Hockey Hubub...

So I played in my second ever ice hockey game on Saturday night, and amazingly enough, we won again! Yay! (3 to 2) This, again, was in no way due to anything I did. As a matter of fact, I was down right horrible. I was confused the entire time, offsides two or three times, and even managed to get so turned around, I cheered for the opposing team when they scored on us. (Shhhh, don't tell anyone, I'm not sure any body actually noticed...) In short, I am no asset to my team. Yet.

But it seems something funky happened after the game, and the veterans decided that the rookies were getting gypped out of playing time... They seem to feel that it wasn't okay that we sat out the last half of the third period. Hmmm... Well this is really nice and all, I appreciate them looking out for us. But, REALLY gals.

I have to say that I am much happier going home knowing I didn't cause our team to lose, than I would be with an extra five minutes of playing time. Please, please, PLEASE don't make me play when we are tied with 2 minutes to go! Right now, that is NOT something that is fun to me. That is me out there with my gut wrenching inadequacy. Face to face. On our own. Eeeeeek! And there I go, running screaming into the night!

And yet, oddly enough, I can't get the John Fogerty song "Centerfield" out of my head. Ha ha ha ha heh.

I had some good quality snuggle time with these delicious babies yesterday. (My dad's wife's daughters' sons, if you can follow that!)



But it is SO sad to realize that by moving away I won't get to see them grow up! It is amazing to think of the changes they've already gone through, from cute little immobile spuds, to crawling, giggling, interactive creatures that love to give eskimo kisses! Urgh! Trample all over my pink and pulpy heart in fuzzy footie pajamas!

Don't Let the Doorknob Hit 'Cha...

I went to school today to finish cleaning out my desk and to make sure I'd gotten everything off of my computer. This part of the moving process is always a bit melancholy. It is sort of sad to throw away the detritus of two years of intellectual activity (and all of the photocopies that you messed up that you were trying to use as scrap paper...) Then you have to say good bye to the nice people in your office that you pretty much know you will never see again, since they live in Poland and Pakistan. But the "here's your hat, what's your hurry" that made it a bit more depressing is that someone had already told someone else to go ahead and take my flat screen monitor. The poor new guy looked so shocked and defensive when I came begging for my screen back, just for a few hours. Please. I'll put it back when I'm done. So that is how my GMU career fizzled to an end, with me crawling around under desks with my trousers falling down and my plumber's butt showing.

But on the up side, one of the very nice office mates did give me a lovely little gift of Pakistani candy dish.



Lovely, but still melancholy...

First there was a trickle...

And then... GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY!

It was this. And this. And this. Sort of.

Well maybe not, but we did have major meltage. One minute I was trying to chip the ice out of the shut off valve, and the next I had about a hundred gallons per minute gushing into my lap! Yay! We then had a bit of a flow control problem and sort of flooded the neighbor's patio, but with a little creative sweeping, and some of that ice melty salt stuff everything worked out just fine.

So despite the fact that the temperature was never above 40 degrees F today, the cisterns are once again lean-mean-water-accepting machines. There could be some great hulking chunks of ice still lurking around in there, but the emergency has passed. Thanks for all of your support and concern! Yay for the melting!

HWB Mania!

Had I known that these, these, and these existed, I may have taken a few more minutes to consider my purchase...

Uh oh. I think I just made Rita angry. Sorry baby. It'll never happen again. Forgive my wandering eye.

And I call her Rita...

This is the new hero of my world!



Thanks to her bright cheery redness, textured surface, 1.89 liter capacity (and the high specific heat of the water she holds) Rita has allowed me to OPEN THE VALVES on the cisterns! Yay! We are ready to LET THE MELTING BEGIN! Now if only the ambient air temperature would rise above freezing, we'd be in business.

I have to add that I am finding Rita to be quite good company as well. In the car on the way home after melting out the valves I had her nestled in my lap (don't read too much into this, okay?) and I was warm as toast. And since my back is feeling creaky due to playing in my FIRST EVER ICE HOCKEY GAME last night (subtle segue) Rita is proving just how indispensable she really is. Match made in heaven, really. Or Target actually. Same diff.

So back to that hockey reference. We won! Yay!

No Explosive Cracks. Yet.

