Weekend Report I

Well, we got the brief done in time yesterday, but the interrogatories that had been due a week ago are yet to be completed. It was an exhausting day, and Tom and I went out for our monthly Friday fish fry, then came home and did nothing. I am reading a book about fads from 1890 to 1990, so that helped put me to sleep.

I woke up to sunshine and Tom working away on his train in the basement -- the train set-up is under my bedroom. He thought he was being quiet, and it didn't wake me up. But I can hear his shoosh-shoshing away down there. The set-up is looking very good. He is making a model of the dells along the Wisconsin River. [See picture above.]

I decided to treat myself to a slice of bacon with my fake eggs this morning, which set off the smoke alarm. (No, I didn't burn anything.) Which set off the cats, of course. They eventually decided to come back in out of the cold, but Sundance is still eyeing me suspiciously.

The plan today is to make Christmas candy to take to various neighbors. Last year Tom did cookies, but he has other trains to fry this year. So I am making various fudge and other candy-like concoctions. If he ever comes up from the basement, we will go over to Wal-Mart for the makings.

Tomorrow we do our volunteer schtick at the Santa Train. I think he is on the security detail -- trying to kep the kids off the tracks -- and I am going to be dishing up something in the food tents.

PS -- It is four degrees out at 10:00 a.m., Kristin, if you are still jealous. You are welcome to this weather. At least it is not windy, though, so it is four and it feels like four.

I know, I know ...

... if it's not critters, it's the weather. What can I say? Life in Wisconsin is soooo exciting.

I live at the tiny red dot on the map below the e in LaCrosse.

So instead of the three to five inches of snow, Tom says we got about seven inches Tuesday night. He should know -- he's the one who does the shoveling and snow blowering. Joe and Evelyn were two hours late getting into the office because of having to dig themselves (and the farm) out and then driving on treacherous icy roads to get to Baraboo. I wasn't able to park in our parking lot because, although the guy who shovels it had done a great job clearing our spaces, the snow plow came along and piled up a barrier of snow two feet high that the Vibe could not climb over. Fortunately there is free on-street parking a block away.

When I woke up this morning, instead of it being the predicted zero degrees, it was nine -- BELOW! Of course, it warmed up to a toasty 19 by lunch time.

And it is snowing again tonight. This time they predict only an inch or two -- so who knows? We have two major pleadings (fancy legalese term for a document that has to be filed with the courts) due tomorrow (both of them are past due, to be honest), so we had better not be snowed out of the office again. Every day this week I have gone into work prepared to work late to finish these two papers up, but I can't type what the boss hasn't written. So once again, here we are at the last minute, a thing that does not seem to cause my boss any loss of sleep but that drives me nuts. I do hope it is over tomorrow, even though it is probably going to be a hectic day.

I shouldn't complain -- I am picking up some extra hours, which is nice this time of year, and eight hours of word processing is eight hours of word processing, whether the paper is due that day or a month later. If you think that will stop me from complaining, however...

FYI

Supposed to hit zero tonight.

Degrees, that is.

Fahrenheit.

Just thought you'd want to know.

One of Eight

Okay, so much for the reliable weather forecast. It started snowing this afternoon about the time I got back to the office from lunch. Right now they are saying three to five inches. The snow is supposed to end, but we will have a high no better than 20 tomorrow. Hope the driving isn't too bad. We are behind -- not a rare thing, unfortunately -- and I expect to have to work late again tomorrow.

I did see a big cardinal at the bird feeder late this afternoon. I know cardinals are not exactly exotic birds, but we don't see a lot of them at our feeder. Not sure why.

Oh, with sundown -- Happy Hanukkah!