It's Spring!

Spring is here!  In fact, in PA it came early.  Starting March 7th, almost every day has been at least 60°, many of them in the mid-70's.  The average high for March here is only 53°, and on Friday it was 80°.  The 10 day forecast has temps returning to something a little more normal, but still on the warm side.

As much as I think this is probably not a good sign in terms of me hating this summer, DS and I have been very diligently taking advantage of how nice it is right now.  To start, as soon as I noticed that there was no indication of freezing temperatures anymore*, I set out for Home Depot to restart my balcony garden.  This year I have three kinds of lettuce, brussel sprouts, oregano, rosemary, catnip, cilantro, and strawberries.  I plan to have more stuff as soon as I can find it, but things like tomatoes weren't even in the store yet.  I have carrot seeds too, which I'm pretty excited about.

Clockwise from top: Strawberries, Cilantro, Catnip, Oregano

I've been spending a couple days per week visiting Sarah in Franklin Square park.  She's a nanny for this adorable kid we'll call Mark who is 16 months old.  He doesn't talk yet, but he knows sign language, so we can have conversations of a sort.  As a result, and because of my secret deep love of the show Switched At Birth, I've been learning sign language too.  This Thursday is the grand re-opening of the park, where they'll open the carousel, miniature golf course, and the shake place.  Sarah wants to buy Mark a milkshake.  I'm just excited to be going to the park so much.  It's a really awesome little place.  The best is when the Chinese kids get out of school (we're right by Chinatown) and come set up their boombox for breakdancing sessions.  Mark loves it so much that he's been making up his own breakdancing moves.

"Mark" plays peek-a-boo in Franklin Square Park.  He hid for like 9 minutes that time.

We've been looking into place to climb outside as soon as we get a new rope and some weekend days that don't include rain.  Hopefully in April.  To prepare, DS and I went hiking around Birdsboro, PA.  There's an old quarry there that is now a water reservoir, and the remaining exposed rock has been bolted for sport climbing.  It was a nice little place, and I especially enjoyed the two wire cable bridges you have to cross to get to the area.

If you'll recall from the Changes and Challenges post, we had two extra cats living here for a while.  They moved out right after we got back from the snowboarding trip, but last weekend we had them again while their owner was out of town.  Aside from some superficial hissing as the cats came in, it would seem that the forced cohabitation did the trick!  We had some actual getting along, and it was very exciting for DS and I.  Our cats have never before been okay around any other animal, and look at them now!

Johann and Winston share the bed.

Progress on Sarah's couch is coming along really well, though very slowly.  I keep meaning to take a picture of it, but forgetting.  She's only about a mile away from me, which is easy walking distance.  Thursday I met her at Llama Tooth, an adorable little bar near her house, for drinks on their patio.

The patio of Llama Tooth.  There are worse ways to enjoy an evening.

Today marked six days in a row of working out.  I'm trying to vary what I do every day so my muscles don't get overly sore and I don't get bored.  I can already tell it's making a difference in my climbing.  Yesterday I conquered a beast that I thought was just too big for me, and it was so exciting.  There are quite a few climbs in the gym that seem to be set by someone about 7 feet tall, so figuring out a way to get my munchkin self up them always makes me feel very accomplished.  Their setting initials are BJR, and I think their climbs are going to be my project material from now on.  I already have the next one picked out!

So that's what we've been up to around here, sprinkled with a lot of book reading.  Hopefully I'll be updating a bit more often now that I'm caught up!

Speaking of Disaster...

Hurricane Irene was not nice to us.  Actually, I can't even blame the hurricane.  I never saw the winds get over 24mph, which DS and I experienced while walking around today.  24mph is not that big a deal as far as winds are concerned.  It rained fairly consistently, but it didn't flood; at least it didn't in my neighborhood.  I blame our little disaster on the guy upstairs and the maintenance people who told my landlord everything was fine.  The hurricane was just an inconvenience.

So here's what happened.  DS and I started getting rain from Irene early, around 1 in the afternoon.  We thought it would be a good idea to take photos of the view periodically.  That would give our families some  idea of how things progressed based visible distance and tree movement.  We took some videos.  We laughed at the balcony door (which is 10ft tall mind you) being hard to shut.  We remarked on the whistling noise around the door.  But most of the excitement felt had more to do with the idea that this was the start of a hurricane, and not because the storm was particularly exciting.  We've seen a lot worse from the thunderstorms that roll through here.

