I loved

that bit when our President and First Lady (!!!) were dancing at the Home State Ball, and he gave her a little twirl, and she shrugged and kind of rolled her eyes like, "Can you believe what a cornball this guy is?" That was cute.

There are

a lot of thing that bring me to tears.

This is one.

My awesome day

commenced with a twenty-minute session of driveway-digging. I quit a few feet from the end, figuring that I would have enough momentum to get through the last bit, even in reverse. This was a faulty assumption, as I slid a little, and wedged the passenger side of the car up against the street-side snow bank. Also, it was totally high-centered. I called work to say I would be late. My husband came out to help dig and push, and after lots of laying on the ground, scraping snow out from under the car with the shovel, and multiple attempts, we got me out of the driveway and started down our rather large hill. I nearly buried the vehicle again, but recovered. Also, did I mention that I'd turned off the defroster while we did all the digging, and couldn't see much at all? Narrowly avoided a pack of wee dogs running in the street. Barreled around the corner and gunned it, but the plow hadn't been anywhere near, and I high-centered my dear little CR-V once more, well and truly. Neighbor gal got dropped off at her house; I asked for a shovel. She provided two, plus her husband and their snowblower. We got me out, again, and as I approached the end of the street, I knew I couldn't stop without getting stuck YET AGAIN, so I prayed and hit the accelerator. The main road had been plowed, and was passable. I got to work, an hour late, soaking wet, and sore. Happy Monday!!

I had a dream

in which we were moving to a new house (no plans to do so, relax, kid), and though we had presumably gone through the entire purchasing process, I kept discovering rooms in it. For instance, we were debating whether a walk-in closet could be configured into a studio space for Mark, when, HEY! Look here! There's another room.

Also, the kitchen had a salad bar in the center island, complete with a sneeze guard.

And due to the ubiquity of the internet, all of the neighbors were expecting us, and came over for coffee. They weren't really having coffee with us, as we were moving, but they were all gathered around a table in our kitchen.

Photo was taken this morning. It snowed all night, and hasn't let up. The snow is sliding off the roof of our house, but the studio building (pictured) isn't heated, so the snow isn't moving, and it's making me nervous. I may see if I can rake some snow off the lower edge and get it moving, but I'm worried about disturbing the even distribution of the weight. The building is about 400 square feet, and the snow depth is about two feet.

Currently all three of the major passes that connect eastern Washington with western Washington are closed. Good times!

xmas morning 2008

xmas morning 2008
Originally uploaded by ann14989

I shoveled snow

five times today (twice at home, three times at work), and could easily have done twice that many times. (And in fact, the neighbors ran the snowblower on the driveway at home, one other person shoveled the walk at work, and at one point, someone ran a small bobcat on the sidewalk.)

It. is. still. snowing.

I love my AWD, and I detest people who tailgate.

That is all.

observations

1) I told my kid that the difference between adults and kids is that generally, adults WANT to put their pj's on.

2) It is COLD. There is probably 1/4 inch of frost on the *inside* of my kitchen windows--we were cooking, or doing laundry, or something when the temp really started to drop. Supposedly we made it to around 19F at midday, when the sun was out, but it's back down to about 5F now. I am not amused.

do the hustle

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

apparently

things happen at school of which I am unaware.

Today, the school librarian came into the post office. She mentioned that she couldn't believe that the kid had read all of Brisngr. "He did?" I replied. "Yes, he took the test on it, and got almost all the questions right. He renewed it about four times, and I saw the bookmark moving along in it."

It is a 784 page book. He had it at home briefly, but I never saw him pick it up at all. I called home and asked him about it, and oh, yeah, I read that, Mom.

It could be worse. But 784 pages! And me, not a clue.

why veganomicon cracks me up

"Broccoli gives polenta a great texture. It just makes it, like, "RAR!" That's the only way we can describe it."

I made the Maple Walnut Cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance this afternoon, and while they are tasty, they weren't very pretty. The first couple of trays, I didn't oil the cookie sheet, as suggested, because I was using my silicone baking mat and our well-seasoned pizza stone. NOTE TO SELF: JUST FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS. Much of the non-prettiness resulted from their reluctance to leave the cookie sheets.

I thought the dough seemed a little thin, and if I was making them again, I would add a bit more flour, and/or crush the walnuts more finely. But, tasty. And when I finished, the kid asked me if he could take a plate to our neighbors who have a very large family. Which was darned sweet.

obama playlist

iTunes doesn't have all the tracks necessary to build this as an iMix, but I burned this CD for my brother-in-law the other day. It's quite good :)

Elect Obama Remix - Big Hit Buda
Clap Your Hands - They Might Be Giants
Supersoulfighter - Lenny Kravitz
Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours - Stevie Wonder
It's a New Day - will.i.am
Sure Hope You Mean It - Raphael Saddiq
Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing - Marvin Gaye
Sweet Potato Pie - Ray Charles & James Taylor
People Get Ready - Aretha Franklin
Beautiful Day - U2
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End - Phil Collins
Put a Little Love in Your Heart - Al Green & Annie Lennox
Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Ooh Child - Beth Orton
All That We Let In - Indigo Girls
Down to the River to Pray - Alison Krauss
2004 Democratic National Convention - Barack Obama

'cause I keep forgetting

First snow (no accumulation): November 6, and then some MSAR (my abbreviation for mixed snow and rain) tonight, November 20. Okay with me if it fails to accumulate for awhile, though I should probably have the person who knows the location of the snow shovel bring it out of storage.

