dolphins_log | Entries tagged with christmas

Today wasn't so much a "Black Friday" as it was getting the house in the Christmas Spirit. ...preparing for getting the it tin the spirit anyway.
I drove to Poulsbo and chose the perfect tree and set it up to get flocked. [don't go there].

I'll pick that up next week. I always go to Valley Nursery, even though they are way out of my way. They have some fun ornaments too.
They usually aren't ready to take flocking orders, but it seems that Thanksgiving was a little late this... year. What with Juli working 6 days a week, I want the house to be fun for her to come home to.
Funny about the flocked tree.... It's Juli's tradition. I usually tease her about it, but in the end I'm the one that seeks it out the best tree and gets it in place.

Current Location: Family Room on the laptop
Current Music: tv blather

-{So I'm going to edit this up. Still no exclamation point in the header, but I'll capitalize it. There is snow on the trees and grass, and slush on the roads.}-

It's the first snow of the season.

I followed all of the pre-forecast discussions,

The National Weather Service discussion for our area found on the Weather Underground for Port Orchard page.

And UW Meteorologist Cliff Mass' Weather Blog.

By checking all of those out last weekend I decided to get the roof line Christmas lights up then. I would not want to be out on the roof in the snow. Turned out to be a good call.

I put up the rest of the lights in the trees and shrubs, on on our porch today.

( In Other News. I am and New Uncle! Twice! )

Current Location: Family Room on the laptop
Current Music: The Weather Chanel

L.E.D. lights make for far easier de-decorating. The large C-9 size bulbs are made of plastic and don't shatter when they smack into things like the glass bulbs. The LED lights don't have fragile filaments that break with too much shaking. LED strings seem less prone to half burn out.

So the outdoor lights came down a little easier then they have before. Of course me being 22 pounds lighter probably helped. The roof certainly seemed to appreciate it.

Today's sunlight had the walkers out and about. Many people of all ages were out walking their dogs or stretching their legs. Spring is near upon us.

Current Mood: Getting It Done
Current Location: Family room with Laptop.
Current Music: Juli watching TV

I usually work 4 hours on Saturday. Yesterday I had to put in an extra half hour to make up for losing a half hour on Monday. Monday was MLK day, and while we were closed all "direct" employees had to show up and take on various tasks. I think I mentioned that I entered 370 trailers on one account.

In any case, the supervisor of the day really didn't want to put in a full 12 hour day, that's what she would have had to do. so she shortened the day for everyone else and had us make it up Saturday. Problem is the make up day falls into the next pay period. So now we are short this pay period and get overtime next pay period. I have no problem with that.

Yesterday, after work, was busy though. I had to work out the Treasurer's reports for the Tai Pan Corp Board meeting. There was a bit of missing information, but I believe I managed to calculate a decent guesstimate from the info I had. It took all afternoon though.

Juli arrived home at 5:30 and we loaded up all of the Christmas gifts for the gang in town. Then off to the coffee shop for road coffee, only to realize that I had left the Treasurer's reports back home. Back to the house and Off to the party.

Edd, Amy, and Lady K hosted our late Christmas Party, {Thank you so much, by the way.} which was canceled in December due to Snow. We had a great time! Quick board meeting. Gift exchange. Good food! Cello entertainment by geojlc

.
A ghost Story by

typographer that takes place in

chuck_melville 's Felicia world. And a MR. COW story from chuck, directly from under his hat!!

The Party was great fun!!!!!

Thank You Notes:
Thank you to my friends for the cool gifts!!!
Marshmallow shooters presented by

jeffreycornish and

geojlc sent tiny marshmallows flying all over the living room for a good 45 minutes.
Cool book of the mosquito fleet from

miko2 .
Great cetacean space workers painting from both

typographer and

miertam , brought all the way from Orycon.
Lighthouse scrimshawed [I think] on piano ivory from amovedivus and jwyldragon as well as gift cards for book stores.
Fry's gift card from

bluesmancd .
Curious T-Shirts with ships and a slogan about finding everything at the circus from Edd and Amy.

typographer and

miertam gave Juli a Galactica soundtrack which she is very pleased with.
Ieve gave us both cat toys, I mean book marks, which will get much intended use, and may get some unintended use.

Thank you all!

Today:

I love getting Juli her coffee in the morning!   While I was off to the coffee shop, driving off through the snow, yes we had snow, she made cranberry-orange scones. Yum! So we ate Cranberry-Orange scones, snuggled up to our coffee, and watched Caruso on the DVR. It's an okay bit of TV fluff.
I almost decided not to go to the gym for that promised full workout, but I got to thinking about NorWesCon and wanting to have the energy then. So I decided the workout was an investment I could not ignore.   Good choice.

After the workout I remembered that, not only was tomorrow the 26th, and time for a card for Juli, it was also the first day of the Chinese New Year. So I walked across the parking lot from the gym to Hallmark in the strip mall. ...in my gym clothes.   ...my sweaty gym clothes.   ...in the cold and snow.    Suffer for Love, people! Suffer for Love!

I've got a few more hours of the day to get more stuff done. There are a number of choices. I just can't be stymied by indecision.

Current Mood: Poof!
Current Location: Computer Room
Current Music: Vangelis: Motion of the Stars

Today was a day off. Friday is always a day off.

The flocked tree came down. We never actually hung ornaments on it. The lights were on it and it looked cool from the outside. It made a mess coming don though. Since you don' t water a flocked tree it got a bit dry. Actually it shattered. ScARe ThE KiTties!

Coiled up extension cords lying on the deck.