When we moved into this apartment, we had noticed evidence of water damage over the balcony door.  We alerted the landlord (who conveniently lives below us), he called the building manager, and masons were sent out to check on things.  I remember laughing because I had used my master degree training to hypothesize on the cause, and DS "pff"-ing me, and then the mason explaining the problem to me using my exact wording.  That was the last we heard about it.  Apparently these same people told our landlord the problem was fixed.

I tell you this so you understand why we did not immediately freak out when our ceiling started leaking. We texted our landlord, but didn't really expect a response since we could hear him having his own hurricane party downstairs.  We had been partaking of DS's latest batch of sangria ourselves.  I took some photos since we were documenting stuff anyway, threw a bucket and towel down, and went back to my video game.

Not long after that, DS went to bed.  As he does.  I continued to loosely monitor the leak and play said video game.  To avoid Leak 2 from exploding all over the floor as the paint broke, as Leak 1 had done, at some point I pricked it with a pin and drained it.  Leaks kept appearing, all over the balcony door, and I kept rearranging the buckets so our wood floor wouldn't be totally ruined.

This is what I was doing around 11:45pm when the ceiling collapsed on my head.  I remember kneeling on the floor, moving buckets, and then hearing loud noise.  There was a sensation of being covered, like a bucket of water had been dropped on me, and also kind of like a sheet the way it clouded my vision.  Except it hurt.  And I screamed.  Not an "oh shit, you started me" kind of scream.  An "i'mdyingohgoddon'tkillmeMURDERER" scream.  I felt my glasses get knocked off my face.  I felt like someone dropped a book on my head.

My eyes were full of grit, and burned, and I was afraid to open them.  I'm not sure I could open them.  I held my arms out away from me, like you do on instinct when someone drops a can of soda at your feet for example, and I stood there and screamed.  At this point, I wasn't entirely sure what all had happened. It was really fast and I couldn't see almost immediately.  I was barefoot, in pajamas, and I could feel that I was covered in something and standing in rubble.  I was terrified.  My adrenaline hit so hard I honestly didn't feel any pain from that first book feeling until at least a 1/2 hour later.

I heard DS stumble out of the bedroom, yelling for me.  I couldn't stop screaming.  He's not very coherent when he gets woken up that soon after falling asleep, no matter what the circumstances, and the screaming doesn't help.  I know this from past spider experiences.  So looking back, I'm sure a lot of the noise I heard after that was him running into walls trying to run to me.  He kept telling me to shut up, to tell him what happened.  I remember thinking he should tell me and that it was probably obvious based on what my feet were feeling.  He can see without glasses after all.

I must have gotten out that I couldn't see, and I guess he realized I needed to rinse my eyes out, because somehow we made it to the bathroom.  He turned the water on for me, and I spent some time rinsing out my eyes while I sobbed uncontrollably.  Not even tears, just loud noises that sounded like sobs.  It was like my body could not help crying out in some way; pure panic noises.  I calmed down a lot when I could finally open my eyes.  I tried to get some of the grit out of my hair, but it was hopeless.

We went back out to survey the damage and were floored.  White fluff was everywhere.  There was a 2.5'x4' piece of sheetrock broken in half on the floor.  What looked like mud was covering everything within six feet of the door.  I immediately grabbed the camera and started taking pictures, because I didn't want to take any chances of later being told we had exaggerated something.  The apartment has a way of not getting fixed...  DS was on the phone, trying to get the landlord, even though I was sure he had heard the noise.  I found out that pieces of the outer brick wall had come with the ceiling, which explained why I felt like I'd been hit with them.

The landlord came upstairs right away, and his face held the same shocked expression I'm sure ours had moments earlier.  He asked if we were alright.  We said we were.  This is when I found out I was bleeding.  There was an inch long gash on my forehead and I didn't even feel it.  My landlord said, "You should probably put some ice on that.  You're bleeding."

