Photos of the storm

Took some pictures as promised during a brief lull. It prompt started back up after 5 minutes with those big fluffy flakes coming down at a pretty good clip!

Above taken out of our front window.
Check out the icicles hanging from the gutter!

The tree outside of the window next to my computer desk.

Continue reading >>

The Snowpocalypse is upon us!

Checking in early this morning, 7 am, before I head back to bed...

Work is closed, day care is closed & more of the white death is falling (quite heavily I might add) outside.

Woo!

It's so funny that everyone freaks out around here. I was watching the Jackets game last night on the toob and Coach Hitchcock has a press conference after every game and some had mentioned the weather. Hitch just laughed and mentioned something about it not being a snow storm unless you have to fire up your block heater & it gets to 50+ below zero...

:)

I'll take some pictures later and post them up for all of your enjoyment! Continue reading >>

Crazy weather day!

What a crazy weather day!

Bucketfuls of snow this morning, about 8 inches. I ended up staying at home with Nicklaus as his daycare was closed for the day. I did log into work to check on things and everything was peachy keen.

I took a couple of pictures of our backyard this morning around 8am.

It would snow off and on all day then around 3:30pm it started to change over to sleet/freezing rain.

Eric had gone out a bit ago to carve out a snow tunnel/cave in the huge mound of snow that was piled up at the side of our driveway. It's pretty cool... :)

We just got in a few minutes ago from horsing around outside - pulling each other around on a sled, winding around the trees in the backyard & sliding down our uber icy driveway on a sled.

There's about a 1/4" of ice on everything outside and the cul-de-sac is just an ice rink. And it's still raining out there so tomorrow morning's commute is going to be a blast. :| Continue reading >>

Aaahhh!

You know it would be nice if people would tell you that things are broken so they can be looked at and fixed.

You know in a pro-active manner instead of in a reactive manner...

Why?!

Why?



Meh.

I need a beer. Continue reading >>

Awards, awards, awards...

I'm a little behind on these...whoops!

You get them, then you think, 'oh, I'll sit down and post about them when I get home from work' but that never really happens does it? Mommy mode kicks in and everything else goes out the door! :p

Sooo, I'm posting about them here...at work. Shhh... ;)

So without further adoo...

Tami at So Anyway... has given me the Proximidade Blog Award.

Proximidade is described as follows:

This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.

Please give more attention to these writers!This blog award should be sent to your favorite eight bloggers and they, in turn should forward to eight of their favorites. You should include the text for Proximidade (above) in your announcement blog.

I'm actually pretty honored to get this award! Now I must pass this on to my fav blogs...

Reinventing Alice
The Empty Envelope
Confessions of a Bookworm
The Everyday Adventurers

Next...

Momma Young at Momma Young at Home has given me the Sisterhood Award. Thanks so much! :)

It is awarded to those whose blog shows great attitude and/or gratitude.

The rules for the Sisterhood Award:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude(If you don't have 10, its ok.)
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Hmm, blogs that have a great attitude and/or gratitude...

Always Create Something
Streetnoodles
Pocketful of Colors Continue reading >>

What a wild & wooly affair the Jackets game was...

Man, the Blue Jackets game versus the Calgary Flames last night was crazy! The boys in blue lost a 1 point lead 4 times, but they dug in and forced the game into a shootout. You could just see how tired Mase (Steve Mason) was. He just wasn't as sharp as he usually is and was just a second slow here and there. R.J. Umberger was checked hard face first into the glass/boards in the first by Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf. Derek Dorsett was cross checked hard in the forehead by another Flames defenseman Robyn Regher. The good guys fell, 5-4, when Todd Bertuzzi scored on the lone shootout goal, but spirits were high in the locker room.

After tonight's loss, the CBJ are 2 points from 8th place in the West and 4 points from 5th. Not a bad place to be at this point of the season. :) It'll really come down to the wire when seeing who will advance to the Stanley Cup Play-offs and who will start booking their tee times come April...

Tonight's game was the last before the All-Star game so they'll get a couple days of rest to re-charge their batteries. They'll resume next Tuesday with a meeting with the Detroit Wings at home in Nationwide Arena.

Speaking of the NHL All-Star Game... Festivities are a go on this upcoming weekend, Jan 24th - 25th in Montreal. There's a Young Star's Game, a skills competition and then there's the actual All-Stars game. Both games are like a glorified scrimmage where checking is frowned upon. This weekend is all about showcasing the NHL's top talent. Fans vote for who gets to be on the All-Star rosters. Both games will be aired on the NHL Network. In addition, the skills competition and the All-Star game will also be shown on Versus. Continue reading >>

Pardon the dust...changing the place up!

