A Green is Not a Green

When talking about that arbitrary difficulty rating of ski runs, that is. 

On my first true winter vacation experience last week in Copper Mountain and Vail CO, I decided (among many things) that there needs to be subcategories of green ski runs.  I'm sure there should also be subcategories of the blues and blacks, but surprisingly I haven't experienced too many of those.  Only one.  And that was one too many.

In order to make my inaugural ski trip the most positive experience possible, I signed up for a private lesson on the first morning.  Ski instructor and I had a great morning cruising down the bunny slopes!  My kind of skiing - just cruising.  No fear for my life.

"Falls without reason" - totally me.

At the conclusion of the lesson, ski instructor highly encouraged me to stay on that slope for the several days and not to let TB and his friends push me into anything that I was not ready for.  We could even leave our skis at right there with him and return for them after lunch!  I should have known the day would take a dark turn when TB politely declined and said we would just take our skis with us.  As we rounded the corner away from ski instructor, TB confidently said, "We don't need to come back here".  Riiiight.

Later that afternoon I found myself falling off the ski lift at the top of the mountain, only to come face to face with.................... a BLUE.  Yep.  A blue that really should have been classified a double black due to the death defying drop that I was staring at.  After realizing I had no alternative, I started down the cliff.  Started and didn't get very far.  Ten feet down the blue that should have been a black, I lost both skis, a pole and every bit of confidence I had gained with ski instructor.  TB and I then proceeded to get an amazing upper body workout thanks to miles of cross country skiing on catwalks, as every trail going down was a black, blue or a green that looked suspiciously like the blues and blacks.  It was a one lift afternoon that included some yelling, tears, curse words and swearing that this was the worst sport in the world and I was done.  D. O. N. E.  Well, I couldn't actually be done until I made it off the mountain, but I would be done once I figured out how to get down. 

After eventually making it off the mountain, I was then left with a delima.  This was day one of four full days of skiing and we had pre-purchased lift tickets.  Groan.  I'm not one to waste money, but I wasn't so sure I was into the whole skiing thing.  In the end, my stubborn side won over and I refused to waste 3 days of lift tickets.  I did eventually master those easy green slopes, appropriately tittled Kokomo (you know, the song about taking it slow). I even got to know the ski lift workers as they wondered why I would only ski one run on the entire resort.  The first winter vacation ended on a high note and I may even be willing to go on another ski vacation provided I get spa breaks and have an easy green friend along for the trip.  I'd at least consider it.

Getting fitted for ski boots.  I was happy and naive.

Amazingly, no emergency phone was needed.  Although I did seriously think about it.

Special thanks to Amanda C. for the loaner ski clothes which kept me toasty!

Worst Homeowners. Ever.

Seriously. 

A few weeks ago we decided it was time to break out the ladder and change lightbulbs.  Unlike the apartments we were used to, we have several different sizes of bulbs and lots of heavy light fixtures.  But at the end we successfully changed all the bulbs and again had light in our house.  Success!

We thought.

Several days ago we were sitting on the couch and heard a loud crash from upstairs (there have been lots of loud crashes around these parts - see previous post).  Once we ran upstairs, we noticed that the light fixture in the hall had fallen and crashed to the floor.  One of the exact light fixtures where we had just changed the bulb.  As I start to turn and give TB an accusatory look for not correctly re-attaching the fixture, he immediately reminds me that we had trouble with that fixture.  Ahhhh, I did remember somthing about it's screws were odd and we had decided that they were stripped, but then somehow got it to stay.   As I'm feeling guilty for starting to blame TB, I'm thinking darn, maybe we should have replaced those screws.  What a stroke of bad luck.

Until............it happened again!  Monday I was dilligently working downstairs and I heard the same suspicious crash from upstairs.  Our upstairs hallway has two identical light fixtures and the second had fallen.

How's the old saying go?  Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.  We can blame the first fixture on the screws, but I'm not sure we can do it twice.  How sad is it that we can't change lightbulbs without physically breaking the entire fixture.  We really need to get a handle on this whole home ownership thing.  Stat.

