Winter has arrived. The weather sure was crappy on the drive home from work today. It took me nearly 30 minutes to get home (normally it takes 15-20 minutes, depending on the traffic). It was a good test for the Highlander, though. The roads weren’t totally horrible, but they weren’t good, either. My car performed admirably. I had zero issues. I wasn’t expecting to have any, but you never know. The guy in front of me was sliding all over the place. Times like these, I’m glad I have 4WD.
beautiful silence relaunch
Brian redid the Beautiful Silence site so it would be more of a showcase site for his business. Same content, different interface. Check it out.
i didn’t get the memo
Is Christmas coming earlier than usual this year? We have already gotten two Christmas cards in the mail (and this was before the 1st). I think the earliest we ever received a card in the past was the 6th or 7th. Not to mention the fact that everyone has their Christmas lights up already, but I think the good weather explains that.
I guess this means I better finish making my Christmas cards. I have one last batch to make, but I’ve been having problems coming up with a good idea. I have a few now, so with any luck, I’ll hammer those out over the weekend.
I am 99% done with my shopping. There are some things I won’t get until the last minute, but that is all I have left to buy.
Brian and Jake put Christmas lights outside today. I can’t wait to see them tonight. I suppose I’ll need to decorate the house soon. Normally, I don’t like to do that until the middle of the month (actually, I don’t even “like” doing it then), but Jake’s been pushing to decorate earlier, so we probably will. And, I won’t have any excuses not to because we bought an artificial tree last year, so it’s not like the needles are going to fall off if we put it up early.
Last week, I started baking. One batch of dog treats down, four to go. I haven’t baked any cookies yet. I’m going to try to do at least one batch of dog treats and/or cookies each weekend until all of my baking is done.
My favorite holiday preparation is wrapping Christmas gifts. But, now that Jake’s around, we need to do that when he’s not home. I don’t know when that is going to be, but I’m hoping to do that mid-month. If that doesn’t work itself out, I guess I’ll need to schedule something.
back to work order
It’s Brian’s first day of self-employment and, already, I’m ready to send him back to work. Things started off well enough today. He went for his usual morning run with Lizzy and then even took Alice for a run around the block. He got Jake ready for school and got him on the bus. The Jake thing usually sets me back 15 minutes (therefore causing me to extend my work day by 15 minutes), so this was nice.
Lunchtime rolled around and Brian wanted to put the bike in the shed for the winter. He was outside for a bit and then he called me from his cell to tell me his bike was stuck in the yard. And stuck, it was–up to the frame. We tried pushing and pulling, but nothing worked–it just made a bigger trench in the yard. We were able to slip a brick under the back tire and this helped a little, but still, no luck. Then, we threw some cat litter in the hole and this gave us just enough traction to push the bike out of the trench and onto a piece of plywood on another spot of the yard. We’re hoping the ground either dries up or freezes (without snow) so that he can get the bike in the shed for the winter.
This set me back 45 minutes. I would have rather gotten Jake ready for school.
candles burning
This was a book started by an author named Michael McDowell (who died during the writing of it) and finished by Tabitha King (otherwise known as Stephen King’s wife). I thought I’d give it a whirl, but the book took me months to read. That is not normal for me. I kind of enjoyed it while I was reading it, but I just never felt like picking it up. It sat for a week between readings quite often.
But, then I got the new Stephen King book, Lisey’s Story, so I had to sit down and finish reading this book once and for all. In the midst of this revelation, Brian’s dad lent me a James Patterson novel, so I guess I’m going to have to read that before I start on the new Stephen King because I want to get it back to him. But, judging from past Patterson novels I have read, this won’t be much of an issue. I have just the opposite problem with his books–I can’t put them down. Besides the fact that his stories are interesting, he writes these really short chapters. So, there’s always time to read “just one more”.
Back to Candles Burning…Yeah, I guess I really didn’t like it.