So that was Christmas...

another year gone.

We are wrapping up a surprisingly cold Christmas visit here in Arizona and getting ready to pack and stuff to head back to Kansas. It's a good time to leave - I've reached the point that I definitely don't want to say goodbye, but I'm happy to think that in mere days I'll be back to my routine and life.

We had a great Christmas here. Not amazing - there were too many people absent to be an amazing Christmas - and we missed you all. I have to say Erikka and Mike and their families were notable absences. But we had a great visit with the people I did get to see. I hadn't seen Grandpa Ron since The Wedding. So that tells you how overdue this trip was. While I get to see Grandma Rae a little more often, I love seeing them both. I brought my 'accidentally' purchased Wii with me and Grandma not only loved playing it - she beat a lot of us. by the end of this week, she's a pro in bowling and could knock down 12 boxing bags when she worked the bag. I think Nintendo made a sale, and it's really good exercise for her (70 year old woman). It was really fun watching her play!



Not only did we play Wii - Mom, Cari and I put a roof on the new deck of the house. Jeff added in his help and it seems strong and indestructable. It was hard work - but satisfying work. Pass-me-a-beer-look-at-the-fine-work-we-did-today kinda work. If you could hear me, I would do a patented Tim Allen grunt here.



The roof is pretty low - it's a 1-story house - but it still did play a little bit on my fear of heights climbing the ladder up to the work. But once you are up there - the view is so amazing. I mean awe-inspiring amazing. It's a part of the country that you don't necessarily think 'Ah! Rural Arizona - gorgeous!' But it is. And we've decided the next step for the roof is one of those built-in attic ladders and a banister - make it an observation tower. I can't think of a better place to watch a sunset - or in the summer - the stars. Put on a hammock up there, and it'd probably be a hell of a place for a mid-day nap or pretending to be so primitive and camp it. I'm ready to go back to my life. And I'm far too social to make this place a permanent stop, but I see the appeal. Judys - this is probably equivalent to the peace you can find on the Trail. I hope anyway - I like the idea of experiencing the peace without having to poop in the woods. :)

I'm not really dreading the drive back - mainly because we are going in the motor home and dad will be driving. So i will be able to walk around, play around on my laptop or read a book or.... NAP! So how can I dread that??

Anyway, in an ideal world, all of you, dear readers, would've been with me this Christmas, physically. You were all in my thoughts.

Love and in case I don't talk to you on New Year's - Happy New Year's and don't forget this Old Acquaintance.

Oh and because this is far too sappy - and I don't want to inflict tears (Dan Judy) here is this.

Merry Christmas to all!

And to all... Good Night.

I'm heading to AZ for Christmas tomorrow morning early! We are hoping to make it to the west side of Albuquerque by tomrorow night so Friday, we have an easier day of driving. I probably won't blog again this year. Maybe, but probably not.

Anyway - I miss you all and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

See you on the flip-flop!

Bad day to be a squirrel

So Monday the lines were insane (or so I heard, I didn't actually go) at CountryMart - because they were predicting an ice storm Monday night and most of Tuesday.

Sure enough - Monday night, I got little to no sleep as I listen to the trees coming down around me. The carnage was massive. And when I woke up Tuesday, I was told to not clean up yet - 3 or 4 people had started too early and were hurt when more limbs fell. That was enough incentive for me, as I am quite lazy, and I went back to bed. That afternoon, I was bored out of my mind ... and cold. We'd had no power since Monday night and the temperature in the house at that point was about 50 degrees. (I think anyway, it may have been colder, but that's as far as the thermometer gauge goes on my thermostat.) That afternoon I went outside and worked cleaning up a safe tree with Big Red (Jeff and Leon). It wasn't tons of fun or anything, but it was way warmer and more exciting than just hanging around in my cold house. So Tuesday night bowling was cancelled and the power came back on around 5 or so. I turned on that heater and hoped for the best. We still didn't have cable, but heat! About 30 minutes later - it was out again. So Tuesday night we hunkered down (GO DAWGS!) for a sleepover. Jeff has a generator, so we gassed it up and plugged it in for heat and a movie, Jeff and the kids took my bed and Leon took the guest room and I settled in on the couch! It was the fullest the house has been all year! I have to admit it was a little stressful going from completely alone to living in a clown car, but it was fun...and nice to play hostess. Anyway, we stayed warm all night and Wednesday morning we still had no power. At this point I'm getting nervous, because I didn't go to CountryMart and stand in the insane lines. We're running out of pop tarts, bread, etc! Also, the generator runs on gas! I had filled up the 5 gas tanks the campground has, but we're now down to one. I worked all day on the campground. Pushing the insane carnage of trees into a pile - Jeff took the skid loader, which helped a ton! And Leon, Zach and I used the dump truck which was pretty quick too. Luckily that afternoon we got power back and although it was touch and go, and on and off, it was on most of the night and most of today. We've survived. Kathy and Greg Barton, some frequent campers and friends of Mom's and Dad's came by. They have been here for years and Kathy said this storm belongs in her top three worst.
Today we finished most of the cleanup, although the entrance is still blocked, because cables have fallen on them and I've been told not to touch. We probably won't be allowed to burn, but the city might pick up the pile. We've been told they will pick up what's on the curb - starting Monday - I called the fire department today to ask for an exception - burning would be way easier, but they're not having it. I told them that the campground was hit pretty hard and pushing it to the curb was going to be possible, but would be painful for the crews that had to pick it up... and they said they see. I don't know...
Here are tons of pictures - I used the kids as reference for scale as much as possible. They are pretty average sized kids. :)
Ice Storm 2007

