Snow, Sort Of

We've been having snow fall from the sky off and on the last couple of days.  However, I say it's only sort of snow because it's been just as likely to be rain or, briefly yesterday afternoon, hail.  Thus, it hasn't stuck at all.

Davan and her friend Lena were pleased by the snow yesterday morning.  They rushed to the window to look out at the rain/snow mix.  They were playing Journey Through Europe when I went in to tell them it was snowing.

Then, they rushed back again when it turned to big fluffy snow, which actually drew them outside for a while.

Lena, who is an exchange student from Switzerland, was funny, though.  She kept saying, sarcastically, but in a fun way, "I've never seen this before."

After Davan went with Lena to the library and walked her home, we spent a quiet afternoon at home.  We spent some of our time corrupting Davan by teaching her the finer points (as we know them - we're no great shakes) of Blackjack.

Nothing like a little Sunday afternoon gambling.  We didn't let Ranger have a hand, but Anthony and Davan took turns sharing with her.  She's only 3.5, after all.

Today has been an interesting mix of holiday and not here.  Anthony is off, but Davan has all of her activities.  So, this morning she left to go teach at Do Jump for a while and this afternoon she's off at her straps class.  (The link shows her teacher, Shersten, doing straps, if you don't know what it is.  I don't have a video of Davan doing it yet.)

In between, though, we went to Forest Park for a hike for some of us and a run for me.  I needed to do a 60 minute run today.  I'm feeling much better, by they way, still tired, but not exhausted.  Again, I don't know why, but I'm sticking with the healthy food and feeling very pleased about feeling better.

Anyway, off we went, mostly because I wanted to do a run on a trail.  Leif Erickson is a wide, gravely path, so the wet weather didn't make it too muddy to run on.  Anthony and Davan came for a walk in the woods, but neither wanted to run.  While I feel a little guilty about it, I didn't take Ranger, even though she'd have liked the running part, she also likes the stopping to sniff and pee parts, so I left her with the others to do that.

Briefly during the run, it snowed a bit, which was nice, but then it really stared to snow at the end, which was very pretty, but it still didn't stick.

It was snowing in this picture, but you can't really see it.

It was a good run, but I ended up going longer than my 60 minutes because it's uphill going, so I went 40 minutes out, thinking I'd be faster coming back.  I wasn't.  It had leveled out enough after the first mile that it didn't make a big difference.  I did slow down after 65 minutes and just jogged in the rest.

By the time I got to my family, they were all cold.  The poor dog was shivering.  But, she recovered quickly in the warm car, probably because she was so pleased with putting her muddy paws on the seat.  Or maybe that was just incidental.  Sigh.

I made Davan ride her bike to her class this evening, as usual, which I feel a little bad about, considering the cold, wet weather, but class should have just gotten out and it's not raining at the moment, so hopefully it'll hold out for her until she gets home.  Then she can put on her footies and warm up if she likes.

Playing Dress Up

Davan had a friend spend the night last night, but it wasn't the two of them who dressed up.

Anthony and I were the ones dressing up because we had a party to go to.  Anthony's office does their party in January to avoid the holiday rush.

Usually, I more or less enjoy these events, but I have to say that I had a little trepidation last night, seeing as how the party went from 6-10pm and I've been in bed with the light out at 9pm all week, but I was willing to give it a go and, as I mentioned, I did feel a bit better yesterday.

Look - at least a part of Licorice made the blog.  See?  She gets her screen time.

I'm wearing all clothes that belong to Davan from the dress to the shrug to the "tan tights" which she has from dance.  I've got my own undies on, you'll be happy to know.  I don't actually own anything that seemed appropriate to going to a mascaraed.

Anthony?  Well, he wore pretty much his usual work attire, but added the tie.  Still, quite handsome, no?

The party was fun.  I lasted until 9:30, after which I faded fast, but we stayed until 10 when they did the raffle drawing, from which we, thankfully, won nothing.  The item Anthony was interested in was a coffee maker that would have taken up way too much counter space.  The rest of the items?  Well, we really didn't need a basked of candy, thank you very much.

