Arctic Cold

They are not kidding.  We were mid-60s Friday, and 50s through the weekend.  This morning at 3:30am, we hit our high for today: 23.  Tomorrow's high: ZERO.  And that doesn't factor in wind-chill. Ah, Colorado and her schizophrenic weather!

I had quite a time of it trying to scrape the thick layer of ice from my windshield this morning.  That took about 20 minutes and I probably should have tried to get more of the ice off before I got on the highway, but I arrived safely!  Really, I should have taken the bus.

They are also saying my commute home should be a doozy...

Thank you, condo

Thank you, condo, for that huge tax refund!  I really do appreciate it.  I still think you are a huge git for that whole incident with the floor, but I do appreciate the gesture you are making to reestablish what we once had.

As a result of this huge refund, I will officially be out of credit card debt for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long.  Woot!  Alarmingly, this only makes me want to spend money.  Damn this culture I live in!  More specifically, I want to go on a vacation.  Even more specifically, I want to go to Iceland.  It seems I won't be able to afford that in 2011.  2012 is also out because we're going back to Colombia with S, L and C for a reunion tour.  So, it's looking like 2013 is the soonest that will happen.

Note to J and Brian -- you have plenty of time to save for this trip so I will accept no excuses.  You both will be coming with us.  And since it's unlikely we'll ever go back to Iceland, it will be at least a 7-10 day excursion.  You've been warned.  Also, I have an Icelandic travel book that I will share with you when you visit in May.

So, I will do the responsible thing and save my money for future travel.  I'll be glad for it eventually.  I'll also make a responsible purchase -- we need to replace the windows in our bedroom.  Before this condo, I never would have thought buying windows would be exciting, but it is.  It's drafty in our bedroom and I hate paying high utility bills.  That and I'm hoping that we can still write a good chunk of them off in 2011.  We bought some last year for the living room and were able to write 30% of the cost off!

(I'm not sure when I became this boring, but it probably happened when I hit my 30s.)

SOTU Wordle

Wordle

"Wordle" makes me giggle.  I think it's because Kindle (Rising!) once did this thing where she said "gurgle" into a clenched fist and it sounded really funny.  ANYWHOO...

"Wordle is a toy for generating 'word clouds' from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends."

Check it out: I linked this blog to Wordle.  Note to PD&J--we have GOT to use more positive words in 2011!

Things That Are Annoying Me Today

I am hoping this will be a regular feature.

Today - January 20, 2011

1. I turned my head and now have a debilitating pain in my shoulder/neck.  I even tried Tammy's old trick of holding a stapler on the affected area to no avail.  I am convinced this portends the collapse of my posture (see image below).

2. People *a-hem* who ask you to do 10 things, then almost immediately ask you why #6 has not been completed.  I consider myself pretty bright and one of my strengths is knowing how to prioritize.  But this comes up quite regularly, leaving me thinking perhaps I simply have no idea what needs to get done first. 

3. Really cold weather.  This creates all kinds of problems: icy roads (which I spent over an hour on last night trying to get home.  Probably one of the many sources of my neck pain.), having to scrape off my car in the morning, the new crack in my windshield (assuming everyone's cracked yesterday since it went from 50 degrees to 9 in one afternoon), numbness in my toes (I think I have nerve damage from some long-ago cold spell), dreading showers (okay, this probably has very little to do with cold weather), heating bills, hat hair.

Bread Maker!

One of my most favorite Christmas gifts came from P.  He got me a bread maker!  Last Christmas (I gave you my heart), my parents got me a bread recipe book.  Let's just say I've not had the energy to make bread on my own.  Remember that time I made bagels?  It's a lot of work.  Not something you can pull off very quickly.  And by the time you're done, you don't even want to look at the bread you just poured your heart and soul into.  

Enter the break maker!  This little device literally does all the work for you.  You put the ingredients (in a very specific order) inside the little bowl, press the buttons and voila!  Bread!  So far I've made:

• Walnut/Gruyere whole wheat bread
• Whole wheat pizza crust
• Beer bread

Next will be something sweet.  I'm thinking cinnamon swirl.  Below are some pictures from when I made beer bread (which I'm eating the last piece of as I type).  And for anyone reading this who is about to host a party I will be attending -- I'll be bringing bread.

Death Panels

I know, I know--not exactly the lightest topic for my first post in the new year. But this article grabbed my attention and I'd like a chance to explain why.


