Kingfisher Cove

It's Coming!

From our vantage point, it's less than two hours away from the New Year. Also from our vantage point? Very mellow. Earlier, Nate got all decked out for a fancy party at a buddy's house (including tie!) A bunch of young twenty-somethings opting to do the dress-up thing. I think that's pretty cool, actually! I did get a (rather poor-quality) picture of him before he left:

JDub and I are hanging loose this evening. Just had a nummy New York steak dinner that I added some ginger sauce to and it made it pretty tasty (considering that it wasn't grilled). I'm trying to ignore the MESS that this house is with post-Christmas crap every-damned-where. We have our work cut out for us this long weekend to put away the clutter (or THROW it away), take down the tree, and also steam clean the carpet upstairs. (Bad) The cleaning lady finally comes Friday afternoon and I'd like to have this place truly READY for her to do some serious cleaning.  I will feel MUCH better about things once that happens. Right this moment it all just feels out of control and I HATE that feeling.

I took off work a little bit early today (it was DEAD there and I was bored!) I stopped at the store to pick up the steaks plus I also picked up some Polish sausage and kraut, which is pretty weird for me because I am not particularly a kraut fan. But I had a dream about it at Harstine last weekend and ever since then I've been hankering for it. Plus, I've heard that it's sort of a "good luck" meal for the new year. I need some good luck, especially after accidentally peering at my 401(k) statement and just about needing CPR. And the fact that I DREAMT about it (kraut) says something, dontcha think? Hey, I'm in the frame of mind to hang onto anything that might bring good luck. Or at least financial recuperation.

I think it's time to finally print off my Christmas newsletters that need to be mailed (I did send out electronic versions to people with email). We'd been out of printer ink and the folks without email are probably (?) wondering why they haven't heard from us this year! Better late than never.

Happy New Year! (Please, let it be a good one!)

Just Stuff

One more day this week, and I suspect I'll probably leave work a leetle early tomorrow. (They'll likely shut down the office around 3:00 or so). I'm thankful things aren't crazy-busy so there's time to catch up on some "housekeeping" tasks that have suffered during the busy times. I had my "career assessment" today with my new (beloved) boss and it went great. I am torn about whether or not to apply for that position I mentioned previously that would be out of our corporate office. I really am struggling with the decision! I am feeling happy (...as can be...) working for Ms. Jodie Foster and do I really want to risk that? I don't know how happy I would be at the corporate office working under very different people, even though I do believe WHAT I'd be doing would be generally more "fun." I DON'T KNOW! I really am pretty much change-adverse, except when the going gets bad. And the going isn't so bad right now. Jeesh.

I am feeling that I probably should. GOD I DON'T KNOW!!!!

