Thanksmas in Texas

I made marshmallows!

Today’s Exploit:

My parents came to Texas for Thanksmas this year. I told them it was going to be really nice and to bring some shorts. And then the weather changed and we spent the week with windy mid 30* weather. However, they were not too disappointed because they left -30* weather when they came here.

We went Thanksmas shopping and failed to complete any of my well organized plans for entertainment. We had Christmas Sausage and Bran Muffins and my dad ran the Jingle Bell 5k with me. I think it was actually called Sights and Sounds, but everyone was wearing jingle bells. 

And then we opened gifts and everyone was happy and Cupcake and Arley procrastinated going back to Albuquerque because they were afraid of ice storms. 

A Ski Trip for Texans

On my way home I stopped at the office to talk to Joanne, the HR person. She wanted to make sure I wasn’t too traumatized by my experiences in Canada. She asked me a few times if I was ok and then we talked about other things for a few hours. 

Her daughter wants to be an engineer and a baker, too. I like her already and we’ve never met. I hope she grows up to be everything she dreams of.

Today’s Exploit:

I went home for a visit. I took H. and Klay with me. I wanted to make them ski. I knew it would be great entertainment. I imagined graphic scenes of a snowball with skis and poles rolling down the hill and yelling. And naturally I’d be skiing gracefully behind it laughing and helping it up at the bottom. As for Klay, I figured he’d pick it up in no time at all.

And it was great entertainment while my dad was teaching Klay. I saw a few good crashes, and the skis came off a few times while flailing and trying to fall sideways. But then Dad had to go back to work and the teaching was left entirely to me. 

That was scary. 

I’m not that great a skier, how am I supposed to teach a four year old?

So we did a few more runs before he decided it was too hard and started telling me he was scared. Then I got irritated and hungry and decided we should stop before I left him in the middle of a windy hill. 

So we had lunch and I switched to a snowboard, which is not the best of ideas in my opinion, I’m just getting somewhat comfortable at the skiing thing. 

I went with H. up the kiddy hill and I made us wreck when getting off the lift. Off to a good start. 

But then H. took a wrong turn and I had to climb back up the hill to follow him, since he was going too fast and ignored me when I asked if he really wanted to go that way.  That way took a long time because the road sloped sideways, and it’s hard to get up and get some momentum when you have to go into the trees to do it. At any rate, I got a good ab workout leapfrogging up to the top side of the road and slipping slowly to the bottom side, just to repeat it all again.

When we got to the bottom, after a very strenuous time for both of us, is when I got to break the news about taking another ride on the chairlift. See, the way we went took us to the back side and we were stuck FAR away from the lodge, and the only way back is to take another run. 

On that one I finally was able to turn a little, which is amazing considering that the other two times I tried to snowboard I was way to scared of catching my back edge and landing on my head. 

I still landed on my bum once or twice or 37.682 times, but didn’t make it so far as my head. 

Needless to say we were done with snowboarding after that, but I did hear a whisper saying that we can go skiing again next time.  

Yay!

Some Pictures on a Drive

I was just very disappointed by a very sugary cup of strawberries and whipped cream. An excess of fake whipped cream and a few over-ripe strawberries are not my idea of an ideal combination. 

Today’s Exploit:

I drove some in Canada.

The rig was an 8.7 hour drive from Calgary. So I took 2 pictures to show you that.

Lots of open space, but trees.

Hey look! MOUNTAINS!

The rig is also 1.98 hours from the nearest city. So I took 2 more pictures to show you. 

You’re welcome.

My New Year's Adventure

I am doing the Insanity workout. I am starting week 3 today. I don’t remember my feet cramping so much last time I did this. 

Ouch.

Today’s Exploit:

Some time last month I was told: “AAAHHHHHHH! WE ARE SHORT ON PEOPLE IN CANADA AND HAVE TO MANY PEOPLE HERE AND THEREFORE YOU MUST LEAVE IN TWO DAYS!”

And my reply was: “Um, two days? I don’t really have anything together.”

Then they said, “BUT WE NEED YOU THERE THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY AND NO ONE ELSE HAD THEIR PAPERWORK OR PASSPORT CRAP TOGETHER AND THEREFORE YOU ARE THE ONE THAT MUST LEAVE YESTERDAY!”

