sandpoint because of the storm.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, less (should be FEWER) than 100 customers were without power, Glassman said. (Um, was this a quote? Then where are the quotation marks?)

About 1,000 customers in the Hope area lost power after a tree fell across two lines, said Debbie Simock of Avista Utilities. (another quote sans quotation marks)

"We had to have a tree removed before we could make repairs," she said.

Power was restored in the area about 1 p.m. Wednesday.

About 14 Clark Fork area customers were still without power as of mid-afternoon because a downed-pole (this is hyphenated why?) had to be replaced. That outage effected (affected, not effected) people along Cascade Creek and NFD 419.

The storm also uprooted some trees in south Sandpoint, including a couple at Lakeview Park near Memorial Field.

If you are experiencing a power outage, Northern Lights ask that people be patient while calling its office.

The lines may be busy due to the high volume, so keep trying. To report outages, call 263-5141 or 1-800-326-9594.

If you see downed power lines or a tree, do not go near it. (Wow, we can't go near trees now.) Call the sheriff's department or Northern Lights immediately.

Keep in mind, that's just one article. Oh, and it was the lead story on the front page. The article never did explain why our power was out from 12:15 AM until 1:45 AM. That's The Daily Bee for you. Now you understand why I can't read it without cringing.

Oh, and I just remembered. I am so excited! We are getting the entire 26-volume Oxford English Dictionary at work! It's usually ridiculously expensive, but apparently they have offered it to us at an insanely low price, so we're getting it! I really can't wait. It's the dictionary lovers dictionary. As much as I love words, and grammar, and etymology, and, and, and... well, it will be amazing. Expect "word of the day" posts once it arrives. I know you all just can't wait.

Comet McNaught

The front page of the newspaper the other day had a little story about Comet McNaught. It is apparently the brightest comet in 30 years, and may end up being the brightest comet ever once it's finished its trek across the sky. The article said it would be visible from 4:50 to 5:15 PM last night, so I set my alarm on my cell phone. At 4:50 PM, I went outside in the freezing night and scanned the western sky. The comet was supposed to be right of Venus in the sky, and a little lower than Venus. I saw Venus right away. No comet. I looked for it for twenty-five minutes. Nothing. I figured the mountains to the west must have obstructed my view, but today I found all sorts of photos of the comet taken from all over the place. I can't believe that I couldn't see this comet given what the photos depict. It's bright, and has a really long tail. Several of the photos show mountains or hills every bit as high as those to my west, with the comet well above those hills. I might be able to see it tonight, and if not the entire comet, I should be able to see the tail. I'm setting my alarm again. The photo above was taken from Great Falls, MT. Those of you in the southern hemisphere should get quite a show over the next few days. Keep your eyes peeled!

Oh goodie...my thermometer says it's 2 above outside. That's down from 4 above when I got up at 5:00. Doesn't the temperature usually rise as the sun does? Apparently, not today. The "official" temperature at the airport, our national weather station, is zero. The low tonight is supposed to be somewhere between -1 and -9. I'm so excited my teeth are chattering in anticipation.

Lasik - the final outcome

Yesterday, The Daughter and I went for our 3 month Lasik check-ups. Pretty much, the vision we have now is the vision we will continue to have, though we will have one more check-up just before our one year anniversary in case either of us needs an enhancement. The end result is that The Daughter has 20/15 vision, while mine is 20/20-ish in my left eye and 20/25-ish in my right eye. I still have a bit of an astigmatism in my right eye, but not so much of an astigmatism that it interferes with my vision. My vision fluctuates a bit. If I am on the computer all day, my distance vision is not as crisp as it is when I'm not on the computer all day. If I'm out doing stuff that requires distance vision, my close vision isn't as good as when I'm on the computer all day. But if I'm continually moving between near and distance viewing, my overall vision is just fine. It seems that when I do one for any extended period of time, it takes my eyes awhile to adapt to the other. I can live with that. Especially since I can read without glasses. And the optometrist told me that, if I can hang onto my reading vision for 3 or 4 years, I will probably never need reading glasses! Apparently, the lens in the eye stops changing in the mid-fifties for most people, so the status of one's presbyopia at 55 is pretty much what one can expect from there on out, barring some eye trauma or disease. I'll be 52 in two months. I am praying my reading vision stays put for the next few years.

