Angels!

This is what they look like. Yep. I'd like to thank whoever you were that prayed for my sanity and rescue after that last post. Shortly after, Leah called and said she and Marlin were coming back from work and were dreading going back home to be stuck again so would love to come by and gather us up and take us out. "Yes, YES "I said. Marlin even got his wonderful all-wheel-drive up our hill before I could walk down. Andy's angels pulled through too. Just as I was arranging this with Leah, one of his friends called and said he had his mom's good snow car out and was on his way to gather him up. So Andy headed off with his friend (and will spend the night) and I went with my friends. We headed to Bell Square. Oh the traffic was thick. The garage looked impossible. We were giving up and heading out when lo and behold, a spot opened up. May have been a result of a most useful prayer you all should learn if you don't use it already. Goes like this "Hail Mary, Full of Grace. Help us find a parking space. Amen." Works every time. We divided and conquered. I got a few more things for Andy and found the head mount flashlight I need for my upcoming trip. Then we headed to Redmond and had a most wonderful dinner at Typhoon. What a treat. Food cooked by someone else and fresh vegetables. Adult conversation. Thai beer. Ordered lots. I don't know how long it will be before I get out again so I wanted left-overs. Then, the grocery store. Surprisingly uncrowded. Though there were several shelves that were very low on inventory. But I was able to pick up vegetables, some good steaks for Christmas Eve dinner, flour and other things for baking, good red wine, some lottery tickets for stockings and best of all: a chocolate orange for Andy's stocking. This is something he always gets in his stocking and lo and behold there was one, just one mind you, left on the shelf. Waiting just for me.

It felt so good to get out. Inspired, I came home and began mucking out the house. Put all our glassworking away and reclaimed the dining room table. With my beautiful Poinsettia as centerpiece. I have a few more things to wrap now and baking to do tomorrow. All is good. Andy will now get two stockings. One will contain the fun things I've gathered up for him and of course the chocolate orange. The other will be his snowbound stocking, including the can of chili, bacon bandaids and the air-freshener tree for his car. I mean really, that will be something to remember and remind us how grateful we are to have angels in our life. Me, I feel like a new person. Amazing what going out in public and having a good dinner with friends can do. I'm good now for a few days. Now, to sleep in heavenly peace. Goodnight!

Bah Humbug!

How are we to keep our sanity in this period of isolation in the middle of the City? Andy is seriously getting a can of chili in his stocking. And a tropical air freshener palm tree to hang from his rear view mirror. That's about what I found at the Little Store. My house looks like a train wreck and I am eating non-stop totally out of boredom. Only problem is my grazing is getting more and more creative. Saw a terrible movie on Pay-per-view where Meg Ryan pulls a cube of butter out of the fridge and alternatingly dips it into cocoa and then a bowl of sugar and gnaws at it between crying jags. Pure inspiration, I tell you. I almost found myself doing the same a few hours later. My hill is slicker than snot and several inches thick of ice from what I can tell. I may not get my car out until I get back from Sudan. I am inviting my neighbors over for dinner tomorrow. I need something to make me clean my house up. Andy is worried I will be using up valuable food resources. I reminded him of the Donner Party and told him I am just checking out the future menu. The up side is I am using up lots of food that has been in my freezer for a while. The down side is I am using lots of food that has been in my freezer for a while. We had tacos last night on shredded shells. Did you know taco shells do not hold together after a year in the feezer? We pretended we were eating tostados. At least they were pretty.

Forgive me for going on so long. I haven't spoken with other women in a while. Satchmo and I are now having two way conversations but we're having a hard time relating to each other. Please fill me in on your McGiver cooking adventures. Or anything. Really.

(Later...Next Day)

Update...I'm changing my strategy. On an optimistic fit with reports from neighbors we decided to try to go into town. We hiked to the bottom of the hill. Dug a load of snow off the car. Kicked a path for the car through the slush and snow on the side of the road (note to Santa: I really, really, really want a shovel. That's all). Then I get in the car while Andy stands by the side to watch. Car just slides towards Andy. Then we rock back and forth. He yells at me when the wheels spin. He does not understand the art of slush driving. But then apparently, neither do I. I try another time but he is standing right where the car slid last time. I ask him to move so I don't run him over. He hold his glove up. I know there is a middle finger in there somewhere. He stomps off. I slide and give up. I am so frustrated. I am angry and sad and I do understand his grouchiness but really. The neighbors are not coming over for dinner. They got out and are dining out. They are not as desperate as we are for company. It's just as well. I've decided to eat my son. Put him out of his misery, take care of the food issue and get half the grouchiness out of the house. The other half belongs to me. I am going to bed. Bah humbug.