Over the next hour, I attempted to clean myself up some more, administered some first aid, took a bunch of ibuprofen to fend off the pain I figured would come when the adrenaline wore off.  DS and the landlord worked on cleaning up the living room and attempting to tarp off the upstairs balcony to help minimize further damage.  We asked why the masonry problem hadn't been fixed, and the whole "it is/it isn't" thing mentioned at the beginning came out.  While tarping off the upper balcony, the landlord found out there's actually a hole in the outer wall of the upstairs unit and the dude never did anything about it.  So a lot of rain, 150 year old bricks, and a hole in the wall meant a leaky ceiling for me.  My landlord is super mad at that dude (this is a condo building, and the landlord only owns our unit and his own) and the maintenance people for basically lying to him.  I think he's afraid we'll sue too, but we won't.

Today we tried to clean up as much as possible and covered the hole since insulation (the white fluffy stuff) kept falling out.  I feel like you'd probably expect after having a ceiling and bricks fall on my head.  Thankfully, the cut is pretty minor all things considered.  Right now is the first time I've let the ibuprofen wear off, and I can tell it was a mistake.  There are a lot of sore spots on my head and shoulders.  I wish I had a photo of how I looked when DS found me.  Apparently he had a moment where he honestly thought I'd been tarred and feathered.  That image would probably provide some comedic relief about now.

The rain stopped earlier, but not the wind.  We chanced it anyway and walked around a bit outside with camera.  My neighborhood seems to have been really lucky.  We didn't find any real flooding, or downed trees or anything.  The last of the clouds should be gone by 7pm, and the winds will drop under 20mph then as well.  We're supposed to hear on Monday when the masons and contractors will come fix the ceiling.  Thankfully, the 10 day forecast is rain free, so more leaking shouldn't be a problem.

I'm going to take some more painkillers and chill the rest of the day.  I hope your hurricane experience was better, and that my story will be the only scary thing you hear about.

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It's a "2 for 1" Kind of Week

Have I ever told you that before I decided to major in Art History in college, my ideal career was Storm Chaser?  I was hampered by not having the proper curriculum offered in my home state combined with a fear of leaving said state for school.  Which is kind of funny looking back on how far away I've traveled since then.  At any rate, I am not a storm chaser, but am still enamored of crazy weather.  I look forward to all major weather events and natural disasters with a childish glee that scares my husband.  He worries for my sanity.  It's not that I want to be in the middle of something that will kill me.  I have no death wish.  But the raw power of Earth is a beautiful thing, and as long as I can experience it in a way that keeps me alive, I will.

The whole time I lived in California, I kept expecting to experience an earthquake.  It's not like I wanted to the ground to rip open beneath my feet or anything; having some glasses rattle and my bed shake is plenty fine.  It never happened, though there were a few that were near enough to me that my family freaked out for me.  I didn't even know about them until I found I had a bunch of frantic messages on my phone.  So the fact that my first earthquake experience was in Philadelphia on Tuesday was disorienting.  I think if it had happened in CA, I would have been like, "whoa! this is an earthquake" and went with it. Instead, I woke up to my bed shaking, the whole building swaying, and thought maybe it was being torn down and no one had checked to make sure everyone was out.  Look, your brain does not function quite right when you first wake up.  Shut it.  The only casualty was my cuckoo clock, which fell and busted.  I think I can fix it, but all things considered, this was probably the best I could hope for in terms of experiencing an earthquake.  I'll go ahead and cross that off my list.

An electronic billboard on my way home from taking Bri to the train station today.

Just when I thought that was my excitement for the month, I find out there's a hurricane coming.  DS keeps telling me it's no big deal, and in hurricane terms, he's totally right.  As of this moment, Philly is still in Irene's path.  It's projected to be somewhere between a CAT1 and a Tropical Storm by the time it gets here.  Either one would be a first for me, and neither are likely to cause my building to fall down, so I'm excited.  To be on the safe side, we brought all my plants in tonight while it's still dry out.

This room will probably be infested with spiders now...

My tomato is still growing.  It's insane.  The netting is to keep the birds from eating the ripening tomatoes.  Bastards.

