A little update, because things are going right into the toilet, and I know you savages love that.

Tonight, we're getting another 4 to 6 inches of snow, which will already put us over the whole of last year's snowfall total, and it's only January 12. Hooah.

Then, just to make things entirely exciting, after about midnight, the temperatures will take a nose dive into the single digits and the winds will start to blow 20 to 30 miles per hour.
Recognize the recipe?
Blizzard!

We are officially under a blizzard warning from about midnight tonight until noon tomorrow.

Oughta make for a wonderful morning commute.....

It started snowing on Friday morning and after a short stop in the afternoon, it snowed from Friday evening all through the night and into Saturday. It finally stopped around nightfall on Saturday and left behind about 10 inches all in all.

The roads are still a bit of a mess, even after a full 24 hours of time to plow and salt, so tomorrow's ride in to work should be interesting. And now they're saying it's going to start snowing again tomorrow afternoon into the evening and overnight, leaving another 3 inches or so.

And then it just gets better and better.

Tuesday is supposed to be windy and about 12 degrees. Blowing and drifting snow. Oh goodie.

Wednesday more new snow is predicted.

Thursday's high temp is predicted to be 5 degrees, with more snow on the way.

Friday the sun might finally make an appearance, but the high is only expected to be 12 degrees.

Kinda makes Alaska sound good about now, eh?

I've had a nasty cold with a nasty, hacking cough since the week before Christmas. I had thought I'd kicked it in the days right before Christmas, but this week it's made a very unwelcome reappearance, and I'm thoroughly tired of coughing my guts out. (Almost literally! I don't think I've ever coughed so hard that I nearly puked in my life, but this has become a way too frequent occurence since I got this crap.)

On New Year's Day, I had my family over for dinner and my Mom couldn't help but notice my hack. Of course her motherly instincts jumped up and shouted.

Mom: "You know, I just saw a report that said there's a big outbreak of whooping cough going around..."

Me: "I don't have whooping cough."

Mom: "No, I don't think you do, I just think you should be careful. It's going around and can be pretty serious."

Hubby: "Julie got it. Remember? She wrote about it in Facebook."

Mom: "Really?"

Hubby: "Yeah, she said something like, "You know that flu that I just couldn't kick? Turns out I have whooping cough.""

Me: o_O

So, as a public service announcement, and because my Mom told me about it, I feel I must share this information: whooping cough on the rise

Honestly, I thought this was one of those diseases that modern medicine had defeated when I was a kid. I remember getting vaccinated for it when I was little and never knowing anyone who had ever gotten it. I never realized there were still so many reported cases every year, and that recently those rates have more than doubled. So, consider yourself warned and informed.

And get that cough checked out, please.

Hello All,

As 2009 approaches, I wanted to be sure to wish all of you out there in the far-flung web-verse a very Happy New Year, filled with joy, love, prosperity and fulfillment. You are all so special to me, in ways you may not even be aware of, so it is my sincere hope that this new year will be memorable and full of things that make you happy.

So, that's the wish part; now to the favor.

My fannish reading desires are all over the map lately, though I'm still most in love with M7 Ez/Vin. Today I read a fabulous story recc'd by dolimir_k that featured Alec and Logan from Dark Angel. It really hit all my "yummy" buttons, and made me remember that I had even started a story years ago that would eventually lead to Alec/Logan; IF, that is, I let Alec survive. (winks at agt_spooky) My favor is for more recs. If any of you have read good Dark Angel fic that prominently features Alec, either with or without Logan, I would love to know about it. I've a few days left of this nice, long winter break, so could fill some of it with good fic to read.

Thanks in advance!

Monday, December 22, 2008

One last little comment to round out this meme and cap off an interesting week.

I'm happy today's high is 10, and not -3 like yesterday and that the 30-40 mph winds have died down.

Right now it's beautifully sunny, but still -2. I'm off to make a pot of coffee so I can enjoy my Monday off and plan my day. Gotta go over to the nieces and nephew's today to finish the Big Christmas Cookie Bake-off, but the nieces were coming down with the cough and cold everyone's passing around right now. I'm not sure they'll be well enough to be the Uber Cookie Helpers they were yesterday.

So, cheers, everyone. Stay warm and happy!

Day 7, Sunday, December 21, 2008

Wow, I made it to day 7! Does this mean I'm done today, or one more entry tomorrow? Hmmm; I'm not sure.

Today I'm happy that I have a very warm, hooded parka, a hand-made wool scarf, and ski gloves. It never made it over 0 degrees here today. I think officially we were no higher than minus 2 or 3 all day, with 30 - 40 mph winds, which made for seriously brutal, dangerous temperatures out there.