The Snow Days That Never Were

Ice Skating on Peachtree Street

We've had an unseasonably cold winter here in Atlanta, including some snow.  Considering the rare occurrence of snow in this area, even just a small amount can have quite a profound affect on the city.  As evidenced by the headlines below:

-  The Atlanta Police Department reported a total of 368 accidents on January 11th

-  Closure of all southbound lanes of I-75
-  Most metro Atlanta Walmart stores are closing early Monday January 11th

Seriously, closing a major interstate AND Walmart closing early.  It's almost like the end of the world.

Luckily for me, the snow came in on a Sunday night and I happen to be flying out of town for work on that Sunday afternoon - just a few mere hours before all the flights out of town were cancelled.  I still haven't decided if that was extremely lucky or terribly unlucky.  Regardless, while everyone in Atlanta was enjoying a week of snow days, I was stuck working.  By the time I can back to Atlanta on the Friday after the snow, it was all gone and the city was basically back to normal.  Luckily, TB was part of the group that did get to cash in on a week of snow days and was able to capture the "Snowcapolypse" on film.



 

The morning after, before the driveway shovelling began

 



Back porch









View down the street



Attempting to go down the front stairs



Front porch



Calling Shenanigans on 2011

Normally this is the time of year when you resolve to be a better person or accomplish some goals for the coming year.  Before we had a chance to do that, 2011 started to unravel at the seams.  It started with a crash.  A literal crash in the middle of the night.  Only to discover that one of my favorite Christmas presents (a glass terrarium) had broken:

 Notice the culprit in the shadows

Then, we had a slight incident with cat puke and our new white couches.  Yes, we decided to buy lighter couches - so this one may be our fault.  Puke ended up all over the couches, resulting in our first of many (I'm sure) professional and expensive couch cleanings.

Then, we had our first major home repair.  A broken garage door.  Which meant that TB tried to fix it himself, by performing extensive internet research.  This only resulted in a spring flying all around the garage and nearly took his eye out.  And did not fix the door.  Those home repair skills do not come over night.  Perhaps I should think about buying him a Bob Villa book.  Do they still make those?

Although I'll acknowledge that none of these events are catastrophes, it did all happen in the first few days of the year.  We had a few days off work and were trying to be productive, but kept having to deal with our "incidents" instead.   We stopped where we were and decided to call shenanigans on 2011 and just started the year over, a few days later than January 1st.

Since then, we've replaced the terrarium, almost have the garage fixed and have scotch guarded the couches.  We just needed a little do-over on that one...

Keeping the US Postal Service in Business

In the age of email and text messaging, everyone still loves to get an old fashioned letter. Never mind that the USPS lost several of our wedding invites and thank you notes.  Never mind that our local post office isn't open on Saturdays.  And doesn't even have a stamp machine!  Where is one supposed to buy stamps if you can't go to the post office M-F 9-5?  Thanks to the nice stranger that heard TB and I complaining about the lack of office hours, we discovered that the best place to buy stamps is the UPS store.  The UPS store?  Strange but true. 

One of our contributions to the postal service was a moving announcement with a side of craft project.  Yes, I decided to push my craftiness on everyone in the guise of a moving announcement. Sneaky.  As I was putting the moving announcement together, I crossed my fingers that everyone would at least "get it", but TB assured me everyone would "get it" from the moving announcement perspective, but no one would actually participate in the craft project.  I quickly decided he was wrong, or I didn't really care if any one participated, or maybe it was that I had already put hours worth of effort into them, but they went out the door regardless.

Much to our amazement we started receiving pictures of the final product!  The participation was much appreciated and in fact even made my day!



Our second contribution to the postal service was our annual Christmas card.  I must admit that I'm obsessed with picking out the perfect card every year, and I start bookmarking potential cards early in the year.  I may even have a folder on my computer with a collection of cards that I'm considering for upcoming mailings....  Or maybe I shouldn't admit that. Crazy.  I know.  This year's winner was a cute little place called Hoot Design.

Anyway, after pouring through our pictures from 2010 - I realized that we didn't have any good ones.  Or at least Christmas card worthy pictures.  So we went with the non picture version of a card, but yet still personalized:

So after 20 books of stamps bought from UPS, the TB household has contributed our fair share to the USPS.  At least until next Christmas - which I'm already planning for.....

Decorating for the Holidays. Sort Of.