Bottom line - if you are a candidate, go get Lasik! Even The Daughter, who had to have PRK, which is a much more painful procedure with a much longer recovery period, would recommend it enthusiastically. There is just nothing like being able to see 24/7. And after spending $125 yesterday after insurance, on The Spouse's new glasses, I'm even more convinced that the cost of Lasik (in my case, a mere $1400), is worth every penny. Unfortunately, The Spouse's vision problems can't be corrected by Lasik. He always had 20/20 vision until about 10 years ago. Then he developed a slight astigmatism, and now has presbyopia. He's SOL when it comes to Lasik, but at least he had 46+ years of perfect vision.

If you're pondering Lasik, but you're scared, don't be. Really. Just be sure to go to someone who has done a lot of surgeries, and don't be afraid of the inexpensive, high volume places, imagining they are the Wal-Mart of Lasik. The reality is, the doctors at these places have done thousands of surgeries, and just have the whole process down so that they can do a lot of surgeries in a short amount of time, which allows them to charge less. The place we had our surgeries done is called Luna Eye Centers. The doctor is Dr. Daniel Peters. He is awesome! He works in the Spokane, Bellevue, and Beaverton. If you're anywhere near those places, and you even THINK you want Lasik, GO! You won't regret it.

You have to look at this - seriously

I don't know how long this will be there, but really, check out the webcam at Schweitzer. When I checked the cam just now to see what the view was like, and scrolled down to the picture of the snow depth measuring stick, I just had to chuckle. Someone has a great sense of humor.

Beyond the photo in question, just the view out over the lake, and then the one up the hill are kind of neat. The one out over the lake actually looks over my neighborhood. It's hard to see in the night shot, but in the day shots it's just before the water starts in about the middle of the shot.

Avalanches

One thing that is unique to living near a ski resort is that the sound of explosions at 7 AM on a winter day does not set the lights on the 911 switchboard flashing. I was sitting here blogging, listening to the "boom! boom!" of the explosions up on the ski hill, and realized how infrequently I am even aware of them. It's avalanche control. The ski patrol guys are up there setting off charges to start avalanches, so that a wayward skier doesn't. With all the snow we had over the weekend, there are probably lots of potential avalanches up there. "Up there" is only about 6 miles as the crow flies from my house. The base of the ski hill is 7 driving miles away. The resort village is another few miles up the hill, a drive that takes about 20 minutes. So, when they set off the explosions, it's pretty loud here. The TV is on (big gas leak in NYC apparently, making everyone sick and scared), but the explosions are easy to hear - and feel. The windows are rattling.

We interrupt this program..... the cat from across the street just dashed across my deck, obviously after something. I went to the door to see what it was after, but couldn't see him. I sat back down, and suddenly there is the cat, at my sliding glass door, a bird in his mouth. I guess he wants to show me what a great hunter he is. I love cats, but I hate to see them eat birds. This poor bird was just hopping along, minding his own business, and now he's cat food. I opened the door to try to scare the cat into dropping the still alive bird. No dice. The cat just ran off, the bird's wings flapping madly, clenching the bird in his teeth. That cat is one helluva hunter. All summer long he leaves mouse carcasses in our yard, on our deck, and in the flower beds. I'm glad he catches mice, but I am not so fond of the bird catching. He has gotten more than few baby birds, and it makes me really sad.

Kaboom! Kaboom! It's going to be a great day for skiing. It's sunny and there is probably a foot of new powder. Click here to check out the live web cams (the lens on the first one on the page has snow on it, but the other two have great shots!)

Of Christmas decorations and Honda snowblowers

The Christmas decorations are down now, and all safely stowed until next year. The Spouse helped this year with the takedown, which was at the same time nice and frustrating. I was trying to take the village down, which requires carefully replacing each piece into its respective box exactly as it came when new, because I'm really anal about stuff like that. I'd be in the midst of putting a building away, when The Spouse would ask, "where is this ornament?" while holding up a box with a picture of the ornament on it. Gee, hon, can you just look for it? Obviously, he wanted me to locate the ornament so he could put it into its box. So, I abandoned the village deconstruction to focus on the tree. I have always done this myself, and I do have a system for putting the ornaments away, so it made sense that I take charge. He removed the ornaments from the tree, laying them nicely on the sofa table, while I fetched the boxes for the ones that have specific boxes (Hallmark ornaments, for example), and wrapped the others in tissue and put them in zip-lock plastic bags. He then put them all in the ornament storage boxes. Youngest Son helped him put the storage boxes up in the attic while I finished taking down the village. Then came the tree itself. It came in a box - a box that looked much too small to have ever held the tree. We managed to get the bottom and middle sections smooshed down enough to fit into the box, but no way the top section would fit. It went into heavy duty plastic bags, doubled up to make them stronger. The tree in the box and bagged top were then stowed in the garage until next year - right next to our old tree, which really has to go. We're pretty sure Oldest Son wants it, so we'll probably take it over to his house next weekend.