Two years ago I had to put the yucca plant outside. Either it would acclimate or die. I had a look at it today, I was struck with curiosity. I mean there is no doubt we've had some weather, right? It's sagged quite a bit, and there are some leaf blades destine to be soil,,,

But [voice: Evil Scientist] it ALIVE! [/voice]

The weather rain gauge is claiming we got a quarter inch of rain in our deluge that is flooding the state. That would be incorrect. The wind gauge was blown into the dirt on the other side of the yard. I think that is an indication that, yes, there was wind. I put it back where it belonged .

There is sand piled up in the yard where the snow was piled. The Shoveler may have to return.

Juli went to work tonight at 5. She will be home somewhere between 3 and 7 in the morning. Inventory.

Now I go to bed alone.

Current Mood: BEER
Current Location: Computer Room
Current Music: Dishwasher

... and failing dismally.

It's snowing again. Cliff Mass UW Meteorologist, says it's diabetic snow [thank you for that link

typographer ] . It starts falling as snow and melts on the way down. The process of melting cools the air and we get snow again. It's suppose to change to rain by midnight, but right now we have a little less than an inch.

I managed to get almost all of the outdoor lights down. All that is left are the icicle lights on the second story. They can stay there until the weather gets better. Juli and I did work on "Yule Graand Pundering". The artificial tree is down. I spent the rest of the afternoon binding up the strands of outdoor lights. We lost half of them to faulty connections. I want to change over to LED lights anyway.

GOOD GRACIOUS it's white outside!

Tomorrow I start as a direct employee. When I started hunting for a job I had to scrounge for my Social Security card. Back in 1983 I didn't need it to start work for my parents. Not only did the I-9 form not exist, but even if it did my bosses could vouch for my citizenship. So in 2007 I went out and got a replacement ss card. Two hours after I came home I found my original from 1969. It was a wispy thin piece of future dust, but you could read it. At least now I have one that is not in danger of disintegrating with a sneeze.

Now I need to get dinner in and dinner planned for the week.

Current Mood: SNOW!
Current Location: computer room.
Current Music: Kitaro: India

Bit of a quote from a pin ball machine.

I managed to shop for Juli today. I haven't ever "Last Minute Shopped" before. It's both frustrating and simplifying. I think I've got her some good stuff.

I also managed to scrape our driveway so I could get out to work tomorrow morning.

We're due for 4 to 8 inches of snow starting tomorrow night that may be followed up by a crust of freezing rain. It's beginning to look like Juli and I wont make the party, but will keep the possibility open. If there is a big storm we would rather be trapped at home.

I left for work yesterday a 1/2 hour early. My direct route turned out to be closed. I had to choose between the second direct route through hilly rural roads or the third indirect route the back tracks North through Port Orchard. I took the third route as it was well lit and a little better prepared by road crews.

Work has been Very slow. Few calls, but long and complicated. Then the snow hit and it was like the phones were turned off. Work sent me home one hour early yesterday. I got some shopping done in Gig Harbor and then worked my way West [more North realy] on 16. 16 was in the news last night for being very slow. Yes. 2 miles an hour. I checked. I managed to get home a half hour later then I would have on a normal day, let go at the normal time.

The Weather Outside Is Delightful. Traveling In It Is Rather Frightful.

Current Mood: The Storm Is Coming
Current Location: Computer Room
Current Music: Oh Christmas Tunes, Oh Christmas Tunes.

I have this thing about wrapping paper. I like to find the interesting ones if I can. I had this fish paper that was great[some of you saw it at the party this year], but it's all gone now. When Juli and I got married one of the things that moved in with us was my huge bag of Christmas wrapping paper. Juli looked at that and ...well it was one of the times when put her foot down. I know. It's hard to imagine Juli putting her foot down on any issue.

Well... last year Juli brought home some sparkly Hanukkah paper. So it's kind of hard to figure out where she stands on the paper issue. This year we've run into something new and different. Many of the rolls of paper are running out [despite the fact that I've been sneaking rolls into the bag]. When I have to replenish the wrapper on short notice I don't always find the spectacular wrap, but I do get some interesting ones.

Oh, and when I sneak rolls into the bag, ...well ...I guess I'm not very stealthy.

Current Mood: creative

Thanksgiving was entertaining. We had 15 people. Juli's mom joined us, which is always fun. My Aunt did strange and chose not to show. She didn't want to face the noise. My Uncle went on and on about doomsday and Politics, same-o same-o. He's a character and it's all fun there. My nieces and nephews are putting their lives together very well, and entering adulthood.

Friday I planned to relax and read some, maybe putter about the house. Unfortunately I relaxed too much and sort of missed the day.

Saturday and Sunday I spent the daylight hours putting up outdoor lights. I managed to find a replacement artificial tree for our ten year old tree. Only $40. The ten year old one was $80. There ya go. My neighbor across the street was out hanging his lights, as well as most of the neighborhood. He was having trouble keeping his lights lit, climbing out on his roof and twisting each bulb. Finally he had success which brought a cheer from me and another neighbor at the same time.

I had to get up on my own roof. It's the one time of year that I will face my fear and hang by my toes from a height. I still have a few lights to get up, but those are all low to the ground. I've decided against lawn sculpture. They turn out to be more expensive then regular lights in that they fall apart and get rusty. And they are hard to store. Don't need any of that any more.

There is ice out tonight and the weather watchers are talking maybe snow on Monday night. 1 to 2 inches for most people and 2 to 4 for us here in Kitsap. Weeeee

Current Mood: creative
Current Music: Winter Solstice I