We live downtown on the 4th floor of a building, so flooding isn't an immediate worry as far as our stuff is concerned.  I suppose there's an off chance our building could float away, by which I mean like 0.05%.  However, both rivers surrounding us are expected to flood, and they're only 2.3 mi apart where we are.  The Delaware River is 2 blocks from me; I can see it out my window.  It's kind of weird, because we're not on the coast, but we're very close to the mouth of the Delaware, and it has tides up here.  So flooding in my area is entirely possible.  My weather app on my phone is also telling me loss of power is a possibility, so we've gathered the candles and charged all our spare batteries again.  The main thing I worry about with loss of power is losing the internet.  That should tell you something about our worry levels.  And probably something about how much I use the internet.

My plan is to read Game of Thrones, quilt, and take photos.  Maybe I'll even get inspired to write another song.

Lightning Storm

There have been a lot of thunderstorms rolling through lately.  Tonight DS and I had the presence of mind to go out on the balcony and enjoy the show.  I attempted to take photos of the lightning, but most of the time I missed.  However, sometimes those misses resulted in some really interesting color studies.  Enjoy.

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Planes, Trains and Automobiles. And Tornadoes.

Yes, it's a movie.  It's also what it took to get me home from a visit to KY.  That and 24 hours.  Let me tell you about my adventures traveling through that massive storm.  (TL:DR version: it was a mess, but I made it after a crap ton of delays, 6 trains, and 24 hours.)

I got into KY on Tuesday, April 19th.  That night my mom got me up because the tornado sirens were going off and we were on the second floor of her house.  Tornado sirens pretty much sums up my visit.  Seriously.  It stormed every day that I was there, which I honestly enjoyed.  The problem came when I had to get home Wednesday.

Before I had even gotten to the airport, my first flight had been delayed long enough to make me miss the second one.  A quick call to customer service had me rebooked from the 7:35pm out of Atlanta to the 9:52pm.  It was going to get me home late enough that DS wasn't sure he could stay up to retrieve me, but that was a minor concern.  During the online check-in process, it asked for volunteers to be bumped, and I gladly signed up thinking, "hey, free voucher and getting to travel during not storms. score."

Having never signed up for this volunteer process before, I kept thinking I would be getting a call letting me know I wasn't flying, and there was no need to come to the airport today, kthx.  That didn't happen of course.  Since I knew the flight was delayed, Mom was actually able to take me to the airport, which was nice.  Not long after I was in the terminal, the flight was delayed again.  And then again.

A flight that was originally supposed to have me in Atlanta by 7pm ended up being a little after 8.  All in all not too bad.  My original second flight had been delayed as well by this point, and I ran to the gate in the hopes I would get lucky.  Ha!  That flight was overbooked because of all the previous cancellations and delays.  I didn't even try talking to the people at the counter.  They were completely surrounded by people losing their minds.  At this point I have a confirmed ticket for the next Philly flight, but no seat.  The counter people at that gate are also tired from dealing with crazies all day.  I got "the look" and was asked to come back after all the other flights leaving from my gate that weren't mine were gone.  Also, that flight was now delayed until 11:08.  Checking the airport-wide departure screens, I see that there are only 10 flights in the entire airport that are on time.

Now my phone battery is on its last leg and I'm starving, so I went in search of food and power.  Guess how much a phone charger in the airport costs.  Go on, guess!  Okay I'll tell you.  $24.99 plus tax.  That was a no sale, and a strong lesson in not putting my charger in my checked luggage.  After eating, the gate is in chaos.  Flights are being moved around from gate to gate with no really communication or warning.  The gate attendants have no idea they're even supposed to be boarding a flight to New Orleans, but all the New Orleans people are there expecting seats on standby.   Meanwhile they ask for volunteers to sit out the flight to Philly again, and again I think, "whoo! full night's sleep!" and quickly get in line.  They get through the first person in line, who gets a voucher and a free hotel, and just as they're finishing her our flight is moved to another gate.  That attendant kindly put me on the volunteer list but didn't do any of the actual work and sent me to the next gate.

There, I go to check in with the attendant and either get an actual seat or a hotel.  He says they're not even bumping people from the flight but thanks anyway kthx bai...  So I sit and wait while the flight is delayed, and delayed, and delayed.  There are torrential rains falling outside and lightning every couple of seconds.  It's announced our plane couldn't land and was diverted.  The flight might not leave until 2am.  Oh no wait, it's canceled.

