b-e agressive

Remember the cheerleaders chanting that at high school football games? Oh how I loved the football games. Be agressive; B-E agressive. And the ensuing song from ESPN that was so catchy and repeated the be agressive refrain. Oh how I loved that song! I couldn't help but dance to it. Maybe I'm the only one who remembers it? Chris and I have been referring to it frequently as we watch the Australian Tennis (which might I add is very confusing what with the time change - not the tennis itself, but rather the hour of airing). The great and venerable Dick Enberg says it over and over, especially in the men's matches. "He's got to be agressive." You can see the natural progression, spiralling downward to the ESPN song.

......Okay, after a little searching, I found it. Funny thing is, I looked all over iTunes and Amazon and couldn't find it. So I went downstairs and checked the CD collection. I still have the CD single! Turns out it was called The Jock Jam and was put out in 1997 (I thought it was earlier). I can't believe that CD has made it through the past 10 years without a case with that one little song on it. Too funny. I have to admit, I want to post the song, but I can't find a link to download it anywehere. Apparently it's not iTunes worthy, and on Amazon you can only buy it on CD or cassette. Yes, that's how old it is, you can buy it on cassette. I would do one of those little things where it plays over the blog, but 1)those things seriously annoy me and 2)I don't know how to do it. Shhhhhhh.....don't tell.

Why the picture of the dog? It's just a gratuitous Scooby picture. I didn't want to go another post with no pictures. That and I thought I'd lost him this morning. I kept hearing him scratch to go out. Not uncommon. When I went to let them out, no Scoob to be found. Couldn't find him anywhere. Turns out he was scratching to GET out! He'd locked himself in the laundry room and when I called him, he didn't say anthing. Silly boy!

Check out the Pictures

I added a Photo Album over at the right with some pictures of the ice. I took a ton, so I thought I'd share!

4-8 inches?

We dodged a bullet this weekend. We were supposed to get 4-8 inches of snow. We got rain. Actually, I was a smidge disappointed about the lack of snow. But, It's what we needed. The city is just now recovering. School was canceled for an entire week. Finally, the main streets are clear. Our street is nowhere near clear, but once you get to the more heavily traveled streets, It's fine. My car still hasn't left the garage yet, and I'm not sure when it will!! We're thinking about getting me a Jeep, and I keep telling Chris that now is the time to go see if we can get them to make us a good deal. I'm pretty sure their salses are down this month!

Not much has been going on around here. We've reached that point. We're bored and tired of being at home. But what are we gonna do? We're trying hard to be frugal It's not our norm. But, we're doing well with it. But, it means we're not going out and doing things that involve the spending of money. Also, in a town like Tulsa, it can be difficult for a couple of Neo-Cons like us to stay in the loop. I'm going to start making an effort, though!

Today, however, is all sports. Football, Football, Football, and throw in some tennis with it. I LOVE it!!! I've been staying up late all week watching the Aussie Open. I'm not exactly sure how far ahead of us they are. I knkow it takes 17 hours to get there from here. I do know that the matches are shown live starting at 9:00 pm Okie time, and it's the morning there.

It's totally snowing now!

They told us all of the "weather" was over, but I'll be darned if it isn't snowing now! They alsways say, "If you don't like the weather in Oklahoma, wait 5 minutes...it'll change." (and yes, that they is the Dept. of Natural Resources.)

prosciutto + brie = yum

What with the nasty weather lately, we've been eating at home. Our tendancy is to eat out all the time, but as I mentioned yesterday, I pretty much insited we get food so we wouldn't starve to death. I don't know if it was cabin fever (which seems to have an extremely fast onset for me) or insanity, or what, but yesterday we decided to head to the grocery store. Thankfully, there were few other idiots out on the road. We went to the grocery for sour cream and that powder to make veggie dip, but we ended up finding some prosciutto ham and some pancetta. So, we got brie and hard rolls to go along with it and had that for dinner tonight. Holy yum!!

On the way in, we noticed the liquor store next door was open, so as we left we headed over there. I thought maybe I needed some Peppermint Schnapps. Who knew it comes in either 60 or 90 proof? Not me! Needless to say, I got the 60. I think I've figured out why the hot chocolate makes my tummy hurt. Waaaaaaaaay too much whipped cream. Chocolate is not my fave flavor, so I need the creaminess of the whipped cream. Problem is, I need lots and lots and lots of it. And then, I only end up drinking 1/2 of it, but I still have refill at least once on the whipped cream. Oh well!

On the weather front, we've taken quite a beating. We got even more yucky stuff. Today we had freezing rain, then sleet, freezing rain again, a sleet/freezing rain mixture, then snow plus some other stuff. It's pretty nasty. Everything is closed. Well, the big chains are open, but let's put it this way....we haven't gotten our paper for 2 days. Supposedly, we've seen the end of the precipitation, but the temperatures aren't supposed to warm up for days. And then we're supposed to get another round on Friday. Great!