There were hor'dourves and drinks, a buffet dinner (I'd eaten before we went, so I just had veggies from the buffet), a chocolate fountain (and fruit without using the fountain) and gambling.  Yup.  Gambling.  They've done this style of party before and it's fun.  We each get a certain amount of play money to start.  There's blackjack, poker, and roulette to choose from.  Money that is left at the end is exchanged for raffle tickets, so you can just hold onto your money or grow it or loose it as you and the fates choose.

I played blackjack all night and was hot for a long time, but started loosing at the end when I started gambling big, knowing I had no interest in the prizes.

We came home to find the girls watching a Jackie Chan movie (odd because Davan has never been interested before) and drinking smoothies they'd made.  I hit the hay, totally whooped.  Actually, though, this morning, I just feel like I had a late night for the most part.  Granted, it feels like it was a really late night, not in bed by 10:30, but that's still not bad, considering.

I heard the girls go to bed around midnight and they're still sleeping now (nearly 9am), which is good as an indicator of what Davan's future mood will be.  Davan has asked for nothing too weird for breakfast, so I'm still not totally sure what we'll be eating.  LOL

The only sad thing about the sleeping in is that they've missed the snow.  We don't often get snow in town here and this wasn't a big deal, as there was no sticking at all, but we did have some pretty flakes falling this morning.  What is really great about that is that it's dumping up on the mountain!  Yay!  We're looking forward to our Friday ski this week after a forecast of snow all week!!!

I've Not Been Well

I've been trying to pretend that all is well, but the reality is that I've had a rough couple of weeks health-wise.  It started early last week with feeling like I had a bit of a virus of some sort.  I had a sore throat and an upset stomach (these things do not often go together for me) and I was really tired.  The sore throat pretty much went away after a couple days, but I never felt totally better.

Then, at the end of the week, I had four nights in a row of sleeping really poorly.  I was super tired, but couldn't fall asleep for a long time, couldn't stay asleep and, when I was sleeping, had really vivid dreams which didn't help me to feel rested at all.

I started sleeping again Sunday night, which was a big relief, but, even with sleeping plenty (some nights 10+ hours), I've just continued to be very, very tired.  I wake up feeling not well rested and it gets worse throughout the day.  I feel and look like I haven't slept much in a couple of days.  It sucks.

My stomach continues to hurt.  My throat actually hurts off and on, but I realized years ago that my throat gets sore when I'm really tired and I've realized that's what's going on now.  I have really bad headaches in the afternoon and evening, which I'm pretty sure have to do with being tired, too.  I also feel sort of like I have a sunburn - my skin is itchy and uncomfortable frequently, often shortly after eating.

I'm not really sure what's going on.  I've promised Anthony that I will go to the doctor if it goes on one more week, but I don't have a lot of confidence in the medical profession to figure stuff like this out.  The fact is that I've felt tired in spite of plenty of sleep for a long time, this is just worse than "normal" and no one has been able to tell me what's wrong,  This is unpleasant, as it leaves me thinking it's all in my mind.

However, in the spring, I had some blood work done and what I found is that I'm anemic and at the extremely low but normal  range on several key nutrients including sodium, potassium and calcium.  What's the kicker here is that I eat well.  I consume a lot of these nutrients.  I thought maybe the issue was Celiac Disease, as I talked about here.  After our three month gluten free trial, I didn't feel appreciably better.  Davan didn't feel different at all.  We both went back to eating gluten on the 16th of December.

I didn't start feeling really bad until last week - around the 3rd.  Does that mean that the gluten free eating actually did help, but it took a while of eating it for the symptoms to come back?  Does it mean something else entirely?  I don't really know.

What I do know, though, is that I really don't like how I feel.  I also feel strongly in the healing powers of high nutrient foods.  The stomach issues have me thinking that it might be diet related.  I've decided that I need to try something.  I'm putting myself on a detox diet.  For two weeks, I'm going to be eating strictly, then slowly adding in foods.  I'll be keeping a food journal so I can see if I find any patterns to my symptoms.

I have, both, high hopes and low expectations.  I know that's dichotomous, but it's still accurate.  I couldn't do it without high hopes, but I also don't feel like I can expect perfect results.  My body sort of seems to just work this way.