So, the house is back to normal now. I rearranged stuff a little, moving a bunch of the family photos to the top of the TV where the village sat. I really wanted to keep the sofa table behind the sofa (logical, right?), but The Spouse wanted it back under the mirror where the tree was, and where it's been for years. Okay, for now. But once I find something better to go under that mirror, the sofa table will live behind the sofa.

It snowed all night Saturday, and some Sunday morning, but then it started raining. Youngest Son left for school at about one. The accumulated snow/slush in the street was almost beyond passable. The Spouse and the same-first-name-as-the-spouse neighbor got their Honda snowblowers out and began the removal process. Then the UPS driver neighbor came over with his Kabota tractor and plowed the huge berm the snowplow driver had left in front of our house and the house across the street. He used the bucket in the front of his tractor to scoop up the snow and pile it in the yard, off the street. He mostly just wanted to play with his tractor, but we didn't mind. If the county isn't going to do the job right, between The Spouse and the neighbors, we can do a much better job of clearing the street, and not leave berms in front of our driveways. The same-first-name-as-The-Spouse neighbor was gone snowmobiling over the holidays, so was shocked to come home and see the horrible job the county had done. As I said, we've never had this problem in 22 years of living here, so to see the street pretty much not plowed after days of snowstorms, was pretty surprising. He and The Spouse spent a good half hour discussing the issue while their matching snowblowers idled. It was kind of cute.

Speaking of snowblowers, I have to put in a plug for Honda. When we first built here, we had a small Sears Craftsman snowblower. It worked okay, but didn't throw the snow as far as The Spouse would have liked. The neighbor moved in a year after we built our house. He had a funny old Ariens machine that had switchable parts. It could be a lawnmower in the summer and a snowblower in the winter. It did an okay job, but seemed to break down a lot. The neighbor bought a Honda. Apparently, he got some sort of amazing deal. For the next few years, The Spouse would watch in envy as the neighbor would snow blow his driveway, throwing snow so far it almost landed in our yard. It was a sight to see. The Spouse wanted a Honda so bad, but they are expensive. Finally, the time came to replace the little Craftsman. You'd think it was a no-brainer, right? Not so much. We looked at the Honda's, but the idea of spending $1800 for a snowblower was still a tough nut to crack. We bought a big, huge, fancy Craftsman with tons of horsepower, for about $600 less than the smaller Honda. Big mistake.

Though it was bigger in width and horsepower, it didn't throw the snow as high or as far as the neighbor's Honda. And it kept breaking shear pins. Then it started losing washers, nuts, bolts, all over the garage floor. The repair guy was a constant visitor, but he only came up once a week from Coeur d'Alene, which was a very bad thing. We needed a snowblower that worked, not one that was broken more often than not. Fortunately, the neighbor took pity on us, and did our driveway when our snowblower was broken. We told Sears we were not happy. The owner of the local Sears (it's one of those small town ones that only carries hardware, patio stuff, and tools, no clothing and other stuff, and he OWNS it) told us to just bring it back at the end of the season for a full refund. We did, and bought the Honda. The Honda is amazing. It throws the snow clear across the driveway and into the yard - a distance of about 25 or 30 feet. And it's so easy to use, I can run it. It's kind of humorous to see The Spouse and the same-first-name-as-the-spouse neighbor with their matching snowblowers clearing the cul-de-sac. The two other poor neighbors both struggle with inferior snowblowers that barely throw the snow into their yards, and I can't help but wonder if they also watch with envy, as The Spouse once did, while the two Hondas send streams of snow high into the air and across the entire width of the street.

