Birthday Party

Diva decided to have her 11th birthday party at the local ice skating rink.  After seven weeks of lessons, we have become quite expert, and are now both ready to progress to level 2 next session.  

We have mastered the two-foot glide, swizzles, and backward skating.  In my case, the backward skating not so much.  

I'm very proud of Diva, this year she asked all of her friends to bring a donation for the Manchester Animal Shelter instead of a present.  Today we took in $80, plus several bags of cat and dog food, wet wipes, dog brushes, canned food, and kitty litter to the shelter.  The folks at the shelter were great, treating Diva to a tour of the shelter and a personal thank you from the shelter assistant manager.  

After spending two hours on the ice, the girls had pizza and (what else) ice cream cake.  

Doesn't everyone put Warrior Cats Rule on their birthday cake?  

In case you aren't the parent of a tween, Warrior Cats are a series of books by Erin Hunter, and a particular favorite of Diva, who has all of them and has already pre-ordered the next two in the series.  

Ice Skating Party for 11 girls with pizza and soda = $165

Ice Cream Cake from Dairy Queen = $15

Mom not having to clean up the house, and not having sugared up kids in the house after cake = Priceless.

Wanted: Hero

I succumbed to the flu bug and spent Monday at home, which gave me a couple of minutes to watch some of the Miracle on the Hudson coverage.  I was immediately struck by the humility shown by Captain Sullenberger.  Apparently, so were a lot of other people.  

Today I stumbled across this USNews blog entry titled:  What Sully Sullenberger can Teach CEO's.   It's well worth a quick read-through.  

One thing that struck me as missing in this entry - undoubtedly as a member of USAirways pilot's union, Sullenberger has over the past years been asked to give up some of his compensation to help the airline survive not one, but two trips through bankruptcy court.  And yet he didn't use this as an excuse to not continue to train, work, and behave as a professional.  

On the other hand, we have CEO's who decimate U.S. workforces, burn through their company's cash reserves, and make such poor risk management decisions that we the people must help their companies stay afloat - and yet they worry about a $500k salary cap - or even worse - their personal income taxes being raised.  

We need a hero - a real hero - who doesn't use drugs to enhance athletic ability, who doesn't think about me first and to h*12 with everyone else, who can find a win/win solution when none seems to exist.  

Thank you Captain Sullenberger - we need you more than you know.  

Flu Season and Daytime TV

Yes, it's that time of year.  You know, when one kid at school gets sick, and then the rest of them take turns getting sick.  Finally, your number is up and its your kid who is sick.  

Until this year Diva has been the model of health, but she woke up yesterday with a mysterious fever, which just isn't going away.  Today was day 2 of home from school, and she was begging to go back to school.  Seems there isn't enough entertainment here at home.  She gets a bit clingy when she's ill, so I sat with her for a couple of hours this afternoon and we watched a few programs on TV.  I rarely watch TV, so I'd like to share a few observations:

~ the prime choice today was Travel Channel's "Extreme Retail Locations"  Did you know that there is a store that sells yodeling pickles?  And the world's largest underwear at a rate of 2000 pairs/year?  And all kinds of bacon themed items (like gummy bacon and bacon band-aids) for your vegetarian friends?  How did I live 40 something years without shopping here? 

~ Just when you think a program is safe to watch with the kids, they show the extreme Las Vegas store that sells books on learning to pole dance.  Remember Diva loves to dance - so guess what book she wants?  How does one explain pole dancing to a ten year old?  

~ This summer I'm heading for Sharon, PA.  Don't know exactly where it is, but they have the world's largest candy store, and that's enough for me.  While there, I'll explore the world's largest outlet store, because I'll need some bigger clothes after my visit to the candy store.

Any good shopping in your neighborhood?

   

Why I call her Diva...

Where:  Museum of Science, Boston

When: December 26, 2008

Me:  Stand over by the dinosaur bones and smile for the camera.  

Need I say more?

Clear as the nose on your face.....

So here it is, a month after Christmas.  You may recall that just last Monday I confessed to finally putting all the boxes of decorations away.  

