No, really. Robert & Claire gave me coal for Yule. (I find it amusing that it took until my 40th Xmas for someone to give me coal. Tee hee!)
One of the Xmas cards we got this year (from a relative of Geoffrey’s) included a newsletter that was chock-full of pushy, overweening Christian sentiments. After indulging in a bit of vicious desire to saturate my next year’s Yule cards & newsletters with cheerfully obnoxious Pagan sentiment, I calmed down and reminded myself that I’m better than that. Proselytizing=rude.
As I remarked to Lyse (who got me a silver Claddagh ring! OMG YAY!) last night, one of the reasons I do the responsible thing in any given situation is that I really, really like self-righteousness. It warms the cockles of my heart. (I may be a bitch, but I’m an honest and responsible bitch! *grin*)
Time to go choose a Yule log for the ceremonial burning tonight! Happy Santa Claus Day!
In that silly Dragon Cave game that I play, I try not to name my dragons too ridiculously.
Usually.
Today I had to figure out a name for a male Autumn dragon. Since the design of the Autumn dragon is reminiscent of leaves, I tried to name him “Leaf Garrett” — only to discover that someone else had already taken that name for their dragon! So I tried “Leaf Ericson” and “Leaf Erikson.” Both taken. Going a little more archaic, I tried “Leifr Eiríksson.” Taken. Geoffrey suggested “Leaf Me Alone.” Also taken! Aarrgghh!
Finally settled on “Leaf the Lucky.” At least it’s Norse-themed.
We are completely and officially snowed in. Lyse hasn’t seen this much snow since she lived in Pennsylvania. In 30 years of living in Oregon, I’ve never seen this much snow in the Portland metro area. Our driveway has over a foot of snow and ice crusts at various levels when it stopped snowing and froze over the top, then snowed some more.
Our neighbor Drew, who has 4WD, headed out to work this morning and got stuck at the nearest major intersection north of us, only 2 blocks away. It took him half an hour to dig his car out of the snow to head back home. When he got to our driveway, it took an hour of shoveling enough snow to get up the driveway and get his car back into the garage. Claire’s car has over 12 inches of snow on the roof, possibly up to 16 inches. The snow drifts within sight distance of our place are easily 3+ feet in places.
Work hasn’t called me today (although they called 3 times Saturday and once yesterday, offering overtime because people called out), but I wouldn’t answer if they did. It is technically possible for me to get into work because Trimet is running (albeit on snow routes and extremely delayed) and I’m less than 3 blocks from the nearest bus stop. So if this crap continues, I still have to be at work Wednesday morning. Thank heavens I’m only scheduled to work 2 days this week — but I have a horrible sinking feeling that once I show up for work, they may declare emergency procedures and keep me there a lot longer than scheduled.
Unless we get warmer temperatures and a whole lot of snow melted, we’re sure as hell not going to Geoffrey’s parents’ house for Christmas Eve dinner.
I’m not dreaming of a white Solstice, but that’s what I’m getting. Le sigh. Again, I must reiterate: wind chill = EVIL.
Today’s adventure: drove to Beaverton! In the snow! Without chains or snow tires!
And now for something completely TMI…
If it weren’t for the weather, I’d probably be getting laid right about now. Goram winter.
Anyway. We found out why we had no Intarnetz, and no OnDemand cable, for the last few days — a tech came out and, after examining our cable line, announced that the guy who did the installation was a lazy fucking son-of-a-bitch and it’s amazing it’s lasted as long as it did and he was going to have to run us a completely new line. (No charge, as a few days ago I cleverly added the dollar-a-month insurance against service charges.) Now we can has cheezburger again.
The holiday preparations have been going moderately well. I am not quite done with my shopping, but I’m not stressed out about it. Que sera, sera…or some such shit. Basically, my philosophy can be summed up by this delightful image:
(Just kidding. But it makes me laugh.)
Oh yeah, it’s snowing today. And with the wind, it’s snowing sideways. GRRR.
Yesterday Anxiety and I helped Dustin & Angst move. From the time we got the U-Haul to the time I dropped Dustin off at his new place was 10 hours. *dies a little* You wouldn’t think it would take that long to load and haul what is essentially a cargo van’s worth of belongings a whopping 23 miles. But there were a couple of side trips: one to my place, so Angst’s stuff would be out of it, and one to a downtown apartment where a cute & very young Asian chick was moving out and wanted someone to just take away the belongings she didn’t have room for in her new place. So Dustin & Angst got a computer desk & chair, entertainment stand, TV, and VCR for free.
So Anxiety and I didn’t get home until well past the dinner hour, since we had to make a grocery store run after finishing the moving chores. My feet hurt so bad that sitting down actually made them hurt worse. Bless Geoffrey for the lengthy foot rub he gave me!