So I said: “Ok, I need to go home and pack, and maybe buy something warm to wear since Texas never sees temperatures below 98 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Then some plans changed and they told me: “OK YOU CAN HAVE 5 DAYS AT HOME BUT YOU MUST DO ALL THE TRAVEL ORGANIZATION AND CLASS REQUIREMENT SCHEDULING YOURSELF ON THIS REALLY CONFUSING WEBSITE!”

And I managed to get everything organized, through the company website, along with some plans for expense reports and got a call from the manager telling me to be at the shop the same time I was supposed to be taking Emergency First Aid. 

Yay for confusion.

Anyway, some Canadian pictures for your viewing pleasure.

My home for 2.1 days. I walked in and out the door 37 times the night I got there, I'm pretty sure the desk attendant hated me.

I thought my sister would like this. A nice little market place 3 or 4.3 blocks from my home. It's kinda like a mall with an imports grocery in the middle.

And then I found a river island and fell in love, because it has a running path, a skating rink and a coffee shop that was closed for New Year's holiday.

See how much I loved it? I even learned to use the settings on my camera for it.

And I loved it some more with picnic tables and a strange cowboy hat-swing in the background.

That was the bridge where I discovered the skating rink. It was on the river, on both sides of the bridge with chairs and cones for new skaters and people doing jumps and some kids playing illegal hockey and all sorts of fun stuff. I was sad I didn't have my skates with me.

Calgary has some really awesome street lamps also, I was in love with them too.

Sleeping in the Rain

I used my new stove for the first time yesterday.   It was amazing.  

I made french toast.  

Now I need to come up with something that it might actually make a difference for.  Like caramel or custard or clotted cream.

I also might need a copper sauce pan.  

Today’s Exploit:

I took my friend Kevin, who doesn’t like to be called Kevin, to Wyoming.

We went to the cabin for a weekend with the madness that is the typical Naylor/Hepner/Kalberer get-together.

I like to sleep outside, so he decided to be brave and try to handle the “cold” as well.

When we went to bed it was gorgeous and clear and the fire was quietly fading.  

Unfortunately some time later clouds came in the rain started.  At first it was just spitting at me.  But it woke me up.  

I didn’t want to be wet so I woke Kevin and told him it was raining.  

He gave me a disgusted look and told me it wasn’t.

I told him I was going to move to the porch anyway and he could get wet if he wanted.

So I gathered my cot and sleeping pad and sleeping bag and toted it to the  porch of the bathhouse.  Good sense kicked in and Kevin followed me a few seconds later.  

We got re-situated and 82 seconds later it started really raining, but we stayed nice and dry on the porch.  And it was still nice and cool.

When we got back to Texas his family asked how it went.

Kevin:  She made me sleep outside in the cold and the rain.

Me:  ... (Incredulous look)

Family:  ...Oh?

Kevin:  Fine, she actually made me wake up and move out of it.  Even though I didn’t want to.

Zamboni

Things to laugh at:

1. Found this at ‘i am your canadian boyfriend’

2. And this lovely gem about driving. I heart number 4. Please read.

Today’s Exploit:

You remember that time? That time when I was in Dallas for that super-awesome dance? It was fun. But in order to be there for the dance I had to spend 10 hours doing other stuff in Dallas.

So I went to a mall. That sounds fun, right? Not so much when I remembered that I hate clothes shopping (I did find a spatula store, though) and I hate crowds.

Thus, after wandering around the 4 stories of the super-giant mall, I got bored and decided I wanted to ice skate.

Texas is kinda crazy and has ice skating rinks in most of the shopping malls I’ve been to. I don’t understand it. But I find it rather perplexing to see regular people skating in shorts and tank tops, I mean other than the Olympics. But even then they have to wear sweatpants and jackets on the sidelines.

I kinda wanted to go out on the rink and lay down, and hug the ice. Because it’s only March and it’s already at least 92 degrees outside. In my opinion I should still need a down jacket in March and I am not getting used to summers, even though this is my third one here. I Hate it. Capital H.