  Now they're saying over 100,000 people/homes are without power on the Eastern side of the state Yikes! That's nuts. Our power went out for about 2 minutes a couple of hours ago. It totally freaked us out because we both saw green flashes outside at the same time. I was sitting right by a window, and really saw the green flashes. We still have no idea what they were. We went out front (through the garage, because we can't get out the front door....there's a 3 ft. drift of ice) to check things out, and our neighbor was out too checking things out. He thought the electric lines were underground. I think he was a little confused.

To keep the doldrums away, we slept in and we've been watching lots of football and Discovery HD   (the best channel on television) and now we're watching the first round of the Australian Open. I was watching it upstairs and then came down to the good tv. Holy stinking cow! The difference is unreal. I love the people who came up with HD. It's all about the mirrors.

BTW....that top picture of the front of the house....that's all ice. Not a drop of snow there. Isn't that the craziest thing ever? Especially that ice drift?

It's raining ice!

A wise and wonderful man once said, "They don't call it freezing for nothing." Actually, that was Chris, and he said it about five minutes ago when I came in from taking pictures outside lamenting the freezing (literally) temperatures. As I write this, the real temp here is 24 and the feels like temp is 15. I didn't move to a southern tier state for this! This is the third time this winter we've had a debilitating storm! Tueday, we're supposed to have a low of 2. I'm moving to San Diego.

I hear it's worse in other states, but holy cow, it seems awful here! We have over 2 inches of ice on the ground. Okies are not prepared for this sort of thing. Yesterday, all of the schools closed early. That never happens. We were forced to watch all of the closings as they scrolled along the bottom of the TV screen. It was rather interesting, though. Not only did they close the airport (which they said was going to reopen at 8 am this morning....just in time for the sleet to start again), but they also canceled all visitation and events at the jail. That cracked me up. Right there in between the school and church closings, it said Tulsa County Jail activities canceled. Ha!

Also, there are some places here with crazy names. I mean, really. There's the Paint Horse Church and the Cowboy Gathering (which, incidentally was having a rodeo this weekend - it's canceled). Um - yeah...that's a church. All of the churches are closed. I never noticed how many churches have the word "First" in the name. It's interesting. I looked at the list of church closings, and out of 266, 44 have the word First in the name. Seems like a lot to me, although it is only 17%. Still though....

So, we ran errands yesterday. We didn't really believe this storm would hit. There was already a major storm this winter they (the weather people - NOT the Department of Natural Resources) predicted correctly. They got their one. That's all they ever get. There's no way there could be another one. But, they were predicting a 90% chance of precip today, yesterday, and tomorrow. So, we were wary. Sure enough, yesterday morning about 10 the storm hit, and it hit hard! I called Chris about 11:30 and asked him to come home early. About that time, managers were going around telling everyone to come home. It took him FOREVER to get home. Apparently it hit harder 2 miles west of us. Weird, huh?

Not ones to heed warnings, we decided to run out to Target to get food so we wouldn't have to go out in the middle of the nastiness. Target was weird. When we first got there, it was pretty empty. But, we could tell about halfway through that people were leaving work and prepping for the storm. All of a sudden there were tons of people! I think lots of them were trying to get the shopping done before they had to pick their kids up early from school. Anyway, we got home and realized we had 6 DVDs that were due today at the Library. They each carry a fine of $.50 per day, and we knew there was liitle chance we'd make it over there again before Tuesday. As a nod to our new sense of frugality, back out we went. The whole way there, I prayed that we didn't get into a wreck, thereby turning what would have been a $12 fine into $25,000 for a new car! We were fine and decided as we left to go to Barnes & Noble. It's funny, we go to the library to get the books for free, but often end up heading from there to the bookstore, whereupon we spend no less than $30. But, I had ordered a couple of books and thought now would be a good time to have them. I am seriously suffering from the Wanderlust. In order to scratch my itch, I ordered Lonely Planet's 2007 Blue List. It's an awesome book, and they don't have it at the library! It will now grace the coffee table. I also procured another Lonely Planet title: Travel Photography: A Guide to Taking Better Pictures. I figure if I'm gonna go, I might as well take the best pictures possible. Chris thinks I should start selling my pictures.

Back to the story at hand.....it's good we got to B&N when we did, they were closing at 4! When we went back out, I couldn't believe how bad it was. There was a ton of slushy iciness on the road, and we saw tons of fish-tailing and wheels spinning (including a Jeep Wrangler who simply could not get any traction at a stop light). Needless to say, I was relieved to make it home. Poor Chris had to go out again later. I decided to make us some Chili from my Grandma's recipe. Oh my it's good. Thing is, this is the first time I've ever done it. I helped her a few times when I was younger, but pretty much was just hanging around. I totally forgot to get Bay Leaves and Whole Cloves when we were at Target. They were right there on my list, and I knew it, but I deemed us done and moved on without them. So, Chris ran up to the corner and got them for me. He's a good man. More relief when he made it back safely. The chili turned out great, but note for future reference....using 1/2 regular chili powder and 1/2 chipotle chili powder makes the chili way lots more spicy!