We were planning on getting Geoffrey his baby ball python today. Don’t know if that’s gonna happen, but kinda doubt it…there isn’t much snow (an inch or two, ish) but people are notoriously stupid in Portland when the pavement isn’t completely clear and dry. And since the Tropical Hut is a small, owner-operated business, they might not even open today…we’ll have to call to check, if Geoffrey still wants to go snake-shopping.
Speaking of snakes, mine finally has a name!!! The lovely and brilliant Tamara suggested “Tyrian” for the location where purple dye first came from. When I checked out the word on Wikipedia.org, I found that it’s also a label for worshipers of the god Tyr — and therefore, utterly perfect! So my little lavender corn snake (who has spent the last 2 days straight hiding under his cage substrate of aspen shavings) is named Tyrian. Yay!
Not looking forward to riding the bus to and from work for the next few days. This snow crap could stop anytime. Really.
This may help explain why I have been so enamored of McCain/Palin. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes…
Today at work, Mz. Sensitivity (overbearingly-liberal fruit-nut hippie bint who likes to think she’s a highly evolved Buddhist, or some such batshit) announced that if she had to work on Xmas, she wanted to shoot herself in the head. I was THIS ->< - close to replying (and yes, I could have done it with a straight face...a somber one, even!), “Ah, like my husband did.” Just to watch her squirm. (Yes, Virginia, I am an Evil Bitch at heart. One who’s been making Dead Husband jokes since 1993.)
I do not understand steampunk. At least two ladies of my acquaintance are pretty darned interested in it, and I just don’t get it. (Nor do I really want to, so please don’t bother with the well-meant explanations. To me, it’s like goth or anime or Civil War re-creation or certain unusual religions: some of it looks cool, and I might find bits of it entertaining, but it’s not my style and I don’t comprehend the appeal.)
And now for the important stuff:
And now for something completely TMI…
No, we’re not pulling a Brangelina. But we are doubling our snake population!
I know, I’ve said no more pets…but snakes are extremely easy to care for, once you get the proper habitat set-up for their health. Feeding them, and cleaning up after them, is a snap. And as long as they’re handled frequently, you really don’t need to worry about them biting — and anyway, a bite from a non-poisonous snake is less hazardous than a cat scratch! (There’s no way I’d allow a poisonous animal into my home.)
A while back, at our favorite pet shop, the Tropical Hut, I saw a lavender corn snake and just went bonkers. He was sooo beautiful! I kept telling myself, “No more pets!” but every time I went in there for critter supplies, I couldn’t resist looking at him — and becoming more and more enamored. The last time I went in, he was even on sale!!! Finally today, I showed him to Geoffrey, who dutifully admired him, and then made me a proposition: “You can get the corn snake if I can get a ball python!” (He’s been bugging me for a ball python for years.)
I couldn’t help it, I caved. So next Friday (payday!), we’re getting two more snakes! The corn snake I’m getting is about 17 months old, around a half-meter long, and is about as fat as my ring finger. Geoffrey hasn’t picked out his ball python yet, but it’s bound to be much larger around and possibly not even as long (depending on its age).
I need to figure out what to name him! It doesn’t have to be a gender-specific name, since unless you’re breeding (which I won’t), you don’t have to worry about reptile gender anyway. Hell, we thought Fido was a girl for the first several years we had him! So make some suggestions, please.
The only thing that keeps Wednesday from being totally awesome is that it’s a day I have to work. But other than that, it’s always been one of my sentimental favorites.
Anyhow, I got a phone. It’s not purple like my spiffy old phone, and it’s not all that spiffy (it’s actually pretty beat up), but it does what phones are supposed to do (namely, provide me with the ability to text-message, since I hate talking on the phone). And it was free (after a $20 unlocking fee). I just have to get used to the fact that the menu layout is odd, and some of the buttons do entirely different things than I’m used to them doing. *sigh* At least the ringtones selection is pretty good, and the wallpaper is purple. I did lose a whole lot of phone numbers, though, so if you’re pretty sure I don’t have yours and you want me to have it, email it — or Twitter direct-send it — to me.
I also revamped my Google Reader. Until recently, I had a pretty wide variety of blogs on there, but living without a phone (and being a bit too busy for much Internetting) helped me reevaluate what really matters. Mostly family and friends! So I got rid of all the blogs on my reader that weren’t people I’ve actually met in real life, except for 3 people: Orson Scott Card’s column, and a couple of Very Interesting and Entertaining gunblogs.
And now for a nifty meme, compliments of The Breda Fallacy:
And now for something completely TMI…
