April Update

It's Saturday night. My parents are out of town. The kids and I are sick. And it's been snowing for ages. But we've got plenty of food and medicine, a fireplace and warm blankets, and each other. So actually, life is pretty good.

But can it please be spring soon? Pretty please with whipped cream and a cherry on top? Huh? Sigh.

Bloody Weather

Yeah, it's been a weird weather day, as you may have heard. Twisters everywhere, power outages, school lockdowns, hail-battered cars. One of the guys TM's working with this week heard the following from a friend in a bit of a quandary: "I tried to go to work, but when I got there the building was gone. So I went home-- well, I tried to..." You guessed it, that was gone, too.

On the other hand, TM got out of work early. And our therapist canceled our appointment tonight. ("Marriage Counseling Called on Account of Tornadoes" makes an awesome headline, don't you think?) But since we had a sitter already, we got to have a date-- a REAL date. We saw Indiana Jones 4 and it was heaven. (Me: "Cate Blanchett?! Really?!") And the kids had fun, too. So it was good for us.

[P.S. I totally wanna be Cate Blanchett.]

What's Up

Sick again. Don't know whether this has anything to do with the additional foot of snow we got this week, but maybe... Missed writer's group again because of it. They're gonna think I don't love them anymore.

#1 Son is at his first jujitsu exhibition tonight. He's already an orange belt, or is it brown? He's gotten both, I just can't remember which is which. All this as part of the wonderful school we send the kids to. I totally love it.

As I mentioned a while ago, we got a photo taken of our family, enough to send to all our friends and relatives. The photo cost $10; now we can't afford postage. I feel pretty silly. Well, eventually TM will get a job and we'll have some money again. Really. I have to believe it.

Speaking of my dear husband, he interviewed a couple weeks ago for a job that would be absolutely perfect for him-- and would pay twice what he could get around here. (Yeah, it's quite far away, and I don't know how we'd arrange the transportation, but we would. They'd let him telecommute most of the time "once he's settled in" so it would totally be worth it.)

We did take a test drive of a really spiffy new-model SUV recently; the dealership was offering restaurant gift cards. The sales guy was new, so he didn't remember to ask whether we could actually finance a new car before our test drive. Nope, sorry, no income means no sale. Sorry. This is one time when "no" is not the start of the sale.

Don't know what else. I've had a lot on my mind and have mentally composed several posts recently, but I can't remember what about. Maybe it'll come back later. Stay tuned.

Getting Better

Well, I'm mostly over the cold. Which is good, because The Man and the little pirates have it now, and I'm on call.

I'm not getting very far with my NaNo thing, but that's OK. It's Year 3, which is always the most miserable year anyway. And I'm not completely losing, just oh, about halfway to where I should be by now. The important thing is that I'm making a start on the script to the new musical.

And, um... Pirate Boy won a "Nobel Prize" the other day for a machine he built for 2nd grade science fair. Cool huh? He dismantled it before I could get a picture, though, darn him.

Speaking of pictures, we got a family photo taken last Saturday for the first time since Pirate Boy was a baby. Well, we got about 30 of them taken. One of them wasn't entirely horrible. So we bought it.

What else? It's cold here. Nasty cold. Can it seriously be late November already?

I Just Want to Say

I love the smell of lilacs in the morning! (And every other time of day.)

Not too fond of having migraines every day, or of having multiple periods a month.

I guess I take the good with the bad.

Mysterious Ways

I just want to share with you the latest evidence I have that God knows everything and loves each of us. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering that, especially that last part. The problem is that I don't know everything, at least not ahead of time. Well, today I learned something. Let me tell you a story.

The Man (TM) and I have been trying for several months to get things together for a special, important event that we were hoping would happen this weekend. The kids have a long weekend, it's between semesters for my brothers-in-law and before finals for TM... and it's late enough in the season that the weather should have been perfect for driving through the mountains. It was just the right time to have our--well, our second wedding. For all we knew, it was.

