sniffle sniffle hack

I think all of the hustle-bustle of driving and visiting and celebrating (not to mention drastic weather changes) has been the perfect setting for me to get a cold.  

If  you remember, I've had a cough.  Now I've got a cough with a continual fountain of snot to blow.  It's very exciting.

Zoloft is so excited that we're back from our travels.  She has been very attentive to us between her naps.  The first night we were home she woke me up five times to let me know she was there.  The Hater says she's about driving him nuts...  When she's not pestering us, she's absolutely taken with her new cat toys.  Her favorite toys eventually get deposited in her water bowl, the highest sign of appreciation.  Since we've been back, we've found each of her new toys in her water bowl at different times.  

It's so hard to be the house cat.

Tomorrow evening we're going to have some friends over for some low-key New Year's Eve celebrations.  We're going to start with spaghetti and end up with Rock Band (or some board game, or both).  We hope it goes well.

This afternoon we made some chicken noodle soup.  Actually, we made enough soup to feed an army.  We ate some for supper, and I've got four tall containers for later this week.  I've got a zippy full of some for lunch at work tomorrow, and I've got a gallon bag of it in the freezer for well after we're tired of eating it.  

Our Christmas stuff is still up, and will probably stay up until the weekend.  The Hater and I won't bother taking everything down until then anyways.  It'll give us a chance to add our new Xmas decorations and ornaments to the collection, too.  We're on our way to have an ALL VOL tree.  Very exciting.

We hope all of you have a fantastic New Year celebration -- whether you ring in the new year partying or sleeping, we hope that 2008 brings you both peace and joy.

Christmas Preferences

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper! Bags take away all the fun.
2. Real tree or artificial? 100% Fake.
3. When do you put up the tree? This year we did it a week or so before Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? That will depend on when The Hater is in town.
5. Do you like eggnog? Only if it's spiked.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? The gift of learning to appreciate the reason for the season.
7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Yes, complete with Smokey.
8. Hardest person to buy for? Anyone who doesn't give me a hint as to what they want.
9. Easiest person to buy for? Zoloft (wadded post-it note).
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Tube socks that weren't my size.
11. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Perm, do both!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? (you can't pick just one)
classic: Charlie Brown Christmas
modern: Elf, The Nightmare Before Christmas
horror: Black Christmas
just wrong in the right way: Bad Santa
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Valentine's Day.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Absolutely, but I usually rewrap it first. See #1.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Nana's Pumpkin Chiffon Pie
16 Clear lights or colored on the tree? Perm, do both.
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night
18 Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel, but only go to home. We just live in here; it's not home.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph... (but I have to sing the song to do it!)
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A star.. but only because we found that one on sale.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Yes. We love progressive holidays.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Traffic!
23. Favorite Christmas tradition? Gag gifts.
24. Up early or sleeping in? I always default to sleeping in, except for Christmas morning!
25. Who hands out the gifts? Whoever is closest to the tree.
26. Does Santa wrap your gifts? No, Santa's elves wrap them.
27. Do you tell the Christmas story? Yes, we read it.
28. Do you leave cookies for Santa? We leave whatever is in the cabinets. Last year we left band fruit.

FYI: We leave soon for our big trek to the other side of the river for a tender, TN Christmas. We hope everybody has a safe and happy holiday season. Give everybody extra hugs and kisses while you can.

winter wonderland update

The ice is gone and has been for a couple of days.  We are fortunate to have electricity, however many people in the state are still waiting for electricians or the electric company to come to their aid.

The city has opened the convention center as a shelter.  This morning I heard on the radio that the first night they were open they had 350 people who had come, seeking warmth and water.  They can handle up to 700, and they've had several notices come out on the news today, encouraging all people without electricity and water to come downtown to the shelter. 

As a member of the Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corp, I've received several emails and phone calls over the last couple of days, seeking for nurses to volunteer to staff the shelter.  I really would like to go help, however The Hater has put his foot down and refused me to go.  Seriously.  He raised his voice and everything.

