snowed in!

I was off work before the "blizzard of '10" struck yesterday, and was off today. However, I was scheduled for my bi-weekly 4am Sunday shift. I called in to work explaining that I wouldn't be in. I feel bad for calling out, but:

1) I can't make it to a major road without great difficulty
2) I don't feel comfortable driving in the snow
3) I already have no faith in the other drivers in this town - I don't need to add snow & ice into the mix.

I will miss the money though, but I might be able to make up the hours. If not, well to be honest I'd rather be short on my bills than add more bills to my repetoir in car repairs or medical needs. (Or shoot, even the inconvenience of having to walk uphill in the snow for some miles, which is a distinct possibility since it happened last time it snowed.)

So anyway, I should be sleeping so I could get up at 3am, but instead I'm going to sleep normal hours and see what the roads are like tomorrow in the daylight. It is supposed to snow more tonight, but then that's it. So we'll see.

Have I mentioned lately that I would prefer to live where it does NOT snow? Or if it has to snow, I want to at least live in a place that is prepared for it.

cold

It's snowing in Asheville. My old house is drafty. Even with warm pajamas, awesome fuzzy slippers, central heat, and 2 space heaters, I am still unhappily cold. I don't want to hear any of you telling me how nice it is in your part of the world. I do want to move into a new climate though, or at least a new house.

Is the perfect temperature just too much to ask?

Its cold in them thar hills part 2

Why is it that every time I move somewhere, they suddenly have the worst winter they've had in years?

Asheville got a blizzard yesterday. I thought when I left Michigan I was moving away from the snow! Ok, so it didn't snow as much as it does other places, but for a town that doesn't own snow plows or salt trucks, it was a lot. I think in our area it was like 10 inches maybe, but it was enough to disrupt the entire town. After I think 75% of the staff called in (or went home early), the store ended up closing at 5. I killed some time at work til Jay got off his work and could come get me, but it was very scary and slow going on the way home.

We saw dozens of cars spun out on the side of the room, and a few accidents as well. There was one moment where we thought we were going to get stuck, but after a few minutes of the tires spinning, we were able to move. However we did get stuck at the bottom of the giant hill we live on. A random stranger was nice enough to tow our car into a nearby parking lot. We walked about half a mile or so, then Jay's sister's boyfriend picked us up in his magic 4x4 truck & drove us the rest of the way home. After changing our clothes and grabbing some food, we went over to Jay's sister's house - which, as you'll remember, is only 3 doors down from us. There were some people over there, and he had some drinks and watched a movie.

Not terribly long after we got back to our place, the power went out. It had been trying all day. In fact, Jay's store actually lost power not long before he left. There was nothing much we could do, so we bundled up and went to bed. I woke up at my normal time because I was technically supposed to work. However, due to the whole "car being 2 miles away" thing and the "hill still not being plowed" thing, there was no way I was getting there so I called in and went back to bed. The power was still out, so we stayed in bed as long as we could. Even the cat was under the covers with us.

Sadly, eventually we had to get out of bed. Jay's sister was making a fire in the fireplace, so Jay went to help with that while I took a shower. Thank goodness the hot water still worked! The snow has started to melt a little, but as of right now our car is still inaccessible. I don't know if I'll be going to work tomorrow, but I definitely won't be in for my scheduled 4am shift. (Something about driving in the dark, in the ice & snow just doesn't sit right with me.

And now, pictures!

This was the next morning, when the snow was starting to melt. Not melt enough, it seems.

Over the night it got down to 47 degrees in our house. I forgot to take a picture until the heat was already back on.

And if you're interested, here's a story about Asheville's snow on CNN.

It's cold in them thar hills!

Who'da thunk it would get cold here in the mountains of the American South? It's not as cold as Michigan of course, but I'm still a California girl, dammit! It's been getting down to the 20's sometimes, even with a couple flurries of snow. (The snow doesn't stick at all, or even make much of a slush, but I can definitely see tiny flakes falling.)

What makes it worse is that our house is heated by propane. Recently the propane ran out, even though we had just put $270 worth into the tank 20 days ago. The source of this rapid use is still under investigation. But we bought a coupla space heaters and have been working on winterizing (read: shrink-wrapping) the windows, and that's helped. We managed to get the propane refilled, but there were a few days when it was VERY cold in this house, especially at 6am en route from the bed to the shower before work.