So, here we sit. In the house trying to stay warm and get over being sick (which would be much easier if I'd quit going outside to take pictures). Chris is wearing his robe, occasionally a puppy, and is cuddled up under a blanket. I have on slippers (a real rarity for my claustrophopic feet), flannel pants, a tee, a hoodie, a down jacket, and a beanie/stocking hat. And, I'm making us hot chocolate and apple cider (hot chocolate makes my tummy hurt). Maybe we should turn up the heat?

I just saw that over 40,000 people across the state are without power. There are whole substations down. Thankfully, we're fine in that dept. We had a few flickers last night, but they didn't even reset the digital clocks and nothing today. Apparently, we've been spared to some degree. The metro area got only sleet, no freezing rain. According to the meteorologist, freezing rain is much worse on the electrical lines - it piles up more and when that fab. OK wind blows through, the lines snap like a twig. But with the sleet, not so much because it comes down in little balls that don't settle well on the skinny cables. I've still been unsure of the difference is between freezing rain and sleet, but Wikipedia set me straight.

All this, and we're still only 1/2 way through the storm. That's what they told me on the noon news. Thank God I don't live in Denver!! I'd be going nuts about now!

as I was saying....

Sorry, I had to go deal with my "honking goose" cough and in my absence, Chris took over the computer! Anyway, I read this article about how some people get free trips and payment (money, computers, etc.) for blogging about their trips. I totally think someone should pay me to travel to their country and then blog about it. I say that, but then when I think about it seriously, do I really want that? Do I want to be beholden to some country or city because they paid my way? What if I had a really bad time? Would I feel okay saying that even though I know the reason they gave me the trip/money wasy to say good things?

And, how would anyone know for sure whether they could trust what I said? That's essentially what the article says: You can't know if a travel blog is being sponsored by someone, so take them all with a grain of salt. Seems a bit cynical, but then again, how do you not look at it that way? One thing the article mentions is that some people were flowen over to Amsterdam all expenses paid (flight, hotel, attractions) and in return, the bloggers added a "Bloggers in Amsterdam" logo to their blog. Is that so wrong? I visit sites all the time of regular 'ole people who are bloggers with logos on their site. I've seen a ton with Amazon logos/links. The article kind of turned me off a little bit. It just felt so negative.

I think there is a place for bloggers in the travel industry. I think their travel experiences are valid for them. So what if their trip was paid for, if they genuinely enjoyed their experience, I want to hear about it (actually, I think there's a lot to be said for hearing about the negative too). And speaking of travel blogs, Johnny Jet's is awesome! Makes me want to travel...bad! So, who's gonna ante up to send me to Europe?

I could kill my IT guy!

Seriously. I've been without internet on and off (mostly off) for days. It's been driving me insane. Everything I do is Internet related. I've been lost without it. So, I've wanted to kill my IT guy. Oh...wait...that's my husband. Okay, maybe not kill - I'll go with maim. Anyway, he figured out the problem and fixed it, so now he's out of the dog-house. I think I have like 200 unread e-mails right now, though.

The other day, I read a piece in National Geographic Traveler about bloggers who get free trips. I'm a blogger (random though I am), I should get a free trip.

blech

I'm coming down with something. It feels like a sinus infection. I'm trying to fight it, but it's winning. I hate feeling crummy. The funny (or should I say Ironic) thing is that tomorrow and Thursday I have a class that I was supposed to have right after Christmas, but I was in bed hoping to keep the Grape Gatorade in my stomach and couldn't very well teach. So they rescheduled it and now I'm feeling crummy again. Maybe it's psychopsematic (or however you spell that).

We've been having some serious internet issues. I think it's actually on our end because we had the Cox guy out yesterday morning (for other issues....I hate Cox...don't get me started) and he did some stuff that didn't make a difference. So, the resident geek has been working overtime. He's finally gotten me hooked back up. I could barely function yesterday. It's amazing to me just how ingrained the internet is in my life. Email, message boards, I'm even taking classes online. It's just pure and complete craziness, but I love it!

Happy & Resolved

Happy New Year! I'm so excited for the new year. I don't know why. There isn't really much difference between Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, but I'm feeling so much promise. We've celebrated the New Year in fine form...champagne at midnight while I was on the computer messing around and Chris was watching poker and a day full of the Rose Parade, football, and a poker tournament for Chris. The way it's supposed to be. I can feel it in my bones...this is going to be a good year, a very good year. I'm excited, yet nervous about the changes and can't wait for the travels and new things we'll get to see. It's gonna be quite a year!

BTW....did you see the OU game last night? Holy Stinking Cow! Games like this is why the BCS system stinks. Give us playoffs!!!