If you live in the Midwest...

You should buy one of these!
Doesn't that look warm? If you are really interested, it's the L.L. Bean Mad Bomber hat for $39.50. And while you're putting in an order you should get some of their stylin' swimsuits because it will help you remember that SUMMER WILL BE HERE EVENTUALLY...! And you can wear your swimsuit to work to help remind all of them too. Or at least distract them from the cold for a while.

Here it is a balmy 39F. I am fiercely writing a research paper on a project that I should have gotten wrapped up a long time ago. Winter is a good time to lock yourself away for a while to do things like this. Although I will be happy when I finally emerge, which should be pretty soon.

Now I dig vampires

My mom got me hooked on vampires. Not the real kind, I haven't found any of those yet (I went looking, I live near some fictional ones, but they weren't around).

Vampires seem to be totally hip about every ten years. I like fads, so I happily jump on board every time.

Here are the major vampire moments from my life:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the movie (ca. 1992) If you haven't seen this, you really outta. I became a fan long before Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show (see #2) and my loyalty kept me from actually watching the show until years after it aired.

2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show (ca. 2000)
This really was a good show, once I finally got around to watching it (on DVD, around 2005). And a very sexy Angel reminds me a lot of a certain Edward Cullen (see #3)...

3. Twilight, the book, then the movie (ca. NOW)
Twilight brings a fresh new round of vampires to today's youth. Since my mom liked the book, I decided I was not above reading pre-teen vampire romance and gave it a shot. It is a very good book. Edward Cullen is a heartbreaker for sure. I will probably have to watch the movie.

Best Christmas present ever

#1 favorite present this year:

A giant TUB of pistachios!!

#2 favorite:

Candies that WHISTLE!!

Final adventures of 2008

After all the snow piled up on us, we had a tricky situation getting back to the midwest for the holidays. This is a run-down (the flight was scheduled for Sunday):

1. Wednesday: threat of snow, schools cancel, Studly Hubby works from home

2. Thursday: actual snow (4" ish), schools cancel again.

3. Friday: stays cold, snow doesn't melt (and city doesn't know how to remove it), which means schools cancel again. I slide down the icy sidewalks to work and somehow survive.

4. Saturday: stays cold, snow still hasn't melted, and the neighbors start trying to dig out their cars with garden shovels and brooms (nobody owns actual snow shovels and ice scrapers).

5. Saturday night: storm #2 moves in (snow from storm #1 is still on the ground). That story is below. Our flight got rescheduled from Sunday to Monday, thank goodness.

6. Sunday: we figure out how get to the airport on Monday. City is shut down, buses aren't going where they are supposed to. We buy a pizza from one of three open businesses in our neighborhood.

7. Monday: 3-hr trek to the airport. We hauled our luggage across 10 blocks of unshoveled deep snow, got on the freeway bus to downtown. The bus was absolutely packed with people that normally ride other routes or drive and nobody knows where to get off - we all collectively help each other find our stops and figure out how to get around an ice- and snow-covered downtown (which is extremely hilly and dangerous).

8. Still Monday: we transfer to the airport bus downtown. Everyone we meet is heading to the airport and dealing with cancelations or delays, looking both tired and wired. We expect the worst.

9. Still Monday: we arrive at the airport and check the flight board. Half the flights going out are canceled. Apparently many airlines are running out of de-icer. Our flight is still on, so we check in and go wait. The place looks like a homeless shelter, but without any beds. I feel tempted to hand out my spare change to the stranded travellers but remind myself that won't really help.

10. Still Monday: we board and fly out, on time and with no problems. I thank my lucky stars.

What happens when it snows in Seattle?

We go out and play!

Here's me, bundled up in front of our apt. We got about 8" of snow, right in the middle of Seattle (which means they got a heckuva lot more out in the mountains).


Here's our street, with all the cars covered in snow. You can't see it very well in the picture but the snow has been flattened by SLEDDERS and X-COUNTRY SKIERS, no cars. Only one car has dared to drive on our street all day, as far as we can tell.