Also, we have hardwood floors. You might say, ooh how nice, that's so fancy! But really, they just turn into giant ice cubes that you have to walk on. We already had a rug at the foot of the bed, but that was useless for anything else. So thanks to some lucrative ebaying, we bought a new rug for the foot of the couch, and one for the kitchen that makes up a majority of that freezing stretch from the bedroom to the bathroom. Also, Jay bought me some toasty new slippers as an early xmas present. (Though I'm pretty sure he was just sick of hearing me complain about freezing feet.)

Although the one upside of the freezing house is that the cat was more loving. He would sit on our laps every chance he got, and even crawl under the covers with us at night. When we bought the first space heater (an oscillating one on a tower), he would position himself conveniently on the couch so he got the maximum heat. Then we picked up another smaller cheaper heater that sits on the floor. The point of that was to help the floor become a floor again and less of an ice cube, but the cat has co-opted the heater for his own personal use. He sits directly in front of it at all times. He's learned that he's not allowed to actually *touch* the heater, but he gets pretty damn close. Since the heater isn't as powerful as it could be, it doesn't seem like his fur will catch on fire, but I still make him move once in a while.

And of course all this coldness is reeeeeally making me miss sunny California. Still considering moving back there at some point, but what would I do with all these heaters?



Also: if you order from my etsy shop quick, you can get delivery by xmas!

the zoo in winter

I realized yesterday that even though I've been to the Detroit Zoo several times, it's always been in winter. I did go in late March once, but most of the animals were still gone to warmer climes. Because of this, there are lots and lots of animals "at the zoo" that I've never seen.

That's ok, I still get some great pictures. Also, it feels really good going into the hot, humid butterfly house, where I see things like this:




The butterflies were being very photo-cooperative (photoperative) for me. Most of the birds were not, but this tiny duck was. He was adorable.


And of course I saw penguins.


I took lots of pictures of them, but they're all kind of the same. The penguins weren't very active.

There was an evil squirrel.


I want to be a river otter. They always look like they're having a super happy fun time.


The big cats were there. I couldn't tell how they felt about the snow. I'm pretty sure they would have been doing the same thing no matter what.



A new addition to the Detroit Zoo is the meerkat exhibition. Meerkats are adorable and awesome. This was the first time I'd ever seen them in real life. I tried to get video of them digging, but that didn't work out. So I got lots of stills.



I honestly didn't see the zebra at first. They are really good camouflagers, even in the snow.


Apparently kangaroos don't like snow, so they get stranded on their own little islands.



The bald eagles were nice enough to pose for me.


Know what else are cute? Snow foxes.


The polar bear was very pacey.


And finally, here's me in the underwater display.



I took a ton more pictures, but there is no room for them here. If you want to see them, check out my flickr.


(as always, click on the pictures to make them larger.)

nuthin

Not much goin on at the old homestead. I've made some pretty jewelry recently, but that's about it.

Jobwise, still nuthin. I went to a staffing agency last week and took stupid tests. Standard typing test, no problem. Simple spelling and math, no problem. Fake programs testing my knowledge of Word and Excel, which are stupid because you only get 2 chances per question, and if you don't remember which drop down menu a command is in, too bad. If you accidentally click your mouse somewhere, too bad. So, my scores made me look like I'd never touched a computer before. Luckily, the people giving the tests knew the programs' shortcomings, so they were still duly impressed with my skillz. Then I had to watch some video for idiots about safety. And when I say for idiots, I mean lights would flash and the announcer would say "QUIZ ALERT" when the video was about to go over something that would (word for word) be on the silly little test. I got 100% on that test, btw.

I also have a very hopeful prospect using Jay's Michigan connections. I should find out soon if knowing someone on the inside will help me or not, and if it doesn't, I'll call that agency. I don't want to be a temp because I hate office work, but it's gotten to the point where I don't get to choose any more. So let's all hope for nepotism.

Besides that, there hasn't been much goin on. Mecrutio has become obsessed with the squirrels that frequent our patio (thanks to a certain boyfriend's penchant for throwing peanuts out for them). Then yesterday there was a random frog on our patio. Mecru tried to eat it, but we put it in a box and took it to a field. Add that to the geese that apparently get it on right outside our bedroom window every morning at dawn, and we've got quite the wildlife refuge.

The weather's been beautiful, so Midnight's been gettin long walks. I like this whole "spring" idea. So much better than the neverending snow.

