All in a Garden Green

This is where the kitties stayed for most of the day yesterday, curled up in bed. I'd have liked to too... (and they're finally using their bed! Galahad likes to smush the sides down so he can get closer to the heat registers, but after a year and a half, we finally found the right spot for the snuggly soft kitty bed.)

I did take a snow day, though, and stay home from work. Made the right call, as kurlon said when he finally got to work that the roads were "snotty". Eeeeew. Mostly snow, mixed with some freezing rain/crud. Got the retail order done at least, because I was smart and brought the catalog home on Wednesday night, anticipating that things would be as bad as they indeed were on Thursday morning. Called S at the office around 8:30 to let her know I wasn't lying in a ditch somewhere.

There's more expected today, so I did not shovel the front walkway. I'll get to that tomorrow, otherwise it becomes a skating rink. All told, only 2 or 3 inches, maybe, but it looks like it may actually stick around for a while. Going in to work shortly here; roads should be OK for the moment, could be more interesting this afternoon. Wheeee.

EDIT 11:20PM - Weather actually got better. Rained all morning, and then the sun came out. Not bad, if rather cold... Whatever combination of temperature/pressure/humidity we currently have though, is making my once-broken-now-steel-reinforced arm talk to me, and it's not the most pleasant of sensations... sigh.

About 8" of wet, soggy snow total. It's compressing down to not much already, and with temps in the 50s all week, it should be mostly gone soon.

kurlon got a clear path out the driveway, so the rest of the paved area should clear shortly too. Adventure riding home last night, nearly got stuck on the road, but the HiHy made it.

See, this is what happens when we get Christmas decorations in the stores earlier and earlier... Mother Nature figures 'well, obviously they want winter sooner!' and does THIS! Aieeee!

It is SNOWING. And sticking. I am SO not ready for the white crap yet.

Lots of stuff to catch up on... I'm still alive, will have a more substantial post in a bit...

Sooo... I look out the window just now, and surprise, surprise. It is snowing again. With Serious Intent. There were light, almost-but-not-quite-clear patches in the sky on the way to work this morning, so I had hopes that maybe, just maybe, the crap that was (is) forecast to fall today wouldn't. Toooooo laaaate.

Got 4" or so of light fluffy stuff on Saturday night that shoveled away no problem, though it's not quite enough to use the snowblower on. It also nicely polished the layer of ice that has again formed on the road, so even with my Magical Snow Tires, I had a hard time getting out of the driveway. Not quite stuck, but there was definitely some spinning, and sliding backwards into a snowbank.

Today's forecast: Through 2pm: Snow, sleet or freezing rain mixing with and changing to rain by 11am. Cloudy with temperatures warming rapidly into the mid to upper 30s. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Snowfall of about half an inch through 2:00pm.

Delightful. Two more hours, then it becomes truly miserable. Time to make my way up to the greenhouse, check on the babies (hopefully all potted and happy), and then hide in the office till I decide to slide home...

February is not going out without a fight.

Update: 11:15 AM: Sweet... boss just called, told me to go home. Was on the way out the door in about 30 seconds anyway, but now I have the Official Blessing. I'm outta here!

So, the snow appears to be done... 8-10" or so out there on the ground. I'm... almost disappointed. But not really. Light, very fine snow is still falling, but it's not going to amount to anything. Time to go clear off the walkway and driveway, I suppose.

Lancelot had taken up his usual spot on the back of the couch, looking out the window, watching the snow for a while, but both boys are currently curled up on the loveseat.

I'm gonna go get a baking pan, fill it with snow, bring it inside, and see what the cats think of it. :D

...is it sad that I'm looking forward to doing this, and finishing up what I can do on our taxes to avoid washing dishes and doing laundry? sigh...

Snow stopped around 2:00 this afternoon, just like the Weather Channel said it would, and we even saw the sun for a moment or two. I decided it was probably best to get the 2 storms' worth of snow/ice/ick off the front pathway before we got more... only took about an hour to shovel off the steps and walk, but I'm not going to suggest anybody actually use them... The rain we got with Tuesday evening's storm formed a beautiful crust, but also saturated the snow that had already fallen, resulting in not only heavy, mostly frozen snow chunks, but a lovely layer of ice underneath the whole thing. I think that's probably part of why the road is the way it is.

I have resigned myself to the fact that snow tires are in my future. In theory will be able to get away with spending ~$200, just getting fronts. Not till after Monday, though, so we'll have to hope our neighbor comes back and sands, otherwise I'll be working from home...

Headed out to mom & dad's shortly, in the reliable vehicle that will make it out of the road... Stop by Staples to get scrolls photocopied first, grab coffee & water bottles in the morning, then fence allll day. Yay! See (some of) y'all there!




...Lancelot has this uncanny ability to know when I'm planning on leaving, and decide to jump in my lap 5 minutes before then... cats...