(IT CAN'T BE BURIED THAT DEEP, SINCE IT ONLY STOPPED SNOWING IN JUNE.)

in which

the President Elect wears a bicycle helmet. You can too.

too lazy to upload the photo

of my bike computer when I hit 1000 (.1) miles on Saturday, November 2nd. It was the day before the time change, and I rode in to work in conditions I would not have ridden in on a week day (i.e. in more traffic). Dense fog, dark, and really not all that super safe.

I haven't ridden since (sadly) because it's now dark when I come home from work, and while my small-town traffic hardly qualifies, there are a couple of spots on the ride where I don't have much of an alternative, route-wise, and the lack of light just isn't good. Even though I blink A LOT when I ride in the dark. With LED lights, that is, not with my eyelids.

Re: lack of blogging, my laptop had to go see the doctors at Dell. It seems fine now. It was gone during the election, which was a mixed blessing. I couldn't obsess as much, but the obsessing I did do was challenging. Fivethirtyeight.com doesn't format very well for my cell phone screen.

I spotted my choice for all-time oddest vehicle name the other day: the Pontiac Parisienne Safari. Which is a 1970s fake-wood-panel station wagon. I cannot begin to fathom what they were going for with that name.

the aminals

I've been carrying mail for the last two weeks, and anyone following me would conclude that I am a certifiable lunatic. I talk in goofy dog voice to almost all the dogs, and I meow at all the cats. Today, my heart just about burst when, after I'd already delivered the mail and was on my way back to the truck, the big husky emerged from behind the fence and loped over to me, and when I scratched behind her ears, she immediately flopped onto the ground for a belly rub. Awwwww. Shortly after that, I got to my favorite kitty's house, and she seemed hungry, and I couldn't tell if the people had been around lately, so later on, I went back with a plate of cat food. She didn't come when I meowed, and the people *may* have been around, so I didn't stay too long, but I did leave the food.

I'm lurching toward 1000--I think I'm at 980 miles right now. I missed two days of riding this week--one planned, and one the result of being ridiculously foggy headed, and thereby LATE. Thursday might be the day...

my kid is funny.

I have one of those square peg sorts of kids, which is awesome, and which tends to mean that our many, many parenting challenges do *not* include staving off boredom.

That said, he may be catching on.

(notation in the corner of his school planner): "Note to self: Do not make Coach angry."

me: Hey kiddo, did you get into trouble in PE class?

kid: No! But another kid did, and he was doing something I would do, like making smart alecky comments, and he had to do eighteen pushups!

leavenworth, pt. 2

Hi Mark!

Okay, Mark, in the comments on the previous post, took me to task for describing Leavenworth as "kitschy." I take his point, sort of, in that I actually do know enough about the history of the town to appreciate its transformation into a successful Bavarian-themed tourist destination. (Short version: hard times, dying local economy, business community transforms the city by mutual decision and sheer force of will. Inventive, and fairly awesome.) HOWEVER, it was created, and while its achievements are notable*, without actual Bavarians, it is not authentic.

*It is thriving--I was there on a Monday, and there were LOTS of people in the streets.

It should be further noted that I *like* kitsch. Folks were very friendly, I was able to find a satisfactory vegetarian lunch with no trouble at all, and the natural beauty is breathtaking. Plus there is Bavarian-themed mini-golf, which I didn't play (why?!??), so I will return. That there's an artificial conceit in play bothers me not at all.

In other news, the rain is potentially hampering my efforts at reaching the 1000 mile mark. I rode today, but got utterly drenched on the way home. Hopefully it will let up by morning, as arriving at work that wet is not so fabulous. At least if I come home soaking wet, I can take a hot shower and put on my pajamas right away.

leavenworth

Columbus Day is a minor annual holiday for me; a day on which I take myself off on an adventure someplace. Alone. This year, I drove north to Leavenworth, a kind of kitschy Bavarian-themed tourist town. I managed to get my hair trimmed (a major achievement), wandered around a lot, bought only a couple of balls of yarn, and rode my bike* on the rather excellent city trails that parallel the river.

I enjoy monkeying around with the self-timer, although I tend to try to avoid being observed....

*Bianchi, not the electric. It did quite well on the trail, even though I had to switch to the road tires. I dismounted briefly three times--once for loose gravel, once for big rocks, and once for mud.

pointing out the obvious

(Listening to the third presidential debate in the car on the way home from soccer practice. Kid starts talking about something unrelated with great enthusiasm.)

Me: SSHHHH! This is really important!

Me: I'm sorry. You're really important, too. But they're only going to say this once.

Kid: MOM, it'll be on YouTube later....

I love it when he is in steam train mode.