Pseudo Christmas Eve

What do I mean by this? Well, with the recent weather phenomenon, I (Santa) is without at least 7-8 packages that were ordered anywhere between 12 and 2 days ago. So much for paying extra for overnight or 2-day air. What a joke! This will be the holiday season that keeps on giving by the time it all finally shows up. Perhaps this would be a good year to acknowledge "Boxing Day" because that's what I'm waiting for...lots and lots of boxes. The really unfortunate thing is some of them are holding up my mailing a larger box to Las Vegas. Like I said, this will be the Christmas that never ends.

There is a Christmas Eve celebration occurring this evening that part of us are attending (those who don't lose their entire lung capacity from compounded cigarette smoke) and one of the gifts that will be opened contains a computer print of what has not yet arrived. Talk about a let down!

Anyway, I guess I'm lucky I got what I got. I did get some last minute shopping done today but I ended up looking like someone out of the movies because all the slush on the road got splattered all over my coat and my pants by the last minute shoppers driving by, just call me Michelle Pfeiffer ("One Fine Day"). I'm so thankful it has melted so we can get around tonight and tomorrow but it is messy and slick.

So even though I'm going to do my Christmas Eve elfing this evening, I know it's not over. The elfing that never ends. So I'm going to eat my BBQ chicken dinner then do my duty then practice then maybe I can find a holiday movie I haven't already watched twice.

Actually, I just remembered that I put "Mama Mia" in my own stocking so I can open it up and watch it, yay! I'm a happy camper!

Joyeux Noel! Feliz Navidad! Buon Natale! Mele Kalikimaka! And all that jazz...

Crazily Random

One of the things I think keeps bringing me back here is the ability I have to be as random and as free-thinking/talking as I want. If I want to talk about underwear there's no one to stop me, if I want to talk about lost pets it's my prerogative, if I want to talk about Obama's ideals I can feel free to express myself and if I want to comment on world affairs I can feel free to state my opinion. Basically, I can use this as a mind dump and it continues to be a cleansing exercise.



I just heard excerpts from a book that would have been the best possible joke gift. It was an autobiography by Vanna White and talked about, among other mundane things, how challenging her job is to turn the letters really fast once the puzzle has been solved. It was really pitiful and proves the name is everything; if you have a "name" the publishers will publish anything.


I think that's also why the children's book market has been flooded because so many celebrities have now decided they are professional child educators and writers. That's not it, of course, they are published simply because they have name recognition and idiot buyers will buy the book just because they wrote it, whether it contains valuable content or not.


I just Nordic Tracked two miles while watching the first 1/3 of Transformers again. I'm really not into action or superhero shows but this one fascinates me for some reason. I think I've seen at least portions of it probably 7-8 times at this point. Obviously the cable folks feel the same way because they play it constantly. I don't think we own it yet but it's probably inevitable.


I'm tv'd out at the moment so I'm back to Christmas carols. You can only listen to the same newscasts about what's going on outside just so many times before you OD. We have at this point sent phone pics to our kids who don't live close-by so they can see how incredibly deep it is. It hasn't stopped snowing since we got up this morning either. Mike keeps diligently shoveling each day and you can't even really tell he did it hours later except for the piles he built up as he tried to clear the steps. It will be interesting watching the postal person navigate around here later today. No one that I can see has actually shoveled off the sidewalk, which the mayor informed all of us is our job to do as homeowners. It's 22 degrees outside right now, that's the "warmest" it's been in the last two days. It was 16 most of the day yesterday.

I think it's interesting that even the Sunday Morning show on CBS was trying to encourage its viewers to keep spending money on their show yesterday morning. You're hearing from a number of unlikely sources who are trying to reinforce the importance of buoying up the economy right now by spending more money. Of course, at the same time they are announcing the significant increase of credit card rates. Isn't that a mixed message or is it just me?

Winter Solstice

This concept has become all-consuming to those of us in the Northwest. Everything in our lives for the last week has depended on the weather and whether or not we were able to navigate through it. Snow (at least a foot and a half), sleet/freezing rain (a 1/2 inch thick sheet of ice right in the middle) and wind gusts up to 66 miles per hour yesterday. Sound like fun?

Mike's training to be an east coast guy, shoveling off our 11 steps, the swing and our front porch. But even with all the hassle, it is so beautiful. He just turned on our Christmas lights and they reflect so prettily off the pristine snow. The fact that none of our Christmas decorations blew down during that horrible windstorm is a tribute to his set up abilities. The best word I can come up with for this weather is bizarre.

Then you try to plan by listening to the tv weathermen and each of them says something different so that's no good. As of now, my office will open at 9:00 tomorrow but we'll see if that's still true tomorrow morning. This is the worst I've seen it in a long time.

You know when I think of the word "solstice", I think of a calm, peaceful, serene changing of the seasonal guard. I don't know why, the term just brings those words to mind. The actual definition of it is, "The winter solstice occurs at the instant when the Sun's position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observers hemisphere." The dictionary says, "Solstice is the term applied to either of the two points at which the Sun is farthest from the celestial equator." Both pretty much the same definitions and they put the lie to my impression of the word because it's actually much more scientific than I gave it credit for being. So much for my artistic perception.

Well, I just realized they redid "Yours, Mine and Ours". When did that happen? I'm afraid Rene Russo and Dennis Quaid simply are not Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. Nevertheless, I'm going to give it a try. I'll report back on my thumbs up or down. I'm tired of watching the snow.

A demain.

