Ahh...spring.

Nothing says spring like ice crystals. Isn't this a cool pattern? I couldn't resist taking a picture. Can you guess what it is?

Can you?

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Have I mentioned that it's mid-April. And SPRING. It may look pretty, but I refuse to use my ice scraper past the end of March. That's just wrong.

Adjusting

Monday morning (or is that Sunday night) was Luke's first day (night?) working third shift and now we're all trying our best to adjust. He had to come home from Easter dinner at my sister's on Sunday to take a nap before he left for work at 11:30pm. He's been looking forward to this change for a long time so he was prepared for the adjustment. I have been apprehensive about the change for a long time, but I'm willing to see how it goes.

Here's how it goes: we all need more sleep. Except for Molly, she's adjusting fine. She sleeps with me at night and with Luke during the day. She gets half the bed to herself. She's thrilled.

Previous to this schedule change, we were generally in bed by 10pm and I was out like a light by, oh, about 10:02pm. It seems though, in these last two days, that if I stay awake past that 10pm point, I don't need to sleep at all! I'm wide awake. Sunday night/Monday morning, I stayed up in bed reading until 2am. I had to force myself to stop reading and turn out the light because it was getting ridiculous. Same thing happened last night but I made myself turn the light out at midnight. I'm sleeping better than expected in an empty bed, and I'm waking up just fine, but about an hour after I wake up, I feel like a zombie. I can't remember anything, I can't focus, and obviously, I can't tell an interesting story either. Sorry about that.

Luke's doing OK so far. Yesterday he slept for a few hours after he came home from work at 10am, and then he napped a little before work. The worst part for him is, as he referred to her, Barkums. Molly barks in a shrill, ear piercing way when we're home and she sees something outside. We're trying to break her of this, but you have to physically threaten her with Bitter Apple to get her to stop. Yesterday Luke was trying to sleep and a delivery guy came rolling up the driveway. Then someone stopped by to pick up Luke's mom for a doctor's appointment, then they came to bring her back. Each time, Barkums just couldn't stop herself from alerting Luke of the danger. We're going to have to work on this some more.

One good thing I've noticed about Luke's new schedule so far is his mood. He's a new man. It might be that he's just too tired to be anything but mellow, but I don't think so. It's amazing for me to watch him. He's generally so short tempered and frustrated. Sunday night, just before he had to leave for work, our toilet decided to explode all over the floor, which normally would result in swearing, slamming, and yelling from Luke. Instead, he was laughing and shaking his head in disbelief. Who is this man? I came home last night and he was washing dishes. If this is what I get to live with from now on, I'd be more than happy to live without sleep.

Another good thing is that I have more time to read. It's been so long since I read a book - I've almost forgotten how. I used to read everyday on my lunch break, but then I started to go meet Luke for lunch everyday and the reading stopped. Don't get me wrong, I loved having lunch with Luke, but the driving and the paying for coffee and the rushing - that I won't miss. And now I can READ! Yay! Right now I'm trying to finish up my last book club book, Bookends, by Jane Green and I have Goodnight Nobody, by Jennifer Werner that I started and never finished. And Flann and Amanda gave me books to read that have been collecting dust on my book shelf. I'm very excited at having more time to read.

So all in all, it's good. We're adjusting. It's only been two days (or nights) so far but I think it might just work out OK.

Cruel Hartford

Now that I don't work in Hartford, the only reason I will travel there is to update the chalkboards at Max Downtown. Some days, usually early on a warm, spring morning, I actually miss Hartford. It's so cute and convenient. The restaurants and shops are so lovely. I could actually understand why people move to cities to live. And then there are mornings like I had today.

I left the house a little later than I wanted, which left me to fight traffic and dodge jerks talking on cell phones as I made my way into the frozen wind tunnel that is Hartford. There were no parking spots on the street. The open spots were filled with frozen snow banks or the meters were inexplicably bagged. I drove around and around and finally found a spot blocks from where I had to go. Then I fed the meter - where a quarter gets you all of 10 minutes - and made my way to Max Downtown. It was so cold and windy, isn't it supposed to be SPRING today? It was quite a crabby start to my day.

But I did manage to do this:And this:And there's a Starbucks right next to Max Downtown so at least I had something warm to hold onto on the long trek back to the car.

Will Spring Ever Arrive?

Tomorrow is the first day of spring and this is what I saw out my window yesterday. Disgusting. I'm sorry it gets shaky at one point. It must have been my uncontrollable sobbing.

Random Thoughts

It's been a virtual blog ghost town lately. No one seems to be updating their blogs this week (Amanda... Flannery... Melissa...). I'm even feeling uninspired. I couldn't muster up the creative juices to write anything yesterday and today I'm feeling the same. Blah.

My last post was my 200th. It took me a year to reach 100 and two months to reach 200. Have I been chatty lately?

Have I mentioned how much I love my car? I love my car.

Luke's Jeep has decided to hold a sit-in in our driveway. It's refusing to not only let him open the doors, but also to start. I blame this on Luke's talk of buying a new truck lately. I was still in my bathrobe, making coffee this morning when Luke tried to leave and couldn't. I had to throw some clothes on, dunk my head in the tub, toss some makeup in my purse and hop in the car to take Luke to work. I left in such a hurry that I had to take mental inventory of my outfit before I got out of the car at work, just in case: shirt? check, pants? check, two matching shoes? check.

Molly goes for a haircut tonight. She gets her hair cut more often than I do and her haircuts cost more than my salon visits do. What does this say about me?

I've been crafting lately but I can't share the details with you because they are top-secret crafts for a certain someone who might be reading this blog. Stay tuned and maybe I'll eventually be able to reveal what I've been up to.