But I digress. I wanted to ice skate, so I went to my car for socks. Naturally I was wearing sandals because anything else would have caused a massive heat stroke. (During this trip my dad had his phone die while he was talking on it for the very first time. He asked me why the mall kept beeping, I had no idea.) But, naturally, by the time I got back to the ice rink it had been taken over by 567 6th graders. Who had probably never seen ice before, except during the last Super Bowl when they got 8 inches of snow.

So I sighed a super-ginormous sigh and went and got some French fries. Then I sat and watched the kids totter and fall and drag themselves around the ice by the handrail. It was tragic.

Until the mini-zamboni came out.

This is what I want for Christmas.  Or maybe Grandparents' Day.  It would be a good Grandparents' Day gift.

That was super-awesome. I am in love. And my dad wants one. I think he’d try to zamboni the lake with it. It would be so much easier than trying to shovel the durn thing.

Springtime!

Tonight I took pizza and Rice Krispy Treats to dance. The pizza was gone before I got my shoes on, but only 4 pieces of the rice krispys were gone.

I may have to change tactics for future dances.

Today’s Exploit:

I saw this tree today.

Aww, pretty.

I also saw it about a year ago, encased in a quarter inch of ice.

Brr. Can I have these times back?  It's already summer here.

They Were Closed For Bad Weather

I was really excited about only missing 4 days in January. It was almost like work, with one day off a week. Except that all the days were consecutive. So maybe it was more like a vacation.

Anyway, I was going to do even better this month. But that went out the window the day that I drove home. Also the week that I was in class where lots of funny things happened, but I was lazy and didn’t write about them. And now I’ve forgotten.

Today’s Exploit:

Thursday night I thought it would be nice to go have dinner and maybe a drink. And find some place to dance. Then I could meet people and maybe pretend to be a normal person for an evening.

I did some research in the form of reading a binder that the hotel had compiled about local restaurants. I found one I liked, and set out to see if Timmy, my GPS, could tell me how to get there.

When I arrived, after a slight mishap with Timmy, I only saw one car in the lot. I thought this a bit odd, but it was late for dinner. I walked up to the door to find a sign saying they were no longer seating guests.

I went to another place down the road to find a similar sign saying they were closed due to the weather. After one more stop and one more sign I tried a convenience store with the same results.

By this time I was rather irked. The entire town appeared to be closed for cold weather. Not rain, not snow, not ice or some other form of water that may cause dangerous conditions. The town was closed because the temperature had fallen below freezing. I estimate the temperature was 31.4 degrees when I was driving all over looking for one place that might be open and serving food.

I ended up going back to my hotel and eating an overpriced and tasteless salad that they happened to have in the “store”. My other options were ice cream, frozen lasagna or a hot pocket.

I was not very impressed with the local dining experience.

Noah Likes to Talk

I have been entertaining myself by adding little favicons to all my favorites. I have spent far too much time selecting a suitable picture, cropping it to my liking, and then creating the icons. I should be trying to be productive. On the bright side, my computer is pretty now.

On a side note, I just named my computer Betty Sue. Don’t know why.

Today’s Exploit:

Noah.

Noah is a kid that is staying in the same trailer that I stay in.

Noah likes to talk, a lot.

Currently I am intimately aware of his feelings for the cold and his monthly cell phone bill, as those are his favorite topics.

My first time meeting Noah was not a normal introduction. He immediately started telling me about his new iPhone and how much he spends on texting, and how long his texts are. It was 17.3 minutes before I was able to get more than half a word in to ask his name.

He also tells me every time he sees me how cold it is outside. My answer is always, “hm.” Sometimes I wonder if he recognizes the fact that I go outside as well. And I have never once agreed with him. Granted it has been pretty cold for Texas, but I still think a sweatshirt and long sleeved shirt are sufficient. And I ditch the sweatshirt when I run. I know he has seen this.

Noah also likes to tell me these things first thing in the morning. It usually takes about an hour before I attempt to talk to anyone, but me not answering and basically ignoring him does not seem to deter his chatter. I’m not sure if he stops even after I have walked outside to go to my box.

Last night I was watching a movie. It was a movie I liked, not one of those blood-and-guts-and-gore and/or horror movies, so I actually wanted to WATCH it. This did not deter Noah either. He talked through the entire movie. I was trying so hard to ignore him that I ended up ignoring the movie as well. I have no idea what happened through 72% of the show.

