Official Weather

If anyone is curious about the snow here...

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=9486375

Fulton is closer to us than Oswego, even though Oswego is our technical address.

And the houses a mile or less in any direction don't even have snow up to their mailboxes. Our mailbox is covered. Antonio had to shovel off the top of the snowbanks by the driveway, so I could not get my front end removed trying to see to leave.

...from January 3rd...

This was not the first day...

Yes, the mailbox is already buried...

Jo & Lia ... play in? shovel? the snow...

...from January 4th...

Mailboxes about a block away...


Foot of our driveway...


Just so you have something for comparison, from December 20th...

Note the mailbox on the right side near the middle...

Jacqueline heads inside...

The bottom step has disappeared into the snow covered ground...

Bunny says, "Please don't make me go out!"

Update? What's that?

Hey, what, so you want a real update? Like what's going on? Sure I can do that... Anything to avoid the Chemistry....

I feel like we've been on the go since before school started this fall... My stepfather died in August, right after I started my 3rd semester at WGU, the day after my gift-grandson was born. We made many trips to & from Syracuse amidst all the change, helped a friend with a drag show, and near the end of September we cleaned out my mom's attic and brought home a lot of boxes to go through. (Some are still waiting patiently.) Always trying to find the joy in each moment...

At the beginning of October, we took a short trip to NYC to visit our friend, RH Cooper, and spent a wonderful day visiting Rockaway Beach. Who knew such beauty existed so close to the city!? I didn't... Oh, we also got to shop at Trader Joe's for the first time, and took a walk through Queens for take out! Thanks, Reid, for a lovely time!

Photo by , minor editing by moi...

After that we adopted another Guinea pig from FreeCycle to be a friend to our little Allie McBeal: Babykins. And just before Halloween we went in costume to a Halloween-Birthday Party at Jacqueline's sister's house and had a great time. Lots of games and food and fun...

Rocker Chick, Ghoul, Witch, Witch's Apprentice, Nickelback ( XD ), and Reverse Dutch Rabbit

Then we headed to TENNESSEE! And didn't even get visit our friend theFrugal Pixie; we were on the other side of the state... -_- BUT we did get to meet a lot of great unschoolers! The kids had a blast and made lots of new friends, and Jacqueline & I got to relax in a gorgeous cabin, with gorgeous surroundings, and not worry about people judging us for ANYTHING.

Our Cabin's View

Then we had a little time to breathe.... except for all the boxes still needing to be unpacked and sorted from Mom's attic... and the boober-head Benji needing changing and feeding and attention... and the Chemistry... >.< But then it was Thanksgiving, and time to stuff ourselves silly! Oh, yeah, we already were silly...

Amused by my dropping back & taking pics, the group decides to "moon" me... but they forgot part...

We got our first snow that stuck on December 1st, but it was gone by noon (It snowed once before but didn't even get the ground white...), and on the 5th we headed to Aunt Jenny's again for her annual holiday party...

Sadly, Babykins got sick that night and passed away. At least we were able to give her a few months of happiness, with a bigger cage, lots of toys, a better diet, and a best friend who she was cuddled next to when she crossed over...

RIP Baby

But we still need to find joy the joy in the moment, and part of that is getting ready for the holidays! Since there's no spare money to buy a tree, and no room for a full sized one, we went and found a nice small one in our woods. Jacqueline & the kids decorated it yesterday, while I ignored my Chemistry some more...

And Jacqueline has been a baking fool and made all kinds of goodies! Gingerbread with homemade whipped topping, glazed gingerbread cookies, and even a carb free brownie for me made from almond flour & topped with cheesecake! Yum!

Of course there is still the ever present Chemistry, and worrying about money, and trying to help my dad, and trying to find time to be with friends, and giving the kids opportunities to have fun, and finding time to connect with each other, and meeting our own needs for solitude... Finding the balance isn't always easy, and I struggle a lot with guilt and feeling judged and perhaps a bit isolated by my own *busy-ness* if you know what I mean, but I keep trying...

Waning quarter moon through trees and clouds

Winter in NY

This is a little different version of the winter in NY state thing that has been going around for years and made me LLOL (that's Literally Laugh Out Loud in case you were wondering)...


When the temperature is:

+ 60 above zero:

Floridians turn on the heat.
People in Upstate New York plant gardens.

+ 50 above zero:

Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in Watertown sunbathe.