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This house is such a mess. I hate that. And I'm so ready for the Christmas stuff to be put away, but it'll need to happen Thursday (New Year's) because I just don't have the energy to do it on a week night after working all day. I guess that watching the Space Needle explode with fireworks on the big screen TV warrants having the Christmas tree lights still on for New Year's Eve! Hopefully it won't be a bust like it was last year, when those Space Needle fireworks were a bunch of duds! (That was pretty funny).

~~~~~

What else? Well, I talked to my brother tonight from Phoenix (they're flying back here tomorrow), and it sounds like they've had a great trip (how can it NOT be at 75 degrees and sunny?) Not only did it include spending Christmas with our Dad and his lady friend, Cathy, in Yuma, but they've traveled all over to see parts of the state, including an ostrich farm. AND Sedona. "To get a higher level of consciousness or some such thing." I know I'd love it there. He said it was pretty cool if you were into pottery and jewelry and stuff like that—which I am. (Although, he did mention that it was utterly beautiful there). Mmm. Had to be a lot more peaceful than the horror of our weather lately....

A wind storm is due in tonight (supposedly rather hefty), and the one that they are forecasting for New Year's Day night is now a bit hedgy. It depends on where it actually "lands" as that will make all the difference between it being horrific or just a breezy/rainy winter storm. Hmm.

Snow's Gone, Time for Wind

Is this nuclear winter or something? Jeeze Louise.

We were very relieved to see most of the snow melt at Harstine throughout the remainder of our stay there, because otherwise we'd likely still be (stuck) there. The payoff was that the weather was darned nasty—pouring rain, strong breeze, and even though not freezing, it was cold. We spent pretty much the entire four days holed up in the camping trailer. (JDub completed 3-1/2 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles!) Me? I fought a lot with my lame internet connection. Grrr. Read my Kindle some, and slept a lot. It was just one of those kinds of weekends.

So today was back to work for me (JDub had it off), after all the telecommuting for the past couple of weeks. It felt kind of good in a way. Now we're having strong winds (not breezes) and after a couple of moderate storms coming our way, they are saying that we could possibly be in for a doozy of a wind storm on New Year's Day night. 

We may head back to Harstine for the holiday weekend, but I guess it depends on the weather. Everything's kind of up in the air. I'm ready to take down the Christmas decorations, though. Normally I wait until New Year's Day, and I might again this year, but we'll see. I do know that tonight I'm really not in the mood to do it!  This house is a post-Christmas mess, and I'm not even sure if the cleaning lady is coming this week since her normal day is New Year's.

AND...we're still waiting for garbage pickup! Gah!

Can You Spell M-E-L-L-O-W?

Well, you won't be getting any photos on this day (and possibly not even a blog post of just text the way things are going). Man. I have fought my internet connection all day long, and all I can figure is that, yes, weather does affect cell phone signal (which is how I'm able to access the internet here at Harstine, if you want to call it "access"....I don't). Lame! Frustrating! Time suck! And yet I keep trying, mostly because every once in a while I'll get a slight window of opportunity. I haven't been able to download email, and I can see that I have a number of them.  Grrrrrr. (Well, and someone sent me a 6.7 MB email file that hasn't downloaded after three hours...)

Anybody out there know of a cell signal booster gadget that really works? At this point, I'd be willing to spend relatively big bucks for such a thing.

So the weather is in an unstable transitory pattern with slightly warmer temperatures (lots of dripping and sudden PLOPS of falling snow sliding off the boat tent and trailer that make us jump out of our skin).  Rainy, and very windy out there. Gun metal gray water (before it got utterly dark). In some ways, YAY! Our typical Washington winter weather is back! But it's a bummer to not have any opportunity at all to venture outside. (Mojo does and comes in sopping wet and grumpy, then crashes for hours). It's nasty out there, and so we are holed up inside the camping trailer. JDub has completed one 1,000-piece puzzle and is underway with a second one that Nate gave him (a map of Maine!), and then there's me....fighting with the internet. I should've just closed up the laptop and switched on my Kindle. Just might do that tomorrow! That, and/or familiarize myself with JDub's new Flip video camera. Not that there's a whole lot to be taking video of, unless you wanna watch snow melt. Or JDub work on his puzzle.

The First White Christmas I Remember

I remember a white Thanksgiving once (in 1985 when I was preggers with Nate), but I honestly do NOT recall ever having a white Christmas in my 52 of them. And here we are! What an anomaly!  It was quite surreal as we left this morning with the weenies and the cat to head to Harstine in the Durango, driving through falling snow. That was relatively short-lived as we drove further south, but the depth of the already-fallen snow became a lot more significant. Man! And once we got onto the island, it was sure a good thing we were in a 4WD SUV because it was dicey!

The "road" down to our place is private, narrow, hilly, curvy, and unplowed and JDub followed in the wheel tracks of just one other vehicle — which was a rutted, icy mess. The Durango was all over the place. Rather white-knuckly!

Ah, but it's beautiful here. I've never seen snow at Harstine before!