I need to find some earplugs. If you have some available my address is:

Middle of Nowhere
South Texas, USA

Cheers,
PJ Darling

Thermostat Wars

I learned today that Florida is the only state that hasn’t gotten snow this year. I don’t know if it’s true, I didn’t look it up or check the news. But I think I believe it.

Today’s Exploit:

My topic of the day is the thermostat.

It is my nemesis. It allows the other people staying in the trailer to turn on the heater. Most of these people are from the south. Therefore much misery ensues, but only for me.

At night I usually turn the thermostat down to 67 or 68 degrees Fahrenheit. I think this is reasonable. Still warm enough to survive, but cool enough that I might be able to sleep some.

Last night I woke up thinking I was suffocating it was so hot. I’d thrown all my blankets off (one even hit the floor which means I have to wash it before I let it touch the bed again).

I got up and drank 2.8 glasses of water and checked the thermostat. It was on 78. And the guy who uses the trailer as his office was not inside. He turned the temperature up and left.

I was not happy.

But I decided to be nice and leave it. Only because I have a window A/C in my room.

I put a duffel over one vent, and a comforter over the other and in front of the door and turned that baby on full blast. I had to stand in the doorway leading outside while the unit got to churning out cold air.

It was amazing. I was able to breathe. And sleep.

The A/C is my bestest friend ever.

Free Beer and Chili-cheese Fries

Did I mention that I got a KitchenAid? And it’s red. And shiny and pretty and it purrs. And I really want to use it to make cookies and cakes and bread and cupcakes and maybe some other stuff. But, alas, it is at my little flat.

Today’s Exploit:

After a disastrous day of snowboarding Cupcake and I went to my parents’ house. And my mom made gingerbread to make us feel better.

At least I think it was that day that she made it.

Then my sister shocked and befuddled us all again by saying that she wanted to try again, skiing this time. Tomorrow.

So we made plans to meet at 9:30…And we failed again. We didn’t get started until around noon.

And we skied. We went down some green runs, and then I got her to go down some blue runs.

Then we took a break and went to the cafeteria for chili-cheese fries. Very gross, and slimy and you should try them.

Also we sat in the bar section and the manager of the ski area gave us free beers, even though neither of us had ID’s with us.

Then we skied some more and I made her go down a really hard hill. And we decided to go down one more run. And we had a very good day and no one fell.

Until we got down to the lodge and were taking our skis off.

Then cupcake fell, and floundered, and rolled around for 10.36 minutes before she was able to get her skis off.

I couldn’t help because I was laughing too hard, and trying not to fall on her when she grabbed me.

Risky Business

I tried to be productive today, but the internet said “NO.” So I will write more posts, I guess. Doncha just love the internet?

Today’s Exploit:

We made plans to meet at 9:30 so that we could eat some Soon-To-Be-World-Famous-Sourdough-Pancakes and then leave for the ski hill by 10:00, in the morning. That was our first problem.

Cupcake doesn’t like mornings.

But amazingly enough she made it by 10:02:36 am. And she made the pancakes because everyone else was too lazy. My excuse is lack of sleep. My mom really had no excuse, but I think she said it was too cold in the house. Also cooking and eating the pancakes took longer than the expected half an hour, so we didn’t leave until after 11. Partly because we also had to get dressed, and snow pants can be difficult to get on when you’re still groggy.

We made it to the ski area by sometime around noon, and I got my pass and paid for my rentals. Then we met TJ. He had told our dad he’d give Cupcake ski lessons. But somehow that got turned around to mean that we’d both take snowboarding lessons. So we got some equipment and marched bravely into the painful world of hard snow and limited mobility.

TJ had us start out on a laughable little hill 9.82 feet long. We spent about an hour and a half on this hill falling and going the wrong direction and sitting down and standing up, a lot. We were practicing making S turns when Cupcake threw herself into a drift. I wasn’t even serious when I made that threat, but she thought she should get all snowy anyway. It was in exactly the same spot that TJ threw himself into the snow.

I laughed a lot, and she pouted. But I’m not sorry because she laughs at people falling off the lift all the time, or when they fall off their bicycles, or any other embarrassing moment they might have.