But things kept getting in the way. People who should have been helping us kept... forgetting or something. Nobody could do this or that, and pretty soon it was just too late. We'd have to wait a few weeks. Well, it was disappointing. I cried and I fumed. It wasn't supposed to be like this. See how mature I am. Pooh.

But this morning at 6:15 when the radio alarm went off and the weather announcer said the words "avalanche danger in the mountains," I suddenly understood. And I'm so grateful that my will isn't always the one done. Oh, I have so far to go.

Hold That Thought

The weather here lately has reminded me of the line Jim Carrey (as The Riddler) delivers in Batman Forever to Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones):

"Not many people are both a summer and a winter, but you pull it off nicely."

(Just as a little aside, did you recognize Drew Barrymore in that scene? Neither did I.)

Starting to lose consciousness again... No, wait, take a look at this.

Oh Yeah

Forgot to mention: Easter weekend, second week of April, right? And it's snowing. Again.

It did this the first year we were in this state, too, but not since then, I think. Can it really have been 8 whole years? Yep, almost to the day. I've never lived anywhere else for 8 consecutive years. I'm not sure we intended to be here that long, but here we still are, and here we'll stay until the Evil One's grip is loosed from us. (Maybe another 6 years.)

Sigh. Hey, maybe I'll luck out and die first. Whew!

Hanging Out, Hanging On

Hmmm, I thought I'd posted more recently than last week. Ah, must have been the post for my writers group. Nevermind.

It's been spring break for my gang, so I've been alternately busy and relaxing (read: unconscious). Plus, it's been Migraine Week for me, so I've stayed away from the computer more than usual. (Though I had a good chat with Wendy Darling this week; hi, Wendy!)

Anyway, it's been a pretty good week for the family overall. Our VA money came through and we were able to put our bank account right and pay our car payment for the month. (Whew! Another miracle comes through at the last second!) The weather's been wonderful--mostly warm and sunny, with patches of cool rain that felt so refreshing. The Man (TM) took the kids to the library twice this week, and we rented and watched a total of 9 Shakespeare plays. (Punkin Boy especially likes "The Taming of the Shrew"-- I think because it was done by puppets; what're you going to do?)

And that's about it. Our break is over; the boys go back to school Monday, and we'll be getting their grades soon. So stay tuned; I feel sure the drama will return.

Under the Weather

I just want to say:

IT'S SNOWING AGAIN! AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!

Sigh.

An Ill Wind

Just when I think the weather here is bad, along comes a whacker of a storm and trashes Florida (again). My cousin lives there and has weathered a lot of hurricanes with her young horde, so I've stopped worrying so much about her. But Kory O and her husband and baby live there lately, too, so I took a minute to check the devastation path on CNN.com. Her town wasn't mentioned as being hit, but I'm still worried. It was close-- too close. And I haven't heard from her. Again. Which is totally understandable when you've got all this stuff going on, but...

So, Kory, if you're out there and you can read this, let me know you're OK, eh? And the rest of you, if you wouldn't mind, remember Kory and the Tsar and the little Tsarevich... and all their neighbors in central Florida. Thanks.

Distress Call

Dragging myself out of a slough of misery to report that I've had a bad cold for 3 days straight, gone through 2 bottles of DayQuil and 1 giant box of tissues, and there's no end in sight. Can't breathe, can't sleep, can't swallow, can barely move. And to give it that extra drama, The Man is sick, too, but the kids aren't.

Did I mention we're getting MORE snow tomorrow?

OK, back to your regularly scheduled lives.

Spice Cupboard of my Mind

So I was buzzing around my kitchen tonight (baking more banana bread, if you must know) when I found my mental radio station tuned to the Butthole Surfers' song "Pepper"-- you know the one, "They were all in love with dyin', they were doing it in Texas." The lyrics of songs sometimes get stuck at a certain point when they're running through my head, as if my subconcious is trying to send me a message. But strangely enough, I wasn't stuck on the "cinnamon and sugary" part.
No, it was this part:

Some will die in hot pursuit
In fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is [what, boys and girls?]

...pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain

Yep. Some days I'm so sick of this place I'd even move to Texas-- or Alabama.