It's going to snow tonight, I'm so sad.

Daylight Savings Blows

Remember how I wanted to stop being a lazy slob and get up early for walks with Molly again? This week would be perfect for that. It's not too cold, the ice has melted off the driveway, spring is on the way. And then there was daylight savings. Do you know how dark it is at 6am? My brain thinks it's winter again and refuses to let my body get out of bed. This 3-week early daylight savings was just a bad idea. I tried, I really did. I set the alarm for 6am, it went off and I just couldn't bring myself to get up. It looked like the middle of the night and I wasn't in the mood to search for a flashlight to bring with us on our walk. Maybe next week.

Obviously Not Bold Enough

On Flannery's recommendation, I bought myself a pair of new glasses from Zenni Optical and here they are. Bright, no? Sorry about the ghostly pallor of the photo. Mostly that's my real skin tone, but it's accentuated nicely by the flash and the bad lighting in my office.

I figured, since Zenni's glasses were so incredibly cheap, I could afford to get myself some fun glasses. I've always wanted to have a selection of glasses to pick from every morning. I've had the same pair for three years now and, as nice as they are, sometimes I'm just sick of them. Just for fun, I ordered new glasses. RED glasses. And hardly anyone has noticed.

A few people close to me noticed right away and had mixed reactions. My neighbor made fun of her husband for not noticing the difference by saying "how could you NOT notice??" My sister said "you have new glasses - do you like them?" which I think meant that she didn't like them, and my nephew really wanted to know where my old glasses were. My mom politely noticed and Luke called me Harry Potter when he saw them for the first time. Surprisingly though, no one else has noticed.

My boss keeps looking at me strangely like she suspects something is different but just can't place it. Other people I work alongside haven't said a thing either. It's not that I want everyone to notice, I'm not that narcissistic, I just thought they were hugely different and hard to miss.

Either way, I love them. They're fun and I'm off to order another pair from Zenni. If you wear glasses, I would highly recommend them. These red beauties only cost me $30, including shipping. Less than 10% of a pair at the local eyeglass shop!

Lazy No More, Well Maybe...

Most weekday mornings throughout the year, Molly and I crawl out of bed an hour before Luke to go for a little morning walk. It's good for the pup, and good for the one who sits at the computer all day. We walk in the rain, we walk in the cold, we go every day. That is, until about mid-December. By then, the holiday exhaustion, freezing cold, and serous lack of daylight turn Molly and me into late sleepers.

We slack off from mid-December through January, and then in February we usually resume our schedule, thanks in part to the sun actually beginning to rise before we do. I really can't stand getting up in the dark, getting dressed in the dark, bundling up in my coat, putting Molly in her coat, putting on my reflecting vest, putting on Molly's reflective vest... it's just too much. So in February, when the sun is up by 6:30am or so, we usually get back on our schedule.

February 1st we got up at 6, bundled up and went for the coldest walk in a long time. It was vicious. Molly has a problem with her paws cramping in the bitter cold and I thought I was going to have to carry her for the whole walk so we cut is short and decided to walk again when it got warmer.

March 1st. We've been lazing in bed for another month, sleeping in, and I decide: it's March, we really need to start walking again. We get up early, bundle up, and go for a walk. It wasn't fun, it was darn cold, but we went. Our driveway is like a giant frozen bobsled course, but we braved it. OK, we're back on schedule! Lazy no more. That was, until today.

I woke up early, it was dark. I looked outside at the lake of rainwater in the driveway and decided that I wasn't in the mood to put waders on and find Molly's life preserver. We went back to bed. It's Mother Nature's fault that I'm fat and lazy! We'll try again Monday, but I hear it's going to turn bitterly cold and that's just not good for those little puppy feet. It might be June before we can get back on schedule.

The Barf is All Around Me

Everyone I know who has kids seems to be suffering with some nasty little stomach bug at the moment. My sister's kids were sick this weekend, my boss's visiting grandkids were sick, a boy at the grocery store got sick in the aisle right next to me - almost ON me. Then yesterday my boss was home sick and I woke up early this morning to a restless Luke who thought he was going to throw up. Great. I'm trying to hold my breath, not touch anything, and use Clorox wipes on everything. I really don't want this.

How I'm Feeling Today

I think I'm getting a cold. But at least I don't have a blue cast on my paw. How cute is that furry, little expression? Here's the link to the page on Cute Overload where I found it.

Popsicle Toes

My friend, Flann, has a tag on her blog of "whiney" and I love that. I think I might add that one to my tags, too, because this post is going to be whiney.

The heat hasn't worked in my car since Sunday. That's right. It's the coldest week of the season and I have no heat in my car. I also have no defrost so not only is it uncomfortable, it's a little scary.

Luke checked the fan motor and the fuses and other car things and he has a theory. He thinks that there was some moisture in the duct work which froze and is now keeping the fan from rotating. Luckily there is still heat seeping out of the ducts, it's just not blowing out and melting the rubber on my shoes like I want it to. Thankfully, the heat seepage eventually warms the car enough so that halfway through my half-hour ride to and from work, I stop seeing my breath in the car. Unfortunately, it's never enough heat to actually warm me up and I am now perpetually frozen.

I get home at night and sit so close to the wood stove that I can smell my jeans singeing. I still don't feel warm. It really sucks. I haven't had feeling in my toes since Monday morning.

I asked Luke what we could do and he said, 'nothing'. We either have to build a heated garage, or we have to wait until it gets warmer and the moisture melts, releasing the fan blades. Waiting in the cold is not one of my favorite activities. Its starting to affect other parts of my car, too. My odometer froze up for a day and a half and the back window refuses to release it's latch. It's great. I love winter.