This snow was AWESOME for making snowmen. One of DS's dreams has always been to recreate scenes from his favorite Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. Using this page as inspiration, we set out to do just that. We ended up creating three scenes (well, as close as we could) from the comic, and then I made one of my own. Then we went around and took pictures of things other people had made.
Click on the photo above to see it all.
Some light snow.
A lot of snow, and wind. I'm pretty sure this part qualified as "blizzard."
Thanks to Winston, I was awake at 4 am. Which turned out to be cool, because I caught this calm, pretty scene before the plows came at 6.
The only thing I like about plowing is what it does to the sidewalks. It's like they cut the snow out with a knife. Totally awesome.
It's still snowing some, but our blizzard warning has been downgraded to a winter storm warning. Not that it really matters since the plows are working non-stop right now. It would be so much cooler if they left it alone for a while, but at least there's the field by my apartment!
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some playing to do.
If watching my cat play in the snow for 2 1/2 minutes is not your thing, I recommend you stay away from this video. However, if you're my mother, who requested this, or anyone else who even kinda-sorta likes cats, indulge yourself if only for a few seconds. 'Cause Winston is funny.
Or you can view it here:
Snow
I mean really, how many of you can say you've actually had a blizzard forecasted for you? I'm so psyched. I just hope I'm still awake when the white-out happens.
DS's family does a name exchange for Christmas. His aunt had my name, and I got a sweet gift certificate to Michael's art and craft supply store. It was the perfect excuse to indulge my desire for watercolor pencils. I painted this for my friend Matt, who comes over on Thursday's for what he calls "TVNIGHT". (it's important to him that it's written all in caps and as one word) After I painted it, I outlined it in pen. I guess I worked in reverse, but I liked the way it turned out.
DS and I went ice skating at Elver Park yesterday. He was scared he wouldn't be able to stay on his feet. Considering it was his first time, I think he did pretty well.
I was happy to get to use the skates my parents got me for Christmas for the second time. Guess who has a another cut on their ankle? Yeah, me. At least this time I had the sense to stop skating before my ankle tried to fall off.
Last night, DS and I met up with KT1 and Anne to see Detholz! play at the Union. We first saw this band last November when they opened for Wilco.
This time, they were the headliner. A band called Maps & Atlases opened for them. KT1 described them as "math rock", and I described them as "awesome". 
Most of their songs depended on this technique called tapping. Their fingers were FLYING!
And then came Detholz!, who brought along their groupies. Well, maybe they didn't bring them, but they were there...
Not that I don't enjoy the music, but what I really came to see was this man. He noticed I was taking his picture and posed for me in this shot. But what I really love is his dancing and facial expressions when he's playing keyboard. Mmmm, sexy! You should see his hips swivel.
The lighting was really weird, so the lead singer I was able to get good shots of, and everyone else in both bands tended to come out fuzzy if I didn't use my flash. But using my flash wasn't making cool pictures, so...
I tried to take a picture of us at the table by holding the camera over my head. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell if it was focusing, and this was the best that I got. You may not be able to tell it, but KT1 is in a dress, and her hair is CURLED. If you know this girl, you will see that this is something worth remember.
Afterwards, I got the keyboardist, who incidentally is named Jon, to sign my poster (which as the band members drawn dancing). He drew a speech bubble by his head and wrote "Thanks Jessica! ♥ Jonny 5" and then said "like the movie". And I said "Yeah, I get it" which made him laugh. *le sigh*
And this is solely for Spinning Girl: DS just told me he was going to kick me in the vajayjay.
----------------------------
Note: Yes, I am aware that the real Johnny 5 spells his name differently, but this Jon doesn't use an h, so it's just fine. If only he knew that I love robots. *double le sigh*
When I first got my iMac, I started the process of moving all of my keeper files from both mine and DS's computer. This made DS very happy, as I was hogging 20 GB of his harddrive. About 5 years worth of digital pictures were on his computer. I moved them, he wiped his drive, and then I lost them. I could not find them on my iMac anywhere at all. I was devestated.
This morning, DS displayed some of his computer genius by running a search on something called terminal using skills he picked up in Linux. He found all of my "lost" photographs. As they were loaded into iPhoto, the program scans through them very quickly. 6000 pictures later, I felt like I had watched my life flash before my eyes.
Some of those pictures I had forgotten about. I noticed that when I travel, I seem to take pictures of doors. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure.
Somewhere in New Mexico, most probably in Taos, sometimes around the late fall of 2004.
The entrance to an old farm house that has been converted into a 4-star resort in Neukloster, Germany, where I attended a design charette in October of 2004.
A random doorway in Lyon, France, found the morning DS and I were exploring the city before he proposed.
| You Should Have Been Born Under: |
 Delicate, timid, and attractive - sometimes you really do act like a bunny. You're very compassionate and protective of those you love, sometimes too protective. Your home is really your castle, and you make sure your home is comfortable and well furnished. You don't like to argue - and you prefer a quiet, peaceful life. You are most compatible with a Goat or a Pig. |
I had a Super Bowl party on Sunday. As you can see, I was dressed in blue and orange for the Bears, who highly disappointed me. And what's worse, I promised to become a true Wisconsinite and support the Packers next year (which apparently means I have to hate the Bears). Though I'll let you in on a little secret: I don't mind cheering for the Packers, but I'm not going to the Bears either.
You may also notice that I'm opening a 32 oz. bottle of hard cider in this picture. Anne brought that for me, with the intentions that I would drink it straight out of the bottle. So I did, just for her. She kept laughing and saying how tiny I looked with my oversized bottle... 
And just for the heck of it, here's a picture I took at work on Monday morning. We had an event they called "Epic24" where we were supposed to take pictures throughout the day. I wasn't paying a lot of attention as to why, something about compiling them for the Anniversary Dinner in April. It just so happened that Monday was also the day I was given my first new hire to mentor, which meant I had to be at work around 7 am (I normally get there at 9, because I think the devil created mornings). This building is Cassiopeia, which is our cafeteria. I think it's the coolest building we have.
-------------------------------------
Note: Since the switch to the iMac, I've been adjusting to some differences in the way things work. In the case of blogger, a lot of the editing toolbar doesn't work anymore. All I have is spell check and the add picture icon, and the rest I have to do by actually typing in the html. So if you're seeing weird stuff, please clue me in just in case I don't see it, and I'll try to fix it.
Anne took me to my first Badger basketball game yesterday. Whoo! I learned important things like, Brian Butch is nicknamed the Polar Bear. 
But more importantly, I got to see Bucky, who is by far the coolest mascot ever invented.
Today, I effectively crossed over to the dark side. Or at least, that's what my mother told me. Why you ask? My brand new iMac came today. It's pure heaven.