While a little weight loss wouldn't be repugnant to me at all, it's really much more about feeling well.  My plan isn't to starve myself at all, just to eat very well.  Today, I have to say, that I'm feeling a little better already.  Is this because whatever this is has mostly run it's course?  Is it hope?  Is it that I've only eaten very clean foods?  I don't really know.  And I'm not totally better, just a little less tired this afternoon, my stomach is churning a bit less and, so far, only a very slight headache.

Meanwhile, life goes on.  Anthony and Ranger went for a walk this morning while I stayed in bed and read a little.  After my morning post, I went for a 20 minute easy run with Ranger, followed by some strength work.  (Although, I have to say that nothing feels easy right now, so the run was difficult even though I tried to keep my pace down.)  We had a visitor who brought Davan a gift that she's so, so excited about.

Rosetta Stone for French!  A cousin of Anthony's whom we see something like twice a year, but who is a very nice person who is very interested in Davan, had the program and offered to loan it out to Davan.  Davan was over the moon.  She got it all set up and is through Lesson 1 already.

We also got in a game of Munchkin.  I tried on an outfit for Anthony's office party this evening.  I'm mostly borrowing from Davan.  LOL.  Anthony did a kick-ass bike/weight workout.  We've all done some reading.  It's raining out here and feels nice to be inside with the lights on, warm and dry.

Friday Skiing Video

Keep in mind, we are none of us great skiers and, on top of that, this video doesn't necessarily catch our finest moments, but we think it's cute.

Friday Skiing

We went skiing yesterday, as per normal on Fridays this winter.  We have annual passes to Mt Hood Meadows Ski Resort this year and have set Fridays aside as our skiing day to get the most out of them.  Anthony, who usually has every other Friday off due to 9 hour work days, takes the opposite Friday off with vacation time so that we can ski on weekdays.  Once you get used to skiing on weekdays, weekends pretty much suck, I must day.  We're so spoiled that having to wait for 10 groups to get on the chairlift in front of us seems like an imposition.

Anyway, yesterday, we took the camera.  Here I am, just hanging.

It was a beautiful day weather-wise, but we haven't been getting enough snow and there were a lot of bare patches, which was a bummer.  Supposedly, we're due to go back to regularly scheduled winter as of this afternoon and snow should fall off and on all week.  That would make next Friday very different!

Davan, spraying snow.  She likes to work on her turns by trying to spray us in snow when she stops.

Our usual plan is get up whenever (usually between 7 and 7:30), have one adult take Ranger out while the other loads the car (usually I've prepared food the night before), then we wake Davan up if she's not away and are on our way by 8:00.

Yesterday, I didn't get around to food prep until that morning, so Anthony took Ranger out, then loaded the car while I put food together.

We ate apple slices and PB&J's in the car on the way up for breakfast.  Ranger was wishing someone had thought to pack her a PB&J, too.  She comes up with us and spends a bit of time in the dog park they have up there when we first get there, then gets, sadly, stuffed back in the car.  So far, the weather has been quite nice and we've had to crack a window for her.  If it'll be really cold, we'll leave her home, like we did on New Year's Eve, but this time, we'll make sure there's not chocolate soy milk boxes on top of the fridge or anywhere else for that matter.

Davan, heading into the shade.

We ski for 3.5 hours, give or take, depending on such factors as mood, weather, health, the itchiness of Davan's head, then go back to the car to spring Ranger back to the dog park and load up.

We eat lunch in the car on the way home.  Yesterday, that was veggies sandwiches made with veggies of choice and hummus with baby carrots and sugar snap peas with more hummus to dip them in.  It hasn't always been so healthy, but I'm wanting to be better about my eating.  In fact, there may be another post about that today.

Riding the lift.

We all have fun, expect, we suspect for Ranger, who, while she enjoys the brief dog park frolics, wonders why the heck we spend all that time driving up to the mountain and then don't even take her for a hike.

More Gaming

Davan and I are limiting ourselves to no more than one episode (45 minutes roughly) of show watching a day during the day.  Between that and evening watching with Anthony, it's still probably too much most days, but we're not having any more days that are spent vegging out all day and that's an improvement right now.

It's odd, but again, I feel the need to justify.  We do a lot of other things, as well - walking/running the dog, reading, shopping, math for Davan, chores and Davan does a lot of classes.  Even with all that, it's amazing how much time we can find for TV.  But, as I said, we're trying to limit it.

