i just don't feel much like blogging these days

i don't know why, but i don't.

SNOW DAY!!!

i woke up this morning to snow on the ground, but it didn't look like enough to stop work, so i got ready, got dressed, packed my lunch, cleaned off and warmed up the car, took a few pictures, and hit the road! ... errr ... isn't there a road somewhere here? it's ok, i was driving the tank, no problem. so as i made my way down the snow trail, i called andrew to tell him he wasn't allowed to try and drive the little car in this weather, and called page to tell her i was on my way in. the conversation went something like this:

rrriiiing!
page: (in supersonic tones) SNOW DAYYYYY!!!
me: hello!
page: i wasn't even out of bed yet. you not coming?
me: oh no, i'm on my way! but i haven't found any roads yet...
page: oh no, be careful, are you sure you want to come in? mhoon's not coming in.
me: no, it's ok, i'm driving the tank! but i am worried about getting stuck at work if it keeps snowing like this.
page: turn around, come in later when it gets better.

soooo... i came home and made bacon, eggs, muffins, and coffee for breakfast, chatted with andrew, watched the million-hour-snow-coverage (it's snowing, it's still snowing, don't drive, you might die, oh yeah, there's an historic inauguration today! this just in, road plows hitting the streets because - it's snowing), watched the dogs run around in our snowy field (but didn't get any pictures, sorry), and am trying to keep warm under the covers on the couch while i watch the snow come down and the news bounce back and forth between obama and snow.

i guess the waiting and watching continues, checking in with oberlin to see if i should venture out, and watching the snow continue to fall.

to show you how early it was, a picture without the flash:
my breath fogging up the picture:more (and better) pictures are on my flickr page.

and flex! and point! and flex! and point!

ya gotta be flexible in this topsy-turvy world. at least that's what i've learned over the past few years. every time i've gotten used to my life, something has happened to turn it upside down. i think i'm just now getting used to how the only thing constant is change, and it's becoming easier to adjust.

i was telling andrew just today that it's weird how uneventful changing jobs (back to the vet) has been this time. i'm sure it's because i'm used to working at the vet during breaks from school, and that it'll wear off soon enough, but the hardest thing about going back to oberlin has just been finding things at the office (everything's been moved) and getting used to being exhausted when i get off work again. i think the two things that have suffered the most from the transition have been my cooking and cleaning - as in i haven't been doing much of either!

today though, andrew took the day off to spend with me (since he'll be out of town on business wednesday through saturday), and we did a little of both. we went to the hardware store and bought bunches of stuff, then bought the entire contents of two grocery stores, tried to go to the bank (but of course they were all closed), came home and cleaned and cooked for the rest of the night! it was great to hang out with my hubby all day :-)

oh, and since i promised:

pics of the FABULOUS short ribs i made last week. yes, slightly greasy, but fall-off-the-bone tender and deLISHious!

and the undertaking of tonight:

eggplant parmesan - not the same great recipe i used a while ago, cause i couldn't find it, but almost as good.

now it's off to dream of snow and hope it's enough to keep me home from work! east wake academy just canceled class for tomorrow, so i guess that is one bummer about working at a place that doesn't close at the thought of inclement weather :-P

my apologies for the absence

sorry about the severe lack of posting recently - i have been a little busy re-starting my job at oberlin, and while i've thought about a lot, and thought about blogging a lot, i haven't actually done any. i almost think it's that there's an overload of possible topics and i'm overwhelmed as to where to start.

i have made a few little changes, however, in that i've added a few labels off to the right -->
and, as of today, drumroll please... i've made the blog public again! since i don't have to worry about students finding it anymore, i figured i'd reopen it to the world of the internet.

tonight, since it's been my day off, i'm making braised shortribs for dinner. i've mostly followed the directions found here, and while i was busy cooking, rather than taking pictures, so far it does actually look the pictures mr.-amateur-gourmet-guy has on his page! and the whole house smells amazing. i can't wait for the next few hours to go by so that andrew will be here and i can see if it's is any good!

2009!

last year i did a sort of 2007 retrospective in pictures at the end of the year, but in hopes looking forward to whatever 2009 might bring, i'll forgo this tradition.

here's a glimpse at what we did last night!

andrew stuck his butt in the air...

brittany and i had champagne and sat by the fire...

while playing trivial pursuit...

against some great competitors...

who even stood to grin and bear it in their devastating defeat!

AMENDMENT!

we CAN use the fireplace!

we got the inspection report from the company today
and that tiny little print says, "you meet somethingo-or-other-very-important-number standards and you CAN use your chimney despite some small mortor cracks."

-- ok so that was a paraphrase instead of a quote, but you get what i'm saying. hooray!

and we have the tree guy coming out friday who will remove the tree we wanted and merely prune the other tree because we all decided that would fix the problem, so we're much closer to budget :)

thanks to my parents for the awesome presents of those two fixes and to God for making it all come out ok in the end.

chim chimeny chim chimeny chim chim cha roo!

today i woke up early to clean up a little before the chimney sweep from F.Scott Davis Chimney Sweep Inc. came to sweep our chimney! i give you the particular link to the particular company because there are some companies out there who are extremely rude and condescending - why would these be adjectives one associates with a company who makes their living cleaning soot, i have no idea, but apparently a good sweep is hard to find.

the people we had come out were very nice and professional. they brought all of their equipment:


swept the chimney quickly and efficiently without getting a spot of soot on our new carpets, they installed a stainless steel chimney cap:

and they did a full digital inspection of the chimney which will be evaluated by their boss and emailed to me in the next few days. and they did it all in 54 mins. pretty impressive, i'd say!

what's not so impressive... we STILL can't use the fireplace because there are places on the inside of the chimney where mortor has fallen out between the bricks and the tiles, and using the fireplace without getting this fixed could leak carbon monoxide into the house :( homeownership is fun - right? (someone please tell me when the fun part comes)

in other news, we have gotten an estimate on removal of the tree that's growing onto the roof, only to find out that there's also another tree growing on to the other side of the roof - crap! so i'm waiting to hear from the guy about what we can work out there. and now that we've figured out measurements, we're putting beadboard on the dining room walls to make wainscoting, and as long as i can stay motivated after lunch with andrew, i'm painting the top half of the walls myself this afternoon. phew, don't you love vacations?!


*i'm trying to find a new look for the blog, but it's a work in progress - bear with me!*