Ta-Dah!

I figured out how to hook up my new digital camera, took a picture of the (halfway melted) snow out my back window, used Picasa's "Blog This" function, and... POOF! There you have it. Expect more of this silliness in the future.

Scone, entering the photography age
(What, only 150 years late? Meh.)

And now for something completely the same...

It's snowing. Again. I'm just sayin'.

White Christmas and Other Fairy Tales

Well, we had a good one. Everything worked out, the kids loved their presents (hey, who doesn't love seeing their favorite Star Wars characters fly into tiny Lego bits?), and we managed to keep them happy with just the "Santa" stuff until my folks arrived Christmas afternoon. They got here safely, we had a good hour or two of unwrapping fun presents, and we ate lots of good food.

Some really fun stuff made its appearance during this time. Punkin Boy, who is diligently learning to read, now owns Volume 2 of The Electric Company ("Hey, you guys!"), which was a favorite TV show of mine ages ago. And Pirate Boy is now the captain of no less than two new pirate ships (complete with cannon and harpoon gun) and dresses every day in his official Jack Sparrow pirate gear. Among the presents The Man (TM) and I received were a fluffy warm featherbed (must locate a duvet cover!) and... a digital camera! (Holy crud, such a nice one, too!) Our families are awesome.

The folks had to leave again Wednesday afternoon, which at the time was a bit of a bummer for us, but... by now you've heard about the second blizzard that hit us-- yes, it was Thursday. So very exciting. This time, we were prepared. In fact, we ended up with more food than we had room for and had to ask our wonderful neighbors if they wouldn't mind keeping some extra milk and veggies for us. (And if they happened to need some, well, all the better.)

Friday somebody in a bulldozer came through our neighborhood pushing snow off the streets, which was very nice. Now we all have these 4-foot walls of jagged ice around our property. Handy in case of invasion. The mailbox has one, too, but fortunately, the mail hasn't really been running lately. (Case in point, we just this weekend received our mortgage statement for the payment due today. I hope they're not holding their breath.)

Fortunately, TM was able to get the car out today to make the long drive to pick up #1 Son from "Mommy's" house. He's full of excitement about all his relatives he was able to meet on his trip to the South. And of course all the money they gave him. Well, who wouldn't be? I'm still a bit suspicious that That Woman will take us to court and sue for custody in, oh, 6 weeks or so, because we're too poor to support her baby and all. OK, more than a bit suspicious.

But (aside from some sniffles in the little punkins) we are doing fine, we really are. Snowbound, a little. But well fed, decidedly. A little too much so. In fact, anyone want to come over for some egg nog and pecan pie? Pumpkin bread and cocoa? I have those cute holiday marshmallows... Anybody?

Rewriting the Story

I just want to say up front, I am not whining. But it is interesting the way things happen. Fortunately, I'm a writer and I just file away the stories for future use. I'm not alone in this behavior, either. One of the local novelists had his car window smashed and his briefcase stolen during NaNoWriMo (and a nasty cold snap). After all the sympathy and good wishes from others in our area forum, someone piped up, "You are going to put this in your novel, right?" His instant response ("Of course!") made me laugh out loud.

Anyway, here's what's been happening to us lately. It's got the makings of a good story. (By the way, some of the back story is here. More of it is here.)

In this story, the villain is the blizzard. Tuesday evening, we had no idea what was coming. The Man (TM) had gotten a two-night temp job for Wed. and Thur., and my folks would be arriving Friday. The kids had one more day of school, and they were pretty excited about it. Then our neighbor (wonderful woman) called and warned us that we were supposed to get "a foot or two" of snow the next day, not just the small flurries we'd heard about. But she would still try to watch the Punkin while TM and I went shopping. No problem, probably.

Usually, it's pretty dry around here, but every few years we get a huge storm and can't get out of the house for a day or two. After that, things start melting and everything goes back to normal, so even now, we didn't sweat it much. Wednesday morning, the snow started by 7 a.m., but it hadn't started really piling up, so TM took the kids to school as usual.

