Bye Bye January

I swore that this year I would not succumb to the January blues and, for the most part, I was successful. I haven't had much to say but at least I didn't feel like whining all month long. For the first time in years I didn't hate January, but I'm not going to miss it much either.

Sooooooo.... on to February and a CHALLENGE. I am going to post every day in February, because it's a short month and I really need a motivational hook right now, and I'm challenging all of my friends and bloggy buddies to join me. In fact, I'm just desperate enough to be willing to bribe you all with random weekly rewards. Did I say weekly? Yep, I did! While my objective is to encourage daily posting, I know how hard it is to do this; I don't want anyone tossed out of the party because they had a bad Wednesday.

Rules? We don't need no stinking rules! Just let me know you are up for the challenge. I'll announce the prize on Monday and everyone who posts daily will be entered in the drawing on Sunday.

Cold Sunday Morning...

Snow was forcast
but instead of fluffy white frosting
there is steel gray ice
the dog seemed to think twice
before rushing into the slippery yard
then returned to bed
to lick her toes
There is so much I should be doing
but the freeze has it's grip on me too
alas I have become
not a graceful ice sculpture
but a lump of sooty ice
fallen from the wheel well of
the workweek

Fifteen Fun Facts

No it's not a meme... it 's just me trying desperately to find something to blog about that won't make me want to cry or slam things around. Not that I really have a lot to cry or slam about but I'm just having a sort of emotionally unstable day... so I'm going to list fifteen fun facts about anything that comes to mind.

1. FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology - You've got to love an organization that uses robots battles and lego building competitions to "To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes."

2. Fiesta!: A party. Preferably with Fajitas and Margaritas. I could really use a fiesta right now.

3. Friendly's : A legendary ice cream shop in Massachusetts.. and other Eastern states... well, legendary if you live in my house. My husband is convinced that there is no Milkshake that can substitute for a genuine Friendly's Fribble and he has spent many years trying to create a Fribble in our not so friendly kitchen.

4. Forest: I live in a temperate rain forest. Uh, to be more honest, I live in what used to be a temperate rain forest but is now a barren subdivision with three requisite trees per house. The forest waits just beyond the fences and regularly tries to reclaim any unprotected land. You know what else lives in a temperate rain forest? Banana Slugs!

5. Feathers tickle my fancy...

6. Fleas bite

7. Fruit bats are totally cool but I don't want them in my backyard. They need to stay in the forest with the foxes, raccoons and BANANA SLUGS.

8. Flitter: This is what butterflies do. I like butterflies and will plant flowers to attract them if I ever actually plant anything in my backyard... (don't tell the forest I haven't landscaped yet)

9. Fusion: Jazz, Food, Cold... not necessarily in that order

10. Frustration caused me to yell at my husband a few minutes ago because I'm TRYING TO WRITE AND HE'S BEING TOO NOISY.

11. Feist: I'm Sorry, Mushaboom, My Moon My Man.... Lovely

12. Free : Federal Resources for Educational Excellence. This is a great place to look for neat things to teach your kids... or yourself.

13. Fred Astaire: Just because...


14. Forts, especially tree forts have always excited me. Someday I'm going to vacation here.


15. For Sure! Fifteen words that start with F and not a single curse among them. Aren't you proud of me?

Fourteen

Since it's the fourteenth day of the month I'm going to celebrate my favorite fourteen year old and his brand new look...

Before...




And After...

Off to the races...

Zane's History class will be celebrating the end of the semester tomorrow evening with a Toga Party. The party is actually extra credit for the kids and they will be awarded points for participation and originality. They have divided into groups and are each hosting a dinner and providing entertainment. The goal is to be as authentic as possible. For some reason this idea sparked a creative frenzy in Zane like I have never seen before. He has been working all week planning and assembling things for the party, prodding the other guys in his group to pitch in, and conning his younger sister and her friend into acting as servants and musicians for the dinner. His real achievement, however, will be the entertainment. He has spent the last two nights converting remote control cars into chariots for races in the circus maximus. It was hard to get a picture that really shows how cool these are... I have a feeling the whole class will be lining up to compete in the chariot races. He already has an A in the class so I know he has done all of this for the joy of it. I love that!

Because I know you like to laugh...

This is what a 2 hour snow delay day looks like in Western Washington.

Better living through technology...

As you know... because I complain about it all the time... I am peri-menopausal, which is really just a nice way of saying old, fat, bitchy, and extremely temperature sensitive. Now most days this isn't a huge issue. I dress in layers to deal with the temperature problem. Layers do nothing good for the fat, old or bitchy problems but there's only so much you can do and comfort has to come first. So, knowing this about me, you will understand why it's so important to have a programmable thermostat in my house.

The programmable thermostat performs two vital functions, keeping the electricity bill down, and keeping my family passably warm despite my hormonal imbalances. At night the temperature drops to 58 degrees making it possible for me to sleep comfortably with a light blanket. Everyone else is wearing socks, hats, mittens and hiding under down comforters but we all sleep reasonably well. However, when morning comes, and the eskimos have to emerge from their pile of furs, a minor rebellion occurs. Shaking in their long underwear they run to the the thermostat and stab the buttons with their brittle blue fingers. Before you know it the temp rises to a balmy 72 degrees and I'm resisting the urge to strip down to my bra and panties.

In an effort to stop the madness I returned to my trusty programmable thermostat and reprogrammed it. Yes, I gave in. I told it to turn the heater on and warm the house to 68 degrees half an hour before everyone wakes up. Here's where the better living through technology part comes in.. you see, my heretofore dependable and much loved thermostat has a hidden feature called Adaptive Intelligent Recovery. It's a nice feature that insures your house will be 68 degrees at 6am by turning the heater on at 4:30! The reasoning behind this delightful feature is that people prefer to warm up gradually. There is no override, no way to ensure it doesn't come on before a certain time because the program is adaptive. It decides what it wants to do and then does it without consulting me. Apparently it is incapable of adapting to the fact that I wake up the instant the heater comes on. The owners manual assures me that the thermostat will learn to turn itself on later as soon as it gathers enough data to know how long it really takes to warm the house. This shouldn't take much more than two weeks... Obviously this technology was designed by a man.

Coffee Girl....

You Are a Double Espresso



Hey Energizer Bunny Girl! Do you ever slow down?
You're a mix of high energy and ambition, perfectly matched with strong espresso
When you want something you get it - by any means possible
You're driven, determined, and no nonsense. Which is just how you like your java.

What Kind of Coffee Girl Are You?

Energizer Bunny Girl! Ha!

I'm more like a banana slug in a pink costume being dragged through an obstacle course of daily chores.

'Nuf said... I'm off to do about five hours of "work" (as opposed to household chores), then I'll de-christmas the house, plan a menu for next week, fold the laundry, and make sure the kids have done their homework.

Or maybe I'll sit here and finish reading The Pillars of the Earth and pretend like the pink drum isn't beating.

Home again, home again....

Jiggity Jog?

How many of you thought I was never coming back?

I had three days in the vicodin fog (more about the ablation at a later date.. thank you so much for all the kind thoughts and healing vibes), 12 hours on the road, a delightful evening and morning with good friends that we don't see often enough, three days at Bob's family reunion/Stepmother's birthday bash, three days at my Mother's, and another 12 hours on the road home. We arrived at 9pm last night and I think I've been doing laundry ever since. Now I'm on my way to work. Thankfully I have a lot more energy now than I did at any time in December. I'm looking forward to getting my house back in order, my blog updated, and catching up on reading everyones blogs this weekend!