So now there's a massive herd of people literally running to the concourse help center for rebookings.  By the time I get there, there must have been 1000 people at least.  We are being urged to go to the main ticketing counter outside of security, but a fair number of us decide to take our chances waiting in the terminal since we're imaging the throngs of people out there.  Then the person working the counter announces he's leaving in 5 minutes and we stood in line for nothing.  By this point I've attached myself to group of people that were all going to Philly, and we make our way down to the ticketing counter.  Where we get behind a line with thousands of people.  And then thousands more get in line behind us.  And then we stood there for 3 hours.

All the "free hotel" vouchers were gone by then.  If I wanted to take several flights, I was told I could be in Philly by 10pm Thursday, but at this point I know that it's going to be storming all day in Philly.  The idea of leaving late and getting delayed and delayed again and spending another night in the airport was appalling, so I asked them for the earliest flight that got me anywhere near Philly.  I figured I'd rather be 60 miles from home and at the least retrievable by DS after he got off work than stranded in another airport somewhere.  They give me the 7:37am to Newark, NJ, and I'm sent off with a thin blanket and a toiletry kit which thankfully contained a toothbrush and some deodorant.

After going through security again, I zombie walked through the airport to my new gate, taking the long way since the trains between concourses don't run at night, only to see once I was there it had already been moved.  I zombie walked to the new gate, tried to sleep but couldn't because the seats in this terminal have arm rests and you can't lay down.  Not to mention my phone is in the red and can't be relied on to be an alarm.  The chances of me waking up in 4 hours don't seem good, so I sort of close my eyes and zone out for an hour.  And then the gate changed again, so I walked down another 5 concourses.

By this point, it's 4:30am.  I find a Starbucks that's open and get a coffee and a muffin.  Find I can't really eat, I'm just exhausted and need sleep.  The people I'd been with in line downstairs all show up for the same flight, and we talked until boarding.   I find out the first flight into Philly that morning is already canceled, and I feel so happy to being leaving for Newark on time.  I was asleep before the plane even left the ground, so I did managed to get an hour or so of sleep in there.

Once in NJ, I re-attach myself to 4 of the people from earlier, and we debate the different ways to get home.  There was Amtrak, NJ Transit, rental cars, or going across the water into NYC to catch a bus.  After talking to all of the car rental places, we decide the train is the easiest, and NJ Transit is cheapest.  There's an airport train to the real train.  That ends at Trenton and we switch to SEPTA which serves PA.  We roll into the 30th St Station around 2pm having not really eaten since 8pm the night before.  We all inhale some quickly bought food before catching another train to the airport to pick our up luggage which was never rerouted.  Not that I minded traveling those trains without a massive suitcase, but it was that much longer before getting home.

Somehow we managed to find our luggage within a minute of walking into the airport, and so I was able to catch the outbound train that left 9 min after dropping us off.  I said goodbye to my traveling companions and headed back to 30th St Station to meet DS because I didn't have my house key with me.  Then I take the subway to the stop near my house and push my suitcase the 2+ big city blocks home where I immediately showered.  It was a little after 4pm, which was almost exactly 24 hours after leaving my mom's house.  I attempted to stay awake until bedtime so as not to through off my sleeping schedule (which has been relatively normal recently, somehow), but I was actually doing the bobbing head thing sitting on the couch and gave up.  DS said I didn't even budge when he came home and brought Winston in to see me.

As awful as it was to stay in Atlanta overnight, standing or walking for most of it, I have to admit that wasn't entirely unpleasant overall.  I want to thank the flight attendant waiting for her next flight that let me use her phone charger until my canceled flight caused me to leave her.  Little Brad and his mother for entertaining me during both the 3 hour line wait and final boarding wait at the last gate.  And especially Angie, Denise and their husbands to let me tag along during the baggage hunt and travel from NJ to PA. They made what would probably have been a stressful and intimidating part of the journey no big deal, and at times even hilarious.  Also, there were massive tornadoes being made in this storm, so all things considered, a night in the Atlanta airport was way better than being yanked out of the sky or something.  I am home, alive, and none of my luggage is missing.  In fact, I have a new travel kit.