We finally made it to the bunny hill where we were able to ride the magic carpet instead of trudging up the hill 48 ½ times. Then we got really brave and got on the lift to try going down a real hill.

It turns out that going around to the green run is very difficult if you’re not willing to gain any momentum. It took us 45 minutes to get off to the sloped part of the run. Then it took us another 45 minutes to get the rest of the way down because we fell every 3.2 feet.

Then right at the very end of the run, where it was solid ice from so many skis and snowboards and melting and freezing again I got going pretty fast. And it was almost fun, until I hit a bump that put me off balance and made me catch the edge of the board and subsequently fall very hard on my tailbone. And I was going fast enough that I bounced and skidded a few feet before I stopped.
 

It felt like it looked sort of like this, but I probably wasn't going fast enough to make snow
fly over my head; and also I fell backwards instead of on my face.
Picture frm here.

I sat there for a while, trying to regain my composure and telling myself that it was just a little fall and I’d be fine. But the next day I knew I’d lied to myself when it hurt to sit down, and I couldn’t drive the car. And I pouted.

The end.

A Ski Trip

EFFING COLD TODAY!! Well, and yesterday, but today was super windy. In the negatives. Just so you know I’m not exaggerating.
-Cupcake, talking about her job

Today’s Exploit:

The first day of my holiday I went downhill skiing with my dad. I was very excited because I haven’t been skiing in, like, 7 years. At least that’s the way it feels living in a place that is hot and muggy 11.63 months of the year. That last little smidgen of time is almost tolerable, and I get to laugh at all the people who require insulated coveralls and down jackets in 60*F weather.

But I digress.

We went skiing and I got to see the office, and the locker room for the lifties, and buy goggles (My sister calls them gogs, that must be what the hardcore people call them. Not that my sister is hardcore, I recall a time, like, 7 years ago when she told me she was never going to ski again, but my adventures with her are for another time.)

I got all geared up in a borrowed wind jacket, and some stolen snow pants (calm down, we only stole them from my sister), and rented skis and boots. And my dad wore cross country skinny skis that are probably older than me, and most certainly older than my sister.

It was fantastic. I could keep up with him since he is too old fashioned to try SHAPED skis.

On a side note, while we were waiting in line for the lift, my sister attacked us.  And then she told me that she wanted to ski with me the next day.  And we almost fell over in shock. 

But really, it was amazing, because I went down the scary moguls just fine, AND HE FELL! Sadly I didn’t get to see it because he made me go first.

I think he knew it was going to happen. I should try to be more in tune to these things because it would have been way more exciting and fun and fantastic if I had seen him fall, and gotten to laugh at him.

But the adventure continues, because I got to see part of the safety meeting. And I got to see the shop or the garage or whatever with its 17 groomers, only 1 of which works.

And then we went home and my mom made Chicken with capers, and it was fantastic.

Thanksmas

I think I had a dream about posting on my blog, because I vaguely remember thinking “I should remember this for my blog,” and it was something fantastic. But then when I think back over what’s happened to me the past …um, ages…and I don’t find anything noteworthy. It must have been a really fantastic and hilarious dream.

Today’s Exploit:

Shortly after my last post I got to go home to see my family and spend a week in a place that is actually cold. I got to play in the snow, and see friends, and beat my dad up while wearing ice skates (He said “Roller Derby rules”, which apparently means “no rules” so it was his own fault).

This was my favorite sweatshirt ever, it is currently mouldering in
some dank corner at a rig where I accidentally left it in the dryer.

I didn’t push my sister into a drift; she did that all on her own.

I also got to see behind the scenes at a ski area, albeit a VERY small one.

I made smoked salmon pâté and listened to crazy stories and walked around outside with shorts and no shoes.

I reveled in the fact that I actually got cold. I spent most of the week in long underwear and snowpants that were 3.2 sizes to big making them “boarder pants” I even snowboarded.

And we had Thanksmas. Since I can’t ask for holidays off we made our own. Pretty soon we’ll have one for every month. (We started with Pickle-Cake Day: 14 May. It is celebrated by taking adventurous trips with your sister.)

Thanksmas is mostly like Christmas but it doesn’t have an exact date, like Thanksgiving. The only requirement is that it takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

In other words it was lots of fun, and I really miss the snow. Does anyone want to take my place in Texas and Oklahoma for a while?