Right now, we're working our way through the second season of Dollhouse.  Some episodes are a little much for Davan, but she's interested enough that she just hides her face when things get too hairy.

Anyway, we're having a lay low sort of day today, as we're both feeling a little blah, we've had a couple of busy days this week and Davan has 5 hours worth of physically taxing classes this evening, so this morning, we played a game over breakfast again.  

This morning, we got out Careers.  We went through a big time Careers phase last winter, starting one day when we played in front of a lovely fire on a cold day pretty much all day.  After a couple months of fairly intense play, it started loosing it's shine a bit.  However, we still enjoy it from time to time and today was one of those days.

Although, after I snatched the win out from under Davan in our first game, she both wanted a chance at revenge and was a little sulky.  She'd been so, so close.

We went for another round.  Sadly, I won by the skin of my teeth again.

Davan didn't sulk at all this time.  She'd like you all to know that.  It doesn't mean it's not true.  She was a good sport.

We play a variation that we enjoy quite a bit more than the original.  We each run two pawns, whom we name.  We used to play that they were partners from the beginning, but we've lately come up with a new rule in which they play their own separate games until they meet (land on the same spot), after which time they combine money and resources (opportunities and experience).  Pretty much they get married.  They each still have to fulfill their own success formula, have their own careers and make their own salaries.  We choose each time which person we're taking the turn for before we roll (rather than just going back and forth).

We long ago ran out of the formula sheets that come with the game, so we create our own on scrap each time we play.

We also like to vary the total for the success formula, depending on how long a game we want to play.  Lately, we've only done the rule-stated 60, but in the past, we've gone up to 120 for each of our characters.

Our characters, of course, have personalities and such, which adds to the fun of it.  It makes it a combination of game playing and imaginative play of the sort that Davan doesn't really do anymore, but did constantly up until a couple of years ago (maybe less).  Now her creativity comes out more in writing and creating shows.  And, it turns out, playing Careers.

Running

Ranger and I went for a run this morning.

This wouldn't be unusual, except that I took a little over a week off of running and am now starting a new training program.  This program, sort of cobbled together from a couple of different sources, but mostly following, on my own schedule, the plan from this book.

When I was doing some research into a plan, I realized that everything I was reading was telling me I was running too much.  I have an easier time feeling like I'm making progress when I'm pushing myself, but I'm going to try giving one of these plans a try.

That meant that, today, at least, I did an easy 20 minute run.

Ranger is a little worried about this.

Worry not, Ranger, we'll start increasing again.  Meanwhile, I did walk a little extra with her this morning, but it's cold and windy and running wear is not meant for casual strolling is this sort of weather, so it wasn't too long.  Still, Ranger, I promise we'll get you some exercise.  Even if it means you have to run with Dad.

(Okay, that last bit is an inside joke in our family.  Anthony doesn't take Ranger running usually because Ranger doesn't keep up with him well.  It's a sad, sad thing.  Ranger is always running ahead of me, except when it's time to pee or sniff or bark at a dog, but she can't seem to keep up with Anthony.  What does that tell you about our respective running speeds?  Sigh.)

Anthony's New Toy

Remember my new toy?  It was an early Christmas gift, as you may recall.

Well, this weekend, Anthony went out and bought his own new toy.

His new toy?  The water bottle cages were more than my new toy.  Does this seem fair?  I think not.  I am lobbying for better toys.  Okay, not really.  I don't want more stuff.  I would like more vacations, though, maybe.  Or, you know, maybe being able to afford boarding school for the kid.

To be fair, Anthony used money he got when he sold his motorcycle when we moved.  It was his earmarked money to spend.  And he seems really happy.

And.  Well.  I did get to go to China this past spring, so what can I say, really?

I'm glad he has his heart's desire.  I sure hope his heart doesn't start desiring again too soon, though.

Just for kicks, I'll share another photo that landed in the "new bike" folder somehow.

Journey Through Europe

No, sadly, we aren't planning our next big vacation.  In fact, with the possibility of boarding school tuition/room and board/fees/ect, I don't know that we'll ever take a vacation again.  Okay, we probably will.  It just feels overwhelming right now.  It'll all work out.  Right?

