Your Forecast For Today

Jan 102012
 

42 degrees.

That’s fahrenheit, folks.

In Wisconsin.  Northern Wisconsin.  In January.  The 10th of January to be exact.

Now if this was a freak occurrence, I would be hopping up and down like a little girl who had just received the bestest Barbie ever.

But it’s not and I’m not.  What it is , is something that has been happening for the past 5 years or so.  We get into January or February (which are supposed to be the coldest months of the year in the Northwoods), and we get this warm streak of 40’s, sometimes 50 degree, temperatures.

Sure, sure, it’s great to be able to go outside and not freeze your unmentionables off.  I even grilled on the deck for the past 2 nights!  Great?  Yes.  Normal?  No.

And snow?  Don’t even get me started on that.

OK, you got me started.

We have only received maybe 15 inches of snow so far this season.  Again, normal would have been 2 or 3 feet of the white stuff.  Up here, snow is good.  Not just good, necessary.  (If you live anywhere in the upper Midwest, you know why.  I’ll explain it to those that don’t at another time.  I’ll make it fun.  I promise.)

The whole point of this blather?

Yeah, what he said.

They Are Not Amused (And I Am Not Entertained)

Jan 092012
 

It has been a little less aggravating on the homestead this winter when it comes to the squirrels.

Since the introduction of the Squirrel Buster, they have all but given up their fight to squander all of the sunflower seeds that are intended for my fine feathered friends during the colder months.

Yes, yes they have tried to break the unbreakable, but I think they have grown tired of their efforts and are now leaving the feeders (yes, I have 2 now) alone.

But I have to say, I kinda miss their antics around the feeders (simple pleasures and all).

So when Chris came for a visit last fall, she brought with her a little devise that she used to entertain her cat.

Looks kinda medieval, eh?  *insert evil laugh*

Rest assured, it is not.  Screw on a cob of corn, hang it from a tree branch, and let the fun begin!  The critters grab the corn and go boingy boingy boingy *insert another evil laugh*

Rick wasn’t impressed with my original placement of the devise, so he chose a different tree and a different branch.  So instead of it gently dangling 2 feet off the ground, it is now 15 feet off the ground.

Needless to say, I haven’t had to change the corn cob in 3 weeks because the squirrels can’t get to it!

An upside to this placement is that the deer can’t reach it either.

Actually, I don’t much care if a few Bambie’s have a little snack.

I want to see bouncing squirrels.

Clean Bill of Health

Jan 062012
 

The computer went into the Doctor yesterday.  When referring to Doctor, I mean Rick (but of course you knew that).

Seems that Microsoft doesn’t like me too much.  It was having issues that resulted in writing bad sectors to my hard drive and making it difficult to start up.  And when it finally did start up, it ran like crap.

Now, if you know the terms bad sectors and hard drive, you have earned your Doctorate in computer lingo.  If you don’t know those terms, just replace them with icky junk and brain, and you’ll basically have the same thing.

One of drawbacks about having a clear computer case is that all the dust that flies around our house in the wintertime gets sucked into it.  And you can see it clear as day.  Blech!  So naturally one of the nice things about it going in for a check-up means that it comes home all nice and shiny and clean.

Unfortunately, that will probably last a whole 2 months.

Welcome to the world of heating with wood. 

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You NEED One of These

Jan 052012
 

Seriously, if you freeze a lot of food like I do, you need one of these.

If I had know that this was quite possibly the best thing next to sliced bread, I would have bought one years ago.  But I don’t buy myself luxury items.  That would be silly.

Instead, I casually mentioned the appliance to Nichole sometime last year, thinking nothing of it. Well, as you can tell, the girl spoils her Mama, and got me one for Christmas.

Yes, they are a little pricey (which is the reason I didn’t buy one for myself), but I know now that it would have payed for itself in the long run when I didn’t have to throw out unidentifiable food that has met the cold death of freezer burn.

When I first used it, I was like “Oh My Gawd, this is fabulous!”  I may have even giggled.  OK, I giggled.  A lot.

Watching it suck all the air out of the bag and seal it?  You can see my smile, right?  This is my new bestest friend kitchen gadget.  We are going places, I tell ya.

Well, I’m off to find more things to use this on.

*giggle*

 

No Staplers Were Harmed in the Making of this Post

Jan 032012
 

Well, it finally happened.

My wonderful, glorious 11 day vacation from work ended.  It was blissful, productive, relaxing, and very, very much needed.

And I was so proud of myself.  I only checked my work email once during the whole time.  For me, this is a huge deal.  When I normally have a day off work, I’m constantly checking to see if somebody needs me for anything.  But for some reason, my brain took over and said “The college is closed, who is going to email you?”

And of course my brain was right, because all I got was the normal solicitation crap from places that wanted to sell me crap or invite me to some stupid seminars on how to better use paperclips or other worthless crap.  Now if it had been on how to effectively throw a stapler at an annoying coworker without actually doing damage to them/the wall/innocent bystanders, I would have signed up in a heartbeat!

And another thing that I am so proud about my brain is that is didn’t even allow me to think about work for 1o of those days.  On the last day, naturally my brain went on its own vacation and I was left with the realization that mine was over.

So this morning I kissed my hubby and the kitties goodbye before I left for work, and planted a little seed in my brain that it was going to be a good day.  My coworkers and I had busted our arses the week before vacation to clean up any and all work so that the new year would start on a clean slate.

And I kept that little seed growing all day.  I wasn’t going to let people/things/BS distract me from enjoying the work that I do.  By the time I left at the end of the day, people were still in a good mood and happy with the accomplishments that they had made.

Oh, and not one stapler was thrown.  I consider the day a success.

 

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