Because I was sick all last week, I got absolutely no Christmas shopping done, and so I HAD to go today. My Mom went with me and we spent about three hours doing some big-time power shopping, but had to go outdoors from store to store. It was scary cold! But the happy part is that I got a TON of shopping done and feel so much less like panicking now than I did 24 hours ago. I only have a couple of odds and ends to finish on Tuesday, and then it'll be the Hubby and me doing the wrap-O-rama that afternoon since we spend Christmas Eve at my sister's house. We do Christmas Eve with my family here in Chi-town, then drive up to Packerland for Christmas Day with Hubby's family. At least now everyone will actually get presents!

Since I don't know if I'll get a chance to do another entry before things get crazy-busy, and I didn't send any cards out this year (again,) let me take this opportunity to wish everyone on my Flist who celebrates the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a very Merry Christmas; those who ask the blessings of the Lord and Lady a very blessed Solstice; and to those who celebrate the Blessed Miracle of Hanukkah may God's light shine on you always. May the New Year bring everyone peace, joy, prosperity and love.

Goodnight!

Day 6: Saturday, December 20, 2008

Today's happiness? I finally got my Christmas tree decorated! Yay!

We went and cut the silly, crooked thing down on the day after Thanksgiving and put it in a bucket of water in the yard, which promptly froze solid. There was no way we were going to get that trunk into the tree stand with a 2 gallon block of ice firmly attached to it. Then, last weekend, while I was thoroughly miserable with a nasty cough and cold, the temps actually reached 50 degrees. It was our best opportunity to get the tree inside. Hubby chipped the last remnants of ice loose, made a fresh cut, and together we got it in the stand. Which is where it has sat, completely naked, for the past week. Finally feeling nearly well today, I dug everything out and am proud to report I have a completely lit and decorated, seven foot Christmas tree in my front room. Who cares if it's the most lopsided tree I've ever had (the trunk shifts to the right about half-way up, and the north wind sculpted the other side, making it very "lovable.") Once all the lights were on it, along with the combined collection of my grandmother's antique German glass, quaint home-made, and folk-art ornaments, I must say she's a pretty thing.

Wow! I've actually made it to day 5!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Two happy words for today: SNOW DAY!

Yes, the storm hit overnight and hit hard. About 5 inches of snow and another inch or two of sleet. The messy mix made for terrible road conditions this morning, so the best choice was to just close the school. I know the kids were probably disappointed that they missed their party, but we'll have it when we return in January.

I had made an appointment at the Vet for our cat, Kola, today. Hubby was all ready off and would have taken him in at 9:00am. With the snow, he really didn't think he wanted to risk going, but I called the Vet's office and pushed the appointment back to 10:00, hoping the roads would have been better by then. They were, and so off I went with Kola. The doctor had put Kola on a different food hoping it would be effective for him to lose some weight. (17 pounds!) The problem is that he develops urinary crystals, which cause blockages and can, in some cases, even lead to death. So, after about a month they needed to check his urine to see if the diet food was as effective as the other food. Long story short, it wasn't. He lost no weight, needs to be on antibiotics for two weeks, and is back on the original food. Luckily, by keeping a close eye on things, we caught things before any blockage could occur.

Now, with Kola cuddled up along my side, I have two more happy words--AFTERNOON NAP!

Day Four: Thursday, December 18, 2008

Sooooo, the apocalyptic doom-sayers are now predicting 6 - 10 inches of snow falling overnight and into tomorrow morning until about noon. They're saying morning rush hour should be an absolute nightmare. Yay. At least the forecast has shifted a bit north and we're now supposed to get all snow and not the ice they were saying yesterday. Some schools have all ready closed for tomorrow based on tonight's forecast. As of right now, at 9:11 PM CST it's not doing ANYTHING out there.

I'm happy that the snow didn't start earlier today and I had a very normal evening commute. I'm also strangely giddy about the fact that I have the ultimate power to either cancel school tomorrow or not.

The one sad aspect of closing school tomorrow would be that it is our last day before Christmas vacation and we were going to have a special lunch and a party, complete with grab bag gifts, candy, fruit punch with gobs of vanilla ice cream floating on top of it, and a fast and furious game of Dreidl. Mixing traditional Christian, commercial, and Jewish holiday fun. You gotta love it!

Day Three: Wednesday, December 17, 2008

No new snow today, but now there's another 3 to 7 inches on the way for Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. Oh goodie.

I'm happy today that I felt well enough to go out and get a little bit of Christmas shopping done tonight. Since getting sick last Saturday, I feel like I lost an entire week of my life to mucus poisoning, but I'm happy to say I'm gettinig "Closer to Fine," and just may actually get my shopping done before Christmas Eve this year! Go Me!