The truth is that I have a cough.  I've been coughing, mostly at night, since a few days before Thanksgiving.  I went to see a doctor this week, mostly because my sweet husband was worried about me.  The doctor was as unimpressed with my cough as I was.  We're going to watch it for two more weeks and see what happens after that.  We drew some blood to make sure that everything was okay.  They were going to call today if anything was askew, and nobody called.  So for the next two weeks we'll tough-out the cough.

But The Hater is a good husband and doesn't like my cough.  He says my cough disqualifies me from working at the shelter this weekend.  When I tried to argue he said that I couldn't get sicker before the trip home next week.

That's the best argument he's ever had.  So when it starts snowing later, which we're supposed to get another few inches tonight, don't worry about us.  We'll be inside, in the heat, spoiling the cat, nursing a cough--- and not out in the mess that's headed this way.

Special Thanks--

To all of the volunteers who are able to staff the shelters this weekend, to the volunteers who have come to help the electric company fix the problem lines, and to everyone else who has sent good vibes this way.  

the weather outside is frightful

It’s a winter wonderland. Ice Storm 2007 is here and demanding to be noticed. There have been 100+ car accidents in the OKC area and 10 reported deaths due to the storm in the past two days.

It’s raining now and it’s called to thunderstorm later this afternoon. They had said it would be less than freezing today, making all of this rain more ice. But so far we’re just getting rain, which is making the roads and parking lots slushier.

The Hater, who isn’t at work today because of the weather, is my chauffeur. He drove me to work this morning. The typically 10 minute drive took us 30 minutes to creep along. It wasn’t so bad once we got to the “snow route”, the roads that had been sanded and had seen more traffic, but the other, less frequented, roads were treacherous, at best.

We have blankets and leftovers a’plenty. We are stocked to the hilt and still have electricity. We also have a furball who is as excited as all get-out that The Hater gets to stay home one extra day with her.

If it continues to be warmer and rain this afternoon, it will make for a slushy tomorrow. It’s 31 degrees right now, if the temperature drops and we get 2” of ice, it will make for a slicker tomorrow. We’ll update as things progress.

Brace yourselves, LBG—winter is coming your way!

benign holiday foible

I've mentioned before that Christmas music is my weakness. Big time. All of the random kiosks call out to me and pull at my inner heartstrings so that I simply must go see which titles they offer this year. Somehow they end up in my buggy.

Last year The Hater put a limit on me. I was only allowed to buy three new cds. But this year I've not been given a limit yet.

On a curious whim tonight I bought a new Christmas cd because I had absolutely nothing like it... and it's fantastic. It's sing-a-long good. Seriously. I've had the Bose up to 85, scaring the cat and totally rocking out tonight, and thought this would be a great opportunity to give some Christmas music pointers, based on my humble collection.

These are in no particular order of preference. They're all winners:

• Elvis: Christmas Because it's just not Christmas without the King. (pun intended)
• John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together That's right! It's hard to beat the classics with a twist of Kermit the frog.
  
• Burl Ives: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer The soundtrack to the classic holiday tv show. Not something you could listen to all the time, but worth its weight in "Silver and Gold".
• Christmas with Johnny Cash The oldies with that familiar deep talky-singy voice.
• James Taylor: at Christmas Jimmy at his best. Some classics- some with his bari twist.
• Ray Charles: Celebrates a Gospel Christmas with the Voices of Jubilation! Okay, I admit that we bought this one after the Ray movie came out. It's okay for something different, but not the greatest holiday mix.
• Frank Sinatra: Under the Mistletoe So classic that any Christmas music collection would be incomplete without the crooner. This one came in a pack of 3 cds with the next two. Actually, it was the first Christmas music cds that we purchased after we were married, and arguably the best ones in our collection.
  
• Perry Como: That Christmas Feeling See above. It's not Christmas without the crooners.
• Bing Crosby: Featuring the Andrews Sisters See above. These three are Christmas music legends. Period.
• Twisted Sister: A Twisted Christmas This was the serendipitous buy that I made tonight, and I'm so glad I did. These are the classics you know, with that 80s rock and roll feel that makes you just a little nostalgic for ratty denim jackets and teased bangs. It is in no way disrespectful to the season, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone from Gen X or Gen Y.
• Celtic Woman: A Christmas Celebration I'm not so sure what I was expecting with this cd, but I'm disappointed by it. Maybe I was expecting it to have more of a Celtic flair. It's pretty, but forgetful.
• Santa Paws That's right. No respectful collection is complete without cats and dogs meowing and barking in tune. This version was obviously done on a keyboard, so I was a little disappointed that it didn't have the zoological feel.
  
