We Pause to Bring You This Commercial Message

This week I've enjoyed watching the posts over at that social networking site where all my friends who live a bit south of here are discussing the panic that has set in as they are preparing for 2-4 inches of snow in Southern IL, KY and TN. One friend is hoping to get enough snow to build a 1 inch snowman, another just wants enough to make snow angels. All have visited the grocery store to stock up on supplies. My dear friend Hula has described the scenario beautifully here.

Meanwhile, here in NH Kilowatt's cousin is just settling in to the NH way of life. She described her Christmas gifts, and most of them involved wool or other heavy materials.

In Northern IL, my brother is tiring of shoveling his driveway by hand as another 8 inches of snow is forecast.

All this leads me to present this commercial message designed to assist you in your shopping for winter related items, detailing the brands I just couldn't live without during our long NH winters.

1. John Deere - you may recall my new best friend from last year. Keeps the driveways clean.

2. Subaru Forester- It may not be sporty, but it loves the snow.

3. LL Bean - outerwear (coats, hats, boots, gloves) - need I say more?

4. Cuddl Duds - think layers, lots of them, that still allow you to move

5. Eucerin - hand creme for serious dry hands (works on feet too)

6. Teavana - because we all need something warm to drink, and not just in the morning.

7. Kleenex - I really don't have to explain this, do I?

8. Ricola - See #7

9. Polartec - soft, fuzzy fleece with a great story (Malden Mills)

and, last but not least....

10. Southwest Airlines - nonstop service to Orlando. So what if it is only 50 degrees there - that's swimming weather!

Holiday Mishaps

I think everyone dreams of the perfect holiday, and yet somehow we end up with a holiday mishap or two that at least make for a good laugh -- often after the holiday is over.

This year has been particularly hectic as university classes ran late, and I just finished grading finals and taking finals last weekend. So I've been doing my shopping a little at a time - that is dangerous, because I tend to buy more than planned .... For example, tonight as I was wrapping gifts I came to the CD that my brother (who is in Chicago now hoping his flight out tomorrow takes off and therefore is unlikely to be reading this before Christmas) had asked for. Both copies of it. Whoops, guess I should do a better job keeping track of what I purchase.

Today at long last I completed addressing Christmas cards and stuffing envelopes. After licking (ick) about 45 of them, I realized I only had enough stamps for 1/2 of the cards. So I picked Diva up at school early so we could hit the post office and the mall before the crowds (yeah right). We walked into the post office and I set the two piles of cards on the counter by the automated stamp machine (so we wouldn't have to wait in line.) I told Diva to take the pile of stamped cards and put them in the mail slot that said "stamped and metered mail." I then turned my back for one minute to buy the stamps, turned back - and no cards! I asked her where the cards were - "I put them in the slot like you told me." So into the line we go, where the postal clerk was fortunately amused enough by our tale to look through the barrel and find 19 cards of the 22 I think I put in without stamps. Some of you won't be getting your cards in a timely manner this year. Diva says it is all my fault as she wanted to stay in the car while I went in.

Last stop - the mall. Just a couple of quick gifts and we are done. We sneak in the back entrance, find a parking place immediately. Looks like pulling her out of school early was a good strategy. We find the perfect gifts and then we're ready to roll. 45 minutes later we made it out of the parking lot. I could have walked home faster.

Tomorrow we're cooking - hopefully we've reached this year's mishap quota. Then again, maybe not!

Simple Physics

Yes, I am working on my PhD. No, I am not a science major. Nor am I a math major. But I can handle really simple physics. Like this physics problem that I stumbled across yesterday.

You may recall back in June we fostered a mama cat, and five kittens were born. Or maybe you recall my talking about how having kittens in the house is kind of like having toddlers. Well, those cute little kittens are now six months old, and almost as big as our adult cats. Unfortunately, one of them has developed the habit of jumping up on anything and everything. He especially likes stuffed animals, so everything in the house with stuffing (including my Pal Mickey) has had to move to the closet for awhile.

So what does this have to do with physics, you ask? Yesterday I heard a crash of falling plastic in my bathroom/laundry room. The room looks like this:

Note that up on top of the cabinet is the plastic insert for my dryer - you know, the one you put sneakers on if you want to dry them in the dryer. I've had the dryer for nine years now, and haven't used that gizmo once, but I still keep it handy in the laundry room! As you may have guessed, Pepper jumped up on the cabinet tops, hit the plastic, and down it came.

I looked on top of the cabinets, but no guilty cat eyes were staring back at me. No guilty kitten ran out of the bathroom. No kitten was hiding behind the dryer. What happened to that darn cat?

Look at the photo again - notice that if the plastic insert tips up the trajectory is straight into the shower stall. And when I moved the hamper in front of the shower door, and opened the shower door, there was a guilty looking, frightened, but thankfully unhurt kitten.

I don't think he'll try that again. Maybe I ought to put plastic launch pads on top of all of my cabinets!

Holiday Madness!

