I am old!

Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes today!  I appreciate the thoughts.   :)  Be kind, though, if I start forgetting who you are.  It's all downhilll from here, you know.

Harvey's Snow Fun

Harvey was mildly interested in what we were doing out in the snow, and John kept saying that he was an outside cat for a long time, so he wouldn't mind the snow.  I claimed that he was too spoiled now to go outside, so we decided to test the theories.

Step 1- Try to lure him outside.  He had been left alone all weekend and was ready for lovings, but not enough to brave the snow.  I stood out on the back deck and called to him, but Harvey was having none of it.

Step 2 - Physical placement outside.

...3 seconds later..

Harvey says, "No way!"

This was as far as Harvey got outside.  Not even a full body-length out the door.

He then went immediately to the heater vent under the sink in the kitchen and looked disgruntled over being manhandled in such a cruel way.  Silly kitty. He is sooooo spoiled now.

Z is for...

Z is for ZE ZNOW!!  Or, if you re-name it based on how the area reacted to the weather, ZE ZNOWY DEATH!  If you live under a rock, or just don't watch the weather channel / news AT ALL, then let me fill you in:  The East coast just had a butt-load of snow.  There.  That pretty mcuh sums it up.  Lynchburg got over a foot of snowy death, which is the record for snowfall ... ever. 

At around 3:45 on Friday.  The snow had been falling for 15-20min.

Now, John and I had been planning on going to Durham (~3hrs south) on Saturday to see The Phantom of the Opera as a birthday / Christmas present.  With the snowy death coming, though, we decided to leave Friday ASAP and try to beat some of the winter ick.  John snagged us a hotel in Durham, and we just holed up to avoid traveling in the worst of the weather.  It was a good idea, too.  We were going to meet friends, but they called us Saturday morning and said they were not physically able to leave Lynchburg due to the snow.  Go us!

We picked up a truck from work to help us drive in the snow... but the windshield kept icing up.  Solution: turn the heater on "turbo" to melt the ice... but that roasted us to death.  Solution: crack windows to cool off... but that let the sleet bits hit your face.  Solution:  John found a pair of safety glasses to protect himself.  (I might have been laughing a little bit at him wearing the glasses inside a car.)

The show was delighful, and we got to stay in bed and be lazy the rest of the day-- best birthday present ever! We drove back home on Sunday, noticing about 2 dozen abandoned cars on the interstate.  :(  But also noticing, as we got into town, the extent of the snow accumulation.

SNOW HATS FOR EVERYONE!

Our road on the left, my poor forgotten /buried car on the right.

For some reason, John's spot was mostly cleared when we got home.  It was either nice neighbors, or a very direct sun beam all afternoon.  Either way, it made our job a LOT easier.

John was very good at shoveling snow, but one thing I learned it that you cannot hit snow-clumps away from you with a broom.  Trust me, they just explode in your face.  I am being nice and not telling you HOW the snow came flying at me (glares at John pointedly).

My first job was to clear off my car.  VERY DEEP SNOW!  It ate the broom!

Harvey says, "What are you crazy people doing out there?"  (John throws snow at him) "What was that?!"  (John throws snow and hits the door) "OMG! Run away!"

This being our first winter in the new house, we did not have our own snow shovel.  We borrowed a regular shovel from a neighbor and used our mop bucket.  Needless to say, we were slowly creating a bucket army in our front yard as we moved the snow. (John would like you to note the size of that clump of snow he is carting and be impressed)

Left: the corner of our back deck... where there USED to be several gallon-sized pots.  Everything on our deck was completely covered in snow.  Don't beleive me?  On the right is the ruler that I used to test the depth.  We had over a foot of snow.

The kids had already gotten out and had their fun by Sunday afternoon.

Cookies!

I am blatantly using the Christmas luncheon this upcoming week as a reason to make Christmas cookies.  John and I are just two people and cannot eat dozens of cookies by ourselves (without bad consequences!), so I make cookies for pot-luck events and give half of them away.  That way, we can have cookies without getting too fat.  Today I decided to make two of my favorites:  (peanut butter) Kissie cookies and (almond shortbread) Candy Cane cookies.  The Candy Cane dough is chilling in the fridge as we speak, so I will post that recipe at another point in time.

Kissie Cookies (or if you are crazy, "Peanut Butter Blossoms")

1  3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar (plus extra in small bowl to roll in before baking)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbs milk
14 oz  bag Hershey chocolate Kisses (they sell them in 12oz or 19oz - it's trifling to count Kissies to fit the exact number of cookies, but the 19oz bag gives you some extras afterward)

Makes about 5-6 dozen
Preheat at 375

1.  In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.
2.  In bowl #2, blend together the sugars and the butters until smooth.  Beat in the egg.  Add milk and vanilla.
3.  Add flour mixture in small amounts.
4.  Shape dough into small balls, about the size of a large marble/ smaller than a quarter.  Roll balls in white sugar and place on baking sheet.  Cook at 375 for 7-10 minutes.
5.  As cookies are baking, peel as many Kissies as you have cookies in the oven.  When cookies come out, place a Kiss on each cookie, let sit for a minute and then press deeper into the cookie.  The Kiss should have softened enough to melt into the cookie and seal itself in place.  (We used to challenge ourselves as children, how many "petticoats" you could put on the Kiss before it completely melted.)  If you don't double-press, then the Kiss won't be secured to the cookie well and will tend to fall off in storage /transport.

