The Silent Killer

I think that's supposed to be carbon monoxide or something, but whenever big snowstorms hit I always think of it as snow. Maybe I SHOULD get drunk sometimes - I really need to chillax.

Anyhoo, so yeah; we've had a ton of snow. Well, not compared to like, Mt Rainier I guess, but a lot for us.

Shannon came over late Sunday night and ended up getting stuck here - at that point I was a *little* worried about what things would be like the next morning, but the snowfall was lightening up and it didn't seem THAT bad, so I figured things would be okay. There was enough snow on the ground to scrape up a quick snowball to toss at Brett in the kitchen (I enjoy thowing snowballs indoors, because that's where people least expect them), but not enough to cover the car. Yet.

The next morning things were much worse (about 8+ inches worse), but despite the news stations showing accidents and talking about downed trees, etc, Brett decided he should still try to go to work. Understandable - he's been gone for two weeks. Something to know however: he works 30 miles from here. Needless to say I was a bit concerned, but Shannon and I agreed to help him dig the car out, and even though my whomping cough is now even more whompinger (yes, I said that), it was so much fun that I think it was worth it.

We couldn't find any of our pairs of gloves, but B and I both have awesome matching blue parkas that are HUGE and keep you warm pretty much no matter what (thanks, dad). So Shannon threw on her gear, B tossed his giant parka on over his suit, and I threw mine on over my nightgown and a pair of knee-high leather boots with 3" heels (whatevs - it was 6am) and we went out with a broom, dustpan, and non-snow shovel to try and dig the Corolla out of the snow.

We shoveled and scraped and Brett kept "accidentally" brushing snow off the car straight into my boots, but we got the car cleaned off, and then worked on digging space in the snow behind the tires for easier backing-out. All the while, so much snow was still falling that it was even building up on top of our hoods, and on the newly cleaned off Corolla. Branches from several trees in our yard were literally TOUCHING THE GROUND they were so heavy with snow, and the big red bush by the driveway that usually stands taller than me had been flattened down to modest height of about four feet.

Shannon and I pointed all of these things out to Brett, but he still insisted on trying to make it to the office. Such a worker bee! So he gets in the car (it had been warming up while we shoveled) and I'm all stressed out and like, "I have my cellphone with me; call me if you need anything! Stay away from other cars on the freeway! I LOVE YOU!!!" Etc. Shannon and I back away from the car, Brett rolls up the window, throws it in reverse, backs down the driveway, and...

Fishtails right into the bushes by the mailbox. He's lucky he didn't commit a Federal offense. He tried for several tire-spinning minutes to move the car again, but to no avail. It was at that point he happened to receive a call from a co-worker who said that she'd been without power all night and was STILL snowed in and STILL without power, and that she wasn't coming in. I took this as an opportunity to peer pressure Brett back into the warm house with the justification that if he seriously can't even get out of the DRIVEWAY, how's he supposed to get all the way to work? And BACK?

Dispite his frustration, he came back inside and worked from home for a few hours. It stopped snowing around 8am and the sun came out, so Shannon decided to brave her way back across town to her parents' house, so she and I dug her car out while our neighbor took pictures (seriously, this is a LOT of snow for our town). Even with all of her Pullman snow-driving expertise, Shannon still had some difficulty getting her car onto the street, but once she was in the grooves most likely left behind by someone's beloved SUV, she was cool.

After that, Brett dialed into a meeting while I made a small bare-hand-crafted (where the fuck are all my gloves and mittens?) snow person out back. Brett decided to take another go at driving to work around 10am so we dug the car out again, and after he spent a few minutes ripping the shit out of my tires and filling the neighborhood with the smell of burning rubber, he too made it into the SUV grooves on the road, and ended up getting to work just fine.

Fortunately, he was able to leave work around 4pm and therefore also made it back HOME just fine; he probably beat the snow traffic by about 5 minutes, and according to the news "thousands" of people either didn't make it home at all last night, or spent about 5-6 hours getting there. Blech. So many cars were abandoned that apparently it was a 5-hour wait just for a tow truck.

Because of this, Premera decided to close this morning & B's boss was thoughtful enough to call at 5:30 to let him know (otherwise, he probably would've left a few minutes later). They opened up again at 8am though, so that's when he left, and he got there just fine not too long after.

Now it's afternoon-time, and even though none of our snow or ice has melted, cars are starting to get around just fine, as the grooves in the road get wider and wider. Our road still makes squeaky, crunchy noises when people drive by the house, but nobody seems to have trouble with it if they drive slow. Never the less, neither our garbage OR recycling have been picked up yet (they're supposed to go out Monday), and the guy who came this afternoon to change our phones to digital voice was here for about 5 minutes, said something about the phone wire they use being really fragile in the cold and about the ground being frozen, blah blah blah, and said he'd have to come back another time. Weak.

On a more disturbing note, have you seen Britney Spears' vagina lately? I didn't think there was a young hot celebrity crotch out there more cringe inducing than Paris Hilton's public restroom of a coochie. I guess I was wrong.

Tiny Hair!

