Inane Chatter

Sometimes.  This one does.  I didn’t want to get out of bed at first, but I convinced myself it was the right thing to do, mostly by reminding myself how good I feel after I run.  It worked, and I do!  The sun is rising earlier and earlier every day, so I didn’t have to run in the dark.  I did have to negotiate the ice in the ex-Bloom parking lot, but there wasn’t that much of it.  It added variety.  Anyway, I ran, the sun is up, the sky is blue, and I feel great.  And I’m hungry, so I’m off to Frosted Flakes and a banana.  I hope you all have a wonderful day.

(Is this too full of sparkles and sunshine for you?)

My birthday present yesterday was a trip to Ikea so we could buy more bookshelves.  We’ve been in desperate need of more bookshelves for a long time now, and we made a big dent in that need yesterday.  We came home with four tall ones, and John spent a few hours putting them together for me.  The best part of making this my birthday present was that it meant I got to reorganize our books.  I love that.  I spent a few hours today re-shelving and moving the overflow from the library onto the new shelves in the dining room.  I’m not done with that yet, but when I am, I’ll post pictures.  The biggest decision I had to make today was whether to start the alphabet in the library or in the dining room.  Hard stuff.

I’ve had the best day.  Really, this was a great birthday.  And I’m totally exhausted and going to bed.  More tomorrow.

Seriously, I had a really good day.  Things went my way in a big way at work, I got to run home to take custody of my NEW DINING ROOM TABLE, I was listening to music I love in the car, and then I got to drive home with a rowdy bunch of balloons.  Yes, someone at work pays attention and noticed that my birthday is tomorrow (yay birthday!), so they got me a cake and balloons (yay work people!).  The cake didn’t make it home.    The balloons might as well have been the dogs in the car.  They blocked my view out the back window, and the red one kept trying to get in the front seat with me.  It was kind of cute, actually.  It would bump gently into my hair, nuzzle a little (yay static?), and then retreat when I batted it back into the backseat.  Rinse and repeat.

Dining room table?  Here you go.

And here’s one with my pretty placemats from that green store Jess took me to in Easton.

And now it’s time to say goodbye to the old table.  I’m posting it on craigslist tonight.  Right now, in fact.

My day was fine and not fine, and it totally exhausted me, so I told Mom I was going to become a vegetable for the rest of the evening.

I woke up this morning with a very irritated left eye (turns out I have a weird eyelash problem – I stopped at the eye doctor’s on my way home ’cause I couldn’t drive), so I wore glasses all day, which means my eyes (without contacts in) thought it was bedtime all day AND my left eye watered and stung the whole time.  And I was teaching at work today, so I stood most of the day (and talked ALL day), and now I’m really really really tired.

And that’s the truth.

After I got home from work today and found Roxy totally okay in her crate (no more seizures today as far as I can tell), I went back out to the store to pick up a few things I’d left off the grocery list Monday morning.  Can’t go to Bloom anymore ’cause the one nearest us closed.  I didn’t feel like braving route 7 in rush hour to go to Wegman’s, and Safeway was just that much too far away, so I went to the next closest store to the house: Giant.  Not my favorite place.  I only needed to get four things, so I didn’t write them down, but since I have this habit of forgetting even short lists, I went with my second-best method of remembering them: repetition.  (Second use of the colon in as many sentences: overdone already.  Third!)  I started repeating “Grated cheese, feta cheese, cereal, Oust.  Grated cheese, feta cheese, cereal, Oust.” to myself.  By the time I got to Claiborne, it was a chant with the emphasis on the first syllable of each item.  By the time I got to the parking lot, I was slurring the words a little (yes, I was chanting out loud) so it sounded like “Graded cheese, fetid cheese, cereal, Oust.” Who wants to eat graded cheese and fetid cheese?  That’s how you make your groceries sound disgusting.  End of lesson.