Of Christmas decorations and Honda snowblowers

The Christmas decorations are down now, and all safely stowed until next year. The Spouse helped this year with the takedown, which was at the same time nice and frustrating. I was trying to take the village down, which requires carefully replacing each piece into its respective box exactly as it came when new, because I'm really anal about stuff like that. I'd be in the midst of putting a building away, when The Spouse would ask, "where is this ornament?" while holding up a box with a picture of the ornament on it. Gee, hon, can you just look for it? Obviously, he wanted me to locate the ornament so he could put it into its box. So, I abandoned the village deconstruction to focus on the tree. I have always done this myself, and I do have a system for putting the ornaments away, so it made sense that I take charge. He removed the ornaments from the tree, laying them nicely on the sofa table, while I fetched the boxes for the ones that have specific boxes (Hallmark ornaments, for example), and wrapped the others in tissue and put them in zip-lock plastic bags. He then put them all in the ornament storage boxes. Youngest Son helped him put the storage boxes up in the attic while I finished taking down the village. Then came the tree itself. It came in a box - a box that looked much too small to have ever held the tree. We managed to get the bottom and middle sections smooshed down enough to fit into the box, but no way the top section would fit. It went into heavy duty plastic bags, doubled up to make them stronger. The tree in the box and bagged top were then stowed in the garage until next year - right next to our old tree, which really has to go. We're pretty sure Oldest Son wants it, so we'll probably take it over to his house next weekend.

So, the house is back to normal now. I rearranged stuff a little, moving a bunch of the family photos to the top of the TV where the village sat. I really wanted to keep the sofa table behind the sofa (logical, right?), but The Spouse wanted it back under the mirror where the tree was, and where it's been for years. Okay, for now. But once I find something better to go under that mirror, the sofa table will live behind the sofa.

It snowed all night Saturday, and some Sunday morning, but then it started raining. Youngest Son left for school at about one. The accumulated snow/slush in the street was almost beyond passable. The Spouse and the same-first-name-as-the-spouse neighbor got their Honda snowblowers out and began the removal process. Then the UPS driver neighbor came over with his Kabota tractor and plowed the huge berm the snowplow driver had left in front of our house and the house across the street. He used the bucket in the front of his tractor to scoop up the snow and pile it in the yard, off the street. He mostly just wanted to play with his tractor, but we didn't mind. If the county isn't going to do the job right, between The Spouse and the neighbors, we can do a much better job of clearing the street, and not leave berms in front of our driveways. The same-first-name-as-The-Spouse neighbor was gone snowmobiling over the holidays, so was shocked to come home and see the horrible job the county had done. As I said, we've never had this problem in 22 years of living here, so to see the street pretty much not plowed after days of snowstorms, was pretty surprising. He and The Spouse spent a good half hour discussing the issue while their matching snowblowers idled. It was kind of cute.

Speaking of snowblowers, I have to put in a plug for Honda. When we first built here, we had a small Sears Craftsman snowblower. It worked okay, but didn't throw the snow as far as The Spouse would have liked. The neighbor moved in a year after we built our house. He had a funny old Ariens machine that had switchable parts. It could be a lawnmower in the summer and a snowblower in the winter. It did an okay job, but seemed to break down a lot. The neighbor bought a Honda. Apparently, he got some sort of amazing deal. For the next few years, The Spouse would watch in envy as the neighbor would snow blow his driveway, throwing snow so far it almost landed in our yard. It was a sight to see. The Spouse wanted a Honda so bad, but they are expensive. Finally, the time came to replace the little Craftsman. You'd think it was a no-brainer, right? Not so much. We looked at the Honda's, but the idea of spending $1800 for a snowblower was still a tough nut to crack. We bought a big, huge, fancy Craftsman with tons of horsepower, for about $600 less than the smaller Honda. Big mistake.

Though it was bigger in width and horsepower, it didn't throw the snow as high or as far as the neighbor's Honda. And it kept breaking shear pins. Then it started losing washers, nuts, bolts, all over the garage floor. The repair guy was a constant visitor, but he only came up once a week from Coeur d'Alene, which was a very bad thing. We needed a snowblower that worked, not one that was broken more often than not. Fortunately, the neighbor took pity on us, and did our driveway when our snowblower was broken. We told Sears we were not happy. The owner of the local Sears (it's one of those small town ones that only carries hardware, patio stuff, and tools, no clothing and other stuff, and he OWNS it) told us to just bring it back at the end of the season for a full refund. We did, and bought the Honda. The Honda is amazing. It throws the snow clear across the driveway and into the yard - a distance of about 25 or 30 feet. And it's so easy to use, I can run it. It's kind of humorous to see The Spouse and the same-first-name-as-the-spouse neighbor with their matching snowblowers clearing the cul-de-sac. The two other poor neighbors both struggle with inferior snowblowers that barely throw the snow into their yards, and I can't help but wonder if they also watch with envy, as The Spouse once did, while the two Hondas send streams of snow high into the air and across the entire width of the street.

You mean it's snowing in January? How odd!