Also, I've registered for the Detroit AIDS Walk. The walk itself isn't til September, but you should go to my website and sponsor me before then. And tell your friends and stuff. Or click on that big button over to the right anytime.

So that's about it. Whole lotta nuthin.


ps - there are 3 separate jewelry links up there, make sure you click on them all.

potentials trip

I haven't written anything recently because nothing of interest has crossed my mind. However. Starting tomorrow my Jay and I will be somewhere other than Snowland. We're making a trip to Florida where I get to meet my potential in-laws (!) and wear summer clothes. Oh and we get a new car. (New for us, silly. We don't have any money for a new new car.)

Then we'll be driving our new car up north, possibly stopping in Savannah, GA just because it suddenly fascinates me, and onto NC where the meetings include a best friend in law and a sister in law. Then home through Lousville, KY to hang with the best friend in law that I have already met. There will be other stops along the way, and we should be back home in like a week or so.

Translation: I'm meeting Jay's family for the first time on this trip, so even though I don't have much to say now, I will definitely have stories and pictures when I'm back cooped up inside away from the snow.


ps - in case you didn't get the memo, potential in laws means that because Jay and I are not married, I get to judge his family and see if I want them to be in my lives forever.
Just kidding. Dang, what a bitch!

zoo-ventures (lotsa photos)

This picture is the best introduction I could give. Detroit Zoo. Snow. No people. Awesome for des and Jay.


This picture as nothing to do with the zoo other than that's where I took it. But I liked the way this tree looked in the frozen lake. And you know, I'm always taking pictures of interesting trees because I'm neurotic like that.


First stop, the butterfly house. I do like year-round jungle rooms that contain so many butterflies that you can barely see. You might say that I had a ton of photo ops, and since I love my new camera, took many a fine picture.



There were several really pretty giant blue butterflies, but they all mocked me and my photo skillz. They would either land right next to me and close their wings (thus hiding the brilliant blue) or fly around me in circles, but too fast for me to get a decent shot. See that blue streak? Yeah. That's the best one I could get.

Where there are butterflies, there are also hummingbirds.


It knocks me out that I could catch a hummingbird in flight but not the stupid blue butterfly.

On to the aviary.
This bird was hanging out on a ledge... about 6 inches from a small child that enjoyed running back and forth, scaring the wits out of the poor bird. This bird was also very fast, but I managed to get him making his escape.


Here we have a very elusive species, the JayBird. He's not naked though.


I think this is the cutest duck I've ever seen in my life. I wanted to take him home, but he looked so comfy in his spot.


A Scarlet Ibis. Because I think they are neat.


Sure, the aviary was cool, but my favorite birds were nowhere near there. That's right, on to the Penguinarium!

All penguins are made for photo shoots. These are King Penguins. (I think - and yes, I could be wrong - that the difference between these and Emperor Penguins is that a King's beak is longer.)


This Rockhopper kept swimming in front of us, demanding that we take many many pictures. And so we did. This is just one of them.


This might be my favorite picture of the day. The Lone Watching penguin, perched high atop a cliff. It might be that I'm a little nuts, but the guy cracks me up every time I look at him.



To paraphrase Jessica Alba's character in Good Luck Chuck, you can't help but smile when you see a penguin. Especially a baby one.


We did spend the most time in the Penguinarium, me squealing with delight every time a penguin did so much as blinked. But there were other things to see on this day, so we moved on to the Arctic Ring of Life.
Seals? Yes. And one of them spends his day swimming completely upside down. That is totally the way I would roll if I was a seal.


The natural progression of animals of course goes Arctic animals to big cats. So here's a big cat. I don't need to tell you that a male lion is a lazy butt, especially when it's cold outside.


My preference in any zoo (after los pinguinos of course) is the tigers. The 2 tigers were much more active than the lazy old lion, and when we walked up they were actually play fighting. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the action. But you can build your own story with these 2 photos:



I like tigers.

And finally, the most unhappy animal in the whole zoo, the camels. Camels don't belong in the snow, especially being upstaged by some snotty deer.


We spent just under 2 hours in the zoo, so we did not see all of it. However, my camera's battery died as we were leaving, so it's just as well. Since Jay has a membership that gets him and me in free, and neither of us has a job right now, we will definitely be back. And I will take many more fun pictures because I will make sure my battery is fully charged.



ps - if you liked this sampling of the zoo photoshoot, you can check out my flickr page that has a whole bunch more of everything.