Whee!

It's snowing!

And I have a pile of kids in my house!

and I love it! THIS is what I always envisioned for my children.

Thank you strange teenagers for making my dream come true!

Times.. They are a'changin'

Christmas is over. Whew. I have to confess, it wasn't one of my most favorites and I'm glad it's over. Dont' get me wrong. This Christmas was a fine Christmas spent with people I love. It was just so very different. 10 years ago I served dinner to close to 20 people. Chaos thrived and family ran willy-nilly everywhere. This year, there were 3 of us at the dinner table. I miss my son and I miss my mom.

The good thing we did, I suppose, was totally change things up. Dinner was wonderful dungeoness crab, salad, potatoes & home made bread. Untraditional but quite tasty. I think that helped with the whole "weird factor."

Today we went in search of brew supplies. Not having ENOUGH to do with wine and potatoes, we're going to try to make mead. No stores were open today so we'll have to wait awhile. I'm thinking we should try vodka. Afterall, Peter still has a thousand pounds of potatoes to eat before they go bad.

After our failed attempts at finding an open brewing supply store we headed south to check out Salt Creek Falls. Salt Creek falls is at 4,000 feet elevation along hwy 58, east of Oakridge. The icy roads started at about 3,000 feet. It is the second highest waterfall in Oregon.

It was absolutely worth the drive.

The temperature was well below freezing. But we posed for a photo anyway.

See? Here we are. You can see the waterfall in the background.

Hitting is NOT allowed!

I got called to the principals office this evening. It seems like my mom felt compelled to defend her table mates from the criminals that were lurking about the dining room. She started swinging. She even connected a right hook along the way. Fortunately my mother has no strength or weight behind her punches so minimal damage was inflicted.

New Topic!

I finished a knitting project today. A lovely green coffee cozie.

I don't have much to say about it other than it is what it started out to be (No changing projects along the way), it looks much like I expected and it is what I intended when I started the project.

It's a complete success! YAY! This must mean I'm ready. Bring on the goats!

Yabba Dabba Boo Hoo

Remember that episode of The Flintstones where Fred is working in the rock quarry, get's momentarily distracted and has his Dinosaur drop a boulder on Mr. Slate's new Cadillac? Mr. Slate really let Fred have it.

Today I was Fred. I didn't drop a rock on anyone's car but I did make a mistake. I compromised the entire State of Oregon network infrastructure. Or.. at least you'd think I had. I did leave a door unlocked on OUR network infrastructure. More of a window really. Upper story window. I suppose it was more than unlocked though. It was wide open with coffee and donuts being served. And a big sign out front that said, "Open House."

Honestly, I screwed up. But the boss overreacted because, at the end of the day, no one came to my party (they rarely do.. I'm not a very good hostess) and a really good lesson was learned. I maintained my composure all the way back to my cube and then broke down and sobbed like a little girl. Not very professional was I!

I don't like getting yelled at. I don't like getting yelled at in front of people either.

Poor Fred. He needs more wine. Enough wine to last the next 536 days.

It was weekend.. now it's Monday!

Saturday we went a'huntin - Victory was ours! Our prey was clever, but we were cleverer. We strapped our prize to the roof like any successful hunter.

Then we decorated. Mostly Jill, but Peter and I pitched in too. Mostly Jill though.

We took in the Salem Festival of Lights Parade. Jill marched for two miles. It was cold but she was working hard and stayed warm. I dressed in layers and my fancy schmancy algorithm is still unproven.

We went to dinner after the parade and met delightful strangers.



On Sunday we went for a lovely hike at Silverfalls State Park.

Normally, in the cold, I would hunker down in my warm house and look at the world through the window. I have to thank Peter, from the bottom of my heart, for all the beauty and wonder he has shown me. He has opened my eyes to the most amazing things that this world has to offer. He is truly a remarkable human being.

He left last night about 6:00. I hate it when he leaves. :(

Today mom called me. It seems someone sent all her furniture to Placerville, Ca. I took care of that and a few hours later she called me to ask me come pick her up. It seems she was at the service station and needed a ride home. (not). I went over and spent some time with her. She was in her paranoid phase. She was sure her family was in danger. She was quite anxious. According to the front desk, she had yelled at the staff earlier. They were taking out the garbage, she yelled across the common room, "Stop!! My daughter is in there!"

She's very confused. But I love her.

Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese

A loyal and faithful reader found this book and suggested it. It looks fascinating.. and it IS Christmas season... I'm just hinting.. :)

Speaking of Christmas season. Last night was the McKay High School Band concert. I have a video.

Tomorrow the McKay HS marching band is marching in Salem's Festival of Lights. The temperature has not been over 32 degrees here in a week (this morning it was 12). But fortunately it's been dry. Tomorrow it's supposed to start precipitating with freezing rain. Poor Jill. Poor Sharon and Peter who must go stand out there and watch. brrrrrrr..

There is a mathematical formula I'm working on.. If you take the ambient air temperature and divide it by the value assigned to the precipitation (freezing rain=2, snow=3, regular rain=1), minus the speed of the wind you come up with the temperature of my butt.

I'm figuring tomorrow my backside will be about (22/2)-5=6 degrees F. If they gave us relevant questions like this in high school algebra I probably would have gotten a better grade!

They're back!

Those stinky invisible people have returned. This time they've been sleeping in my mom's bed. How rude!

You see.. it all started at 2:00 am this morning. She called me and told me not to be shocked - but that she was at my house and would I please come downstairs. She said she didn't know how she got here, but here she was. She needed help re-making her bed because she had removed the sheets and washed them in the shower - "those people" had been sleeping in her bed and she didn't want to sleep in their dirty sheets. She wasn't here, of course. But I called the caregivers at her building and "we" (they) got her settled back in and taken care of.

I was so tired when my alarm went off at 5:30 that I decided to go to work late. Only before I could go back to sleep she called to tell me she was at my house again. She couldn't understand that I wasn't just upstairs.

She called again about 6:30. Same story, but this time she was hungry and wanted food as well.

I stopped by her place on my way to work. She was in the dining room, toast in hand. I said, "oh, you finally got breakfast!" She said, "I haven't had breakfast. They haven't fed me all day!"

Snoball is over...I got photos!

Photos make moms happy. We're a sappy bunch.

Is it Snowing??

No! But it's Snoball season just the same!

Jill is going to the big SnoBall dance tomorrow. It's a City-wide winter formal here in Salem. It's a pretty big deal.

The girls ask the boys in some extravagant fashion and then the boys pay for everything. Weird system, but it seems to work.

A couple weeks ago I helped Jill ask her boyfriend, Zeke to the dance. It was quite an adventure. Jill's great idea was to get all her friends to drive by Zeke, one at a time, each with a different word written on their cars..

ZEKE, WILL YOU GO TO SNOBALL WITH ME? ♥JILL

It was a great idea... until her friends started dropping out of the plan. Last minute phone calls to several of my dear friends and we managed to get enough cars afterall. I was "Zeke" Jill was "♥Jill". It was great fun. Zeke said yes. My friend Lori drove around with "Me?" on her car for three days. I wonder what people thought?

So now we've been in the last minute preparation frenzy..

• dress? check
• shoes? check
• handbag? check
• jewelry? check
• corsage & boutonniere? check check

Ahh.. to be young again.. here is a photo from MY first winter formal... Don't all laugh at once!