Day 2: Tuesday, December 16, 2008

So. It snowed today.
Only about 4 - 6 inches, but of course it came at the most inopportune moment. During the evening rush hour.

I'm happy it only took me two hours to get home tonight instead of the 4+ hours those poor saps on the Eisenhower had to endure.
Four hours!! To go about 25 miles!

I set out knowing it was going to be a long, slow, slippery ride home, so I loaded up my 6 disc player with classic Christmas CDs and practiced my Zen. Ahhhhhh. My blood pressure stayed down and I made it home without having to call my car insurance agent. WIN!

dairwendan tagged me for this meme that is currently running rampant...

Here's the deal:
1. Post about something that made you happy today even if it's just a small thing.
2. Do this every day for a week without fail.
3. Tag 8 of your friends to do the same.


Of course for me, the biggest challenge will be to actually make an entry every day for an ENTIRE WEEK! I'm not sure I've EVER done that in the history of my LJ. And of course I've managed to come down with a miserable cold, which seriously drains most of my brain power. But, for you my dear dairwendan, I shall endeavor to make good on the rules.

So: Monday, December 15, 2008

Tonight I was happy because I got to watch a new episode of Top Gear, even if The Hamster wounded me gravely by completely dissing the DB9. He must have had a fever...

And since almost everyone I would have tagged has all ready been tagged, I will alter the conditions (cheat) and say anyone on my flist who hasn't been tagged yet, feel free to join in the fun!

I had two freakish encounters with my Supernatural obsession today.

When the alarm went off, I was dreaming I was trying to perform an exorcism. I was in a house with a bunch of women, all of whom I didn't know, when we discovered one of them was possessed. Somehow, these women knew I watched SPN and so figured I knew how to do an exorcism. I overheard this possessed woman make a phone call and knew she was calling for help. The doorbell rang and when I opened the door, there were two gothy, witchy-looking women standing there, all perky and pleasant and with hair the color of Neopolitan ice cream. I told them they weren't welcome here and I wouldn't invite them in. They tried to persuade me briefly, but I repeated they weren't welcome here and I shut the door. Somehow, I figured this was enough to prevent them from coming in. Sure. That'll work. It was then time to get down to business. The stranger-women formed a circle around me, all holding hands, and gave me this book that supposedly had the latin words in it. I kept trying to read it, but the words would blur and change like paints running down a canvas after water had been thrown onto it. I knew just one phrase, Nunc dimitus, which were some of the words from a song I heard at a Christmas concert I attended on Saturday night. Needless to say, it didn't work, and the alarm forever prevented my efforts to become a Winchester. Oh well.

Then, on my way into work, I was listening to my usual morning radio guys and enjoying myself. They were asking listeners to call into the station and tell about any time they had drinks with a celebrity. I listened to a few calls, mildly amused, when a young gal called in and said she had shared drinks with Lou Diamond Phillips. I smiled, remembering when I met Lou last year when he performed in A Few Good Men down in Fort Worth, Texas with Jensen Ackles. The radio guy asked the caller when she shared this drink with Lou, and she says, "I met him when I got to go backstage for drinks when he was in a play down in Fort Worth. All the actors were from Texas and were having like a cast party and I got to meet them. They were all really nice."

I think my mouth literally fell open! She was obviously talking about A Few Good Men! I couldn't help but wonder how she got so lucky as to win some contest that allowed her to go backstage and meet Lou, and maybe Jensen too, though she never mentioned him. (How could that have happened??)

Too bad the rest of my day went directly to Hell from there on....

We got a few inches of snow yesterday, making everything feel so much more like the approaching Holidays. Whichever way you celebrate this December, I hope you have a wonderful and blessed Holiday and that your friends and family are close to you to share the joy.

There's so many wonderful seasonal videos out there, but this is still one of my all-time favorites. Enjoy!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

I can go ahead and tell the end of the story now that it has a happy ending.

Very recently, my Mom had to go for a special mammogram because of some irregularities.  She had two varieties of calcium deposits in her breast tissue.  One was larger and one smaller.  The larger ones developed from smaller ones and are inert; done changing.  The smaller ones can develop into the larger ones, but can also lead to cancer.  Obviously, the doctor wanted to make sure of what was actually going on inside my Mom's breast.  She underwent a strange procedure to remove all the calcium deposits and they were then sent for analysis.

Since she had both types, I was eager to assume that the small ones grew into the larger ones, but I'm no doctor.

Mom just called me a few minutes ago to tell me she had finally spoken to the doctor about her pathology report.  Her doctor's words:  "Everything was completely benign."

Holy cow.  You can't know how relieved I'm feeling just now, living for days wondering about and dreading the report.  I just didn't think I could take another smack from the ubiquitous cancer.  Between my mother-in-law just finishing her last round of chemo to treat the reappearance of her breast cancer, after 15 years in remission, and the death of my step-mother in May from breast cancer, I just couldn't fathom that God would give me yet another new cancer challenge.