I've often accused Diva (and Kilowatt) of selective hearing.  You know, missing those subtle sentences, usually the ones starting with the words "will you..."   Well, it appears I have selective vision.  Because after declaring the Christmas decorations down and put away, I stumbled across this:

I could think of some creative excuses, like we don't come into this part of the house often (lie: it is the kitchen/dining window - the one we look out the most often.)  

But truth is, only as I was staring out this window at the birds munching down while it snowed (which is something I do pretty much daily) did I realize that the little gel thingys on the window that I was playing with were decorations that shouldn't be there now.  

Guess that's a good reminder it is time for my annual eye exam.  I wonder if they make glasses for selective vision? ;)

Raking the Roof

Quite a few of you expressed interest in the roof rake - one of those tools that is unique to those of us living in a snow belt.  Well, tonight I was surprised when Kilowatt arrived home from work early.  I asked him why he was so early, and his reply 'because you are home tonight, and I have to go up and rake the roof.'

I hear these words about once a year, and they never cease to cause me extreme anxiety.  Our house is a Gambrel, meaning two stories in the front, but three in the back as we have a walk-out basement.  So there is no way to rake the back roof from the ground.  

Raking roofs is serious business.  Not only can you get the dreaded ice dams with accompanying leaks -- if you have a flat or low slope roof -- it can collapse from the weight of the snow.  Typically this is more common in commercial buildings, but it can happen to houses too.  So tonight while I'm praying and typing, I can hear the rake, as see the snow falling out my office window.  

Yesterday, my neighbor had a guy with a shovel on her roof - but her house is a ranch - 1 story.  Right now I'm wishing our house was only one story.  

Fun Monday - Front Porch Lookin' In

Our hostess this week, Julie over at Another Chance Ranch, apparently overheard me lamenting that I needed to clean my house and put away the Christmas decorations, because here's her assignment:

Instead of standing in your front door and taking a photo of what you see outside, let's turn around and take one of the inside. Maybe that will prompt some of us to pick up a tad (you know who you are). :)

So last night I diligently put away the boxes of Christmas decorations.  I even straightened up a bit.  Then today hit.  I thought of doing a quick deep cleaning, or taking the photo from a different door - but that just didn't seem right.  I figure anyone who is reading this wants to know what our life is really like, not see some great photo like you can get from buying a magazine of lovely houses that no one really lives in.  So here is the view, in all of its dirty glory.

Yes, I know the photo is a bit tilted, but sometimes so am I. If I'm not going to clean, then getting a straight photo probably isn't going to happen either.  Let me describe a bit of what you see when walking in.  

First, I don't have a garage, so this is our main entry to the house as well as our family room.  We use it to house our impressive collection of winter footwear, including the three pairs of ice skates (one still in the box) by the slider.  It also houses our collection of winter outwear.  You can see Diva's winter gear lying on the floor drying out after some tumbling in our latest 8 inches of snow -- and looking out the slider you can see some of that snow.  Lot's of it, actually.  A careful viewer can even glimpse the treehouse that came with our house.  

Next, notice the folded up treadmill.  I insisted we put the treadmill in this room so I might use it occasionally.  I knew if we put it in the basement I'd never step foot on it.  Need I tell you how well that strategy is working?

Then there's the Dell box.  Since Kilowatt is so handy, we periodically receive such parcels from friends and family with the message  - 'can you fix this?'

Finally, the boxes on the surround sound speaker that look like shoe boxes - those are train boxes.  Kilowatt picked out his birthday present yesterday.  And the surround sound doesn't go with the teeny tiny TV  you can see in the photo - there's more to this room than you can see from this photo. 

Finally, because I'm in rule breaking mood this week - here's a photo looking out. 

This photo is of Kilowatt using another one of those tools you just don't hear much about down south - the roof rake. Yes, when the snow gets too high on your roof, you have to clear it off just like your driveway and sidewalk, or risk something called ice dams.  

And the brown thing you see in the left - that's a snow shed.  If you want your bushes to look good in the summer, you've got to cover them in the winter to keep the snow from weighing them down.  Then you put fencing around them to keep the deer from snacking.  Hungry deer don't care that my front door is mere feet from their target.  

Well, I'm off to see what you see looking in at your house.  I hope someone else has a house as 'lived in' as mine!