Important lessons:  keep your phone charger on you, and perhaps some emergency amenities (there were people who had no access to medications they needed); stay calm and chill.  That last one is key.  There were so many people telling horror stories, but they were freaking out and making demands.  Every single person I encountered at the airport and over the phone was completely helpful and nice to me.  They want you out of their airport as much as you want to be out of their airport, and blowing your top isn't going to endear them to you.  I saw desk attendants all night long that I had talked to not long after landing and they had mentioned they'd been working all day.  Their day wasn't much better than mine.  Probably worse really, because they had angry people yelling at them throughout.

Musings

1. It's September 1. What? I seriously don't understand how time can move so quickly here.

2. This is the last week of my 2 week temp job. It's a shame, because I enjoy it. I also don't have anything lined up for after, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

3. I had a very weird dream last night. Weird in terms of both storyline and characters. Why was I dreaming of people I've known since 1st grade but haven't seen since high school? Not sure, though I would guess that the pictures showing up on Facebook of my skipped 10 year reunion have something to do with it. The weirdest thing? I dreamed of this guy, Buddy Sampson, who in fifth grade I had a huge crush on. I remember I sent him one of those notes in class with the yes and no check boxes. He checked no. He seems sorry he couldn't make me happy, but I did not forgive him.

I don't remember much about him from high school (I'm beginning to find I don't remember much about high school period, but that's another story), and I certainly haven't seen him since. So why dream about him now, 10 years after seeing him, and 20 after caring? Who knows, but the dream was at least fun. There were speed boats and seals and beluga whales. So thanks for that Buddy!

4. In a normal place, September would bring to mind aspects of Fall, such as harvest, pumpkins, colored leaves, and cooler temperatures. Here we're having a heat wave, sleep with THREE fans in the bedroom, and all the palm trees still looks like their normal stupid selves. Fall is my favorite season, and I'm a little afraid of how spending one here will affect me. Time makes no sense without seasons! Maybe that's why I feel flabbergasted over it being September.

5. My husband and I watched Major League last night. I had never seen it, and that upset him very much. I have to say, it's a great movie. I think it made him very happy to listen to me getting excited about it.

6. Which reminds me, married life is awesome. I don't think I say that enough.

melting

We're experiencing a heat wave here. It's supposed to be short lived, but it's far from the "75 degrees year round" I was promised upon moving here.

Yesterday's weather:
Actuals: 84 | 46
Averages: 70 | 48
Records: 86 | 39

Do you see that? I mean, really look at it. We had nearly a 40 degree night/day difference in temperatures yesterday. Right now weather.com tells me it's 90, and DS says Google is telling him its ~100. There's no breeze. My ceiling fans feel like the hot air blowing out of a furnace. I have no a/c. Hell, I barely have heat. This crazy weather is supposed to be gone in the next day or so, but it makes me very fearful of the summer. Could it be that they lied to us? Is it really not perfect all year? Will I regret not getting a place with a/c? I'm very fragile when it comes to heat. Put me in -20 with proper clothing (which I have), and I'm all good. Happy as a clam. Put me in anything over 75, and I'm crying. Sometimes even physically ill. I'm like a reverse lizard. or something.

One of the things I find incredibly funny about the weather here though, is how differently its covered by weather.com. This heatwave has had several severe weather alerts on weather.com. It's not just that the heat is odd for the season. Santa Barbara's weather alerts are highly detailed. They actually sound like a human wrote them, and cares. Every other place I've lived had weather alerts written in all caps that basically told you hail was coming, or some other very vague description of the forecast you already knew about. Here, we get like a 3 page dissertation on the potential of 1 inch of rain.

Example:

Issued by The National Weather Service
Los Angeles, CA
4:24 am PDT, Mon., Apr. 20, 2009

... UNSEASONABLY HOT WEATHER EXPECTED TO CONTINUE ACROSS MUCH OF SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA THROUGH TUESDAY WITH POTENTIAL RECORD HEAT...

A STRONG UPPER LEVEL RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE COMBINED WITH OFFSHORE FLOW NEAR THE SURFACE WILL CONTINUE TO BRING THE THREAT OF RECORD HEAT FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST CALIFORNIA THROUGH TUESDAY.