Holiday Hectic

How do I get to this place every darn year? Way too much to do with way too little time to do it. So how do I approach the problem, why I blog of course. Of course this is only putting me further behind but what's another half hour.

It's kind of funny how everyone around here is up in arms about the weather whereas everyone else in our latitude across the country expects to have snow throughout the winter. I guess you could say we are spoiled rotten. I think the point, Mother Nature, is we only want it when we want it. That does not include, work days, days when we have to be some where like shopping or at a fun holiday event or doctor's visits. It's only supposed to show up when everyone has already gotten to wherever they are going and all they have to do is watch it from the cozy confines inside or even dress warmly to go frolic in it. It's called "snow on demand" and I don't know why the weather man can't just figure this out; kind of a Camelot in a way. I suppose some would say we ask too much. Well that's okay because we won't get it anyway.

I've decided we need to build on another room so we have more room for gifts next year. Right now, they are all over the piano and stacked on top of each other until they start to go "out the door". If Mother Nature gets in the way of our get togethers, they'll be stacked up even longer. Craziness.

I got my piano tuned today and he actually took one of the white keys and one of the black keys out to show me why the black keys are slower to respond when I play a trill. It made perfect sense when I was looking at the entire length of them. You get so used to looking at a piano a certain way (all in one unit), it's very odd to see it piece by piece. It's really an amazing instrument, especially knowing how long it's been around.


It originally emerged from the dulcimer, which was a stringed instrument played in the Middle Ages (5th century - 16th century). This then was transitioned into a clavichord and harpsichord in the 17th century and the first piano "sighting" was in 1700 and was invented by Bartolomeo Christofori who worked for the Medici's who owned just about everything. They were tremendously rich and powerful. Three Christofori's survive today and are dated from 1720. That is one old piano.



So meet the Medici's, there's Maria, the male version of Maria, then oh, what's this, the modern male version of Maria. Obviously the Medici dynasty lives on! I'll bet he plays a lovely baby grand. Any my time's up!

Intelligent Choices = A Wise White House

I don't know how to act, I don't know what to think, I don't know how to feel? We have president, well almost, who is making wise and thoughtful decisions about his cabinet and his other appointees. I hear some people making comments about the similarities to the Clinton administration but all that means is he's choosing some individuals who had the most recent experience during a successful administration. Isn't that where we want to go back to? Uh-huh, I thought so. So no more complaining about that.

And doesn't he look grand in the Oval Office? From Hicksville to Sophisticatedville, bad grammar but a much more comforting concept.

You've also probably noticed the diversity amongst the group. White males absolutely do not dominate the array of talent. In just over a month we'll be able to see them all in action. The real test will be whether they perform as a team or whether we have a few renegade control freaks who feel compelled to run off and do their own thing. It will be very interesting to see how he manages that much high caliber talent.

I also think it's interesting how many of these individuals were plucked directly from Madeline Albright's think tank, or a better term would be international consulting firm. Of course, I can't think of a better leader to emulate myself. She is remarkable and that's understated.

Do you know she defended her doctorate thesis the same day her husband told her he was leaving her for another woman? She still had two daughters at home to raise. If you read her book, "Madame Secretary" I'm not telling you anything new. If you haven't read it, you need to.

And now I understand Caroline Kennedy is interested in the N.Y. senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton. I really like that idea and would like to see how she handles it. She seems like a very strong woman and certainly has excellent contacts and clout to make her successful.

Things are shaping up in a very interesting way. Isn't it nice to feel hopeful and optimistic for a change? I see people smiling again, myself included.

Winter Wonderland

Well, the weather outside is frightful, the fire would be so delightful (if we had one). Yes, we did have places to go but nevertheless, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

My girls and I used to sing this at the top of our lungs in the winter when we were in the Target parking lot (I don't know why that was where we were when it started to snow but for some reason that was the case). I saw a family walking across the street with their snow saucers, heading for some hill somewhere down the street. This is more snow than we've had in at least the last two years from what I remember.

The bizarre thing today is that it literally has not stopped all day. The curbs at the side of the street outside are about six inches high and they are covered so there's your answer to how much it has snowed. I know anyone associated with school, be it students or teachers, are hoping it will be closed tomorrow at the least.

I've watched any number of squirrels and birds scrambling like they were taken unawares by this whole thing. I watched a squirrel run across the street and he was bounding pretty high, clearly uncomfortable with his feet hitting the snow. The birds are all converging on our holly tree, pecking at the berries, which is strange since I didn't think they could eat them. I don't know what's up with that.

Lots of people out walking in this even though the temperature is down to 22 degrees and the wind gusts of 25 to 30 mph are taking the wind chill much lower, they just said as low as 7 degrees. Though the picture doesn't reflect the snow, it does show how hard the wind is gusting here. It's just not conducive to a stroll from my perspective.

I'm extremely thankful I'm inside where it's warm and cozy and all I have to do is enjoy the gorgeous view of nature at its whitest. Tomorrow may be another story. Maybe I should jump on the same bandwagon and hope our office is closed too, doubtful.

Seasonal

I feel compelled to say something since I haven't posted for like three weeks. But I still need to write four letters to send the last of my Christmas cards. So, all I'm going to say is I don't know how I'm possibly going to finish everything I have to do in the two weeks left before Christmas. That's it and it was cleansing to say it out loud although I don't feel any closer to getting everything done. So, I'm going to write those letters so I can at least cross those off my list:)

Oh, and it's supposed to snow this weekend. I wonder how many things we've planned won't happen as a result and whether I'll fall further behind.

Hmm, I refuse to think about that. Sayonara.