Does anyone know how to make the house stop smelling like scallops?  I sauteed scallops for dinner Monday night, and ever since then, the whole first floor has reeked of raw fish.  That’s why I bought Oust.  I figured I could try this odor-eliminator thing.  So far, not so good.  I can still smell scallops underneath the Fresh Linen scent.  And that’s almost worse.  I’m not sure what to do, since it’s WAY too cold to open the windows and let the kitchen air out.  I’ve cleaned the counters, run the disposal, thrown out the…hm.  The plastic container the scallops came in might still be in the trash can.  But the smell doesn’t get stronger when I open the door to the basement (where we hide the trash can from the dogs).  Still, it’s worth a try.

Wondering what my first-best method for remembering things is?  I bet you can guess.  I’ll tell you anyway.  If I really want to remember something I WRITE IT DOWN.

Roxy had another seizure this morning, just after 4am.  I expected another one, but I was kinda hoping for some time after we woke up.  It was a short one, and her recovery was ridiculously quick, like 5 minutes.  She got up from convulsing, walked around the kitchen a little already wagging her tail, and then asked to go out.  I let her outside (and kept Riley in with me).  She left the deck and came right back up a few seconds later and asked to come in.  Once inside, she started hinting heavily that she wanted a treat, so I made her sit and lie down for it, which she did with her regular enthusiasm.  She seemed normal again already, so I went back to bed.

She’s fine this morning, but I’m going to crate them both during the day so I can tell for sure if she has another seizure.  If she does, I have an appointment scheduled to take her to the vet this evening.  Fun day.  I wish I could stay home.

Sometimes I really love my vet.  Roxy had two seizures (cluster again) when I got home from work.  She started to act a little weird, then like she couldn’t stay on her feet, then normal.  About a minute later, she started to lose her balance again, and then she fell over and started convulsing.  I was right there, so I could keep her head from banging on the floor over and over, and I could keep Riley off of her, ’cause he tried to do whatever it is he does.  He hasn’t been my favorite dog tonight.  Anyway, she convulsed for 30 seconds or so (maybe 20 – it’s really hard to tell), and then it was over, but she gave that high-pitched whine, the one that says something hurts BAD.  She got her feet under her and headed for the family room in a hurry (she was in front of the pantry before), but when she got to the front window, she hit the floor again for more convulsing.  When that was over, she tried to get to her feet again, but couldn’t.  I helped her up, and since then (about an hour), she’s been wandering around the house.  Slowly getting better.  A few minutes ago she nosed around my dinner, so a full recovery shouldn’t be too far away.

Anyway, the vet.  About ten minutes after the cluster seizure, I called the vet to get Roxy’s file updated.  Told them about the seizures, told them she’s still recovering, and they told me to call them if I need them (they’re open until 8pm), and they’ll leave a note for our vet to call us tomorrow.  Nice, but routine.  About ten minutes ago, they called back.  Just to check in.  Because they’re nice people.  They were closing for the night and the vet tech wanted to see how Roxy’s recovery was going.  She reminded me that even though our vet doesn’t get in until 8am tomorrow morning, they open at 7, so I can call or we can come in if we need to.  And the emergency vet is always an option if we need it.  I love them because they called.

Why is Riley not my favorite dog right now?  Let us count the ways:

1. He had his teeth on Roxy’s neck when the first seizure started.
2. He tried to get her again during that seizure.
3. He snapped and snarled at her in the kitchen while she was recovering.
4. He barked meanly at her in the family room, also during recovery.

I was right there each time, and I yelled at him each time.  If the teeth on the neck thing is doggy instinct trying to hold her down, that’s one thing.  But the snapping, snarling, and barking is just mean.  She wasn’t in his way, she wasn’t stealing his food, she wasn’t even stealing his attention.  I make an effort to pay attention to him even when she’s recovering precisely so he doesn’t get jealous.  He doesn’t always react this badly, either.  I don’t know what his problem is tonight.  And yes, I’ve forgiven him already.  I don’t think his pea brain would remember why I was mad at him, if I still were.  If he ever knew.