Stocking Stalking

I am thinking of Little House on the Prarie and how they made Christmas over what they had in the house. I am pretty concerned I will not get to the store before Christmas. Fortunately, Andy is the only one I am trying to make a special Christmas for. But still, the Santa in me wants to make it special. Well it will be special, but I'm afraid 'specially bad if he can't get out and to be with his friends pretty soon. He as adapted the "I am just going to sleep through my mysery" tact. I already gave him the I-tunes cards that were to go in his stocking to give him something fun to do. I purchased a few things for him to unwrap and those are under the tree. But the stocking...that's what I really love to do. And, what I really am not prepared to do without going to the store. I believe I will march down to the "Little Store" down the street and buy candy as filler. The little store is really not much more than a gas station store, without the gas station. But they are troopers. They were opened two years ago through the ten day power outage, handing folks flashlights and hand totaling the purchases. It is a trek from here, but on level floor and thank God we have at least that. I am guessing that by today they are getting a little slim on shelves, which just encourages us to be very creative in our cooking. But back to the stocking. I have a few very small things I had picked up but will have to create the rest from what we have. This may be the year he remembers as the one he got a can of Clam Chowder in his stocking. How about a bar of Dial soap? I have lots of girlie things...things I have picked up for friends or could regift. But I really think he'd be a little confused with that scented candle and nail polish. I might just give him a nice bottle of wine. He is not quite 21. Close enough to share a special glass with me every once in a while but not old enough to buy his own. I am guessing he would be quite jazzed to get his own gift bottle of wine, and it would fill up a lot of space in that stocking. But would it be sending the wrong message? Well, I am off to pull on the boots and mittens and all so that I can trek to the Little Store before the next snow front comes on, as has been promised. I will be sure to take pictures of what we come up with for the stocking.

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Isn't this a cute stocking? I think I may have to order it for Satchmo's Christmas next year from this site. Oh my, Satchmo's Christmas. I usually pick up a few new toys for him. I will have to get real creative on that. At least my neighbors picked up a bag of dog food for him the first day we were snowed in. "Just in case" we were stuck more than a day. Thank goodness!

Snowbound

Tomorrow, Monday, will be my fifth day snowbound. Judy says my snow karma is way too powerful. On Wednesday morning when I woke up I experienced one of those elementary school morning feelings when everyone prepares for a snow day and one doesn't come. I did get a day in at work and got important things done, but for the second night in a row I brought a trunk of work home...just in case. When I went to bed Wednesday night though the news was showing snow all around not a flake had floated down on our little cottage. And so I wished for snow. When the alarm went off at 5 AM I tentatively pulled back the shade, and yup, the snow karma came through. I got my snow day. I followed through on some of the work projects I could handle from home on the VPN. Snuggled in my bed, looking out at the snowglobe action outside my window, chipping away at work...just didn't feel like work. Friday more snow, Saturday more snow, and today, more snow. Our hill is pretty much impassable. Andy did park his car down below so when roads clear up along the lake we could get in and out when that clears. I won't be able to get my car down the hill for some time after I'm sure. It's always the last to clear and is quite icy. So we've been working on glass, eating out of boredom, catching up on reading and writing, etc. I had a long conference call with the Sudan team as we had to cancel our scheduled face-to-face meeting as nobody could travel. Andy's dad came in his mighty Subaru to take Andy out to finish his Christmas shopping and to pick up some groceries for us. Even with that little outing he got, he is otherwise going stir crazy. He and his friends are all stuck at home with their parents and unable to do all the fun things they had planned. Some of his friends are in even worse shape, stuck at airports across the country, unable to get into the airport. There are storms all across the country and even if they could get into Seattle they aren't able to get out of their home airports. We've been down the lake with the dog a few times. He loves the snow but gets cold pretty quick. Then we come back to the cozy cottage. The Christmas tree is lit and the swags swiggle around the staircase. It's cozy. But it's getting old!

Stay warm!

Cottage: Cheese!

When God puts you in a cottage like this, you just have to be a writer. I was just thinking the other day about this small painting I had chosen for us out of the things from Mark's grandparent's house. The painting spoke to me, though I couldn't hear the words back then. It was a painting of a quaint little rose covered cottage. I hung it in our master bathroom. I had a feeling the scene must have been from a place in Europe, England probably. Never dreaming such a place could be found in the northwest. Never dreaming I'd have one of my own some day. But now I do. It is my refuge. My muse. My gathering place. My peace. From my loft bedroom window at night I, with an air of rituality, look out over the lights reflected on the lake below and sigh. It is a sigh of contentment. I planted a climbing rose on the front this spring. Already it has shot thorny arms around the patio door. No blooms yet but this weekend I will snip and fertilize and by next summer I should be firmly planted in my rose covered cottage.