+ 40 above zero:

Italian & English cars won't start.
People in Upstate New York drive with the windows down.

+ 32 above zero:

Distilled water freezes.
The water in Saranac Lake gets thicker.

+ 20 above zero:

Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats.
People in Upstate New York throw on a flannel shirt.

+ 15 above zero:

New York landlords finally think about turning on the heat.
People in Lake Placid have their last cookout before it gets cold.

+ Zero:

People in Miami all die.
People in Pulaski close the windows.

+ 10 below zero:

Californians fly away to Mexico
People in Upstate New York get out their winter coats.

+ 25 below zero:

Hollywood disintegrates.
Girl Scouts in Upstate New York sell cookies door to door.

+ 40 below zero:

Washington DC runs out of hot air.
People in Carthage let the dogs sleep indoors.

+ 100 below zero:

Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Folks in Potsdam are upset because the Mini-Van won't start

+ 460 below zero (absolute zero on the Kelvin scale):

ALL atomic motion stops.
People in Upstate New York start saying--"Cold 'nuff fer ya?"

+ 500 below zero:

Hell freezes over.
Upstate New York public schools will open 2 hours late.

Photo Friday: White

Since I am waiting for AAA to come jump the car again... >.< (Guess I need a new battery... Or to move south...)




Our Back Yard, 1/8/09

New Year's Eve Party

No not mine... We did have fun though! Special punch to toast the New Year in, and watching the ball drop on the internet...

But the real point of my post is to join in the party they're having over at The Roost, where everyone is gathering to post their Favorite 10 Photos from 2008. But you know me! I couldn't pick just 10! So I decided to pick one from each month, and I couldn't even stop there! LOL!

So without further ado, I give you my Top 10 Photos of 2008:

January 08 was cold of course, but there were birds at our feeder! Here I've captured a blue jay and a chickadee...

February was spent primarily indoors. This is picture of Bunny one afternoon when Jacqueline & I were scrapping...

March was still very cold, but the sun on the snow & ice is always so pretty...

April brought the first flowers! This one looks about to kiss the sky...

This one was taken Memorial Day. Emma was showing the Esme & JoAnn her new camera...

By June we were finally swimming and loving every minute of it!

Flat Rock in July, our favorite time & place...

Me, August 2008. Lots of twilight swims during the summer for us...

Our sunflowers got a late start and didn't start blooming until September! This was one of our favorites...

A twilight walk in October at Sterling Nature Center, look at the gorgeous poison ivy growing up the tree!

The November moon, always a beautiful sight...

Just this month! Lia climbs up Ant's snowman while Ant shovels off the roof...

BONUS! I couldn't leave these out no matter how hard I tried to stay to 10 12...

Ten ran away from home this fall; I hope it's not because I made her share the seat with me...

And Saten passed away not long after. He always did the silliest things for such a dignified old man...

Winter has arrived at Faerie Gardens...

We had a dusting sometime in the past few weeks, but it melted so fast we didn't even get pics... (Although a few days later there was still a bit of snow in the crevice of our Adirondack chair which is pretty well shaded most of the day.) This time however, I think we'll have a while to get some pics, but just in case...

Dinnertime

About 6:30 last night...

Bedtime

Note the size difference in those flakes coming down...

This AM

And it was still snowing!!!!

They should have *at least* had a delay for schools this morning, but no... I drove to work in a BLIZZARD!

Waterspouts!

Today, Jacqueline & I went to run errands. We left here about 11:30 and our first stop was the post office. As I was getting back in the car, I looked over the river to the north-east and exclaimed, "OMG a tornado!" (We now know that it's just a funnel cloud until it touches ground, then it becomes a tornado.) Jacqueline wasn't so sure what it was, but I had to drive closer to get a better look anyway! The one I saw first was the best on that had formed, from high in the clouds to below the tree line, but we didn't get any pics of that one.

From an old issue of St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, September 1878 (the best time of year for seeing them!)...

We did get some though!

I was worried this would be the only one we got! (I had to circle the funnel so you could see it.)

Here's another one right in the middle behind the horse drawn carriage...

Kites and a funnel cloud! Yeah, no one thought much about them...

This one is heading around a curve...

And this is the start of a water spout!  Right in the middle, look under the funnel cloud, see the water?

There it goes!  A bunch of people with better cameras came running past us at this point; hopefully they get better pics!