Just a heads up folks as I'm working on changing the template to this lovely blog... Continue reading >>

Look Ma, I'm ice climbing...

...at night! :p There is a first time for everything!

With this extended cold snap here in Ohio, many of the waterfalls in central Ohio have frozen. Yay! :) We had gone up to Columbus over the weekend and scoped this sucker out during the day and seen that it was fat with ice.

So we planned to do some climbing later that night...

Why the black-ops night climbing? Because 'they' would probably frown upon it and we'd probably get fined or worse.

This baby was only about 20-30 feet but when you're jonesing for some ice love, it'll do. :) Continue reading >>

Dig U2?

Those four Irish lads are back at it again!

Their new album, No Line on the Horizon will be released in the UK on March 2nd and in the US on the 3rd. Their first single off of the new album has been released by the band to RTE, Ireland's state broadcasters according to Yahoo! as well as for free on the group's website, U2.com.

Check it out!

I love it! U2 is my favorite band in the world. They are the soundtrack to my life. :) Continue reading >>

That new Clint Eastwood flick...

Gran Torino is awesome! I recommend it highly although if you get easily offended by racial remarks, then this is definitely not a film for you. ;) But I think you should suck it up, ignore all those comments because it really is a great film...

It seems like a fairly formulaic with a crotchety old man, Eastwood who was a Korean vet who has just buried his beloved wife. His wife had made the local priest promise to look after her man and get him to confession. He still lives in the same neighborhood that has gone downhill a bit. He has a beautiful old Gran Torino that he babies. Something happens with his neighbors and spills over to his property and the story picks up from there. Things happen, people come around & change.

It is a story about changes in people, compassion and overcoming your inner demons.

And it was fabulous! Clint Eastwood in what may be his last acting role was brilliant!

It's been out a couple weeks now, but when Eric and I got to the local theater, it was packed & sold out!

Go now & see this film!

'Get off my lawn!' Continue reading >>

Sore...

So last night our plans for the Mt. Washington trip were finalized...

We head out from the Cincy area after work on Friday, 2/20 and head out towards New Hampshire. We'll be picking up our friends along the way. Get into North Conway Saturday (2/21) morning, grab some breakfast, maybe grab a nap, gear up and start our summit attempt. Then drive home Sunday, the 22nd.

The mission of this crazy trip is 'Get some winter mountaineering done safely without missing a day's work." :p

I'm sore from my workout last night. It's a good sore though. I need to get in shape. To get my endurance level up. It's what killed me the last time I attempted to summit Mt. Washington.

Since it was butt cold outside, I didn't go running. Instead I did 2 sets of 40 jumping jacks with 2 sets of 10 lunge jumps. I also worked in bicep curls, dumbbell rows, the plank and a couple other free weight exercises.

I've got a little over a month to get into some sort of decent shape! Continue reading >>

Longshanks is dead!

Emmy-winning Patrick McGoohan has passed away Tuesday in LA. He was 80.

Best known as Number Six in the 1960's British television show Prisoner. He also portrayed King Edward Longshanks in Mel Gibson's Oscar winning film, Braveheart.

He did a fantastic job! I hated his guts in that film.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family...

Continue reading >>

Featured in an Etsy Treasury!

Woo! My first time! :p

A wonderful Etsian, cynmb has included my Ammonoidea necklace in her Treasury, Earthy & Worthy... :)

Please go check all the other fantastic artists in this lovely treasury! Continue reading >>

Random Nerd Funny :)

Just saw this as a signature pic in one of the many forums I frequent...

To all the IT nerds out there - enjoy! :)

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Busy Weekend...

Oh what a busy weekend! How was yours?

Originally Nick & I had planned to go up to Columbus to go to the Jackets game Saturday night, but the weather was gonna be bad so I decided to stay home. The Jackets are having a promo where when you buy 4 12 packs of any Pepsi product at any Columbus Giant Eagle, you'll get a voucher for 4 free tickets to any Jackets home game until March 3rd.

Got some cleaning done, some photos redone, made some jewelery, horsed around with Nick & watched some hockey on the toob. :)


Eric was down in Louisville helping his best friend Jon move into his new digs. Jon's wife Kat accepted a position with the orchestra down there so they needed to relocate from Ft. Wayne.

Then later that night, I remembered that I was invited to a my friend Sarah's housewarming party Sunday afternoon...ack! A quick text message to Eric letting him know that I had to drive up to Cbus the next morning.

The party was a good time and Sarah's new digs are awesome! Half of a double, spacious with nice hardwood floors throughout. :) Thanks for the invite Sarah!

