Outside My Window This Morning (and hey, long time no see!)

Winter 2010 in VA has been epic! We got 35" on February 5-6 and we're in the middle of another 12-15" right now. This is on top of a snow storm in December that dumped at least a foot at that time (and almost thwarted our trip to TX for XMas), not to mention the occasional 1-3" here and there. Good ol' El Nino. But I love it. I've been waiting for a winter like this since I moved here in 1995. There was the "Blizzard of '96", but even that pales in comparison. Check out this video of what's happening outside my window. The quality isn't the greatest because a) I'm using a camera to take video, b) this is thru a window and c) visibilty was just this poor!

Also, here are some of my favorite pics from the last couple of days. This one is looking out my front door. After the 35" fell, we had no stairway to speak of...

Here you can see (what's supposed to be) the bottom of our stairway and Chris' truck. That snow was hip-deep!

On Saturday, the snow finally stopped around 4pm and the sun came out. The scenery was beautiful. I like these rooftops. They look like they belong in the Swiss mountains or a Dr. Seuss book.

Catching Up

Been a while. Turned 31 since the last time I wrote. Yeah, so I'm lovin THAT. I'm officially IN my 30s. What do I have to show for it? A husband, a dog, a house and a good job. I could complain, but I suppose I shouldn't. The following was taken at dinner on the actual day. Awwww.



Rang in the celebration of my birth pretty uneventfully. My mom came into town so that was a highlight, especially since my aforementioned loving spouse WORKED all weekend. That was a big bummer. He's SO lucky I had someone around to entertain me, otherwise I would have been all up in his grill about it. I am a firm believer in the Birthday Weekend. To do it proper justice you must make your actual birthday and the following weekend as fun-packed as possible. This year was filled with shopping, lunching and drinking. And my friends Sarah and Ginny had me over for margaritas and Wii (provided by me...which was my gift from Chris this year...his time away wasn't a total bust after all).

Holy cow do I totally dig the Wii! Although, I have to say it's pretty sad that after playing it for a few hours I was sore the next day. But I joined a gym, so that shouldn't happen so much anymore. There's only one catch...it doesn't open until October. Like I told my friend, Steph, there's nothing like making a kind of commitment to maybe workout sometime in the future! Story of my life. Never mind I could just go walking for free out my front door. No, I need a gym and THEN I'll be ready to go...(hey Jeneane, whatever happened to those workout videos you bought that you could 'dance' the weight off to?)

Yeah.

At the pinnacle of fitness...that's me (*cough*).

Go Cubs Go...

Ah, Chicago...my hometown. Ok, it's the city nearest to where I grew up, but hardly frequented. On this rare occasion, Chris and I took a trip and actually spent time IN CHICAGO. Will wonders never cease. We went because back in December my friend, Jessica, was gathering a ton of us to go to the Wrigley Rooftops. It's a bar just outside of Wrigley Field, and for a set price we got to eat and drink all we wanted thru the 7th inning. I tell you, it doesn't get better than that. I'd wager you would spend just as much, if not more, if you were actually IN the park and the view we had was pretty great. See?



We couldn't have asked for better weather, either. Sunny and high 60s - almost warm enough to wear shorts! According to Tammy, it's never that nice that early in the year and she should know. It was her birthday that day. I give you exhibit A - the day begins:



Awww, BFFs on a special day. And the Cubbies won against the Astros, what more could you ask for?! Sunblock, apparently. Yes, as the day wore on little did we realize how important SPF would be. Who would have thunk you could get sunburned...in Chicago...in April. By the time we got to dinner (birthday girl's choice...Ed Debevic's) we all looked a bit overdone. I submit to you exhibits B-D:







This last one is a good example of Chris FINALLY letting loose in front of a camera (he hates his smile). He's had a few by this point and had taken to singing along with the tunes in the diner on his "microphone". He'll get on my case for posting this, but whatev. I think it's great! And don't you just love our hats? It's a must when you Eat At Ed's. Speaking of which, I ordered a "deluxe cheese dog" not really paying attention to what "deluxe" might mean. It meant this:



An entire FOOT of hot dog. I barely got thru half of it and a bit of my fries before I declared my deluxe dog the winner (or should I say "weiner", har har).

It was great fun and the next day Chris and I got to play tourist before we had to fly back home. We stayed in a hotel in the city because it seemed silly to go all the way back out to the 'burbs when we would just have to turn around and go back to the city the next day. Turned out to be a good plan, even though we didn't get to do what Chris really wanted. He envisioned us taking a tour of the U-505 U-boat that is at the Science & Industry Museum, but alas, all the tours were sold out when we got there. I wish we would have known that BEFORE paying the $14 to park, but it's all good. What we did end up doing was going to Millenium Park to see "the bean". It's a massive structure that is highly polished to reflect ("they" say) the entire skyline of Chicago. It's way nifty no matter if that's true or not:



...and my attempt at "vision". This is under the bean:


All in all, it was a great weekend. However, I'm still peeling...

Dog Door Complete!

Oh joy of joys! Now Prince can go outside whenever he wants. Whew!





Here's what Prince thinks of it, though...



...then he said "Just kidding!"

Stupid Infomercials

So there I was...