Here's one right in front of us as we headed back to the car...

See it curving down?  And those fishermen in boats never even stopped fishing!

Then we headed to the store, where the power went out for about 30 seconds - SCARY DARK! When we finished and headed home, we noticed not everyone was so lucky with the power, as it was out for several blocks closer to the river, and when we got home, this is what we found:

AT 1214 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
SHOWERS AND SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING ALL ALONG THE
LAKESHORE FROM ROCHESTER TO MEXICO BAY. THIS ACTIVITY WAS MOVING
LITTLE AND WILL REMAIN IN PLACE THROUGH AT LEAST 2 PM. CONDITIONS
ARE CONDUCIVE FOR WATERSPOUT DEVELOPMENT WITH LITTLE OR NO ADVANCE
WARNING. SEEK SAFE HARBOR IF A WATERSPOUT IS SPOTTED.

How cool is that?! It was quite an adventure for us! ^_^

What a day! Or two!

Monday was not a good day. The weekend had been unbearably hot, and Monday was just as bad. Schools are not generally air conditioned up here. The computer lab, staff room, and offices usually are though. Work wasn't too bad though. I was in the middle school and had only 3 blocks to teach. I had a class in the morning, followed by a break. The room hadn't gotten too hot for that block, and the break in the lounge actually chilled me; so going back to the room was nice. Then I had another class, followed by another little break, and the last block of the day was an awards ceremony in the air conditioned auditorium. Very nice; we even got cookies and lemonade afterward. ^_^

After work, the heat was terrible, and since I had to go to Wal-mart to pick up my prescriptions, we decided we would all go and spend some time browsing in air conditioned comfort. On the way home, I put my last $3 in the gas tank. (Thank heavens payday is tomorrow!) We came home to find a note in the door from the LL asking us to call, but before we could even get the BombPops in the freezer, he and "his daughter's boyfriend" pulled up. He complained to us about the lawn not being mowed and a bunch of other petty things, and I complained back to him about his not calling first, even refuting his claim that he "couldn't find" our number: phone book, information, our checks??? *livid* And I stood up to him about other things too, which really surprized me... Of course, it left all of us upset for the rest of the night and we didn't sleep well from the aftermath, heat, and worry...

Since the LL claimed he was coming on Tuesday to make some repairs, I stayed home from work so Jacqueline wouldn't have to deal with him alone. About 11 the sun disappeared and the wind picked up and it started to thunder and lightning. It wasn't long before the sky opened and the rain poured down! Of course this meant the LL would likely not be coming, but it also knocked out our phone (digital) and internet (high speed) for several hours. The sky cleared but the temps stayed cool and our cable came back on, just in time for Lia & Ant to be called to their friends' to play. We made them take umbrellas and warned them that because of the gas situation they'd be on their own for getting home, or would need to stay put til the storm passed if it started up again. And it did, but not nearly so bad. However, bad enough to take out our power, only about 10 minutes after getting our cable back! ;-;;;

After Esme gloated for about a half an hour because the laptop had battery power and she could still play on it, the battery ran dead and the 4 of us, Esme, JoAnn, Jacqueline, and I, all played Trivial Pursuit 90s, which is HARD since neither Jacqueline nor I kept that much on trends and news and things in the 90s (even less so now I think) and the girls were only babies! LOL! But we ended when everyone had one pie piece (I was the last sadly), and Jacqueline & I did some reading before it got too dark. Then we headed outside to hear a bird better (which we never did hear) and then had another temporary crisis when we came back in that I'm just not gonna go into... it's over.

Today is a new day. The sun is out. The weather is temperate. And everything is going to be OK.

Promise, 6/10/08

Catch-Up Time Begins

Eep! Over 100 emails to read, but only skip40 for LJ.... Of course then I have all my other blogs! It would be nice to have A/C today...

Summer sometimes isn't the greatest...

Oh. Em. Gee. It is so hot today... Over 90. Ok so that's in the house, but over 80 outside!

So after working for 3 hours doing tedious reading lessons in a room that had to be over 90 (the other reading teachers wouldn't even open the window and there is no A/C!!!), when I got home we headed straight for the lake. The water level is still pretty high; so we had to cross a long stretch of slippery rock in ankle to knee deep water, before we could even attempt to get in. And when we got there, we decided it might just be ok to sit on the edge of the ledge, which made it waist-deep water, with our toes in the FRIGID deeper ice water. But the girls just splashed right in at their usual spot and dipped themselves several times before declaring it more fun to sun themselves like lizards on the rocks and roleplay their Organization IV characters (based on Org. XIII in Kingdom Hearts).