Anyway, back to Journey Through Europe.  It's a game.  We got it a while back at Goodwill, but it somehow just sat for a fairly long time.  I got it out for the three of us to play once and it, while I enjoyed it, I thought that Davan really didn't, so I didn't suggest it again for a while.  Still, when we moved, we brought it.  After all, I'd liked it and we'd only played it once.

Recently, I asked Davan if we should just move the game on, as we hadn't been playing it.  No, she said, she'd liked it.  So, we took it out and started playing it again recently (maybe a couple months ago).  We've been playing it fairly regularly ever since.  We even took it to Colorado with us and introduced Oma to the game.

Here's the thing about this game - most of it is setting up.  You have a board with a map of Europe on it.  You get a home city plus eight more city cards.  You plan a route that passes through all those cities and then goes back to your home city.  Some cities are special and there are instructions for those.  You definitely want to plan for those bumps or pushes along the way.

Once your route it planned, a lot of it is luck - how well you role, mostly.

We played this morning over breakfast.  This is Davan doing actual route planning, not posing, even though it looks like I set this up.

We enjoy the game because of it's armchair travel aspect.  Davan really wants to travel and enjoys dreaming about it.  It's also fun to talk about where we've actually been.  In the rule book, there are short blurbs about some of the cities, as well, and sometimes Davan likes to play where she reads about each city that she passes through, if there is an available blurb.  So, one could say that there is a lot of educational value here.

I enjoy the strategy of route planning combined with the luck of the role and the luck of the draw (sometimes the cities are seriously difficult to get to, other times, not so much).  I'm all about the combination of luck and strategy when it comes to games.  All one or all the other is usually not very interesting to me.

Licorice enjoyed the box lid, but couldn't be bothered to actually look at us or anything.

Anyway, if you come across the game at Goodwill or a garage sale or what-have-you, it's well worth picking up.  That said, even though we enjoy it, I'm not sure I'd pay full price.  Of course, it's rare that I think full price is worth paying on games, so you could take that with a grain of salt.

Anthony's Project

There's still a bit left do do on the project that Anthony's been working on and that's been cluttering up our house for a couple weeks, but it's near completion, it's not causing clutter anymore (much) and it's usable, so I'll show you what it is.

It's a pull up bar!  But, wait!  There's more!

Anthony created a system where the bar can be set at different heights so it can be used for more than just pull ups.

To show you some of it's versatility, here's a short video.

I'm sure that Davan will explore all of it's levels in great detail eventually and we'll have more to share.  Right now, though, she's dedicated herself to doing a pull up and a pike up every time she passes underneath. (With the exception of when she's carrying Lovely who is here with us today after a break for the holidays.  We sure missed her.)

Not Your Ordinary Dinner

Davan made dinner tonight.  She's been asking to do so all week, but it hasn't worked out until tonight between classes of hers and skiing (after which we ate out) until tonight.  It wasn't an every day sort of dinner, though.  We did not sit at the table and eat.   Nor did we eat in front of the TV (which we, of course, never, ever do).  No, we ate in nearly every room of the house in a nearly three hour event that Davan called

The Amazing Race Dinner!

We started with a clue box.

This clue box contained 5 clues to be done in order.

We (Anthony and I) took turns opening the clue box, finding the clue and reading the clue, which lead us along a trail of clues to a particular destination and course of the meal.

We first ate apples in the closet while telling about our best and worst parts of today.

Next, our clues lead us to the kitchen, were we ate broccoli.

Or maybe sucked a little blood.  We played the game where we each add to a monster, without knowing what the others have drawn.

As we hunted around for clues, Ranger tried to help.

Really, though, she just wanted in on the food action.

We ended up in the master bedroom, playing Sleeping Queens and eating polenta fries, but I seem to have missed a picture of that course.

Next up was the couch, where we ate chips and salsa while watching a video Davan made.

We really enjoyed it, so we watched it twice.

Lastly, we wound up in Davan's room for dessert and a couple of rounds of Munchkin, both of which Davan won.  Sigh.

We ate pretzels dipped in a chocolate peanut butter sauce while Ranger watched mournfully from the bed.

After a while, though, she got tired of maintaining constant vigilance.

Remember Anthony's Munchkin partner?

Oh, and I was thrilled to pull on the Knee pads of Allure...until that treacherous Davan stole them from me.  Grrr.