What is it that brings out the worst in my home at this time of year? No, I'm not talking about the people in the house - I'm talking about the THINGS in the house.

Last year, you may recall reading that our waterbed mattress required replacement, so we got two new mattresses (might as well replace them all while we were at it) for Christmas 2008.

This year we decided to treat ourself to a new camera - a digital SLR after many years of camera envy toward our SLR toting friends. We were just ready to hit the 'buy now' button when there was a loud 'pop!' followed by a thunka-thunka-thunka coming from the laundry room.

Kilowatt took my nine year old washer apart, and yelled to Diva, "do you know what catastrophic means?" Uh-oh, this doesn't sound like he's got my washer fixed. He brought a piece of the washer in to me to explain that it wouldn't be getting fixed.

Looks like I'll be getting a new washer for Christmas this year....

December Already!

As you may have guessed from my long absence, things have been busy around here. I hadn't realized quite how busy until yesterday morning. As I grabbed a few minutes of peace and quiet in the shower, Diva yelled through the door - It's December 1 - hurray - I wonder what I got today?

There went my relaxing moment, replace by an "aw h*1l - forgot the advent calendar!" You may recall the masterpiece Kilowatt made from this post - our tradition has been that each day of December, Diva gets some small gift from 'Santa' in the calendar. Of course, that requires 'Santa' to remember to buy those little items, and then to remember that the calendar needs filling each night! (Note to new parents and parents to be: make your holiday traditions lower maintenance than this, you'll thank me.)

I hopped out of the shower, and quickly threw on a robe, wondering how to deal with this. Diva comes running up the stairs and proudly shows me her December 1 treasure - an LED votive (she's been begging for one, really). Whew - looks like Kilowatt wins the parental memory contest. Unfortunately, the only thing we had to put in for today (12/2) was another LED votive. Diva says this morning - "these come in 24 packs - am I going to get one of these every day?" And she wasn't happy about it.

So dutifully off to Target I go... stay tuned for info on the treasures I found!

It promises to be a busy month - we have a band concert, ice skating exhibition, dance holiday show, final exams, company coming, Kilowatt's birthday - ahh, December.

Is my tree up - no, are you kidding?

So until I get around to posting about those advent calendar treasures - here's a photo from last years' dance holiday show. As the tallest girl in her class, Diva often ends up center stage!

I Can't Watch!

Today is a beautiful fall day in NH - so I decided to go out into my yard and snap a couple of pictures of things that you can only see for a few weeks each year.

First, the tree in my front yard (I have no idea what kind of tree it is) has these red things growing on it.

Next, we have lots and lots of these

Anyone who wants to come help with the raking is always welcome!

Then I rounded the corner of my house, and was immediately reminded why I needed to stay inside today:

Yikes! Yes, our garage needed a new roof, and after pricing just the shingles and other materials Kilowatt decided he was the man for the job. But it sure is a long way down, and on two sides the ground is asphalt and concrete.

When Kilowatt (KW) caught me snapping pictures, he said "wait a minute, and I'll climb down and lay on the ground and you can take a picture." Ha Ha, funny.

I remember back when Diva was about 3, KW cut down some trees. Like now, I hid in my office and occasionally looked out to make sure no emergency services were needed. Suddenly there was a 'boom' and the house shook, as the gutter ripped off. Diva yelled "Mommy, is Daddy flat now?" Or something like that.... After determining that the only thing crushed was our gutter, I could breathe again.

So for now, I'm holding my breath, saying an occasional prayer, and trying not to watch.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about that odd shaped garage - no, it will not accomodate either of our vehicles.

Wanting what you got

I received three totally unrelated items in my mailbox this morning. Or are they? The first was a newsletter from the NH Food Bank. The front page article referenced the phrase "happiness is not getting what you want, it is wanting what you get." A nice phrase to start the day on a positive note.

The next item in my mailbox wasn't quite as uplifting. It was an invitation to join AARP. I'm celebrating #45 this month - isn't this invitation coming a bit early? I mean, in this economy I'm all for any discount I can get - except the AARP one. A lousy way to make me realize I'm not as young as I used to be.

The third item was a news magazine called American Profile that comes tucked inside my original hometown newspaper. That gets mailed out to me from Illinois, so it is often a few weeks late arriving. But the cover story, the link to which is provided above, was about working Centenarians. That's right, people who are 100 years old and still working! Now some days I might look at this as a pessimist and say 'great, I've got 55 more years of work ahead of me.' But not today, fresh off my AARP invitation. Nope, I had the optimistic viewpoint of 'I've made it this far and I've got the potential to still be productive 55 years from now!'

Okay, so I must admit in the back of my mind I did think "and it's a good thing, because my 401k still hasn't recovered so I'm going to need a good job at 100."

So how does this relate to wanting what you got - well I'm not totally sure, but somewhere in my mind I have to say that it has something to do with being grateful that I'm still here, and healthy, and doing something I love (most of the time). And that is the essence of wanting what you got, isn't it?