Thursday, December 21, 2006

Let It Snow


Some of you may remember that I live in Boulder. Some of you may have noticed on the news that most of Colorado has been gripped by a freak storm. Yeah. In the mountains above Boulder, we got a lot. Enough so that I haven't left my house by choice for two days.

Actually, I had to go to town yesterday morning and pick up the kids - they were at their house, waiting on my mother to fly back from LA. Only problem is that NO ONE flew in yesterday afternoon. The Denver International Airport has been closed since about 10:30 Wednesday morning, and isn't scheduled to resume operations until midday tomorrow (Friday). My mom is stuck in LA until Saturday night, the first time there was a seat available to Denver on any airline that flies here.

It's been sort of charming to be stuck up here. We have plenty of food, and have power, TV and internet, so we're set. The kids have been out playing with the dogs, shoveling the snow every few hours. They weren't able to make any headway with the driveway though - it's about 75 feet long and under more than 3 feet of snow. Just when I thought I'd never be able to leave again, I heard a motor outside. Alex and I went out and found a total stranger using his snowblower on my driveway. Turns out that he's the son of the elderly woman across the street, and he came up to check on her and decided to do her neighbors' driveways as well.

A guy like that makes me remember the good in people.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

A meme!

Via Amber:

1. What is your occupation? Engineer, home-improver, professional
auntie.


2. What color are your socks right now? Green. It is a day for
wool.


3. What are you listening to right now? Local news coverage of freak
holiday storm.


4. What was the last thing that you ate? Chocolate chip cookie that my
niece just baked.


5. Can you drive a stick shift? Of course! Can't you?

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Purple.

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mom. She's stuck in LA,
unable to fly home (see freak holiday storm above).


8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I like the person who
posted this on her blog :-)


9. How old are you today? 36 years, 1 month, 6 days.

10. Favorite drink: This used to be an easy question - Heineken.
However, pregnancy has killed my beer buds, so I'll have to go with red wine (preferably a Barolo) or Pellegrino with lime.


11. What is your favorite sport to watch? If it's live, hockey. On TV,
football.


12. Have you ever dyed your hair? A better question would be, have you
ever not dyed your hair?


13. Pets? Oh yes. The lovely one-eyed, deaf Ruby the Wonder Dog. I also currently have in my home two yellow labs, Thor and Daisy. Two more dogs are coming up tonight to stay, Halle Berry and Blu Berry.

14. Favorite Food. This is a tough one. Cheese and red bell peppers.

15. What was the last movie you watched? The Holiday.

16. Favorite day of the year? Gotta go with Christmas. It starts off
well, then you get a break to watch football, then you get one of the best
meals of the year.


17. Least favorite day of the year? I can't think of one.

18. What was your favorite toy as a child? Stuffed Snoopy dog.

19. What is your favorite, Fall or Spring? Fall, totally.

20. Hugs or kisses? Hugs. Big ones.

21. Cherry or Blueberry? Blueberry. It's a superfood, you know.

22. Do you want your friends to email you back? Usually....oh, I get it.
In the context of this post, yes, I'd like to hear from you all.


23. Who is most likely to respond? Probably Ali.

24. Who is least likely to respond? Someone I don't even know.

25. Living arrangements? With hubby and lots of dogs in a draft old
house in the mountains.


26. What’s on the floor of your closet? Shoes and a big bag full of baby
clothes that I haven't laundered yet.


27. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending
this to
hoping will read this? This is an easy one. Victoria.

28. What did you do last night? Went to the home of my husband's boss
for a little impromptu happy hour, then came home and sprawled on the couch and bonded with TiVo.


29. Favorite smell? Lavender, fresh coffee, jasmine, the ocean.

30. What inspires you? Reading Anne Lamott, watching Helen Mirren do
anything, figuring out some new application on my Mac, seeing my husband talk to new people.


31. What are you afraid of? Spiders. People I love getting sick or hurt. Driving down the hill in really shitty weather.

32. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheesy as hell.

33. Favorite car? My car. Silver Toyota 4Runner.

34. Favorite dog breed? The Ruby breed. Whatever she is.

35. Number of keys on your key ring? Uh....six, maybe? Car, house, three or four others that I have no idea what they open.

36. How many years at your current job? One. Woo!

37. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

38. How many states/provinces have you lived in? Four. Florida, Utah, California, Colorado.

39. Favorite holiday(s)? I'm a sucker for Christmas, although I don't even really decorate my house. I still don't even have a tree up.

40. Ever driven a motorcycle or heavy machinery? I've driven a motorcycle (reluctantly) around the block, but I used to drive a fire engine while on
the local rescue squad.

Monday, December 18, 2006

The Times They Are A-Changin'



So. Yeah. A lot has been going on, as you can see. I'm just over 13 weeks pregnant, now in my second trimester. I've been wanting to spill for ages, but on some level it just didn't feel right to blog about it. Now that I've worn pregnancy comfortably for several weeks, I can talk about it. I had read a number of posts on other blogs about people announcing their pregnancies, and I wanted to shout "Me too! Me too!", but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. This feeling sort of led to my being generally discontented with my blog, so yet another reason that I've not posted.

Anyhoo....baby on the way. I'm terribly excited, and for the most part I love being pregnant. I don't know that I've ever felt healthier, and haven't had any sickness or food aversions or anything like that (okay, I apologize to every single woman who has suffered through morning sickness and suddenly hating her favorite foods). I haven't put on any weight yet, but my belly suddenly popped out and began being quite noticeable this week. In a way, that's a relief, because now I can just let it hang out and not worry about looking fat instead of pregnant.

My husband is growing accustomed to the idea - it's hard for Peter Pan to accept the idea of fatherhood. But I've seen him with his nieces and nephews, and with Joey & Mare, and I know that he'll do just fine.

Look for lots of belly shots and baby comments in the near future. Hopefully that won't be all that I have to write about, but I confess that for now, it occupies pretty much every waking moment for me.

Friday, December 08, 2006

mags is temporarily on hiatus. check back soon. thanks.