The drive back was fun...the weather was turning. Snow and it was blowing all around. The roads were icing up and there were SUV's blowing by at like 80+ MPH.

WTF, people?!

Do you think that because you drive a SUV with or without 4WD that you are invincible to inclement weather?

*shakes head*

Meh.

Anyways, it's cold out today and it's supposed to snow. As the week goes on, it's only going to get colder and more snowy. Yay! Winter!

I think that's the only thing I dislike about living in Ohio...unless you live up in the northern portions by Lake Erie, you really don't get a proper winter with bucketfuls of snow. You just get drab grey skies, freezing, slushy crap rain and temps hovering between 32 and 40 degrees.

Bleck. Continue reading >>

They're dropping like flies...

Oy vey.

My boys in blue, the Columbus Blue Jackets, are dropping like flies from injuries. According to the Puckrakers blog, Mason is now 50-50 for tonight! :O

Our back-up goalie, Pascal Leclaire was put on IR yesterday and the Jackets called up Dan LaCosta from our farm team in Syracuse. And now he made be in between the pipes tonight against the high flying Capitals. Oy...

I'm not sure I want to watch, but the pull is too strong, you know?

It's like a car wreck by the side of the road & all the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles that pull you in...

You can't help but stare & gawk as you drive by...

OMG.

... Continue reading >>

An assult on Mt. Washington...

So I was thinking about Mt. Washington the other day. You may wonder why...

A few years back, Eric and I went on a guided trip with Appalachian Outfitters out there in New Hampshire for some ice climbing & a summit attempt. It's were I got bit by the ice climbing bug. :)

I decided to turn around at the bottom of Lions Head because I didn't feel like getting blown off of the mountain and Eric made it to about 700 feet of the summit. He's gone back every year since to climb her.

Here's Eric (on the right) on the decent on that first trip out there.
Arrr...got a little Captain in ya? ;)

The weather on Mt. Washington is notoriously bad. Winds have howled up to 200+ mph! There's an observatory at the summit where weather studies are conducted. If you feel adventurous, you can volunteer for a week! Lots of climbers climb her to prep for adverse weather found on Denali in Alaska.

You can see that Mt. Washington is completely engulfed in a storm...

Fast forward to now, Eric and his best friend Jon are planning on going back out there towards the end of Feb and I'm seriously thinking about joining them.

If I go for it, I'm going to have to ramp up the free weight workouts and start running after work. He's planning on a weekend jaunt so we won't be hauling camping gear, just the essentials in our packs.

This morning on the bus, I started to mentally tally all the gear and clothing layers I'd need...

I think subconsciously, I've decided on going. :p

Do you have any crazy adventures planned for the new year? Continue reading >>

A picture says a thousand words...

Columbus Blue Jackets 6, Colorado Avalanche 1

Jackets are now 8th seed in the West!

Let the wondrous play-off race begin...


That is all.

:)

Continue reading >>

Just looked at the NHL standings...

The boys in blue play tonight in Denver at the Pepsi Center, home of the Colorado Avalanche.

In reading up on each teams' line-ups I noticed that the CBJ are currently the 9th seed in the West, tied with Minnesota with 38 points. Ironically, Colorado is the 8th seed with 39 points.

Tonight's game is big! This whole road trip is big as it'll pretty much determine where the guys will be for the rest of the season. There's still a ton of work to be done, don't get me wrong!

They shut out the Philly Flyers last Sat. They shut-out the LA Kings this past Monday. And they shut-out the Anaheim Ducks on Weds.

They'll take any and all points at this time... :p

And what do ya know, Mason has been named Rookie of the Month by the NHL for the month of December! Two months in a row!



Ride that hot 'tender! ;)

Go Jackets! Continue reading >>

The 'Daily Brady'

Thought I'd add a new photo feature here showcasing the antics of my crazy cat, Brady. The pics will be showcased on the right side under the Followers section.

I had decided on getting a cat about 5 years ago to keep me company. I started researching the different breeds on the web and came across a relatively new breed, the Savannah. They're a cross between an African Serval and a domestic.

I was looking at a couple different breeders and they're cats and decided to go with JoyKatz based out of Texas. Joy was great to work with, such a sweetheart! Since she was moving , Brady was shipped out at 6 weeks of age instead of the normal 8 weeks that would be normal for Joy.

I was amused when the guy at the airport gave me the meowing & rocking crate of kitty. :)

5 years later, Brady has mellowed out considerably but still gets moments of craziness time to time!

Brady @ 3 weeks

Continue reading >>