I needed to share my relief and shed a few tears of joy.

My best buddy agt_spooky and I have had many conversations about how much we felt we had in common with Dean, but I guess this proves it. Heh!

Hey-ho my Flisties!

Just a quick note to let you all know I'll be off on vacation for a week, so I'll be out of contact until then. Hope you all have a fabulous week and I'll check back in when I return.

I live in Cook County, Illinois.

Cook County has the dubious distinction of charging its residents the highest porportion of cents per dollar in taxes on a gallon of gas in the country, along with a recently passed--again, highest in the nation--11% sales tax. With all these taxes flowing into county coffers, can someone explain to me why gas on my corner is still $4.15 and only ten miles away in my sister's neighboring county of DuPage, her local station has posted a price of $3.95? After reaching a high of $4.42, I was positively giddy about seeing $4.15.

Then I almost drove off the road this morning as I rubbernecked my way past that DuPage gas station. I haven't seen gas prices under $4 for probably six months, and for a moment, I thought I might have been hallucinating. It's a condition often brought on by living in Cook County....*sigh*

Last night the Hubby and I went to the second of our big summer concert events. We took a chance going to a new outdoor venue here in downtown Chicago called Charter One Pavillion at Northerly Island, since the weather can be iffy at best, but we ended up with the perfect evening. Beautiful, clear skies and mild, mid-seventies for temps made for the ideal open-air concert setting.

As the sun was going down behind the gorgeous city-scape, Styx took the stage at 7:30 to shouts and cheers from the predominently middle-aged crowd. I think the Hubby saw a side of me last night that he'd never known. I was so excited to see one of my all-time favorite bands, I hooted and hollered and danced and jumped up and down like a teenager! The band played brilliantly, but I suppose I'm biased. Even after thirty years of performing, Styx still has the energy and expertise that makes them a pure pleasure to see live. It's obvious Tommy Shaw and James Young still truly love to perform and enjoy each other's company, and are still at the top of their game musically. And we got a big bonus in that Chuck Panozzo, their original bassist, still lives here in Chicago, so he came out and joined the band for the last half of the show. It was a huge treat!

Styx played many favorites, including Blue Collar Man, Come Sail Away, Grand Illusion and Crystal Ball, which I'd never seen them play live before. When they were ready to say good night, I lamented they hadn't played Renegade. I needn't have worried, as they played it for their encore in a longer, highlighted version. It left the whole audience on their feet cheering and begging for more.

After an hour and half performance from Styx, and about a thirty minute stage re-set, Boston took the stage at about 9:30. I had never seen them play live when I was young, and I knew things would be different since their lead singer, Brad Delp, had tragically taken his life in the spring of '07, but my expectations were still very high. Musically the band was amazing! The wailing guitars sounded just like I had always loved, while the guest singers and guitarist were right on.

Michael Sweet, originally from the band Stryper, helped on vocals and lead guitar, and his energy and showmanship gave the whole performance a shot in the arm. He dedicated a beautifully touching song to the memory of Brad Delp and sang with such passion and feeling, I think the whole audience was hushed in reverence. On a much lighter note, I was amused by the fact that long-time band member Gary Pihl wore a Styx Grand Illusion Tour T-shirt on stage as a nod to their tour buddies.

But the biggest surprise was singer Tommy DeCarlo. His full story is here, but the nutshell version is that he was a long-time Boston fan who wrote and sang a song in memory of Brad last year, along with "Don't Look Back" on a mySpace page as a general tribute to the band. Eventually, word got back to band leader Tom Scholz of Tommy's uncanny ability to sing like Brad, and after hearing Tommy for himself, invited him to come and sing at a special tribute concert. He's been on the road with them since then and wowing audiences, including ours, across the county!

Boston played all my favorites, including Don't Look Back, More Than a Feeling, Satisfied, and Gonna Hitch a Ride, then played a rousing encore of Smokin' and Party, finishing on a major high at almost 11:15. We were giddy and footsore as we made our way out of the venue and Hubby ended up buying both a Boston and Styx concert T-shirt. We made our way to where the trolleys waited to take us back to the parking structure, and joined the a very satisfied bunch of concert-goers for the ride. Traffic getting out of there was a mess, and some of the riders started baaa-ing and moo-ing like farm animals, much to the amusement of our driver. She promptly turned up the music on board, and the whole trolley-load of us sang AC/DC's All Night Long all the way back to the garage. I'm sure we were the highlight of her entire evening!

In short, it was an awesome night on every level and I'm so glad I live in this city!

( You'll have to click to find out! )