New Game Fun

We got a new game for Christmas from my SIL.  In the past, not all of her gifts have been hits, I have to say.  Last year's present of a large make up kit for Davan was actually an improvement over the (I kid you not) Winnie the Pooh outfit of the year before (yeah, Davan was a 12 year old tom boy at the time).

This year, though, all is forgiven (well, mostly) with this gift.

The game is called Munchkin and we've played it several times an evening most evenings this week.

And most of the times we've played, Licorice has been laying with Anthony just like here.

Ranger has wanted to be in the middle of things, but we've managed to keep her mostly over by Davan and I to keep her and Licorice separated for peace.

I finally won for the first time tonight.  And, apparently, got things flowing because I won twice!

If you're a Dungeons and Dragons gamer, you'll probably enjoy Munchkin.  We were in a D&D group years ago, but kind of drifted apart with that group.  When we moved, we decided to sell off our D&D stuff.  This is a fun little way to sort of kind of play again.

Even though we've played a good dozen times already, we're still running into cards and situations we haven't seen before.  Tonight, for example, Davan drew the "Kneepads of Allure," which we'd never before seen, but then I got them in the next game and Anthony in the third.  By the way, they are a good thing to have.  I suggest you put them on.

That's It - I Draw the Line - It's Just Too Hard

I've decided Davan can't move away to Montreal.  Sure, the fact that my heart breaks every time I really think about it is a good reason for this, but that's not why.  No, indeed.

The reason?  It took me a good 5 hours of research and leg work plus a grand total of $85 to figure out a way to pay the $50 CND application fee.

They insisted that it be in Canadian dollars, so I couldn't do a money order from the post office.  They will make money orders for some other countries and Canada is one of them, but only in American dollars, so that was a no go.

I did a bunch of research on line, discovering that most banks won't do checks for Canadian dollars, but when I went to our local branch, I found out that Bank of America will do Canadian registered checks.  For a paltry $35 and a few days wait.  Okay, that was an option, but not my top choice.

The school said they'd accept wires, so I did some looking into that.  I almost went with Western Union, but then discovered that my credit union, On Point, does them.  So, I went in to a branch.  And waited for someone to help me.  For a while.  Waiting.  I eventually got called to a desk.  Yay - progress. (And, really, it wasn't that long, but there was no one in front of me or being helped, making the wait seem long.)

Then, things went awry.  There was a certain number I needed that wasn't provided to me.  I had no way to produce said number.  The On Point employee was actually very helpful.  We went online and found the bank we were transferring money to.  We couldn't find the number on their web site.  We called them.  They gave us the number for the wrong branch.  We figured that out.  Turns out, I did have the number, but it was called something else.  This whole process?  Took about an hour.  It was crazy.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, I discovered that this adventure was going to cost me a $25 fee.  Okay, then.  I was already paying an extra $10 for the "convenience" of doing a wire transfer rather than a registered check or money order.  Great.

When I asked for proof of the transaction, there was another scramble.  This was required by the school, but there isn't really such a piece of paper.  I ended up with a copy of the wire transfer authorization (gee, I sure hope they don't submit it again and again and again) and a phone call giving me a conformation number, which I've written across the bottom of my wire transfer authorization.

I'm now left with the sincerer hope that the National Circus School is satisfied with all of that.

Oh, and the kicker?  I was further exploring my credit union's web site while waiting to see if the money posted (there was some doubt still about our numbers), when I came across their fee page.  For a $15 fee, I could have gotten a check in Canadian dollars.  Now, I guess I'm not totally clear if that would have qualified as a "registered check, money order or bank draft", but I'm thinking it would have been a bank draft.  That would have been cheaper and actually what they were looking for.  Sigh.

So, that's it.  She can't go.  I can't handle the pressure of paying.  Not the money part (although that will be ugly), but the actual mechanics of it.  It's all too much.

That's a good reason for dashing all her dreams, right?

Excitement

Davan was very excited with a particular lucky find at the library yesterday.  She is an avid Peas and Thank You blog follower and couldn't have been more pleased when she found the recipe book sitting right there at lucky find.

And, it turns out, it was my lucky day, too, because I came home from walking the dog this morning to find her in the kitchen, rummaging around.  Now, Davan does cook here and there.  She sometimes gets quite into it.  Other times not so much.  Almost never does she make breakfast.  Today, though, it was a different story.