Oh, good, Roxy’s normal again.  She shook her whole body and when she was done, she came over to me, tail wagging, tongue out, looking happy, and begged for food.

I just remembered the one thing that annoys me about our vet.  She’s going to push the really expensive dog medicine again.  We can’t afford to spend $300 a month on medicine for the dog.  And that’s just one of the three medicines she takes daily.  Who can afford that?  But she’s my puppy….

The #6’s, rather.  I’ll mess around with version #1 and shades of green later.

I ran this morning.  Okay, it was more like a shuffle that sometimes looked like a slow jog, but it was more than walking, and more than I’ve done in weeks.  I ran twice on a treadmill in San Francisco, but not for very long either time.   It suddenly became very important that we both get out and run, mostly because I signed John up for a 5-miler in two and a half weeks and he coaxed/supported/shamed me into registering myself, too.  Five miles.  In two and a half weeks.  I’m an idiot.  Especially since we don’t really have anywhere to run.  Today we ran in the streets of our neighborhood, and that’s what we’ll have to keep doing until the county clears the sidewalks and paths along the major roads.  We can run laps around the Bloom parking lot, too, since no one is in it early in the morning (nothing is open).  It felt good to get out again, though.

Then we had breakfast, watched Heroes, and I went to the grocery store.  It was supposed to be a short trip, but I was gone forever because I got in the line with the slowest checkout clerk ever.  EVER.  I waited 15 minutes before she was done with the lady in front of me (who didn’t have THAT many groceries), and I got all excited for a minute because a new cashier was waiting behind the slow one and they even went so far as to lift the tray out of the register, but then I looked away for a second and when I looked back, the new cashier was nowhere to be seen and the slow one was starting to ring me up.  Frustrating.  She was using my cloth bags instead of plastic bags, and she got to the last five items and opened a new bag.  No problem with that.  She put the bananas and the grapes in the bottom of the new bag.  I got ready to object if it seemed like she was going to put the lotion and soap on top of the grapes, but instead she reached for a new bag.  Really?  These bags are big.  Just put the grapes on top of that stuff!  Why load up another bag?  I don’t get baggers.

Back to work tomorrow.  Yay.

We met Baby Alex today at brunch with Greg, Amanda, Erik, and Margaret.  He’s SO cute.  See?

And he was on his best behavior.  He only fussed a little, and only right before we left the restaurant.  Margaret and I are in love.  With the baby.    (It was good to see Greg and Amanda, too.)

After we left our friends to head home, we stopped at Hole in the Wall Books, our favorite local used bookstore in Falls Church.  It was supposed to be a quick stop (John’s looking for something in particular), but of course that didn’t happen.  We chatted with the owner for a while about the snow, then we browsed (I found about 12 books right off the bat), and then we chatted some more while the owner rang us up.  And since we were chatting, we took our time, and I found three more books.  I love used bookstores.

We got back to the house much later than we originally expected (and yet, not at all annoyed  by that because, come on, books and babies (and friends, right, can’t forget about them)), but the sun was still shining, so John disappeared into the basement to play his guitar and I took the dogs on a short walk (really cold).  Walking the dogs is only noteworthy because of what I overheard.  There were three girls playing on top of a mountain of snow in someone’s yard, and one of them said:

“I’m a 12-year-old girl, but my mom keeps telling me I have to be proper.  I mean, I’m twelve.“

For a second, I thought she had to quoting from a movie or something.  What mom would say that?