OFFSHORE WINDS BROUGHT SIGNIFICANT WARMING TO MOST OF THE REGION SUNDAY... WITH MANY COASTAL AND VALLEY AREAS SOARING WELL INTO THE 90S. TODAY... TEMPERATURES WILL LIKELY BE A FEW DEGREES WARMER IN MOST INLAND LOCATIONS. IN FACT... SOME OF THE WARMEST VALLEY LOCATIONS COULD REACH 100 DEGREES. LOW TEMPERATURES ACROSS MANY FOOTHILL AND LOWER MOUNTAIN LOCATIONS WILL BE QUITE WARM TONIGHT... WITH READINGS REMAINING WELL INTO THE 70S THROUGH THE NIGHT.

WHILE SOME COOLING IS EXPECTED ON TUESDAY... IT LIKELY WILL BE CONFINED TO THE COASTAL PLAIN. MOST LOCATIONS INLAND WILL CLIMB WELL INTO THE 90S AGAIN. THERE WILL BE A CHANCE OF A FEW MORE HIGH TEMPERATURE RECORDS BEING BROKEN ACROSS INTERIOR AREAS ON TUESDAY.

MORE SIGNIFICANT AND WIDESPREAD COOLING IS LIKELY ACROSS THE ENTIRE REGION WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY AS OFFSHORE FLOW TURNS ONSHORE AND A MARINE LAYER DEVELOPS.

PEOPLE PLANNING OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES SHOULD TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THE EARLY SEASON HEAT. WEAR LIGHT WEIGHT... LIGHT COLORED AND LOOSE FITTING CLOTHING. STAY HYDRATED BY DRINKING PLENTY OF NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINKS... ESPECIALLY WATER. TRY TO AVOID STRENUOUS ACTIVITIES DURING THE LATE MORNING THROUGH EARLY EVENING HOURS.

NEVER... EVER LEAVE CHILDREN... THE ELDERLY OR PETS IN ENCLOSED AUTOMOBILES... EVEN FOR VERY SHORT TIMES. TEMPERATURES QUICKLY RISE TO DEADLY LEVELS... EVEN IF THE WINDOWS ARE PARTIALLY OPEN.

I believe that is one of the shorter ones.

Anyway, if you're not cursing me for having "awesome weather", as I'm sure some of you are, then wish me a little cool weather. Or an a/c unit. Either way.

don't be jealous*

Forecast for Santa Barbara, CA (93111)

10-Day Forecast

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			High / Low (°F)	Precip. %
Tonight Mar 05		Mostly Clear	40°	10 %
Fri Mar 06		Sunny	64°/40°	0 %
Sat Mar 07		Sunny	65°/41°	0 %
Sun Mar 08		Sunny	68°/42°	0 %
Mon Mar 09		Sunny	67°/40°	0 %
Tue Mar 10		Sunny	67°/41°	0 %
Wed Mar 11		Sunny	68°/42°	0 %
Thu Mar 12		Sunny	69°/44°	0 %
Fri Mar 13		Sunny	70°/44°	0 %
Sat Mar 14		Sunny	69°/44°	0 %

*or do, whatever. you could always come visit. assuming i like you. i guess even if i don't, but in that case, just visit the area, and not me.

Cats, Planes and Gyros

This morning I took DS to the airport yet again, this time on his way to Athens, Greece. GREECE!!! On one hand, I hate that his job is constantly sending him places. On the other, his totally sweet and awesome mother is sending me along with him! That's right, on April 9th, yours truly will be on a place to Athens. I CAN NOT WAIT!! Having studied architectural history all through college, I'm so excited to be able to go to the Acropolis myself.

On the way to the airport, we passed a gas station with one of those small eateries inside. This one was called "Athens Gyros: The Original". DS felt it important to let Athens know that the original is on the north side of Madison. I'm sure they'll be surprised to hear it.

The cats are already raising a fuss over DS leaving. They each took turns laying on his suitcase in the hopes that he wouldn't be able to leave without it. As soon as I got back home after dropping him off, Winston destroyed a roll of toilet paper (one of his favorite "I'll show you" past times).

Just a few minutes ago he found a box full of peanuts (I keep the boxes I get in case I need them to ship things myself; recycle!). Within moments the box was tipped over, peanuts everywhere, and he was nestled inside. If I had known that all they wanted was a cardboard box and peanuts for a bed, I wouldn't has spent so much money on this one. Oh well.. Felix is currently fast asleep in the box, and it is kinda cute. Though I'm not looking forward to cleaning up those peanuts.