Obama Administration Reverses Decision On End-Of-Life Counseling

I really don't care if end-of-life counseling is included as a part of the new Medicare update.  As the article points out, medical practitioners will generally counsel patients on their rights and encourage them to have a living will in place anyways.  What I DO mind is that every time the idea that you have any right to end your own life and avoid suffering a painful and humiliating death comes up, it's squashed by I-don't-even-know-who.  I don't want to generalize and say "conservatives" because I would guess opinions vary based on people's individual experience. 

As for my own experience, my Grandma broke her hip and was on her way to recovery when she had a stroke, slipped into a coma and we decided not to continue her medical care.  She was 90.  The doctors had no hope for her recovery.  And still, the best we could do for her was to decline life support and wait for her to die.  For FIVE DAYS. 

Not only was this painful for my family as we waited for the inevitable, but I know my Grandma was in pain.  She moaned everytime they had to administer to her.  Which, by the way--thank God we were there to demand that she be attended to--her morphine shots were ALWAYS late and we ALWAYS had to track someone down and get their attention.  What if we hadn't been there as consistently as we were?

Soon after, I had to go to the ER with back pain.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but it hurt to even breathe.  They gave me FOUR doses of morphine.  Not only did I feel a surge of anxiety each time (they explained that your body reacts with adrenaline), but the pain didn't stop--I just started to feel so loopy I didn't really mind.  I couldn't help but think of my Grandma.  They assured us she didn't feel pain, but I now know they couldn't guarantee that.  The fact that we let her body fight for 5 days in what was probably--at least at times--excruciating pain will always haunt me.

At one point, I asked the hospice nurse if they could administer enough morphine to kill her.  I put it almost as bluntly as that.  She gasped as she grabbed the cross around her neck and tersly said no.

On the last of her five days, I told my Grandma, in front of the rest of my family, that I had to leave for the day and told her she didn't have to wait for me to get back in order to die.  I said it in a joking way since that's how I always talked to my Grandma--and she always got a kick out of me.  She died less than an hour later.  My family stopped speaking to me for over a year after that.

And why?  Because I "wanted Grandma to die".  Yes, I did.  I admit it.  I didn't want to walk in to her room alone one more time to see that no one had checked in on her all night and witness firsthand what happens as a living body starts to decompose.  That IS selfish, and I admit it.  But I also knew she wasn't coming back and I wanted her to go with the same dignity and grace with which she had lived her entire life.  My Grandma was 90 and still lived on her own.  She had even bought a sporty new car a few weeks before.  I guarantee she didn't want to die that way, with all of us watching and putting our lives on hold waiting.

So getting back to what I DO mind--not even allowing the debate.  No--there really is no debate, in my mind.  Disallowing a basic right.  I would never encroach on someone else's right to live as long as they want that way (well, so long as I'm not paying for it).  And I actually do believe in miracles.  But I think in certain circumstances there just can't be a miracle and we have to face reality.  Which I know is hard to do.  But why would we deny a terminal patient a peaceful end to their life?  For what?  Because you don't want that forced on you?  Fine!  Let everyone make their own decision.  And if you believe it's a sin to end your life before God does, you probably also believe that that person will have to deal with God on their own anyways, right?

I'm hoping this serves as my living will until I get around to signing one.  Which, by the way, only lets you avoid being put on life support--it doesn't prevent the same miserable death my Grandma had.  You don't have that right. 

It's over...

...let the post-Christmas / Holiday let-down begin. It was exhausting, no? Same time next year!

Ancestry.com, how I love thee

I have spent an incredible amount of time on ancestry.com over the last year.  On my mom's father's side, I can trace my lineage back to John Alden -- my goal is to get my family into The Mayflower Society, but that's going to take a lot of work.  I keep insisting to P that I am American royalty.  He's not buying it.

The rest of my tree is still a bit of a mystery.  I really need to go through my parent's safe at home.  I'm told they have a bunch of documents related to my grandparents (all sides).  I'm sort of stuck at the moment.  

I have, however, found some pretty fascinating things that I would have assumed had been destroyed long ago.  My favorites are below.  Item 1 is the ship manifest from when my grandmother came to the US with her two kids (Margitta and Bob).  I assume the letters that are written in are stand for "M"other, "D"aughter and "S"on.  I also found a picture of the ship.   

Item 2 is an article from the August 18, 1955 issue of Penn Yan's Chronicle-Express, the local newspaper that still runs to this day.  You'll see that Carl Nelson (my dad) had the bike with "the most unusual decorations" in the bike parade.  His "black and white panda received the funniest title" in the doll contest.  My aunt (Mary Nelson) is also mentioned. 

