Fashion Blogger

After sharing a picture of my extreme cold weather hat, scarf and gloves, my friend rooth jokingly dubbed me a fashion blogger.  So I HAVE to do a fashion post (sort of).  Should I share tips on how to style something?  I have no tips.  Comment on current fashion trends?  Hahaha, no! 

Instead, I'm going to predict what people will be wearing next season.  Well, what I hope to be wearing...what I wish I could wear now--my swim trunks!  It's terribly cold now, but in six months I'll be lounging by the pool, enjoying the heat.

I'm going to pretend I'm doing that now!  :)

Ruined Pumpkin

I just threw out my Halloween jack-o-lantern!  It and the Christmas tree were both hauled away on the same morning this week.

We didn't carve a pumpkin last Halloween.  My son drew a face on it instead...and we decided that as long as it stayed in good shape, we would leave it on the front porch.  Everyone loves jack-o-lanterns,  Right?

That demonstrates something about pumpkins (butternut squash, sweet potatoes, etc.).  As long as you keep them in a dry, cool (not cold) place, they'll keep for months.  In my family it was normal for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners to include squash and sweet potatoes we'd grown ourselves the previous summer (we didn't grow pumpkins).

Thanks to the really cold weather we had last week, this happened:

The pumpkin froze.  When it thawed, it stayed in one piece, but felt like a bag of water.  I was very grateful it didn't break open when I moved it (with a shovel)...that would have been a gross mess.  Although, that would have been a cool thing for the kids to see.  Maybe next year!  :)

Did anyone else leave any holiday decorations out way too long this year???

Cartoon Moments ll

I almost named this post "Smrtr Maybe Was", but then remembered I did a Cartoon Moments post several years ago...something about a 2-foot long board becoming attached to my shoe and tripping me.  I call situations like that "cartoon moments"...they hurt, people cringe, but there's no real damage (the last part is the key).

Or maybe just a little damage?  I think I used to be smarter.  That was before a particular series of cartoon moments.  You'll see why.  There were too many of those moments, but what follows are two of the best (worst). 

One occurred on ice. All the kids in the neighborhood enjoyed going to a local "wetland" (swamp) whenever it froze over. We shuffled around on the ice pretending we were hockey players (none of us had skates). We didn't think it was dangerous. If the ice was too thin, your feet only went down about 6 inches. On a particular day when I was 8, it was frozen almost solid. We were having fun sliding around, pushing each other. Then I slipped and my feet went up into the air. Gravity being what it is, I landed on my head. The sound was pretty awful (the ICE made the sound, not my head--I was okay). In fact, it was such an awful sound that my friends and brothers were afraid to look under my stocking cap as they helped me stumble home. Again, I was okay. The headache lasted a few hours and in a few days I was back out on the ice (I was dumb). 

In the second situation, my friend Fred and I were building a tree fort.  I was better at climbing, so I went up first and nailed the support boards to the trees.  After I scampered down, Fred went up and waited for me to bring him plywood for the floor of the fort.  His job was to nail it to the support boards.  That never happened.  I handed him a piece of plywood and then climbed back down to get another one.  As I stood up with the next piece of the floor, Fred dropped the first one.  It landed right on my head.  Thankfully the long, flat side hit me (the edge might've done some real damage) and I came away from it with just a headache and a sore neck.  We never did finish that fort.  Instead we decided to dig an underground fort.  What could go wrong if we stayed on the ground??? We had a rhythm going as we dug (Fred bent over using a very short shovel, me chopping the dirt with a very long hoe). Fred must have lost the rhythm because I accidentally hit him on the back of the head with the hoe.  It was an accident, honest (I would never intentionally hit anyone with a hoe)! 

How did any of us survive childhood???  LUCK!



PS - I make light of what happened because it was me and I'm fine.  But it's really important to wear the appropriate helmet whenever you're skating, biking, riding a horse, walking through a construction site, whatever.  We don't have to bubble-wrap ourselves (or kids), but please be careful...and never walk out onto a frozen pond, stream, anything.  It's too dangerous.  Don't lose IQ points the way I...ah... What was I saying???

"Bear" Necessities

Since I am not a bear, I couldn't leave the house today without these:

(Hat, gloves, scarf--I never wear a hat!!!)

Yeah, they don't match, but they kept me warm this morning.

Keep warm folks!

Snow!

It can be magical!  Some of the most beautiful sights I've seen have involved snow.  No, not the under-dressed young lady (she was older than I was) I picked up along the road.  I mean the landscape...the trees, the bushes, the mountains, everything.  Snow makes everything beautiful.

Snow can make you happy or it can make you tense, depending on the situation.  Snow has been a part of some of my best days and some of my most stressful.  When I think of the fun my friends and I used to have playing in the snow, it always makes me smile.  The BEST of those good times came at night.  We built snow forts and had major snowball battles.  We also went sledding at night--that was the most fun while it was still snowing.  Although, that was dangerous.  One friend got a snowflake in his eye, missed a turn and went head-first into a tree (he was okay).

And the tense times..I've already shared the story about driving my dad to the hospital when I was a teenager.  I have several other tense snow stories, including one (only slightly tense) that was supposed to be GREAT!  But, well...

There was a chance of snow and we needed a few things from the grocery store (including formula--my daughter was 6 weeks old).  But He Whose Name I Won't Speak (a tv weather person) told me DC wasn't getting any snow.  It was a Friday night and I was tired after a full week of working and night school.  I decided I would go to the store on Saturday.  Saturday morning we were snowed in! 

I spent the afternoon shoveling the sidewalk and clearing the car.  But the association had not yet cleared the parking lot, so I was driving nowhere.  My wife and I reviewed the formula and diaper situation...we could make it another day.  But what if the plow didn't show up?  Or it snowed again? 

I couldn't take the chance, so I set out on foot through snow that was up to my hips.  After about 250 meters of that, I made it to the nearby highway.  It had been plowed, so the two mile walk to 7-11 wasn't so bad--I just had to keep an eye out for trucks.  I made it to the store ahead of any other panicked  parents and bought formula, diapers and a gallon of milk for my wife.  The walk home was uneventful.  As I made my way back through the deep snow, I thought "Someday this is going to be a great story...maybe even my daughter's favorite!"

But it's completely boring!  I wasn't attacked by Manbearpig, or stalked or anything.  It was just a walk in the snow.  I should spice it up a little for my daughter, but I can't.  All of my stories are true.  I don't want to ruin that.  I probably shouldn't bother telling her this one.

My apologies for the boring story!!!  My next snow story will be more interesting