January Ends

January....almost over! Happy Birthday to Mr. L, Karen M and Brandon D!!! I miss you all!

This month has been pretty interesting -- I have been living in a place with snow, which I have not done in about 12 years. It has been fun having it around, although sometimes one gets tired of the semi trucks who drive 70 mph in the middle of a snowstorm and then you pass them a couple miles later jackknived on the side of the road...and tired of trying to figure out things to do inside!! But, we have balanced this with a few snow days at work -- yes, SNOW DAYS!!!

Also, there has been a little bit of traveling in order to get away for the weekend -- I went to Mass, which was not really much warmer, but I got to spend time with Mr L's family (sorry, grandma!). We also went to Boston and took a very small road trip to Vermont, which was beautiful. The houses with their gables and dormers (I am learning about these...) really are postcard perfect, especially with snow on them, which there was.

Mr L and I also met in Memphis last weekend and had a great day exploring the city. Unfortunately, Mr L got sick on the second day and so we did not get a chance to go to Graceland and see Elvis. Ah, well, next time, I suppose.

This weekend is the Superbowl, which I suppose I may watch, but am not really very interested in... However, Dad is back! Hurray for the return of Dad!! So we will probably hang out inside somewhere...and why not a loud sports bar, right? (or my couch perhaps...)

Goodbye January...and now we are one more step closer to spring....

A Test: My Desk

This is to test my skills at photo taking and email blogging. Here is
a photo of my wall paraphanalia. It is hot in Iowa today -- 30 degrees!!

Signs: We Love 'Em!!

I am FINALLY starting to go through some of my pictures from South America/all of 2008!! As I was sorting them out, I noticed I had a lot of photos of signs. So, I compiled them. I have about 160 photos of various street, caution, elevation, food signs...and more! A couple of my favorites are shown above. Another couple dozen can be found here.

Bad Santa!

I have been MUY MAL at blogging lately....the only thing around here to talk about is the cold, which by the way, a quick update of -- today the high was minus 5. Yeah with a windchill of -38. Sweet!!

Anyway, I was just looking at Sara's blog and saw her marvelous pictures of Penelope (pronounce Peen-a-lope) and I just have to include a link for those becuase they are so fun! Click here to see our wonderful snow-woman. Of course all credit and copyrights go to Sara and Grant. Hear, hear!

Other than that, I am trying to keep warm, eating way too much and...training for a half marathon -- which I am scared about because I am doing it on the treadmill, which I hate. My big run so far is 4 miles, but I am supposed to be up to about 6 already...ug. Mr. Lovely and I are training together/apart, but he says he doesnt want to run with me at the half marathon because I will cramp his style.

My friend Lea has joined me in Iowa; it is good to have an old time buddy back in town. We are very creatively trying to figure out fun things to do when you can't stay outside for more than 10 minutes without getting frostbite. Needless to say, we have seen many movies, played indoor glow in the dark mini golf, gone bowling, played cards, had girl's nights and...eaten a lot (but I am pretending to run it off!)

Don't forget to check out Penelope! She is hottttt!

Slippin' and A-Slidin'

Steering into the skid is something that when you are driving and skidding, your instincts rebel against. You go around a corner and you start to skid. You want to turn your wheel the opposite way to correct it. Wrong!

This morning when I got up there were 6 new inches of snow on the ground. The roads were half plowed; they had probably been done around 4 or 5 o’clock, but it was now 6 o’clock. I have a Pontiac G6. The ironic thing is this: For work we are only allowed to rent a compact car. Many people I work with are from Florida, Texas etc…places that never get snow. So, you have a bunch of novice snow drivers driving around in compact cars in 6 inches of snow.

So I drove to work…slipping and sliding the whole way here… but I got lots of practice at steering into the skid!