Zach drove the dump truck a lot of the day - especially once Jeff and Leon left to work on other people's mess. Most of the afternoon it was just Zach and me. He's 12 but wants to be 16... so I let him practice slowly around the campground - and then he had a little fun.

Zach in the dump truck

Pooor Potsy!

Potsy went to the vet this week... and *ahem* came back a changed man. Some might say a better man.

Also got the first bit of snow and ice yesterday! Ah... so nice not to have to drive to work in that shtuff.

Delicious dinner

Last night I made a delicious dinner - It was pan-fried chicken breast (but you could use pork - the other white meat). It wasn't really fried, but breaded and cooked in a skillet with a little bit of vegetable oil. The magic of the dinner was the sauce:
Marscapone cheese (which is not sold in Abilene, so I used a combination of cream cheese, whipping cream and sour cream)
Capers
A little Mayo
Lemon Zest
Pepper

Delicious (but not good for you!)

I'm a geek with a hammer

So last night a friend of mine gave me an old printer/fax that had broken to take apart. It kept saying there was a jam when one couldn't be found - so he bought a new printer (since this was a dinosaur anyway) and let me dismantle this one.

At first my goal was to take it apart in a way that could fix it - but I quickly gave that up. It was impossible to get this thing apart. So in came the hammer.


Please note the drink, Pomeranian, hammer and shoes for the size (and explanation) of this mess.

This is the pile of things salvaged:


I see possibilities for the metal cylinder and the magnet and the fax keyboard for sure... the most fun for the keyboard. The rest of the stuff, I don't know... but it seemed like it could be useful. Oh - and that tiny stack of paper - there's your paper-jam.

Just your standard Monday night :)

Happy December!

Yesterday Abilene had its Christmas parade and it was surprisingly warm - very windy and gray, but 61 degrees, so I went for it. I took Brooke and we walked downtown.

Areas of improvement:

Could've been a longer parade. The 4th of July parade is easily a 2 hour route. The Christmas parade was probably 20 minutes - tops. I do understand though. I mean, what if it would've been 20 degrees outside - I would've been out there only long enough for a 5 minute parade.
Also - needs more Christmas music. While waiting for them to light the lights and tree (which flipped a breaker, so that was a little anti-climactic) they played only one song - and only one time, so there was plenty of time to eavesdrop on all the conversations around us. It was a good song, but still...there are hundreds to choose from!
And the kids should be told to focus on both sides of the parade route with their candy throwing. Brooke and I were on the wrong side...soo.... no candy for us. And one float threw popped pop-corn. Not in a bag. I saw a little little kid pick a piece up off the road and eat it. A little dirt don't hurt, but that's extreme.

An interesting addition: Abilene is the home of a Fashion Museum. I would say THE fashion museum, but I doubt that's true. Anyway, last night before the parade started they had live models in the window modeling the clothes- presumably local high school girls. It was very Return to Oz meets America's Next Top Model. In otherwords: Tres, tres creepee.

Anyway - at least it got me out of the house to enjoy a little Christmas music. :) Here is a modern picture of Santa.



Speaking of pictures - I took a few of Molly, including videos, this Thanksgiving, but don't want to overwhelm you with her cuteness here. So here is a link to the pictures:

Molly's pics

And the video, if you are interested (he knows if you've been drinking):



I only wish we had video of when she showed us how a piggy eats.