Two things:

1. The band is practicing tonight, so I spent about 20 minutes picking up downstairs.  The island is totally clear, the kitchen counters are mostly clear, I only left John’s stuff on the dining room table (laptop, camera, PSP), and I mostly cleared off the things that were sitting on the steps waiting to go upstairs.  The house looks nicer, and I feel A TON better.
2. We bought the dining room table!  We went out this afternoon and just bought it.  Table and six chairs.  We got the 10% discount for the holiday weekend and we convinced them to give us free delivery since that was last weekend’s deal and we TOTALLY would have bought last weekend except for the snow.  Not our fault. 
3. Okay, three things.  You may have noticed that I switched the site back to the original template.  This isn’t necessarily permanent.  I just don’t know which one is my favorite.  And I may switch between a couple templates regularly.  We’ll see.  Anyway, I’m going to post screen shots of each version.  You tell me if you had a favorite or if there were things you liked about some of them that I can incorporate into another one.  I NEED INPUT, PEOPLE.

#1 – I liked this one, but if I go with it, I’ll probably mess with the colors.  If I’m going to use a fading color theme, I’ll do it with something not boring.  Maybe shades of green.

#2 – This one is a little too big, I think.  Reminds me (and Dad, I think) of a newspaper.  I did like the width of the columns, though.  I like how it takes up the whole page.

#3 – I think we all agreed to not like this one.

#4 – This one is, well, it’s very much like my original template, but blue instead of red.  Maybe I’ll switch to this one when my mood is blue….

#5 – Here we have the same TOO BIG problem.  Too stark, too, I think.  But again, maybe if I messed with the color, this would be better.

#6 – I like this one a lot.  The banner picture across the top makes it SO different from the others.  Do I like it more than the simpler templates?  I don’t know.  Do you?

Things I’m doing to get out of this hibernation funk I’ve been in since the snow started:

1. Train the dogs.  I started practicing down with Riley and stay with Roxy, and I’m meeting with a trainer this coming week to work on leash manners and come when called.
2. Clean the house.  Our room looks like a cave.  Clothes are EVERYwhere.  And there’s stuff piling up on all surfaces downstairs.
3. Get outside.  Yes, it’s cold, so I won’t be spending lots of time outside, but it’s good for me to see the sun and breathe fresh air.  Dogs like walks and so do I.
4. Meet with the financial guy.  I need to ask him tax questions and we need to finally pay off the student loan.
5. Buy the new dining room table!  But not until I’ve cleaned up enough downstairs and found places for everything so we don’t immediately cover our new dining room table in crap.  But that might be today!

More later, I’m sure.

The snow makes running really difficult.  Impossible, really, unless I’m willing to run in the street instead of on the sidewalks.  I could do that in the neighborhood – you know, I might.  I have to do something, and exercise DVDs just aren’t calling out to me.  That should probably be #6, with eating right (and less) #7, but those are all-the-time things.

And here’s a picture for Corey.  It’s me, wearing all the clothes I could find ’cause we were taking the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood, standing next to the biggest pile of snow we have.  John took it Thursday evening, so there’s already been some melting and settling.

I’ve been home for a couple of hours.  I added our donations to TurboTax (which still says we owe $1500), and then I read a few months’ worth of Dooce archives.  During all of this, I found myself wondering if I should switch to Linux instead of Windows, and then move my website to Movable Type instead of Wordpress.  Why?  No real reason.  I guess something needs to change.  And a new template for my site apparently isn’t enough.

I tried to get to work yesterday, but as I left my neighborhood, I slid out onto the semi-major road.  It’s usually pretty clear and much safer than the neighborhood roads, or at least it has been after all our other storms and weather events.  Yesterday, I couldn’t see pavement at all.  It felt like one big sheet of ice, so, after I caught my breath, I went back home.  John didn’t even make the attempt (not in the mustang, no way), so we had another pleasant day of working from home together.  We took a walk around the neighborhood (almost completely in the streets, since most sidewalks aren’t clear) with the dogs before it got dark, and then I started working on our taxes before dinner (I’m not quite done, but how do we owe again?  What’s going on?).

Back to the office today.  I really really really want things to go back to normal.  Normal = NO SNOW.  Go away now.  Melt faster!