PS Happy New Year, and all that Jazz.

And the Next Day

An inspired Haiku from my sister.  I'm hanging it on my virtual fridge:

haiku for you:

you know what i want?
i want a cinnamon roll.
you're sch a weirdo.
the end.

Today’s Exploit:

After I graduated, and after I played with fire for a while and when I still didn’t like engineering, I went to the family cabin. I stayed there a week. Alone. With the clouds. I’m pretty sure 98.6% of my family thought I was crazy. But, then I already knew that.
I read books and baked muffins and went hiking. But only because there was no snow and I couldn’t ski. And I chopped wood. A lot of wood. With a little axe. It was a lot of work. But I did some every day. I was very proud of myself. And Eric was jealous because he couldn’t chop the pieces when he’d tried. Rawr!



This is what I looked like, except without the do-rag, or the curl. And probably I wore an orange vest and had blonde hair. But other than that it’s exactly what I looked like.

 I had many lovely adventures climbing rocks and howling with the coyotes. And everything was very fall-y, like this:

Except the aspen leaves kept falling and attacking me.

But then my week was over and my parents came to stay the weekend with me. We had soup and toast and talked about better times. Then I slept on the porch to escape the heat. And the next day it snowed. And it snowed. And snowed. Until we almost didn’t make it back to town. But of course we made the best of it and built a turtle.

…And they all three stood, ready to fight the evil emperor with only sticks to shield themselves…

We made the turtle armed with sticks and a pair of rubber dish-washing gloves and a dog. The dog was mostly a hindrance because she thought she was supposed to bite the snowballs we were making. That was probably why we ended up with a turtle, instead of a man, made of snow. *Notice how my father is appropriately dressed for the weather in a Hawaiian shirt.

We had heaps and heaps of snow. I bet you can’t imagine what happened the next day…

Ok, ok. So it wasn’t the next DAY. It was a little longer than that.

I flew! And when I landed I was in the very spot I stood next to the mutant snow turtle.

The End.

PS Dad: Today you should make Italian Wedding Soup!

SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!

"I'm so excited, I just can't hide it..."  The rest of the song really doesn't help convey how extatic I am that IT SNOWED ALL NIGHT!  We got 4 inches.  And when I came out to the box, a SNOWMAN greeted me!  It's almost like a real winter.

I would love to show you pictures of this phenomenon, but Hotmail is dumb and won't let me look at my emails, and I still haven't gotten my camera charger back.  Now I'll have to wait even longer, because there is no way to deal with snow around here.  All I can do is wait.  BUT THERE'S SNOW!

Today's Exploit:

I'm too excited, so this is gonna be really short.

Yesterday I was sitting at my computer and the DD was entering a survey and some other data into his.  Suddenly he made a muffled noise and then:

DD: I feel like a marsupial, I always forget I have this pouch [in my sweatshirt].

Me: Hahahahahahaha

I'm pretty sure a marsupial has never forgotten that it had a pouch.

Walk in the Park

Today I walked to my dance lesson.  That may seem like an innocent endeavor, but it was snowing like crazy.  It's not too long walk, though most people would never think of doing it.  I am constantly teased about walking to class.  But it was pretty out, and they way there was lovely. 

Today's Exploit:

I have never experienced an ice storm, and did not know what to expect.  It turns out that it means lots of rain, that freezes as soon as it touches whatever it lands on, ie. your car, the stairs, your umbrella, ect.  It was interesting, and I spent half an hour chipping at the ice on my windshield.  A bit later the rain started freezing before it hit anything.  It looked like hail from a distance.  Up close it looked like the crushed ice my sister likes to eat, from Sonic.  Everything looks different when it has half an inch of ice on it...

This bush was cool, it had what looked like buds under lots of ice.  It was kinda like a museum, where they have bugs trapped in amber.  It was very surreal walking by blades of grass or twigs that had an inch of ice around them. 

My favorite was the fence.  For some reason it just grabbed my attention. 

I guess this can be quite devastating when it builds up on the power lines.  My neighbor upstairs warned me to stock up on wood in case the power went out. 