• holiday jazz (jazz piano) I played piano in my high school's jazz band, so there's a special place in my heart for solo jazz piano anything.
  
• Caribbean Christmas Not one of my better buys. In college some of the head honcho percussion gurus had a steel drum group that was fantastic, and I heard them play Christmas mixes before. So when I saw this cd I thought, hey, that'll be like Lalo Davila's group; It will rock! Except that it wasn't anything like Lalo's group, and its only similarity to a rock is that it would sink if you threw it into a pool of water. If you know Lalo, please ask him to make a Christmas cd so I can buy a better steel drum arrangement and pass this one on to those less fortunate.
  
• Angels from the Realms of Glory: London Symphony Orchestra All the standards. I bought it for one dollar, which was a great buy.
• Christmas with the St. James Harp Quartet The Hater is very particular about holiday instrumentals, and he won't let me have any Christmas music that has a solo sax anything. He says it's because his Mom played a certain soprano sax cd over and over for three Christmases straight, and so far that's his only steadfast rule about the subgenre of holiday music . (Although he really hates the music of Celine Dion. I saw that she has her own holiday cd out now, and it was really hard for me not to buy it on sole principle that I knew he'd hate it.*) Another $1 buy.
  
• Holiday Voices of Children I thought this cd would be cute voices of kids singing, but it's a children's choir singing... which is okay, but the refinement takes a little away from the magic. Not something that anybody could sing-along with. Another $1 buy.
• Handel's Messiah: London Symphony Orchestra with teh St. James 48 Voice Chorale It's the kit-and-kaboodle. Another great $1 buy. The Hallelujah chorus alone was worth this buck.
• Alan Jackson: Let it be Christmas I worked with a lot of people who were big country music-listeners and they burned this for me, saying my collection wasn't varied enough.
• Kenny Chesney: All I Want for Christmas Guess who burned this one for me, too...
• Garth Brooks: The Magic of Christmas Yep. You guessed it. I think my collection was way more varied than theirs.
  
• The Statlers: Christmas Present Track 2: "Christmas Country Style" Super fun. Another person at the same office burned this one for me.
• Gladys Knight: Christmas Celebration Someone told me this sounded like gospel music and not Christmas music, but I like it anyway.
• Marianne Beard: O, Holy Night My favorite single. I wish she'd do a whole Christmas cd!! (hint, hint)
  

If you have a favorite must-have holiday cd that you don't see on this list, please let me know! I'm always looking for goodies to add to our collection. After all, it's the most wonderful time of the year...

* I still have the Yankees.

faux updating

More than a year ago I admitted that I needed to update my address book, which at the time was still the list that we used for wedding invitations. We've now been married for about four and a half years, and I've still not officially updated my address book. I've thought about it several times during the year, but never took it as a project. Truth be told, I could probably finish that project in an afternoon, but the thing is that I don't want to do it. It's not a fun project, so it continues to not be done.

So now every time we look at the list we have to mentally remember who has had babies (and what their names are), who has died, who has moved, who has gotten divorced or changed their name, etc. It's a mental exercise that's more complicated than Friday's Sudoku puzzle.

And the time has come again where I lug out my outdated address book and think about how nice it would be if I had the time to update it. So, again, I flip through the pages and wonder which address is correct, what they named their baby, and daydream about a correct address book that updates itself as people's lives change.

If you've moved and I don't have your new address, now is probably a great time to email it to me... or your other option is not to have your feelings hurt when your Christmas card is returned back to my house because we both dropped the ball.

To clarify: No, I'm not updating the address book as I go through it this time, either. But if you'd like to come visit and you're into mundane, tedious projects... I've got the perfect job for you!