...took a day off from work and had decided to do absolutely nothing. Chris was on a business trip so I had the day (and house) to myself. We have DirecTV and I had a multitude of shows to watch as they had collected on the DVR and I had been lax in watching them. Perfect, I think, I will use my day off to slog thru them so I can delete them from the hard drive so they can build up again and I have to take another day off in the future to go thru the same routine...

It was about 9am when I headed to the basement to start this marathon brain drain. I had just finished watching a couple of episodes of Monk (or Psych) and was just about to dive into The Daily Show with John Stewart when I noticed that the little screen in the upper right-hand corner of my TV was showing some inane infomercial that happened to be on live TV at the moment. I was not quick enough with the remote and I got sucked into it. What did I get sucked into, you may ask? Rockin' Body, that's what. It's the latest and greatest set of workout DVDs that teaches you how to dance the pounds away (think "Sweatin' to the Oldies" for a younger generation).

As I sat there, fighting every compulsion to watch, I was sucked in if for nothing else but to ridicule the poor souls who would buy into it. 30 minutes later I *WAS* one of those poor souls and I KNEW it. I started thinking about how I dance at weddings (including my own) and get all icky and sweaty and feel as if I had gotten a good workout "just having fun." I started rationalizing the simplicity of the concept and noted the website the show was advertising to "check into it later...just out of curiosity."

I sat on the urge to buy this 7-DVD set that came with all other sorts of bells and whistles "if I acted now." I know from experience that the "deal" never goes away because the "deal" is just a marketer's ploy to instill a sense of urgency in you so you buy before you think it thru. I know that the website will have the same "deal" because how does the company know exactly when one of these infomercials runs to know that I need to act in the next 18 minutes? It's all a game. I KNOW this, and I still keep the website in my proverbial back pocket "just in case".

I was able to hold out for a grand total of 5 days. Over those 5 days I continued to talk myself into what a good idea it would be - I mean, it's dancing, how bad could it be? I like to dance. Why not learn some new moves and work out at the same time? I still knew I was being pulled in by flashy advertising, but I'd like to think I wasn't one of those crazed fans buying the next best thing that will be my miracle cure ("THIS is the key to fitting into a size 4...not those seven OTHER DVD sets and exercise machines I just HAD to have..."). No, I figured it was "only" $60 and, worst case, my Pilates for Dummies DVD would have company collecting dust if it didn't pan out (because you *know* that even though that's "worst case" it's also "most likely!").

So I bought the set. It came with a bunch of other crap I didn't want, but it's not like you can tell them to not send it along. I did, however, say no to every other damn thing they tried to sell me before I even got to the part where I actually pay. "Hey, Shopper, you're gullible (and seemingly ready to unload your hard-earned cash at the drop of a hat)...how about buying some more stuff you'll never use for just 4 easy payments of $199.99 more??" No thanks, just give me the $60 thing that I'll use once and probably never again after that.

I finally got the package two days ago - 10 days after I bought it - which is their version of "express delivery" that they made a point of telling me I was "upgraded" to as part of the "deal." Whatev.

The best part? I watched them today in my home office sipping a glass of wine.

Now that's what I call a workout.

2 in a Row!

How do you like that? A new post and it's only the next day. If I'm not careful this could become a trend.

Not much new to report other than Chris and I are "this" much closer to having a bona fide doggie door in place by the weekend (my personal goal). Since we're installing it in the back, we had to order a new, solid door to replace 1/2 of the atrium doors that are nothing but glass. Kinda hard to cut a hole for a dog door in glass! So we ordered a new door from Home Depot which took a month to get delivered to the store. Turns out no one that Home Depot deals with makes an exterior door in the dimensions we needed (36 x 80 - what I thought was a standard door size, but I apparently thought wrong), so we ended up with a solid wood interior door that is heavy as sin! My triceps are still burning from lifting the damn thing.

Anyway, it arrived at the store a couple of weeks ago, but sat there about a week after that until Chris could go pick it up. We had to wait until after he got back from his business trip to SoCal (color me jealous!). We got it home and then the door sat around for *another* week until we could pick up the proper tool to cut a hole - a Milwaukee jigsaw. I was just going to use a circular saw, but I'm told that wouldn't have been kosher. The blade wouldn't have gone thru the whole door at once and turning corners would have been a bitch, so Chris tells me.

So he got his new toy and I ended up doing most of the cutting. I was excited to do the work and since Chris isn't all that jazzed about a dog door anyway, he was more than happy to let me do it. Now I can happily add "jigsaw" to the list of power tools I have wielded (with controlled skill, I might add) - next to the power drill, compound mitre saw and scroll saw (in 7th grade shop - I'm amazed I walked away with all fingers from that one!). And voila, we have a dog-door-sized hole in our new door.

The door is currently up on "blocks" and I just threw the first coat of exterior paint on one side of it tonight. I'll be doing that every night until Saturday, and by then it should be ready to mount. WooHoo!! Then all we have to do is train the dog to use it, but he's a smart cookie so I'm hoping it won't take too long...

The New 'Do

Got my hairs cut a couple of weeks ago. Got the new-fangled "reverse bob" look. Don't know if you can tell all that much from the pics, but it's shorter in the back than it is in the front. I like it so much I may go shorter in the back next time!