2011: The Year of the Blog

And hello 2011!  Let it be known that the year 2011 will be the best year this blog has ever seen.  There will be more witty posts, more snarky observations and yes... even more wild rantings than you can even imagine.  On behalf of P, D and J, we thank you for your continued readership and look forward to another year with our followers.

Interestingly (to me), I found the above picture using a Google image search.  It's from a pretty nerdy blog that I will be going back to after finishing up here.  For those that do not know, I was a pretty large He-Man geek growing up.  It was a bit of an obsession.  An obsession among many (Garfield, stuffed animals, anything with googly eyes and/or pipe cleaners, etc.)

Fake X-Mas Madness!

'Twas the morning of fake X-Mas when all through the house

Jenn was stirring in her worn-out-last-night blouse

The fake tree was trimmed by David... who cares?

Jenn was showing off her cheap, taudry X-mas wares

Paul can't be anymore creative than that

It's still early but we have to work on getting fat

Sorry... we have apparently killed this blog!

Maybe we can work on it this weekend now that J FINALLY has internet at home. Welcome to the 20th century!

Funny Pic

Why this is funny: I THOUGHT I had posted the original image of this poor little girl running away from a ferocious-looking dog, but can't find it.  Apparently, other people thought the sheer terror on her face was HILARIOUS and they've Photoshopped her into different scenarios.  The above was the best one.  Says me.

An open letter to the CTA

Dear CTA Administration,

I would call myself a pretty loyal customer.  I take the train to and from work each and every day, Monday through Friday.  Each way includes two transfers to different lines.  I've noticed some things that I thought were worthy of pointing out.

1. I'm not sure what exactll is going on with the track switches in the loop, but my pink line train sits (on average) five minutes when trying to enter the loop on the way home.  There's one man that usually rides in my car (no matter which car I choose!) that gets pretty violently angry when this happens.  He swears very loudly and says things like, "This train is already ten minutes late!  Come on!  Let's go! *expletive*".  You can tell it makes the passengers uncomfortable, so if not for me, would you consider fixing whatever it is at issue?
2. When your trains are late, they tend to get overcrowded.  Duh, right?  Well, also "duh" is that when that happens, it's going to cause (a) people to try and cram themselves into whatever little space there is in a train when one happens by and (b) an increase in the amount of time it takes at each stop.  More people = more time getting around the crowd that has formed at each door.  One thing that doesn't really help the situation is when the train operator comes on the loud speaker to chastise paying customers for trying to get on the train.  Everyone just wants to get home.
3. The phrase, "there's an immediate follower directly behind me" really means nothing to passengers.  That's because (a) they've been waiting for probably 15-20 minutes already for a train, so the thought of waiting longer isn't terribly welcome news and (b) the "immediate follower" will be just as crammed full as the train sitting in the station.  
4. When trains get behind, one or more of them tend to run express to some stop that no one seems to want to go to.  I understand you're trying to get things back on schedule, but seriously?  During rush hour?  You're going to run express from Belmont (major stop way before the end of the line) to the end of the line at Howard?  Doesn't that just make the red line the purple line?
5. I can't help but think things like "If the CTA was a restaurant, it would have closed in the first week after it opened!" when I ride your trains.  That's because some of the people that work for you (not all, but some) are not very good at their jobs.  Your employees are providing a service to the people of this good city.  People pay to ride the train.  So, that means that the people that work in the stations and drive those trains should at least pretend to want to help the people they meet.  Let me provide a personal experience for you.  One of my friends was in town a couple of months ago.  We went to the station to get on the train and my fare card didn't work when I tried to pass it back to her.  I pay monthly and know that my credit card is tied to my account just for such situations.  When my card didn't work, instead of being helpful, the station attendant said I "wasn't using [the card] correctly".  Really?  Cause all you do is touch it to the little pad thing on the turnstile.  So what wasn't I doing correctly, do you think?  A helpful response would have gone something like, "I'm sorry for your trouble, sir.  Please step through this gate since I know that you have an account with us and I'm sure something is at issue.  Here is the number for our customer service folks so you can get that fixed.  Enjoy your day!"

Thank you for your consideration in these matters.  I truly do think that if you fix these (and similar) issues, we might actually get the Olympics in Chicago someday.  Until then, let's focus on some smaller event -- like a Cubs game!  But that's for another letter.

Yours in concern,

D

Diarrhea (fft! fft!)