I have to say, we have had some pretty mild winters the past few years. So mild that our annual Winter Carnival, that once featured snow sculpture contests all along our two main streets, has been "warmed out" for years. No snow sculptures. Not even any snow anywhere but up on the ski hill. It was uncanny. Winter Carnival week would come, and we'd have highs in the 40's, rain, Chinook winds - everything but snow. The first ten or so years we lived here, Winter Carnival was always cold and snowy. A dozen or more snow sculptures lined First Avenue and Cedar Street, our two main drags. Every winter-themed event was carried out right in town. We had plenty of snow. Well, this year looks to be a return to normalcy. So far today we've gotten 5" of snow, and it's snowing steadily. And here's a shot of the front of the house from last week.


snowy house

This is looking out from my porch, across my front yard, down my street, with our ski area, Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the distance.

snowy street

Now, The Spouse and our neighbor snow blow the street the entire length of both our properties and about 8 feet into the street. They do this so we don't get a big berm in front of the driveway after the snow plow comes through. This has been a very successful tactic for years. But last year a new crew started plowing our neighborhood. The guy who does our street has a real attitude problem. After he plowed, the 8 feet that had been cleared by The Spouse, was buried in snow. And he didn't even bother to plow all the way to the curb on either side of the street. We had huge chunks of snow in front of the driveway. I took photos and sent them to the county road department. I was told that the solid waste department plows us now. What?????? They forwarded my email a week ago. I've had no reply. I wonder what the street will look like tomorrow morning. Here's what it looked like a few days ago after the plow came through. This is our mailbox.


bad plow job

This is the end of our cul-de-sac with our neighbor's driveway on the left. Note the huge "snowballs" the plow so kindly left in our path.


bad plow job again

And this is how he left the access to the fire hydrant, until The Spouse went after him and made him come back to clear the area in front of it, like he's supposed to do.


inaccessible hydrant

Did I mention - it's snowing now? And it's supposed to snow all night and all day tomorrow? I'll take pics. Oh, and Winter Carnival starts next week, and they're predicting below zero temps.

Baby it's cold outside

....And snowing to beat the band. There is a winter storm warning in effect until tomorrow AM I think. Perfect. Youngest Son heads back to school on Sunday in a car sans snow tires. I'll worry myself sick from the time he drives away from the house until he calls to say he's arrived in one piece.

Monday he begins Jan Term - a 3 1/2 week long intensive term during which the kids take one class 5 days a week for three hours, and if they want, a PE class that is not usually offered except during Jan Term, like ice skating, snowboarding, or something equally fun, for a total of 4 credits. YS will have "Everyday French" from 9 to noon, and then ice skating from 1:00-2:00. He took ice skating last year during Jan Term and had a blast. He's looking forward to perfecting his mad skating skilz. Besides, there are usually a lot more girls than guys in ice skating class, so his odds are pretty good. It makes a great ice breaker (pun intended)...."hey, let's go practice our skating tomorrow night, maybe grab a bite to eat"... you get the picture. The Everyday French class is a prerequisite for his France trip, which is now a mere 4 weeks away. The class descriptions makes me want to take it:

"No English allowed. Students immerse themselves in the language in a non-structured situation. Shopping, meals, conversation. Class offered in an informal setting: small groups, games, movies, songs, cooking, skits. A fun, intensive class (3 hours minimum per day), that allows students to know they can speak French. Required of beginning language students going on the France Study Program. FR 130 may be used to fullfil the foreign language requirement if taken before the program."

Doesn't that sound fun?! Lucky duck.

The roads have been in horrible shape. The main streets are pretty clear, but the side streets are scary, and the roads in the outskirts are downright dangerous. During the holidays, we had two storms back-to-back. Then it rained a little, and then it got really cold. I don't know what the problem was, but the plows did a terrible job. The roads in town are so bumpy you can barely stay in your lane. There are all these super hard patches of thick ice, live reverse potholes. You'll be driving along just fine on bare pavement, then hit a patch of this lumpy, icy stuff and lose traction just long enough that your car slides a few inches to the side, then catches hard on the next patch of pavement. It's hard to describe, but anyone who has lived in snow country knows what I mean. That's in town. In the outskirts, the roads are solid ice, and with the rain we had a couple of days ago - non-stop rain for two days - they became water on ice. The Spouse has had to drive roads like this from 8 AM until 8 PM for the past week. I'm amazed he's alive. He has has to walk in to a lot of the places he delivered to because even his four-wheel drive truck couldn't make it up or down the steep, narrow, icy driveways. He was telling me last night about one stop yesterday that he managed to get to the house, only to discover there was no way to turn around. He had to back several hundred yards, down a narrow, winding, icy private road/drive, then up a steep incline onto the county road, onto which he had to make a quick, hard left turn (all in reverse), and brake immediately, not knowing when he'd come to a stop. As it turned out, he slid about 30 feet backward down the hill before he came to a stop. No way I could do that job. And now he's out there driving in this snowstorm, on those same horrible roads, which are now snow on ice. In the dark. No wonder he wants to retire now.