Bridget and her boy came up with much better names for the snowstorm than I did.  Actually, since Cleveland routinely gets SO MUCH MORE SNOW than we do, I’d be surprised if Cleveland residents didn’t have a system for naming snowstorms.  Kinda like how hurricanes get named.  This year they’re all named after girls.  Like Driving Miss Snowy, Snowy Poppins, and Forgetting Snowy Marshall.

I’m reaching, I know.

Today was very frustrating.  We were both working from home (and the working part provided half the frustration, but that’s all I’m going to say about that), and when I booted my laptop this morning (my personal laptop, not my work laptop), I discovered a virus.  And not just any virus.  This was a monster virus that hijacked every program I tried to run.  I couldn’t open a browser, I couldn’t run any .exe files, I couldn’t do anything.  With John’s help (and the help of the internet via my work laptop and John’s computer), we were able to use the system restore feature to go back to last night, before the virus, and then get rid of it.  But it took HOURS.  John took the opportunity to blame Windows for this security failure and has me seriously considering installing the easiest version of Linux.  As long as I can open most documents and get to the internet, I don’t really care what operating system I use, so I’ll probably at least try it.  If I actually make it to the office tomorrow and the next day, though, it’ll have to wait for the weekend.

More snow.  The Post is calling this one Snoverkill, which makes me laugh a little every time I see it.  We’re in the band on the accumulation map that says 8-14″ between now and tomorrow evening.  The National Weather Service says our county should get between 8 and 12 inches by the tomorrow evening.

John and I will both be working from home tomorrow, but since the snow isn’t supposed to stop until evening, I don’t know if we’ll be able to dig ourselves out before Thursday morning.  My normal after-work evening is out of whack today, too.  John normally has class Tuesday nights, but it was canceled because of snow last week, and this week, the professor decided to have class via webinar.  So since just before 7, John has been glued to his laptop with headphones and a microphone so he can listen to the lecture and participate.  On the plus side, the professor apparently said he was going to try to get through the material quickly.  AND he’s home.  Also a plus.

I’m afraid I might be over The Pillars of the Earth.  I used to really like it, and I’m still enjoying it, but as I’m reading it, I catch myself 1) getting really annoyed with Tom (like REALLY annoyed), and 2) wishing they’d just hurry up and get to the good stuff already.  What good stuff?  I don’t really know.  Maybe I’ll remember why I liked it so much when we actually get to the cathedral-building sections.  Those are the parts that stuck with me.  That and the mini-tour through Europe near the end.

They’re talking about another 10 to 20 inches of snow tomorrow and Wednesday.  I don’t know where we’re going to put it.  Did you SEE the five-foot-tall piles of snow on either side of our driveway?

The roads were pretty bad this morning, so John and I both worked from home.  It was wonderful.  We set up in the dining room with a fire in the fireplace, sat in on conference calls, drank hot chocolate, and got a lot of work done.  I ventured out early this afternoon to go to the pharmacy and check out the roads.  They’re not terrible, but they’re not totally clear, either.   And we will both be heading to our offices tomorrow.

Now I have everything I want (for today).  We have a fire blazing in the dining room, and John and I are set up on our laptops across the table from each other.  Riley is on a towel on the floor to my right, and Roxy is on the dog bed in front of the fire.  I have a glass of wine, classical music is coming from the family room, I’m wearing my pretty new shawl from Jess, and if I really want to, I can watch the Super Bowl ads on hulu.com.  I may even turn the TV on at some point during the game (John has expressed an interest in seeing The Who during the half-time show).

We did a lot more shoveling today and managed to get both cars out of and back in to the driveway, so we know we can get out tomorrow.  Then I was done shoveling, but John decided to be a good neighbor and help the downhill neighbors clear their driveway and sidewalk.  I played with the dogs in the backyard.  Then I made John come out with the camera and see it, ’cause it’s really funny to see them try to stay on top of 3 feet of snow.  Which they wouldn’t even try until I jumped in first.