So okay, *I* haven't taken any pictures of my tiny new haircut, but Alison has! Since I'm all scrunched up holding Shirley-kitty up to the camera with my giant, fat arm, you can't really see the whole haircut, but at least you can see that it's short:



And if you haven't seen him recently, please also note that Brett has (finally) shaved his faux-terrorist beard:

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

And we should really get our chimney swept
And Brett totally needs to go to work tomorrow
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

So...yeah. I'd say we have a good two inches so far, and it's only falling thicker and faster as the evening has progressed. It's supposed to get warmer before dawn tomorrow though, so maybe it'll all be slush by the time Brett leaves. I hate it when Brett has to commute on icy roads, and I've heard that the power is already out in parts of Everett from tree branches falling, so now I'm worried about both falling branches AND the power going out here, but so far things have been fine. I'm just sitting here with the last of our thanksgiving left overs, some cranberry Sierra Mist, and a bunch of open Safari tabs adding things to my "giftsforme" tagged Wists. Nice and cozy. :)

I wish Brett could stay home with me and be snowed in tomorrow, but I know he'll try to get into work no matter how bad the weather is, because he's been out for two weeks, and before this he was only there for two weeks after being gone for a previous two week stint.

Don't think he's been on vaca this whole time, either; in October one of the two weeks was to do work offsite for Virginia Mason, and the other was bereavement for my grandpa in Oklahoma, and this month the first of the two weeks was to train people in Spokane, and the second (which is just now ending) was vaca. Even the vacation time wasn't super relaxing - he flew back from Spokane Friday night, and then bright and early Saturday morning we drove to Portland for appointments (hair for me, nutritionist for me, life coach for both), marathon Christmas shopping, and visiting with my fam.

Brett came down with a cold Sunday night but pushed through the whole visit like a champ. I drove us home Tuesday afternoon while Brett slept (still feeling crappy), and when we finally got home we pretty much just crashed and slept through the night. Wednesday was spent with me looking up Thanksgiving recipes for "mashed potato alternatives" (since Brett's allergic to potatoes) and tidying up at home, while Brett searched our local grocery stores for yucca and/or Jerusalem artichokes. I started to feel sort of worn down on Wednesday night but hoped it would just go away. Thursday (Thanksgiving!) morning I made like, seriously, six quarts of mashed potatoes (using three different kinds of potatoes, boiled separately, mashed by hand, and mixed with homemade roasted garlic) while Brett (not having found a store that carries Jerusalem artichokes in November) peeled, boiled, & mashed his yucca. Not an easy process - yucca are NOT as soft as potatoes.

Thanksgiving dinner was perfect and happy and great, and after dinner we hung out with Brett's family and had pie and cheesecake and other goodies and watched Slither, which I've seen three times since I got it from Netflix last week, and which I bought on Friday because IT'S FRIGGING AWESOME. By the time Slither was over though, I was feeling pretty sick, so we went home soon after that and I went to sleep. Friday morning we were out the door at 6am for Thanksgiving sales (Fred Meyer & Best Buy), then drove downtown to meet up with my mom, Brian, Joe, Chris, Sarah, Maria, and Joe's friend Morgan to see Bodies.

After the Exhibition I was feeling pretty sick, which had less to do with spending two hours staring down skin-stripped cadavers and more to do with my rapidly increasing temperature. Bodies was amazing btw; if you're near one of the hosting locations you should totally go. At our exhibition they even had a teratoma, complete with hair AND teeth! But freakshow-esque medical anomalies aside, it was really quite awe-inspiring. I'd even go so far as to say it was beautiful. And everyone there seemed very respectful of the men, women and children whose bodies were on display, which was nice too.

But I digress. The POINT was that after the exhibition I felt like shit. We were supposed to go see "The Pick of Destiny" right after Bodies, but by the time we got up north I already had a pretty bad fever, so Brett thought we should just stay home. I actually cried. Which should've been a clue to myself that I was too sick to do anything, but no. I told him that if we weren't going to see a movie, we at least had to do SOMETHING, so we went shopping for awhile (and ran into Alison and pals at Pier 1) until I was so sick I was almost falling over, and then we went home, and I pretty much slept and coughed and whined and snotted and slept and drank water and slept and whined and slept and ate crackers and slept until this morning.

Which sucked, because last night we were supposed to see "Anything Goes", featuring our one of our bestest friends: Jon. So Brett went sans-Cat and got to see Jon's play, hang out with Megan, Aaron, Dan, and Jon after the play, and got to go to ♥Applebees♥ until 2am while I coughed and snotted and slept and ate crackers and slept. When we finally woke up (late) this morning, I felt well enough to at least sit upright (which is something, trust me), so I've been slothing around in the living room all day.

Which pretty much brings me up to date. I still haven't taken any pictures of my new hair, but since I'm sure no one wanted to see it all pillow-smashed and fever-sweaty, I don't feel badly about putting it off till later. :)

Does Anyone Remember Popples?

I LOVED popples when I was a kid, and I was looking for a comment graphic for a friend of ours who's having a baby and I came across this:

Glitter Graphics

and almost peed my pants. THEY'RE SO CUTE!!!

In other, less important news, I cut off my hair! Well, half of it anyway. It's now shoulder length, and it's soooo much lighter and easier to take care of. I keep referring to it as my "tiny hair" because it just feels so much smaller than before - my ponytail right now doesn't even hit the back of my neck! I'm getting used to it pretty quickly though; it's a pretty good haircut. :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! :D

Can I just say...

Thank god we have a brand new sump pump. Click HERE for more info. And check out this craptacular extended forcast for our zipcode:



If I were Christian, I'd probably be building an ark right now. Or you know...I'd like, already have built it. Since I think that's how the story went.