Well, That’s a New Critter

Jan 242012
 

It’s not too often that I get to see something new, but last night was one for the books.

We got some snow yesterday, and it was enough for Rick to start up the snowblower to clean it up.  Poor guy had worked all day and it was dark out, but luckily there’s a headlight on the thing so he could see what he was doing.

As I’m watching him clear the area by a couple of the bird feeders outside the bedroom window, I notice something in the Squirrel Buster that wasn’t… normal.

It wasn’t a bird and it wasn’t the normal crazy squirrels that I’m used to.  And it didn’t move when Rick approached it.

Seeing this, I thought that it might be caught in the feeder so I grabbed my coat and flashlight and headed outside to see what was going on.  This was weird.

When I got to the feeder this is what I saw:

(Not my photo… wish it was.)

WTF?

I got about a foot away from this critter and it didn’t budge.  It just looked at me like “Um, lady, you’re interrupting my dinner here.”  After a couple minutes, I won the standoff and it jumped onto the tree and out of sight.

Come to find out that we have flying squirrels up here in the Northwoods.  I’ll be damned!  Now I’m sure that others from these parts will probably say that yep, they’re common, but I’ve never seen one in my 11 years up here.

But it was pretty darn cool, I have to say.

Guess I can check that one off the Bucket List.

 

And Your Weather For Today Is…

Jan 222012
 

Not too darn bad.

Well, for the Northwoods temps in the mid-20’s in January are pretty darn good.

I really haven’t written much this year about our Winter because, frankly it’s been a weird season.  Not much snow, temps doing a roller coaster ride… meh, just not that exciting.

Sure we just got over a cold snap where overnight lows were in the -20 degree region and daytime highs fought to reach 0, but that only lasted a few days (thank gawd).  Sometimes those spells can last well over 3 weeks, and by the time it’s done 20 degrees is a heatwave.

Seems like other parts of the country are being blasted by Old Man Winter, like the Northeast region of the country is right now.  I feel for them folks.  I know what it’s like, I’ve lived it for 47 years.

The weather Gods are predicting a little snow (2-4″) over the next couple days, but at this point I’m sick and tired of the “couple inches here, a dusting there” crap.  We need SNOW, and lots of it!

No, I’m not crazy with that statement, because when that snow melts in the Spring it supplies great benefits to many things up here.  The trees need the moisture of the melted snow for Sugar Bush; the local lakes need it because they are way below where they should be; the people that have wells (like us) need to keep our supply of water available.  I could go on and on, but I think you get the drift of where I’m going with this.

We still have a couple months to go where we could get dumped on pretty good (as is the proof with this photo from last March), so there is still hope.

Plus, I kinda look forward to those “snow days” from work.  Any excuse for a day off with pay is alright in my book.

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Change Has Come

Jan 202012
 

I’ve wanted to do this for a long time.  Longer than I care to think about.

Of course, change is never easy, especially to those that didn’t make the decision but have to learn to live with it.

And for me, it’s a change for the good.  I mean, everybody’s doing it, right?

By disconnecting our home landline and going strictly to using my cell phone, I’ll be saving at least $40 a month.  That’s just on the phone bill.  I’ll also save on the electricity it takes to have 3 bases plugged in around the house.  Sure, it’s probably just pennies, but those add up too!

Plus, I’m only supporting one corporate phone company instead of 3.  WIN WIN WIN!!

Granted, cell phone service isn’t the absolute greatest up here in the Northwoods (I dropped Nichole on 2 phone calls the other night… oops!), but she understood.  We joke about stuff like that.  Yes, we’re weird.

But sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do in order to downsize things and save a little money.

So what’s next on my penny pinching agenda?  I haven’t figured that out  yet, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

Don’t worry, I’ll let you know when I do.

 

I Love the Cookie Monster

Jan 182012
 

Well, not just the one from Sesame Street (although he tops my list), but another one that left me something special yesterday.

The day started out with me on a mission:  Get the fricken 1098-T’s to work on our accounting system.  The person who previously had the wonderful task of doing this was an Excel wiz, so she swirled the information into that program, did whatever voodoo she did and imported the information into a template that she (of course) created in Excel that would print on the forms.

Follow?

Yeah, you have to actually see the file because it gave me a panic attack when I looked at it.  I’m good at Excel, but not that good.

Anywho, after spending an hour getting the program to generate the information onto the forms and coming down from another panic attack of how to electronically file them, I proudly announced to my co-workers that I had achieved success and that I deserved a cookie for it.

With my heartbeat starting to return to a normal pace and the coffee that I slammed 2 hours earlier wanting to make an exit, I left my office to use the restroom and clear my head for a few minutes.

When I returned, I found this on my desk:

Attached to this was a post-it note that read “You deserve a cookie.  From:  The Cookie Monster.”   My mind immediately went back to my college days in the ’80s when I would sit in the student center and munch on these while I did my homework.

The Cookie Monster in this case was a new colleague in the office that I already adored, but now she has upped that level to absolutely love!

I savored those cookies for the next hour, completely forgetting that I hadn’t even had my breakfast yet!

Hmmm, that sounds just like my college days.

 

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