Here’s John shoveling the sidewalk:

And here I made him pose:

And here’s the neighbor with the snowblower who could make a TON of money if he wanted to rent that thing out to his neighbors (or a ton of friends if he wanted to clear everyone’s sidewalks for free):

The poor buried mailbox again:

And the path I dug to it so the mailperson can deliver the mail:

The view down the street:

The view up the street:

The house, with a clear driveway, clear cars, and a TON of snow piled in the yard:

Here’s a short series of Riley in the backyard.  First, sitting nicely but not looking at me:

Second, getting WAY too close to the camera.  That’s his nose in the top right corner.

Third, Riley singing “STOP in the name of love!”:

Me and Riley swimming through the snow:

Roxy coming over to see what’s up:

And here she is, glad to get away before the wrestling and the hand-chewing started:

The hand-chewing started when I grabbed Riley’s lower jaw:

Riley, trying to crouch in the snow and failing miserably:

And here, apparently, he’s trying to fly, but his little ears just aren’t big enough:

Riley and I are sitting on top of 3 feet of snow and..yelling at each other?

And here’s a series of Roxy going “Okay.  Enough with the yelling and playing.  Can we go inside where it’s warm now?  What is WRONG with you people?”

Riley’s sneak attack…

…Ended with kisses:

Then he went back to my hands (coated in bacon maybe?):

Apparently, my hair was coated in bacon, too:

Riley officially won, though, by STANDING on me as I tried to get up:

Okay, enough pictures.  Really.  And it may look like I was having fun in the snow, but don’t believe everything you see on the internet.  That smile was photoshopped.  I had a dream last night that the snow had melted away overnight and I was so happy.  Then I woke up.  Snow snucks.

The snow just stopped.  Maybe 15 minutes ago.  And the sun is out.  Our total is somewhere around 30 inches, maybe a little more in places.  Definitely more in the corners of our yard.  When we were shoveling this morning, the sidewalks (which were a little lower than the yard) had 24″ of snow.  We spent a couple of hours shoveling the driveway and part of the sidewalk, mostly to make sure we could get the car out if we really had to.  Tomorrow we’ll tackle what fell after we quit, the rest of the sidewalk, and we’ll try to dig John’s car out.  If he can swing it, I really think he should work from home on Monday.  The roads will be terrible.  We had a plow come through sometime last night, maybe early this morning, but none since then.  Our street has at least a foot of snow.  Snow snow-snow, snow-snow-snow.  I’m tired of it.  And it’s way too deep for the dogs.  The first thing we did today was clear a path on the deck, clear the deck stairs, and shovel out an area in the yard so they could get around.  They can blaze their own paths from there, although they really haven’t this time.  They’ve stayed under the deck overhang, where the snow isn’t as deep.  Mark asked for pictures (apparently, he needs proof – Hi, Mark!), so here they are.  Maybe it’ll all disappear overnight.  I’m ready for spring!

Snow depth on the bench around 9:30 last night:

Snow depth on the bench as of about 9:30 this morning (through the sliding glass door with snow on it):

Snow depth on the bench around 4:45 this afternoon:

The back corner of the yard yesterday afternoon (3-ish, I think):

The back corner of the yard around 4:45 today:

My flower bed, buried:

An evergreen in the neighbor’s yard, yesterday:

Same evergreen, after the snow stopped today:

Out the front door this morning:

The driveway, before shoveling:

John shoveling the driveway:

The house, after shoveling (and the buried mailbox):

The neighbors, also shoveling:

And Roxy, peeing in the clearing we shoveled for her:

You’re welcome. 

So yeah, we have lots of snow.  We came in from shoveling around 11:30 or so, showered, and then had breakfast even though it was after noon.  Hot chocolate (of course), cereal (Wegman’s version of Lucky Charms), and muffins.  And we watched a little TV.  Since then, I’ve been messing around on the internet, and John has been stealing cars and beating people up.  Seriously.  Oh, yeah, and we’re drinking champagne that’s been in the fridge since New Year’s.  It’s better aged.