It has started snowing, and I'm kinda relieved I can't get in my car.  That means I don't have to be on the road with these crazies.  Now that snow is covering the ice, they are driving like it's not there.  That's when the problems start...

Jealousy

I got a call a little bit ago, in my box.  I've gotten this call a few times, but this one seemed more hopeful:

"You have running water!"

Hopefully this time is for good.  I had running water last night.  It warmed up enough for that.  Evidently the hose came away from the tank, in addition to freezing.  A couple times it would freeze even if I left it running.  Very frustrating.

This time, though, I am hopeful.  They rigged up a bypass system, to that the water flows continually.  Maybe this will be enough.  It doesn't hurt that the temperature is rising. 

Today's Exploit:

My sister had her birthday party Friday.  It was bad enough not being able to go, but I have been forced to work at all times, and thus have not gotten the chance to send her gift.  To make things even worse she had Eli and Cavan at her party.  And they got to cook, in the new kitchen no less.

Cupcake tried to be helpful by sending me pictures of the boys, but that only served to make me more jealous.  This is the picture she sent:

A bit later I got to talk to them on the phone.  Cupcake said they kept asking about me, which made me feel a bit better.  (At least they didn't forget.)  And they both talked a lot.  Mostly I remember as Eli being pretty good at communicating, and Cavan as being mute or incoherent.  They both asked me if I was coming, which made me sad.  I wish I could have :(  They also told me how much fun they were having jumping over Cupcake's legs and looking at her belly button. 

Unfortunately for me, this was one of my not-so-busy days.  And I had nothing to do but work on Cupcake's blog.  I eventually remembered that I had some books in my car.  That was a relief, much better than being frustrated by the blog, or bored to blindness by staring at the work computers.

These are some of the books that kept me going.  The Hero and the Crown, and The Blue Sword.  Some of my favorite books.  Not that that means much.  Most of the books I read I call my favorites.  But these are some of the ones that I read on a regular basis.  Along with Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen by Garth Nix, and the Alanna series by Tamora Pierce. 

This is Texas

So, the weather forecast has been correct so far.  It got really cold last night, and even though I left my water running it froze.  I am not lucky enough to have a bypass to keep it circulating, so...  Other than that it is lovely.  All the puddles froze.  And you'll be glad to know, dad: Black ice.  They look just like puddles until you step on one, and break your neck. 

Today's Exploit:

As you know, I've said it's cold.  But do you really believe me?  I hope you do now.  I took these pictures 5 minutes ago through the window of my box:

 I was very lucky to have a rig had run down the stairs as I was taking pictures.  A good reference for the size of the icicles.

And here are the hoses between the water tank and my trailer:

You see?  No chance of running water for the next 2 days.  Hopefully no more than that...

Water Crisis

My dad sent me a video of the "Real" Uncle Fester so that I could compare.  And while the mannerisms are quite different, they both have the stooped walk and very round bald head.  "Company Man #1" looks very much like Uncle Fester.

I finally pulled my camera out of my car to take some pictures.  I've just posted on PJ's Kitchen, and have more in mind.  I'm pretty excited about the new picture settings on blogger.  I just wish they'd add the spell checker back in!  I do alright in the spelling department, but I'm not that great in the typing department.

Today's Exploit:

So, the other night I got up to use the toilet, and when I tried to wash my hands the water didn't work.  I was a little confused and a lot groggy, so I went back to bed hoping it would work later. 

When I got up for work it still didn't work.  I was kinda at a loss.  I thought maybe the water was gone, but that didn't seem right since it just stopped working, it didn't taper off. 

I did find out later that when the water gets low enough, the pumps turn off so they don't burn up.  Even so, after work I tried the faucet again, and it worked!  But I didn't remember seeing a water truck come by.  Hmm....

Last night the same thing happened.  When I got up to use the toilet the water did't work!  I finally figured out that the hoses are freezing!  It's been really cold here, for Texas that is.  It freezes every night, and the water supply hoses are just that: garden hoses.  They have no insulation at all.  And because they are between all the trailers, they don't melt until afternoon when the sun finally hits them. 

To top that, I heard this morning that it is supposed to be even colder tomorrow and Friday.  That means no water at all for the next couple days.  I'd better get a shower in tonight!  Hopefully it will warm up enough for that...