For those of you who are wondering about our travel plans, here's the story:

We were scheduled to fly out for the midwest for the holidays at 6:15 am Sunday morning. At about 6 pm Saturday night, Thundersnow Storm No. 2 hit with full flurry and by 10 pm when we went to bed we had already gotten 4 inches of snow, Alaska Airlines had canceled most of their flights overnight and Sunday morning, and the towncar service that was taking us to the airport had canceled (their one bad-weather vehicle just went out of commission in a snow-related accident). We knew that 1) we were going to have a heckuva time getting to the airport in the morning and 2) our flight would most likely be canceled. We packed anyway, just in case, and I went to bed to read my new favorite vampire book, Twilight. My very Studly Hubby stayed up a little later to call all the taxi, shuttle, and towncar services in town and scour through the snow-emergency bus schedules, but came to bed without any promising leads.

We set the alarm for 2:30 am with the intention of getting up, checking the flight status, and if it hadn't been canceled trying to get to the airport (our alternative plan was to pay the penalty to rebook the flight). At 2 am, the phone rang with a message from the airline that our flight had been canceled. We whooped for joy and relief. They automatically rebooked us for an already-full flight on Monday, we got our return flight changed and our rental car changed, and we are now all set with a much better plan. Hopefully this time we can actually get to the airport and get on the plane and get out of Seattle. Stupid snow!

I hope to see some of you soon!

Thundersnow!!

Thunder is SO rare here, and so is snow, so when we had the two together last night, the headlines all over the news in the morning read 'THUNDERSNOW'... oh my, what a story! Good thing I'm from the midwest so I know how to recognize these immediately.

The city has been shut down. Even in the midwest, this would have been one heckuva storm. We had something like 6 inches, and most of it stuck because it's FREEZING outside (in the 20s). People were sledding down neighborhood streets and snowboarding down closed freeway ramps. Because nobody here knows how to drive in snow, the city only has two snowplows, and it's REALLY HILLY, lots of streets simply get closed and everybody stays at home when it snows. That means... SNOW DAY!!! oh, what glory it is.

You can find some GREAT photos on the Seattle PI website:A jacknived bus downtown. The buses were on snow routes only (which means no hills) but still were slip-sliding all over the place. Those poor bus drivers! Plus nobody wanted to drive so the buses were very full.

A snowboarder goes down a city street in West Seattle. What fun! It would be hard to fall though.

I'm used to snow and cold but one thing I'm not used to is the concept of using chains on your tires. When it snows out here it's serious business and everyone goes for their chains (chains are required in the mountain passes). The busses all had chains and lots of cars did too. They make this awful grinding sound on the roads but they sure do help with traction!

Tomorrow I will be heading in to work, on foot, so I can get a few things done before I leave for the holiday. Microsoft is shut down, schools are already cancelled, and it will be a ghost town at work tomorrow. Time to party!

Workin' out in Cowboy Boots!

The other day my Studly Hubby picked me up from work and we drove to the gym, but when we got there we realized that my gym bag had been left at home. It takes 15 minutes to get to the gym, so it would take as long to go back and get my stuff as it would for the Studly Hubby to just work out for 30 minutes, so I decided to just wait for him. And then I realized it takes me about 25 minutes to do all my physical therapy exercises and if the Studly Hubby loaned me his Studly sweatpants (that he was wearing over his shorts) I could easily do that while I waited. The problem was, we are supposed to wear shoes out on the gym floor at all times and the only shoes I had were the ones I had on - my Ariat FatBaby cowboy boots (below):

As I have told you all before (more than once), these are totally rad boots. But they are definitely not gym appropriate. Especially when you are wearing them over too-big sweatpants and trying to work out at a gym.

But I am strong and I persevered. First, I stood in front of the full-length mirror in the locker room and psyched myself up. I looked like an idiot, but an idiot with some sort of purpose (because nobody goes out in public looking that dumb without a purpose). So I puffed out my chest and marched on out.

And... nobody noticed or cared. And the boots are quite comfortable! Now that I am safely through this experience, I can say that I'm glad I bravely put myself out there. But if you have been dying to wear cowboy boots to the gym, you may still want to proceed with caution... it might have just been a lucky night.