I just don't know what to do with our little Boston Terrier eating machine.  As I'm sure most of you know by now, Fergie has had bouts with diarrhea since we got her.  We've tried four different kinds of food, contacted the breeder we got her from, have made several vet appointments, and have googled "diarrhea and 'Boston Terrier'" 'til our fingers bled.  We've been assured that she'll grow out of it.  And I'm sure she will but in the interim, it's obnoxious.  Don't get me wrong -- I feel for my little schnarfey, but come on!  The current batch comes after a three-week period of relative firmness.  We think what set it off is THE CUP OF CAT FOOD THAT SHE ATE the other night.  Needless to say, P fixed the broken dog gate immediately following.

Other recent developments with The Ferg include:

1. She has taken to air humping her bed.  No matter how much you try and stop her, she won't.  
2. She will stand in front of P (not me, just P) and bark at him for no apparent reason.  This drives P bonkers.
3. Originally we thought she didn't shed.  We were wrong.
4. She insists on eating sticks (which end up in her poop).
5. She gets carsick.  That should make for fun road trips during Thanksgiving and Christmas!

I didn't mean for this post to be anti-Fergie.  I love her to death.  Here she is doing her best to look completely uninterested in everything.

  

B-cycle!

So I have been intrigued by the Denver bike sharing program, B-cycle.  They have several kiosks around DU. 

Saturday, I walked around the new neighborhood and saw that Highlands also has a ton of B-cycle kiosks.  And, I should add--I hate my new commute.  I have walked or biked a short distance to work for almost TEN YEARS now.  Now, I live 10 miles from work (which B says doesn't REALLY qualify as a commute).  SO, I decided to bike to work!

Well, technically, I decided to bike HOME yesterday.  It was DELIGHTFUL!  My route took me along Wash Park, then the Cherry Creek trail, to Commons Park and across the pedestrian bridge over I-25 to the Highlands (not having to bike in the road helps a LOT).

It took me 45 minutes kiosk to kiosk.  Then I had about a 20 minute walk home. 

So, I decided to keep at it and ride to work today.  Let me add that I am not a strong bike rider.  We lived at the top of a hill on a busy street when I was growing up so I didn't ride much.  I'm slow and I'm scared of traffic (hell, ask David--I'm skittish about cars IN my car!)

So the commute TO work is a tad more difficult than the one home.  For one thing, it's all uphill.  For another, the bikes only have 3 gears.  I won't say it was a HILLY ride, but there was one point in Wash Park I wasn't entirely convinced I was going to pass an old lady power-walking.

I just kept thinking, "This is hard!"  That usually translates to "Well, then don't do it if it's hard."  Which got me thinking about all the times I've avoided things because they're hard.  Which made me remember that there's no point having goals if you're just going to quit when it gets hard.  I don't want to add to the traffic and air quality problems we have in Denver.  And, I'd like to be more active.  So I will keep at it.  Until it gets REALLY hard.

Adventures on I-70

This weekend, I decided to head up to Eagle for the day.  I wanted to see Jill and Lainey, and to see how far Eagle is from our new place since we're waaaaay closer to I-70 now (still 2 hours).  AND, I wanted to see some fall color since it never lasts for long in Colorado! 

I had a lovely time in Eagle (we had pumpkin pancakes and coffee, hiked to the park--no such thing as a walk in Eagle!, then had lunch and I was off again to head back home to get stuff done around the house).  But I just HAD to stop to take some pictures outside of Vail:

So I was happily driving along I-70 thinking how EASY it had been to get Eagle and back in a day when I pulled up to this:

And saw THIS behind me:

The electronic billboard had told me there was an RV fire at MM 188, but I didn't think much of it until we were stuck for AN HOUR 3 miles behind it.  Luckily, I was tired anyways, so took a nap, then played with the setting on my camera.  Once we started moving, it still took us another 30 minutes to get 3 miles, but here's what the RV looked like after the fire:

New Olympus PEN

Soaked! And proof I need a new point-and-shoot

Thursday night we went to see Scissor Sisters at the Riveria, which is only 3 blocks from our place. But when we got out, it was pouring rain. We got SOAKED. I had to document it in the spirit of J and the result is... I see my point-and-shoot camera now sucks. It hasn't been the same since a trip to the beach this summer. Luckily I got some really good pictures of my niece Maddy. And thankfully D got me an Olympus PEN for our anniversary. Now once I learn how to use that effectively, you'll hopefully see the results.

Fergie & the disaster

Fergie surveying the damage after our great room flooded. You will note the exact moment the scale of the disaster finally sinks in...