We felt very fortunate to learn that the boat tent hadn't collapsed under the weight of the snow (nor the lattice deck cover), and no broken pipes or leaks. Whew! I was a bit worried since it's been at least a month since we've been here and the temperatures have gotten really low.  

I also hung Helen's homemade suet ball she gave me. Mojo has already scoped it out (and a towhee is currently perched on the shepherd's hook trying to figure out how to get to it).

I believe Mojo is Very Happy to be here. He's been out gallivanting and not caring much that he keeps slipping up to his armpits in the snow. He's chased Bailey a few times and even spent some time on the snow-covered deck cover and trailer roof! (Ha—"cat on a cold-tin roof").

Now rewind to last night, Christmas Eve. What fun! It started out that Nate was going to have to work (he's worked very little during all this snow because the restaurant has been closed! So he's had to take whatever shifts he possibly can). Turned out at the last minute that he was called off so we were able to have a very enjoyable—and ultimately relaxing—evening. First, I baked lobster tails for the three of us:

Here's the recipe (veddy nummy and easy):

Here's Nate enjoying his (we had artichokes, too!)

Even with just three of us, dinner was festive and fun. How can it not be with lobster tails dipped in basil-butter? Mmm.  Nate had been over at his buddy's house for the past three days so it was good to see him. (How will I manage not seeing him for months at a time when he's in the Navy? He leaves for Boot Camp 6 months from today).

THEN we opened presents. We've always done that in my family, and JDub has in his family, too—I think it stems from our German roots. In fact, all my friends growing up opened gifts on Christmas Eve, and they had either German or Scandinavian backgrounds. (Interesting).  Here was the tree beforehand:

Bailey with HER present (yup, it squeaks. Or did until she pulled the squeaker out of it....) And yes, she unwrapped it on her own!

Here's Nate with his new Navy hat. We all brought in a haul; lots of fun electronic gadgets, books, a King-sized memory foam mattress cover (YAY!), a Garmin navigator, a Flip video recorder, a digital picture frame, clothes, power tools, and assorted, well, fun stuff! We open our gifts one at a time, taking turns around the group so we can see what others get. That makes it very enjoyable, and draws it out a little longer, too!  (Oooh, I also got a veddy nice gift certificate from Amazon that will most likely go toward many books on my Kindle!) We also watched the Chronicles of Narnia on the big screen TV and it was really good (I'd never seen it before). It's a little odd this year with my brother and his family visiting Dad in Arizona. But with all this crazy weather lately, it's really nice to just have some relaxing time here at Harstine, listening to tunes, JDub working a jig saw puzzle, me blogging/twittering, cuddling with weenies, and Mojo going in and out CONSTANTLY. (I'm sure he is WILLING it to be summer again, but good luck with that).

On tap for Christmas Day dinner — steak. Likely not bbq'd, though. Brrr!

OMG! Tragic News from Up North...

 

Oh, Hell's Bells

It has continued to snow all weekend! It's nuts, I tell you. I did manage to grab Nate and head to the grocery store yesterday before the new storm really hit, and we stocked up on lots of stuff anticipating that the power might go out. Strong winds were also in the forecast, but it ended up being just breezy around here making the snow rather horizontal! Some areas really were hit with some wicked winds. Luckily we kept our power and stayed comfy. But poor JDub. He had to work and he came home late yesterday and continued to field calls regarding crises throughout the night—then had to head back in again this morning at 5:30! He said it wasn't too bad at that hour because there was nobody on the roads—but those roads were bad, especially since the area was also hit with godawful freezing rain. He handled things well in his trusty Durango, though. He worked late again today and came home stiff as an ice cube and utterly exhausted. (He's napping!)

We're due several more inches of snow tonight! Definitely looks like tomorrow will be yet another telecommuting day for me. This is bizarre! We just don't typically get hit like this and have it stick around for so long.

I just took this picture of my car from an upstairs window — and this was since yesterday when Nate and I scraped it off and took it to the store!

This was taken last night and it's just kept on all day long:

I did wrap presents today and it feels good to have that taken care of, although there will be a few more stragglers in the next couple of days. (Plus the fact that I have a gift for Nate in my car I'd forgotten about and I think I'll wait until it's a little more do-able to get into my car to retrieve it!

Tired. And this house is a mess from all the wrapping (and the fact that the cleaning lady couldn't make it last week). She is supposed to come tomorrow, but I can tell you right now that's not going to be a possibility. Whaa.

Weird Work Week is DONE

The jury is out regarding my feelings about telecommuting, which I did three days in a row this week. I'm very thankful to have the option when the weather is sucky (very very thankful!), but I know I wouldn't want it to be a regular thing. There is definitely a "disconnect" among all the people I work with in spite of email and phones.  However, I think that today any fears would have been laid to rest about the actual productivity of an employee working from home (at least me!) I received all kinds of questions and off-the-wall requests from people and I responded quickly (I think much to their surprise!) I had busy-work to keep me occupied, but I appreciated the opportunity to be transparent with my availability (because I didn't want people to begrudge me working from home and wondering if I really was!) It's true, there were times when I'd look around the house and lament the fact that presents need wrapping, the kitchen needs cleaning, and laundry needs doing, and it was sometimes tempting to jump up and do that sort of thing. But I refrained. I did work in my jammies this morning, but I realized I wasn't especially fond of that, either. The last two days, I was up and showered and "planning" on heading to work until I got wind of what was happening outside. Today I knew I wouldn't be going in so I was more lax (hit the snooze button a few extra times...) But it was actually rather uncomfortable feeling all slovenly and WORKING. (I'm a dork).

