Stormy Weather

I've been a bit absent lately and I have decided that I will blame my absence on last week's stormy weather. True, it played a large part in keeping me busy over the past week, but it is also true that this has been one very hectic holiday season!

So back to that big storm. It arrived on December 14th, with winds gusting to 90 mph or higher in the Portland area. Over 1.5 million people in western Oregon and Washington were left with no power - some for days on end.

Our lights did little but send us flickering signals of the chaos on other parts of the electricity grid. And so while many of my neighbors around the county were sitting in darkness, my Christmas lights were cheerfully coloring my corner of the world.

Long Live Clark Griswold

Watching Christmas Vacation has long been a part of my holiday tradition. I can recite the whole movie line for line, much to the annoyance of my friends and family.

One of my favorite things about Clark Griswold is his love of Christmas lights. Several years ago I lived in Longview, and I had this adorable little cottage that looked just perfect all decked out in Christmas lights.

Now we live in more of a ranch style home, but we still do our best to deck it out for the holidays. This year, with DH in school and me not feeling well, we haven't gotten quite as much accomplished. But it still looks pretty darned good!

Burnin' Down the House

My dog tried to burn my house down!

Rick and I let the hoodlums roam free for an hour the other night while we went out and grabbed a bite. When we returned, I headed into the bedroom to re-arrange the dog beds so there would be room for all of us to sleep and walk around. Next thing I knew, the chewed up end of an electrical cord was hopping and sparking and snaking about next to me!

Apparently Mac thought it would be fun to eat through the cord for our floor lamp. Fortunately, it was plugged into a switched outlet and the switch was off, so there was no power to the lamp when he ate it. When I got home and flipped the switch, things got exciting.

I'm just glad we found it before we had an electrical fire, and that nobody got electrocuted!

Mac Man

I received an email yesterday from someone considering purchasing a dog from the same breeder who grew our Mac. Did we have a good experience with the breeder and did we like our dog?

I said YES on both accounts and sent them a couple of photos of our boy. He has a great personality - happy and calm and friendly just about all the time, and always willing to fetch a ball or a toy or a stick.

Good boy, Mac!

That's not for eating!

I went to Costco yesterday with Mom C. They had these cute little gingerbread house kits, so I bought one to decorate. I asked Mom if I should buy kits for her two granddaughters, who will be coming to cookie baking day. She said they didn't need any more sweets to eat.

What? Gingerbread houses aren't for eating! They are for decorating and leaving on the kitchen table for a month or so, and if you package them carefully, perhaps displaying again next year!

Holiday Challenge Progress Report - Day 4

Short and sweet today:

B - Oatmeal, blueberries, pecans, grapefruit

L - Green salad, caesar dressing, garbanzo beans

D - Steamed veggies, shrimp skewer

E - About an hour of walking

Verdict: Broccoli, since I forgot to take my flax.
Tab: $5

Holiday Challenge Progress Report - Day 3

Libby's Progress Report - Day 3
"Why is everything fighting me!!!"

Friday was apparently payback day for all of the inanimate objects I have ever cursed. It was my friend's 50th birthday, and along with her mom, her hubby and her sister, I was putting on a big party for her at the local Elks Club, which is the only gathering space there is in my town.

I was responsible for the "life in pictures" show, which I have been working on for a week. This was the big suprise and was supposed to be the highlight of the evening - the part where everyone watches together and oohs and aaahs and the birthday girl is so happy she cries and everyone hugs and smiles.

I knew up front it would be a busy day, so I ate a breakfast that would keep me going for a few hours:

Breakfast:
Steel cut oats
Banana
Clementine

Lunch wasn't too bad either.

Lunch:
Green salad
More cauliflower soup
Cashews

Then all heck broke loose. We needed one of those machines that would project the picture show on the wall. The guy who I thought was bringing one for us to use didn't bring it, and so at 3:30 I was left to find one in my small town. The local rental shop had one but wanted $200 to rent it for one night! My hubby and a friend of his sprang into action and tried every combination of computer and television and cable that they could come up with, but couldn't get anything to work. (They are both IT guys, we just didn't have the right cables.)

Luckily, at 4:45 we found out that the electronics store in town just happened to have a used machine that we could rent for $100. We ran down and got it, took it to the Elks, set everything up, and breathed a collective sigh of relief when the show was up and running at 5:30. We finished setting up, then ran off to grab a quick bite at the restaurant before the party.

By now, my nerves were jangled from all the last minute hustling. Hubby asked me to have a glass of wine, and I obliged. Then we shared this for dinner:

Dinner:
Green salad (I ate this, he had soup)
Baked potato
Small piece of grilled mahi - I had a couple of ounces
The afforementioned glass of merlot

With 10 minutes to spare we headed back to the party. And guess what? The projector wouldn't turn on! We worked on it for about a half an hour while people filled the room, and everyone was watching us and talking about how we couldn't make it work and trying to give us advice.

Meantime, I have one very disappointed birthday girl, and also a disappointed birthday girl mother and birthday girl husband.

We never did get the darn thing to work. People just sat down two at a time and watched the show on my laptop computer.

I sat in the corner and drank two bottles of Mike's hard lemonade and ate:
A little smokie (which tasted very strange)
Some raw veggies with ranch dip
Some crackers with cheese and summer sausage (which also tasted strange)
Two bites of bad white cake with lemon filling.

(I did redeem myself later in the evening by getting some great shots of the birthday girl with her family, and of her blowing out all 50 candles on the cake, which she *almost* did in one breath!)

Verdict:
No exercise
Good breakfast
Good lunch
Bad rest of the day

I'm calling it a Potato
Tab: $5