As the Christmas holiday is approaching, most people take on the tradition of decorating their houses.  Everyone expresses themselves a bit differently.  Lights, blow up lawn ornaments, window candles, fake snow, stockings - but whatever you choose to decorate your home with, there is always the centerpiece.  The Tree.

Practically every home celebrating the holiday has a tree.  If there are lights on the house, there is most likely a twinkle in a window.  Every large Christmas display has a tree.  The White House, Rockefeller Center, the Macy's at Lenox Mall in Atlanta (although that one looks particularly sad this year).  The best Christmas movies are about the tree - Charlie Brown, Christmas Vacation.  Need I go on?  Based on the importance of the tree in regards to holiday decorating, you have to ask yourself - Was a good faith effort in decorating really made if a tree is not present?

After all, where would you put the presents?  Does a stocking even matter if there is no tree?  Where would you put all those years worth of Hallmark ornaments?  What would be twinkling through the window as you drove up to the house late at night?

Considering this was the first year in our house, I had high hopes for our holiday decorating.  We started with a few of these on the outside of the house:

It may even seem to the casual neighbor that we know what we are doing.  What a step in the right direction!  You might actually start to look through our front windows for the familiar twinkling of the tree.  And......... Hmmmmm.  No twinkle. 

But surely we just put the tree toward the back of the house.  I mean, we must have a tree.  We obviously celebrate Christmas - we have candles and evergreen wreaths, for heaven's sake!

Unfortunately, the twinkle is not in the back of the house.  We have no tree.  Yes.  I said it.  No tree.  There was a executive decision made in our house.  (Not by me.  Or the cats.  That should narrow it down a bit for you.).  The decision to go treeless was made based on the fact that we would not be home most of December.  But does it really matter?  Santa still needs a place to put the presents and Hallmark still needs to stay in business.  And there would be no twinkle.  Gasp!

It almost seems like a crime to go without the tree.  Just a crime. 

Next year.  Next year, we'll have the best twinkle on the block.  Just you wait!

Invasion!

Sunday night was a quiet evening at home for us.  A little surfing the interwebs, a little Netflix, a whole lot of not much.  Interrupting our quiet evening was a scuffle from the cats as they both began to chase a bug across the living room.  We were actually quite proud, until we noticed there were several little black bugs around the downstairs.  A search for the source of the bugs turned up empty, so went to bed.....puzzled, but not really concerned.

The next morning, I set up my "office" at our kitchen counter.  (Our actual office is quite uncomfortable at the moment).  Around 9 AM I look to my right toward the back door and see a swarm of these on the outside of the glass door and a line of them crawling through the cracks on the bottom:

I immediately think they're a combination of termite swarm, wood chewing, poisonous, blood sucking, infectious, attacking insects.  I mean look at those creepy beady red eyes.... 

Quickly grabbing the Windex (we didn't have any bug spray), I coat the inside of the back door in the blue liquid.  As I'm peeking out the window, without getting too close - I notice the entire back of the house is COVERED in the bugs.  Similar to this:

Time to call TB.  No answer.  Really?  Didn't he know this was an emergency?  Hmmmmm.  Then I call my dad.  No answer. HMMMMMMM.  Time to take this on myself.

While I'm impatiently waiting for a call back, I do some Goggle searches and discover via Wikipedia:

"They may form huge colorful aggregations while sunning themselves in areas near their host plant (e.g. rocks, shrubs, trees, and man-made structures). However, their presence can frighten and annoy people, thus they are considered nuisance pests. This is especially a problem during the cooler months, where they sometimes invade houses and other man-made structures seeking warmth or a safe place to overwinter. They remain inactive inside the walls (and behind siding) while the weather is cool, without doing any damage to the building."



Oh. 

So, not termites.  Not going to bite me.  Or kill me.  Or damage anything.  Or give me a disease.

But it did say they remain "inactive INSIDE walls".  Inside?  That didn't sound good.  Just to be on the safe side, I made a call to the pest control company - since after all, they were coming in the house.....  I nice older gentleman on the other end of the phone, gave me an imaginary patronizing pat on the head and told me not to worry.  His advice was to put some new weather stripping on the door and use some bug spray.  He promised they would be gone with the next cold night.  I hope he's right.....  And I hope all that Windex doesn't eat away at the paint on the door......