I can relax now on this Very Cold Friday night (25 deg. last I looked), although it's currently clear out there and I can see Jupiter from my window! (No, not Russia or Alaska — Jupiter!) (Or maybe Venus...) It may be my only chance to relax, though, because yet another ginormous storm is heading our way and it could be a doozy. Possibly HUGE amounts of snow as well as hurricane-force winds in areas. We likely won't get the extreme winds (although chances are good that they'll still be very strong), but we are targeted for major snowfall starting tomorrow night and into Sunday. Which makes me already worried about Monday. (Another telecommute day? Argh! Plus, it's the day I'm supposed to have my performance review which I never look especially forward to, but it would be nice to have it behind me and not have to postpone it).

I know that not everybody is a snow/ice chicken like I am, but I also heard about several coworkers who yesterday did make it into the office, but it took them over four hours to get home. Sorry, but I really don't want to put myself through that!

On tap for tomorrow? Major gift wrapping. JDub has to work so I plan to take full advantage. Nate may just have to hide in his room, which I'm sure he won't mind because that's what he tends to do anyway (when he's around — unless he's in one of his chat-with-Mom moods...)

Time for Some Levity

I can't help it; I just think this is really really funny:

A Productive Day!

Well, at least as far as work goes. (I look around this house and don't feel that way, what with lots of Christmas wrapping to do, plus because it really did snow today, no cleaning lady. Eh.) So once again it was a telecommute day, but I spent a good hour-and-a-half on the phone with our company's IT guy this morning and finally was able to get my work laptop connected to the internet/VPN. Whew! It took some doing! So, I did accomplish quite a lot (certainly compared to yesterday) and it felt good. And it was really quite enjoyable to sit here at the dining table and watch the snow fall all day long. Saw a few interesting things, such as a cop car spin out and come *this close* to doing a 180. I also saw a big flash out of the corner of my eye, but peered out and didn't see anything telling (I wondered if a transformer had blown somewhere), but got back to work and forgot about it. Later, I learned that we'd had "thundersnow!" We had this last year (I think it was), and I'd never heard of it or experienced it before! Two years in a row! Has to do with the upper atmosphere being even colder than the lower atmosphere, and conditions (like colliding winds) cause the lower air to rise and when it mixes with the uber-cold air, it causes thunder and lightning! I didn't hear any thunder, but I guess they sure did in Seattle. (Plus, it sounds much louder because of the density of the cold air). Weird. And quite rare around here, according to my favorite meteorologist.

What was also unusual about this day was that 1) it snowed during the DAY—normally we get snow at night when it's colder and wake up to it, and 2) it really did snow all day long. That's another rarity, because it just tends to warm up enough with all the bodies of water around here that we don't get hours upon hours of snowfall at any given time. Many areas north of us have GOBS of snow (from 6 inches to nearly 2 feet!)  Here in our little town-by-the-water, we maybe have 2-1/2 inches. But it doesn't seem to matter too much how much you have because regardless it's a headache to drive in. Those of us on the west side of Washington are often given a lot of grief for our panic (and stupidity...) about driving in the snow. But there are some valid reasons (well, maybe not for the utter stupidity, such as going too slow up a hill or too fast if you've got 4-wheel-drive...) First, we don't get a lot of it and so it's true we don't have the built-in experience to react sensibly. Second, this is one extremely hilly area! Everywhere! There are hills of every size imaginable, and many of them are combined with killer curves!  The city of Seattle is a nightmare with a stick shift on a sunny summer day, let alone with ice-covered hills! The third thing is that because we don't get a whole lot of snow, western Washington just doesn't put a whole heckuva lot of revenue into snow plows, de-icer, sand, etc. What gets attention are the main freeways/highways/arterials, but the grief occurs on the residential (hills!) to get to those main roadways, and they don't receive the "love". Pretty much on your own to navigate down that steep slick-as-snot hill to that (red) traffic light and just try to STOP. Brakes? In ice? Right.

I have a hunch tomorrow will be a telecommute day, too, unless the roads are SUPREMELY improved (and gee, I doubt it — freezing temperatures will prevail). My commute is 23 miles of major hills and valleys each way, so if I don't have to risk it, I WON'T. Because I'm a Snow Chicken. (Mostly an Ice Chicken...)

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P.S. No, those aren't our weenie dogs in that picture with the picnic table. I grabbed that photo from our local news website from folks who had sent in their weather pictures. (Just thought it was pretty cute!)