By noon, the snow was definitely piling up and the visibility was getting low. I checked the school's Web site, which said something like "We will be open as usual today, but we recommend that you come get your kids NOW." TM was out the door in no time. Two and a half hours later, he and the kids arrived home again, shaking. "We survived!" was all TM had to say. The roads were completely covered, in many cases gone without a trace.

The snow kept falling all day. We didn't get to the store, needless to say. Our neighbor's husband totalled their car in a town 30 miles away and didn't know when he'd be able to get home. She was panicking about being alone with their two little kids, snowed in, indefinitely. I don't think it helped her when we pointed out that not even burglars would be out in that weather. TM didn't have to go to work that night, either, which was fine with me.

I was still pretty optimistic about the chances of our Christmas plans working out. Thursday was sunny, and by noon, the snow was melting off our roof. We spent the day cleaning the house and didn't pay much attention to the situation. That afternoon, the roads were clear, and our neighbors were reunited. By that evening, every driveway in the neighborhood (except ours) was clear, and people were driving around. I checked online and discovered that the airport would be open at noon today. I thought that was good news.

My mom called last night at 11 and said their flight was cancelled because it had been scheduled to land just minutes before the airport opened. All other flights were booked, of course, until The Day itself. So instead of them arriving this afternoon and getting to spend holiday leadup time playing, reading, baking, singing, and generally enjoying the time with us and our boys, they will be arriving Monday afternoon, missing #1 Son by a couple days and present-opening time by who knows how many hours.

Did you ever see Rocketship X-M (the MST3K version, especially)? You know the part where they discover the ship is nearly out of fuel and they won't be able to land? (Oh, now I've blown it all for you; sorry.) With the phone up to my ear last night, hearing my mom tell me the news, I heard Crow T. Robot say cynically, "This ought to test Lloyd's sunny disposition..." And it did.

So now the challenge is to keep ourselves occupied until then. They'll only be able to stay a couple of days now; that's the price of being working grandparents of kids in 3 states. (Oh yeah, and having a life, too.) There aren't enough vacation days to go around. I think we'll be able to amuse the little guys for a few hours with just their "Santa" presents, I told my mom. We'll wait to open other stuff when you arrive.

That's what I said. But you know how things haven't been getting to the stores, post offices, etc., for a few days? Because of this blizzard, you know. Well, yeah. We took all the kids shopping tonight; thought they could buy each other presents and we could pick up some things, too. TM went out later to get the Santa gifts, or so we thought. Turns out there's not much in the stores. Especially the one by our house-- apparently a couple of their delivery trucks slid off the roads and were completely destroyed, so there will be no more toys for Christmas. We (i.e., TM) could try again tomorrow, except his job got rescheduled for all day tomorrow, and that's all the time we have left. We keep the Sabbath in part by not shopping (making other people work) on Sundays. The clock is ticking...

All righty then. Now, if this were a story, how would I work out these plot complications? How would you do it?

Holiday Fun

This one's for you, Kailani: a white Christmas! See, you can have one after all!

And Now, the Weather

What the heck? It's getting on for the middle of November and we've got sunshine, blue skies, and 78 degrees out. I repeat, what the--?

Oh yeah, it had to get that hot so it can snow on Friday. Of course. Never mind. As you were.

Everyone's a Critic

I happened across this travel article on CNN.com today and was browsing through it 'cause boy, I need a vacation. It's all about beach resorts, and just looking at the pictures (instead of the snow on the ground outside) was very relaxing. As I reached the end of the "Pacific Coast" section, a comment caught my eye. It was about the Turtle Bay Resort (which was a Hilton when I spent my wedding night there). In the very first sentence, the writer says, "Turtle Bay Resort may underwhelm you as you enter the... uninspired grounds." I'm sorry, things may have changed since I was there last, but HUH? Take a look at the photos and see whether you're inspired or underwhelmed. I fully plan to be inspired as I go to bed now and reflect on the memories of eating guava cake for breakfast on the lanai with my sweetheart as I watched the waves break and felt the soft ocean breeze. I didn't pay any $900 a night, either. Who writes this stuff?