* Do not eat these fresh out of the oven!  The chocolate becomes molten and VERY HOT!  Partially cooled, however, is DELICIOUS when the chocolate has not fully hardened. 

** Cool cookies COMPLETELY before storing.  As noted twice already, the entire Kiss will soften from the heat of the cookie, and if you place them in a container before they harden again, you will get a BIG MESS!

John is waiting patiently...

Haiku for Today

Detention.  Mouse Hunt.

No paperwork time for me

Playing football now.

Thank you, thank you.  That was my day today.  Kid came in at 8:35 (a whole 5 minutes after the bell rang) and pretty much refused to return to class.  Long story short: he ended up in detention for the day and I had one less kid to deal with for the rest of the day... because I'd already spent a whole hour with him before breakfast!  Bah.  Then came the Great Mouse Hunt of Lunchtime.  We apparently have a new friend in our room.  Coworker #1 and I were trying to catch him for release into the wild, while Coworker #2 stood on her desk and told us to kill it, and Coworker #3 ignored all our craziness.  And I ended my day playing football with two of my boys.  Veeery interesting.  While I cannot say that I am any GOOD at football, I am not as BAD as I thought I would be. (at least compared to 5th graders)  Needless to say, dealing with office referrals, mice, and football, I am still very behind on my daily paperwork!

More haikus to come... maybe?

Shopping... Done!

I feel so productive today: laundry done, electric bill paid, groceries bought, two loads of dishes washed, first batch of Christmas cards assembled, and most of Christmas shopping is now complete!  :) 

Fun things I've learned today:
1) Buy Hallmark Cards.  I've licked four different brands of envelopes today, and they are the only ones that did not make me gag.  In fact, they started to taste like coffee a little... glue poisoning?

2) When you do all your Christmas shopping in one session (thanks, www.theanimalrescuesite.com!), there is a large chance of dying from sticker shock.  But! I tell myself, I have very little else to buy this holiday season, so it all averages out. 

SNOW

SNOW SNOW SNOWING!! SNOW SNOW SNOWING!!  IT'S SNOWING!!

It won't stick, but hush your face and let me do my happy-happy snow dance.

:D

Meanie Poo Poo Head

Just a quick catch-up on my life recently:  I finally got angry at my laziness (and the dues money wasted when I didn't go to the gym all month long) and signed up with a trainer, forcing me to be motivated.  I tacked on my own session after John has his, which is with a different guy because John's old trainer recently moved out of the area.  So, when John started with the new trainer, Fletcher, he told me that he is a power lifter. I was like, "He's a what?" I imagined some beef-cake monster of a guy and was not thrilled with John looking like that.  :(  Well, imagine my surprise when I meet Fletcher to set up my schedule with him and see that he is not huge at all!  He's more like a full-time swimmer's build, maybe a skinny gymnast (I might have drooled a little. Allegedly).  I told John that he has my full permission to look like Fletcher from the collar-bone down.  ;)

So, needless to say, there are some upsides and down-sides to training with a power lifter.  1) He has NO problem increasing the weight on you.  Very often, he sets up the weight, and I am like "HNNNNHG!" ... and nothing happens.  Fletcher laughs/ sighs, lowers the weight and we repeat.  However, 2) He knows what he is talking about, and when the weights go up, the reps go down.  So even when my arms turn to pudding, I only have to do like 3 reps. 

Sad part about when I chose to start working out is that my "sixth workout check-up" was the Monday after Thanksgiving.  :(  Anne is a fatty fatty who likes pie!  But I have been weighing myself since and have lost maybe half of the Thanksgiving weight.  Yay!  Only half a fatty now!  And again, needless to say, for like the last three weeks, I have just been in pain.  Sometimes the pain is localized (like the first day we try a new exercise), but more often, I am just sore.  John says he hurt for about three months when he first started working out before his body got used to it.  sigh...

Y is for ...

Y is for YULETIDE! OK, so I may be a little early with this post, but it's officially after Thanksgiving, and we can now put up decorations / buy Christmas candy / listen to carols / all those things that commercial America has been doing for weeks already.  Call me a traditionalist, I don't care!  Christmas season is not allowed to start until after the Macy's Day Parade.  (Why, yes, I did have a parent grow up in New York-- where it is the "Macy's Day" Parade, not this "Macy's Thanksgiving Day" Parade I hear some people speak of.)

First step towards Christmas: the Bear!  "Just" a silly little advent calendar from childhood that Lara and I fought vicisouly over as kids.  The point is that the bear is looking for Christmas and searches throughout the house as the days go by.

What is it with cats and tree skirts?!?!?? 

Though his second favorite spot is a little weirder... Yes, that's a shoebox lid he's sitting in.

With John's mom's broken ankle, she's put Christmas on hold at their house, so we got to rummage through her extensive decoration collection to use at our house.  Yay! I love Christmas decorations.  Maybe it's because it's MY house finally, but I was ready to go hog-wild.  We did wreaths in the windows/ doors and I put up lights all around the front and back porches.  Haha, those lights were adventures in physics.  I ended up starting a string of lights at each end, then inter-twining them on the middle post so that the wraps were the same and the plugs lined up.

Harvey was VERY excited about my present-wrapping marathon, too.  He really wanted to help out.

But then Demon Kitty showed up and wanted all the presents for himself.... Bad, Demon Kitty!  Those presents are for the family members.