Happy New Year!

New Years Eve 2008. What a difference a week makes--Check out yesterday's entry.

Wishing everybody a spectacular new year and a prosperous 2009!

Snow and no snow and the Story of Fingie.

Christmas Eve 2008---lots of snow--so much that we had a hard time placing the luminarias. Do we put them on the sidewalk, where they couldn't be seen from the street, or do we put them on top of the snow? Well, the sidewalk was the winner. On top of the snow, it was windy, so a lot of the candles blew out.

Fast forward to Dec. 30--not a flake to be seen, except what was left of the huge snow piles next to the driveway. The weather took a quick change for the warmer--almost 50 degrees one day.

Tomorrow it will change for the colder. What is described as an Alberta Clipper is predicted to blow in from Canada.

The story of Fingie.

Last spring, my husband wacked his finger doing something around the house--I don't remember exactly what. So, the poor finger was very sore for a while, and while it was recovering, it developed a name and a personality. When we were in NYC, Fingie was having his picture taken with dinosaur bones at a museum. Then he acquired a costume from a street vendor in Manhattan. After that, he was getting his picture taken all over the place. People always smile when they see Fingie in his costume.

Fingie--in his costume loved the attention he was getting and enjoyed having his picture taken in all sorts of interesting places. He was developing a very outgoing personality. Here is the costume--without Fingie-- in Milwaukee, WI.

Last Sunday was a big day for Fingie. He finally got a face.

How Fingie got his face is a story for another blog entry.

Even more shovelin' going on

It snowed all day yesterday--actually all day and most of Monday night. There wasn't much of a chance to clean it up since there was no break in it. Today, more snow that started with rain. In other words, a mess. There are huge banks at the end of the driveway where the snowplow went by, and at the end of the sidewalks. It was overwhelming. So, I hired the girls across the street. With 5 working on the shoveling--it was done much faster. What I am afraid of is the freeze that is coming today--that means glaze ice on everything. At least we can see the sidewalk cracks--easier to place the Christmas eve luminarias--which is our neighborhood wintertime project.
Have a wonderful Christmas!

Doin' a lot of shoveling around here

After several days of warnings, we had the promised snow storm. It started last night, after being set back several times, from noon, to 3pm, to 9 pm, and finally to around 11. So when we got up this morning, there was blowing snow and lots of snow piled up on the ground. By 8am, no plows had been by.
So, when I came back from the gym,, yes, I did drive there, and got back safely, I shoveled for another half an hour. That got us about 2/3 of our sidewalk clean. It is wet snow--as some describe it, good packing snow. As others describe it, heart attack snow. I guess it depends on your age.

Semester over

Today was the last day of my classes for the semester. I was very pleased by the performance of my students on the exit exams--most of them moved up to the next level of classes--and 3 passed out the their reading requirement altogether. So it was a sucessful semester of teaching for me. Now I have a few weeks off--I think I will start planning for next semester.

The Governor of Illinois is Arrested

One question that I was often asked by students when I taught the US Constitution was--Do you think that we will ever have a woman president? My answer was--yest, but we will have a Black president first. I was right on that prediction. But I also taught the Illinois Constitution. One comment I made was about the state of corruption in our state government. Now Illinois has a long history of corruption in state government. Going back to my childhood, the following governors have served time in prison--William Stratton, Otto Kerner (race tracks), Dan Walker (Walkin' Dan Walker), and George Ryan. In addition, Attorney General Scott served time in prison and Secretary of State Paul Powell (shoebox Paul Powell) died before anyone knew what he was up to. I would tell them about the past, but always mentioned that the state was much "cleaner" now. Most of these guys have a story that is very interesting--but I won't go into that today.
Boy was I wrong. Today, our present governor Rod Blagojevich--or Blago-- has been arrested on criminal charges of corruption--mainly trying to sell Barak Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder. He joins a long line of public servants who have been indicted and found guilty, but as far as I know, none of them of anything criminal.
I am just shaking my head. You would think that after George Ryan was convicted, and is now serving time in prison, that Blago would stay squeaky clean. He has been investigated for the past few years, and I assume that the District Attorney is building up a case. Just yesterday, he reiterated his position that he has done nothing--this was in answer to the news that his former chief of staff was wearing a wire. But so far, nothing. Until today. So, Illinois maintains its old reputation.
I don't think that Scott Turow, who writes about Chicago politics in his novels--and many of his characters are based on real people and events--could have thought of a better scenario than this one. Truth is always better than fiction.

Alma's dish

Alma went to the vet today. She has an ear infection and a blister in the other ear. The vet worked on her and she has a pink bandage and a huge satellite dish on her neck. She is crashing and bashing around the house, trying to get a sense of the space around her. She is in a very good mood for some reason.

Last night it snowed again and after the vet, we shoveled again. It was an easy shovel, but probably not the last one--more snow is predicted this week.

It's cold out there

Yes it is. So I am making some roasted vegetables--which are a new comfort food. Sweet potato, brussels sprouts, carrots and parsnips all roasted together with a few herbs and some olive oil. Delicious! Then I am making some holiday bark. I have all the ingredients except for the candy canes. I bought the chocolate since it was on sale--bittersweet, semisweet, white and milk. Yum!

It's Winter

Today we had a measurable snowstorm, so I got out the shovel and cleaned up the sidewalk instead of riding my air-dyne bike in the basement. It was an easy shovel, and hopefully one of the few times that I will have to shovel this winter.
My son was here for a short visit. He drove back to Little Rock yesterday, and missed the snowstorm.
The ground is white, the sky is gray. It's winter.