Winston - enjoying his freshly made bed.

Felix attacking a peanut while Winston decides whether to attack her.

Felix, mid meow. She really is a pretty cat, but she's so black and silky that the flash over compensates and makes her look funny...

In other news, we were once again tricked into thinking that Spring was on the way. For over a week we had temperatures around 40, and the majority of our almost 100 inches of seasonal snowfall had melted. Then came the first day of Spring, which brought like 12 more inches of snow. I guess that one week was enough to make people forget how to drive in it, because there were a lot of abandoned cars. The roads weren't even that bad! I mean, we drove almost a month straight on 3-4 inches of ice! Crazy northerners.

Update 3/23 9:43pm - It's snowing again....

Ice Storm

A while back, we had an ice storm, followed by snow. I love the look of trees covered in ice. Sparkly!

Blizzard!!

The deadline is almost over (just one more day!), we have an official blizzard tonight (more to do with wind than accumulation), and I'm staying on top of my chores! I feel PRODUCTIVE!! It's awesome :)

Pictures will come later, but here's what I've been up to lately:
1. Watching Season 2 of Buffy with DS
2. Designing a tile mosaic design for the top of our coffee table
3. Playing Rock Band (heck yeah I'm an awesome drummer!!)

Now if you'll excuse me, I have go watch 50 mph winds whip snow around while I eat ice cream. When I woke up this morning, it was 40 and raining. It's currently 2, with a wind chill of -19. Our low is -9 with a wind chill of -30. Anyone want to visit?

12 Days 'til Christmas

My friend Luke has a window office on the third floor at work (that's as high as it goes).  We think he might be on his way to have the world's largest icicle hanging from the roof above him.  It goes well down into the second floor level.  The girl in the office below him looks out at the bottom.  

I have to wonder about the quality of our drainage system, because the entire campus is covered in stuff like this...  Not that I'm complaining, it looks really cool.  Of course, they also have to close the courtyard from time to time because they start falling and it's quite possible something of this size would kill you.

I finally got DS to let me buy a bunch of Christmas candy.  I love this stuff!!  Also, it looks really cool as a desktop wallpaper.  I won't be offended if you download it ;)

13 Days 'til Christmas

The mystery has been solved!  It was indeed ordered from a person and not a store.  Thanks sister of DS!!

So my guesstimate is that it's snowed roughly every 3 days since Thanksgiving.  I'd say we have at least a foot of snow, and it hasn't been above freezing in a few weeks now.  This is why I love living here!  It's like the prettiest Christmas card you ever saw, with all the evergreen trees covered in snow.  Especially when people put lights on the outdoor trees.  AWESOME!

I'm pretty much in heaven here.  Which I could say the same for DS.... He's lamenting his inability to climb outdoors in this weather.  He really needs new hobbies.

Wonderful Things

1. Several of my work friends have a tradition of "trashing" a co-worker's office on their birthday. Plans are made in secret, and all work is done after the co-worker has left so they'll be surprised the morning of their birthday. This week was Jim's birthday, and he came in to 3 feet of balloons. Check out that static*! 286 balloons are good for that.

2. I have a large marker board in my office. When it's not full of ideas for work projects, people draw on it. This image started with the sailboat, then came the guy falling off and a shark eating his leg. A few days later, a turtle was eating a shark, and then a whale was eating the turtle. Then Jonah appeared, and then an alien "fishing" for the whale. What I love most is that I never asked any of these people to add to the drawing, it just happened. Often when I wasn't in the room.

3. It's snowing. Hard. And the winter storm warning doesn't even start for several more hours. I love winter!!

4. We put up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving as usual while we watched Christmas Vacation. This year I bought extra plug timers so I don't have to turn on or off any of my lights. They're on when I get home from work, and go off some time after I fall asleep. Aside from the fact that we can't keep Winston from chewing on the tree (that crazy cat likes to chew on plastic.. makes me almost wish we'd gotten a real tree), I'd say our new apartment is a decorating success! Also, Winston would like to start the countdown to Christmas!


* Image may require enlarging to see static effects.

Calvin and Hobbes

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.

Blizzard Photos

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.

You must be so jealous!

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.