We went to check on the 900 gallon ice cube this morning. So far
things are intact... Definitely can't budge the valve though and there
may be rain on the way. I'm a-thinkin' that I'm going to have to get
on top and disconnect the roof drain, or I'll have an even larger ice
cube come Tuesday. Who knew this would be so much fun!?

Oh no, oh no, oh no!

My 900 gallon cistern for my graduate project has frozen into a 900 gallon ice cube! I can't open the release valve, its frozen solid. Not that anything would flow out said valve at this point. I guess there will be no more experimentation until there is a SERIOUS thaw. That is, unless something cracks due to the expansion of the ice... In which case there may not be any more experimentation at all. Fabulous.

Enough Fluff?

I realize that so far this blog has not been packed with political punditry,
or pretty much anything other than sports and sparklies...
But today I would like to make my first foray into the slightly meaningful.

This is a picture of me giving a power point presentation to my cousin's third grade class.



This is the ensuing chaos...



This is an inner-city Baltimore, faith-based community school called New Song Academy. My cousin has been working there for two or three years now, and I am so impressed. She is part of the solution, taking this grass roots idea and making it work in the real world. Last week she asked if we wanted to come in and meet her kids and talk about things we like to do. Being the geek that I am, I made a slide presentation about our upcoming move to Yosemite. GEEK!

I haven't figured out what to think about this experience, other than these kids are great, and sweet, and attention starved. They all wanted to click the button to change to the next slide (hence the chaos). After that was done they wanted to lay in our laps and play with our hair and tell us about their families. On the purely selfish note (of a parent who has lost a child) it was immensely satisfying to have this many kids to hug. On the other hand, it is crazy. What do you say when a kid who is snuggling in your lap looks up at you and says "My daddy's in jail."? I guess you just keep rubbing their back and holding their hand.

All I can say is "Yay Miss Kathleen!"

Crazy Fun Filled Week!

Okay, so I haven't written this week because I've been having too much fun with my buddy Skoogie from CA.
Here is a quick recap of our week in picture form...

lots of walking


monuments


memorials


napperiffic 3D Imax movie (think after-school special, on a REALLY big screen...)


art


biking (note the sexy pegged leg pants!)


ice skating


unicycling in the house


goofy folk dancing


my cousin's in Baltimore


my husband sleeping on the stairway to heaven...



BTW, I don't have a camera, so that's why there are so many darn pictures of ME!

Just Because He's so Darned Handsome

Don't You all Rush in and Take Our Spaces!

Okay, so that trip to New Zealand that I mentioned...
The one that we've decided to take in less than an month...
We've NOW decided to occupy ourselves with this guided tour thingy while we're there!

It's a lot of moolah, but as my husband was saying
"We have a ton of planning to do before we leave, what with the moving 3,000 miles, changing jobs, keeping trackof pets, possibly not having a place to live when we get there and all, it might be nice to have someone else figuring out all of the details for us."

He's so smart. and cute too.

Oh wait. Here we go! Duh!



Yay!!

P.S. Oooooh. Sparkly.

Hmmm...

Haven't quite gotten it to post yet...

Artsy Fartsy

Alrighty then. I'm trying to post a picture now...
(Little did I know that you have to set up a whole other blog in order to do this!)



Ooooooh. Sparkly.

Sleeping Would be Fun Too

Due to said ampedness the night's rest, well, wasn't.

Sports R Fun

I tried to post this last night around midnight...
I just got home from my 5th ever ice hockey practice. It was sorta
rough after the long holiday break, but then all of a sudden, we were
playing hockey, and things were making sense and it was fun! Then I
came home and I was all amped and aggressy. Wheee!

Ew.

What is up with that weird line spacing thing?

Times, They are a Changin'

So if changing jobs and moving 3,000 miles isn't enough excitement for
you, we've now added a new twist. I am about to buy two plane tickets
for New Zealand! Three weeks of crazy, outdoorsey New Zealandy fun! I
am one lucky kid!

Oh. My. Heavens.

That hubby, the one I mentioned before, just found out that he got the
job in Yosemite. The YOSEMITE. The cool one with the soaring cliffs
and cascading waterfalls. Eeeek!

My Hubby Rocks!

My sweet wonderful computer-geeky husband gave me a ready made blog for
Christmas! I laughed, I cried, I wet my pants a tiny bit...