Coworkers who live out in the boonies are leaving now. I don't live that far out of town, and only have to drive on flat roads, so I have no excuse to leave early. Darn. We were planning on going to Spokane tomorrow to take YS shopping for stuff for his trip. I don't think we'll be doing that now. The Spouse has already said he has so many miles to drive, such hard stops, and so many stops, that he won't be home until 9:30 tonight. That was before it started snowing. He can't work much past that, so I suspect some folks won't be getting their FedEx today. He's only human.

Have a nice weekend, everyone.

Post-holiday mess

Lorraine was bemoaning the mess she was facing post-holiday. I feel her pain. While I magically escaped the overflowing recycling bins part of her mess by making sure that I didn't serve a single holiday meal, or host a single holiday get-together at my house (my daughter's or my oldest son's homes were the venues for those events), I still have a big mess to clean up. I have not taken down one single Christmas decoration yet. I don't plan to do anything until the weekend. I think I'm actually going to miss some of them, like my village. I love my village. It started off with pieces from K-Mart. Then I splurged and bought some Department 56 pieces. I could go broke buying Department 56 pieces. I didn't buy any new pieces this year, but it took a lot of willpower. So, here is a photo this year's village setup.


My Village

This is the first time I have put it on the TV, and I loved it there. I could keep this up all year, really. I just love the little scene. The buildings in the back are the K-Mart models. The more detailed pieces in the front, including the people, the fly fisherman, the bridge and stream, are all Department 56 pieces. The Christmas tree is to the right of the TV. Unfortunately, every picture I took of it came out blurry. I will try one last time before I take it down. Here's what the hearth looked like:

Hearth Decor (The Santa hanging above the window is one of two that belonged to my mom. They play "Jingle Bells" and are really, really old and special to me.)
And here's the sofa table with my snow globes and old time Santas:


snow globes

So, that's a bit of the Christmas decor waiting to be deconstructed. Next post will contain some Christmas pictures, and some snow photos.

Be it resolved....

Yesterday, January 2, 2007, I started off the day perfectly. I went to the gym. I even ate breakfast. At 5:30 AM. That was actually more difficult than the workout. I really am not fond of eating first thing in the morning.
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Ok, wait a sec...the TV is on as I'm typing, and there are these three women being interviewed on "Regis and Kelly" right now (it's the East Coast feed). They just finished doing a little soft shoe routine. They are pretty energetic gals, and one just said she is 92! Holy crap! The other two are over 80. Okay... and I'm sitting here on my sofa typing. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
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So, as I was saying, I ate a really good breakfast of meusli. I then headed out to the gym, where I got in a little weightlifting before I had to shower, change, and take my car in for an oil change. The plan is to eat healthier, workout daily, and get back into shape. As a result, I have vowed not to park my behind on my sofa every morning and blog and comment on blogs, which has been my routine for most of the past year. That begs the question - when will I be blogging and commenting? I know you're all dying to know. Hopefully, going to the gym as early as I should be getting there will result in getting to work much earlier, which should result in getting home earlier, leaving me time to blog and comment before The Spouse gets home.

The possible fly in this ointment is that I won't leave work any earlier. But I'm going to try. Last night, I no sooner walked out the door when work called my cell with a problem. I had been there all day, and not a single problem cropped up. I leave early, and I get a call. Go figure. I went back, walked in the door, and was told everything was fine. Grrrrrr!

I don't like to make New Year's resolutions. We all know, they are rarely kept. But I do want to make some changes, and what better time to start than after all the holiday revelry, parties, meals, and stress? It just happens to coincide with the beginning of the new year. I've been moving toward this "makeover" for a couple of months now. One of the hurdles I had to overcome was to complete the project at work that has consumed me for the last year. That happened on 12/24/06. I have about 4 more huge projects underway, but they are not as all-consuming as this one was. Completion of this project means I shouldn't have to work from home early in the mornings as often, which means I really have no excuse for not going to the gym.

So, that's the plan. Go the gym. Eat better. Clean my office and get it organized. Pretty basic, huh? So, you all have to hold me accountable, okay? Good. Now, off I go.