Ant jumped in too this time, but got right out and sat beside us (on the dry rocks) discussing the pros and cons of getting in. Eventually, emboldened by a group of college or high school boys who just charged in, I decided I *had* to dive in. So I did a quick affirmation: I am an Arctic Mermaid! Cold water has no effect on me! I am insulated! *giggle* Like a sea lion! :::patting thighs::: And I did it! And it was glorious! And farking cold too! But I made myself go back under after my initial dive to swim back. I wanted to swim forever! However, like Ant, I immediately got right out and sat beside Jacqueline warming myself in the sun. We discussed the pros and cons some more, since now I also had input, and it was decided that since Jacqueline had made herself shivery cold just dangling her feet, that it was unnecessary for her to get all the way in. So we made our way back across the slippery rocks and eventually back home.

Sadly, little Dork-a-boo went off to her godmother's for the weekend soon after. :( She will be missed.

Soon after that, Jacqueline headed outside to change the laundry on the line. I peeked out the window and she looked very hot and tired, so I asked if she wanted my help. She said no way, because she was covered with mosquitoes, and she is not allergic. :P When she came in, she told me she was all bumpy, but of course I was distracted and didn't even look, but later when she was in the front cooking the hot dogs, not only could I see the mosquitoes on her (and in a huge cloud between me & her), but I could see all her bumps! ;-; And yet they don't itch her at all... which of course makes me very jealous... of course she still feels them on her and sucking her blood! /fake-Dracula-voice

And even though she tried to protect me from them, they still get me. I am all covered with itchy little red bumps. And every time I feel a hair brush my arm or shoulder, or feel a little prickly from the sun or a droplet of sweat, I think it's a mosquito and I get all jumpy which makes me itch even worse... I remember it not effecting me so much. Not noticing. But now, I remember *why* I like the cooler weather, even though the whole while I complain that I wish it was warm enough to swim... *whine* We either need to move where it's warm enough to swim more often, get our own pool (which would be warm enough already), or get a membership to an indoor pool...

Anyway, I have tons of email to read, and bunches of pages on LJ and other blogs I want to read, and I think none of it is going to get done tonight because I need to shower (4th time today) and then get some sleep...

Thunderstorms etc.

Last night we had our first thunderstorm of the season. The air was hot and muggy, and Jacqueline & I slept with no covers. We tried to leave both windows open, but I was afraid of rain coming in; so we closed them most of the way. In the middle of the night (4am?), the thunder and lightening woke us. Great rolling booms and sharp cracks, flashes and pops, strobe lights lighting up the room... The power went off and on, and reset my clock to flashing. I have not ever really been afraid of storms, but sometimes, like last night, I feel the fear in my belly, and cuddle closer to my lover, despite the heat, before falling back to sleep.

Needless to say, this morning I am once again not well-rested. This time it's not my fault though... Without the alarm set, and being so tired, I took my temp later than usual. I guess it doesn't matter much since it's been screwy all month. I am glad to only have a half day today. I got to sleep a little later. And I got to have a nice leisurely morning and get some stuff done...

Yesterday, I worked for the district with the disrespectful, totally out of control students. It was so bad, I had to call the principal to come get control of the class. I called the sub-caller and told her to take me off her list for the rest of the school year. I'll decide over the summer if I really want to go back there. I like the teachers, it's close to home, I did my student teaching there, and I used to think I wanted to work there, but every time I've subbed, it's been a bad experience. I don't want to go over it all... it was bad. So I was lucky to get a call for the half-day today at a different district. Of course then I got several calls for a full day at the further away district that pays much better... But it's first come, first serve right now. This close to the end of the year, I worry that not so many teachers will be needing subs.

In other news:
I am a Dreamy Idealist.

Adjectives which describe your type (bolded those that I feel were particularly accurate)
introverted, theoretical, emotional, spontaneous, idealistic, dreamy, effusive, pleasant, reserved, friendly, passionate, loyal, perfectionist, helpful, creative, composed, curious, obstinate, with integrity, willing to make sacrifices, romantic, cautious, shy, peace-loving, vulnerable, sensitive, communicative, imaginative