Storm is over. Tuesday through Wednesday evening, I'm counting as one "snow event". Learned and confirmed several things over the last couple snowy days. Just in time for the next one that comes tonight/tomorrow morning.

Some observations:( Wow... this got long... I guess I've been saving up some rant energy... )

Hopefully the snow really will be done by tomorrow early afternoon. The goal is to get to my parents' Friday night, and then to Springfield early Saturday morning, for lots and lots of fencing. And friends, who share a sadness this day... We have lost a lovely and gentle Lady in the East.

Blizzard. Going back to bed now. Was a good girl and called the boss, just to make the effort (because I certainly wasn't going to get a phone call first....).

YAY.

So... I've had better days.

Not that yesterday was awful, honestly. I got a lot of stuff done. Organized the bathroom (mostly), did laundry (lots, some of it's even folded and put away), got rid of some cardboard boxes, put curtains up and hung a picture in my (still disaster, but getting better) sewing room, hung out with the kitties...

Attempted to dye 9 yards of cotton (we think) denim a beautiful teal color. It did not go well. I followed all the instructions, to the letter, 2 boxes of dye per load, hot water, salt, etc for the dye bath, used the proper level of water in the washing machine, and as a result, I got the most beautiful pale teal you've ever seen. NOT what I wanted at all. Don't quite know what happened. I used the tiniest blop of detergent, maybe that was even too much. There were 4 more boxes at the store, I'll pick them up sometime this week and try again. Maybe without detergent this time.

I started and finished the illumination for the Northern Region Rapier Champion's scroll, which is really nice, I think. Simple but pretty. Figured out how to get the glass paint to behave and take gold leaf properly. Good success there. Prepped sheets for the gold leaf class I was going to teach this morning at Spring's Inspirations...

Instead, at about 10:00 last night, whilst waiting for paint to dry, the icky feeling that had been trying to settle into my throat all day finally did, complete with chills and full-body ache. Ah crud. Finished the scroll and class prep, but sent an email letting anna_mickel know I probably wasn't going to make it to the event. Woke up this morning feeling not a lot better, with the same misery. Max picked up the scroll and class supplies (thanks, alexsaintpierre for taking over for me) on the way to the event, after dealing with his own crisis this morning, a busted water heater. Fun all around.

Poo. I'm sick, therefore no motivation to do anything around the house that needs doing, my plants are covered in snow, and I'm missing an event. Sigh. Enough wallowing in self-pity now, time to get motivated.

But it's a good kind of tired, and for good reasons, and I cannot wait for all the construction and mess to be over, and move in, and just try to relax in the house for a day or so...

Fencing was good on Tuesday. I needed the break from thinking about the house and everything I had to do. Got J fitted for his garb; I will have it done by the 6th (preferably before), but not quite sure when it will happen yet... aieee... Fenced with just J, Christian, and Max. Had a good night.

Yesterday was prep and then paint. Prep took much longer, but everything looks really, really nice now. I have a lavender sewing room now! SO PRETTY! The bedroom is berift of any wood trim of any kind, until the oak molding and door/window frame bits are done. kr4sh and Max are working on them... going to be beautiful. The bedroom is a nice sagey green, not too dark. The dads are working on getting the floors in today and tomorrow. Moms peeled wallpaper off, cleaned up the kitchen backsplash quite nicely. The golden yellow I like for the kitchen walls will be beautiful, once we get some time/energy to paint again. Maybe in a few months...

Finding more strangeness with the house itself... it appears all of the doors are slightly smaller than they were planned for (or, kurlon's theory: the contractor who lived there before was re-doing everything, and that's the size of door he had a lot of... gah.). There's a stupid little "shelf" above all the door moldings, which is just a dust-catcher. I wanted to take them all off, but in doing so in the sewing room, discovered a 1/2" gap between drywall and door trim. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I will live with them for now.

Fridge is coming today, might even be there by now! I look forward to the story of how they get it in the kitchen... Tuesday, the stove arrives. Sometime soon, we can put the new dishwasher in, and then actually be able to live there (not that that's really dependant on the dishwasher, more on my sanity...).

On the crappy end of things... got stuck in the road last night. Made me Very Grumpy. Took 4 of us, with Josh driving, to push poor Rosie up the last couple feet of hill. Don't know if new tires would have helped at all; mom & dad's car almost got stuck too, and they have new tires. The road wasn't plowed, since I guess 3" of powder isn't worth it? Except then it compresses into slick, icy mess... Great... something to look forwad to next winter (and probably the rest of this one). Maybe I can get a discount on studded snows, since it's the end of the season (riiight...).

Mom-in-law called this morning, just before I left for work, and let me know they were going to be getting to the house later than they'd planned... She'd slipped in the hotel parking lot, and was going to the hospital to get her arm x-rayed. Darnit... Got an update from kurlon, she has broken her wrist. Can't be comfortable right now. :(

There will be a break from house-obsessiveness soon... I'm so tired it's hard to think straight right now. This spreadsheet I've been working on today at the office is sure to be interesting. :)