Today was the day I finally had to unearth the car. After having probably about a foot of snow fall on it, then rain turning that snow into ice, then more snow, I had about six inches of nothing but ice to crack through. It was not a job I was looking forward to, which is why I haven't touched the car for three days.

Three days of cold, wet, snow, and a crazy toddler, and about a billion Christmas things to accomplish still. Three days doesn't sound like much, but since it has been snowing here pretty much nonstop for a week, we have mostly been in each others unrelieved company for that long.

So today, between the desperate need to see a doctor, and the need to physically vent some frustration, I unearthed our car. It took me about 45 minutes. First I attacked it with a broom. Then when plastic pieces of my broom were getting mixed in with the snow, I moved on to a shovel. I have to admit it was kind of fun to watch these huge chunks of ice come sliding off the hood.
It is absolutely crazy out here.

Apparently Salem never sees this much snow. That makes sense, because I haven't seen a single snow plow. In Utah, this kind of snow is expected and wouldn't really be a problem. Here, the world has come to a grinding halt. The post office is finally open today, after no mail since Thursday.

If I owned a snow shovel, I would go out and shovel off our walk. However, I am still hoping it will melt in a couple of weeks.

Lately I have been finding myself day dreaming of the Sahara Desert. I would kill for a blast of dry hot air, with the gritty feeling of sand in my hair.

I also made tons of cookies, planning to send them to deserving friends and family. But I haven't been able to mail them yet. So far I have eaten two box fulls. Mom and Dad, I am trying to make it to the post office today, because your box is next. If you get a couple of gingerbread men with their heads bitten off, that is why.

Sorry if this is not my most creative post. My brain has turned to mush with all this crazy weather.

Bunny Food

I am mostly grouchy this week. Therefore I have not much to say, except to expound upon the soothing power of sugar. Yesterday at exactly 7:16 pm, I realized what I was craving. I had been thinking upon this subject for quite sometime, having not been able to lay my finger upon what it was my body needed. Then, it struck me- carrot cake. No I was not struck by a carrot cake, although that would have been yummy. I realized my life would not be complete unless I had a huge carrot cake with pineapple and coconut and cream cheese frosting sitting in front of me screaming "EAT ME!" Of course this had to be homemade carrot cake. I think I surely must burn more calories if I cook my sugar before I eat it.

Unfortunately I had no pineapple. Or cream cheese. I could have improvised and made a simple carrot cake. But dammit, I wanted pineapple in my carrot cake. Lucky for me I have a husband who likes to make trips to the store for me. What a guy. By 10:30 I had carrot cake, completed and frosted. I had carrot cake for breakfast this morning. And lunch. And every snack in between.

Is it any wonder I am grouchy? By dinner time all I wanted was a salad.

Anyway, one of these days I WILL start to exercise again.

Pocoyo!

I recently discovered the most adorable children's show on Netflix's Watch Now instant viewer. It's called 'Pocoyo.' Has anyone else heard of it? I simply found it by accident and now it is a favorite of our whole family. (Yes, both Jay, and I, and James will all huddle around the laptop watching Pocoyo) It is extremely simple- not much background, just a little boy who looks like Hello Kitty, with his friends, an elephant, duck, dog, and sleepy bird. They play against a white backdrop while a narrator who sounds just like the narrator from Winne The Pooh talks to Pocoyo. It is sooo cute. I know it's not produced in the U.S., but I am not sure if it's English. I think it may have been translated from another language (possibly Spanish?) into English. (Real British English, not American English.) James absolutely loves it- I ask him if he wants to watch Pocoyo, and he runs all the way upstairs to find the laptop, yelling 'poco!' So if little kid shows are your thing check this out. Pocoyo 'Don't Touch'

My Midnight Moral Dilemma

At exactly 12:00 midnight on Tuesday Jay called me to say that our car had overheated and he needed me to pick him up after he dropped it off at the repair shop to be looked at in the morning. He'd been working on it all evening, and finally decided to take it out for a test drive. I wasn't asleep either though. We are both kind of night owls. Next I was faced with the dilemma of
A. Should I leave James sleeping in his crib and lock all the doors? OR

B. Wake him up, and take him with me to the not so nice part of town where the auto shop was located?

On the one hand, if I chose A, I would be risking leaving my child alone in a house at the mercy of possible abduction, fire, earthquake, carnivorous rabid raccoons, etc, etc. However, I would not have to wake him up. That's a big plus to me.

On the other hand, if I go the B route, I risk possible car-hijacking with my son in the back seat, and I would have to wake him up and then put up with a cranky child the next day. But at least we'd be together.
In the end I decided to keep the family unit together and take James with me. The next moral dilemma was even tougher. What is my weapon of choice for driving into Gangsterville at midnight? Here are my options: Jay's hand gun, my bayonet knife, and my pepper spray.
Okay, I don't actually know how to load Jay's gun, and the legality of carrying a loaded weapon in my car is kind of a gray area for me. So the gun stayed home. Knife- too slow and messy. So pepper spray it is!

I have had this fantasy from years past when I first started buying pepper spray (the current canister is number 3 I think). Suppose I were jogging along, with spray in hand, and some thug jumps out in front of me. Here is what I would do- I would yell "Suck Mace!!" spray him in the face, kick him where it counts, and run like hell. The catch phrase "Suck Mace" is especially important to me. I have never had the chance to live out this fantasy.

Anyway back to reality. I scooped up James and deposited him in his car seat, locked all the car doors and put my pepper spray on the hair trigger setting and set it in my lap, and went off to get Jay.

Have I ever mentioned how paranoid I can be?

I pulled up to a stoplight and a couple of hoodlums were eyeing my ride from the corner. I showed them what I was packin' and they decided this was one bad-ass chick they didn't wanna mess with.

Okay that never happened. I have been reading too many Stephanie Plum novels lately.

The pick up went off smoothly. We came back home and I decided whilst standing in the driveway to fire off my spray just to see if it still worked. I held it out at arms length and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. I pressed it again- nothing. It took me a good 5 or 6 tries before I figured out the trick to it. Apparently there is a trick to it. That hair trigger is not as hairy as I thought. This caused me to rethink my fantasy. How potentially embarrassing to yell "Suck Mace!" and then have nothing happen. I have been carrying around this false sense of security for the past three years. Well now I know. So watch out all you perps, because I have mace and NOW I know how to use it!