We had Chocolate Almond Cherry Smoothies.  Davan gripped good naturedly at me for taking her picture with bed head, but this is keeping it real, folks.

The smoothies were tasty and I was pleased not to make breakfast this morning when I'm both feeling a little under the weather and have a lot on my to do list.  (Anyone know how to get a money order, registered cheque or bank draft in Canadian dollars?)

Bummer

I just discovered that, somehow, the version of the 2011 in review video I uploaded to You Tube was not the version I'd meant to.  I made some improvements over that one and thought I'd used the improved one when I split it, but no such luck.  It's mostly the same video, so I debated if I'd bother to split and upload the improved version, but I will be doing so.

The post where I embedded the videos is now updated.  If you really want to sit through it again, feel free.  :)  If you didn't see that post until after the 3rd of January, then you never saw the inferior product to begin with.  :)

Just for Mom

Okay, Mom, I've changed the picture for you.  Enjoy the mustache free Anthony.

Happy New Year!

Our New Year weekend was filled with celebrations for the New Year, working on my video project, working  on Anthony's current project and cleaning the condo.  It's been a good few days.  We'll be sad to see Anthony go back to work tomorrow.  We've gotten used to him being home with us.

On New Year's Eve, we went skiing.  We arrived around 6:30 pm, having needed to chain up, bringing back memories of four years ago when we went up to ski on New Year's Eve and ended up with two flat tires.  That was an adventure.

This New Year's was much smoother.

We enjoyed some fresh snow...at least until it turned to fresh falling ice.

Davan got her ski legs back.  She'd had some challenging ski days with ice and other unpleasant conditions, but the lovely snow on Saturday helped her to make a leap back to close to where she was before our long ski break.

We skied about 3 1/2 hours, then, at 10:15, there were fireworks.

It was a pleasant display and a very nice way to ring in the New Year.  Then, though, we faced the drive home.  It took a while as we had to leave the chains on for a good 15 miles.  We ended up driving through Sandy, about a half hour from home as midnight struck.

We were so tired when we got home and, thus, is was a particular disappointment to find that Ranger had decided to help herself to two bricks of peppermint chocolate soy milk, spraying the floor and rug in the process and causing herself to need to pee so badly that she went ahead and did so inside.  Sigh.  I should have gotten a picture, but we were so whipped, we just did a basic cleaning job and went to bed.  And now we have one more container that we know isn't safe to leave on top of the fridge.

We needed to get our beauty sleep, as we had to be up and at 'em by 8:30 to go to our next New Year's event - the Resolution Run.

We ran the 5K distance all together.  Davan decided she wants to train more before our next run, as she was pushing it some to make our 31:30 time.  I thought that was pretty good, considering she's not a big runner and when I raced a 5K (in other words, ran as fast as I could) back in October, I was only two minutes faster.

Then it was home for showers, more work on my video and food prep for our third New Year's activity.  I'd wanted to get the video done before we went so I could take a disk to my MIL, but that didn't happen.  I had to just leave it for later and off we went.

We had dinner at my MIL's with my SIL and her family and an aunt of Anthony's.  It's part of the group we usually do Christmas Eve dinner with, but which we missed this year due to being in Colorado.  We had dinner, visited and opened presents.

Davan and her cousins had an impromptu dance party while dinner was being cleaned up.

I've been overwhelmed by the mess that has been our condo pretty much since we came home from Colorado.  Between bringing new stuff into the house, a project of Anthony's

and the general feeling of being on vacation, causing us to not do much housework, things were getting pretty dire.  So, this morning, I had everyone pick four songs (plus a bonus one which was meant a dance break when it came on) and put everyone to work.

We had to each pick two more songs (plus another dance break song) before we were done.  Now, though, I feel so, so much better and it took less than an hour and a half.

Happy New Year to you all!

A Little Something

Okay, it's actually a lot of something.  I've been working on this project this weekend.  I made a video of the highlights of our 2011.  It's long.  Some of it you've seen before, if you are a regular here.  It's definitely amateur.  We enjoyed it, but it is all about us.  :)  So, if you've got a spare 25 minutes, pop yourself some popcorn and enjoy parts 1 and 2.