Happy Holidays!

As the holidays come upon us, some of us will travel . . . some will host families. If you are an adult, there will undoubtedly be STRESS . . . isn't that part of the holiday season if you are not a kid?? When you are stressed, heed the advice of this car owner I saw in traffic one day:

Confession

In case you didn't know, I was supposed to fly to Portland when a many, many little white things started falling - over 20 inches worth. Flights were cancelled the day before leaving me to fight with other stranded passengers over a limited amount of customer service people to reschedule and salvage mine and my family's holiday.

Now, the confession, when I first saw this MSNBC article about various "fantasy flights" to the North Pole, my first thought without reading it was

WHAT??? The airlines, airports, FAA, etc, don't have the resources to get stranded travellers (like me) to their families earlier, but they have time to run these "fantasy flights"??? What's the deal???

Then I read the article and felt like a jerk. These fantasy flights that "originate" in various cities are for seriously ill and disadvantaged children. The flights are a "40-minute flight to the North Pole". It is meant to bring bring some holiday cheer to those that might have little to be cheerful.

I have plenty to be cheerful about - even if I didn't get to have Christmas Dinner with Squirrel or my family out west this holiday season. These passengers to the North Pole probably got a lot more out their fantasy trip than I will when I see my family and Squirrel a little later than I hoped.

Moral of the story: Don't get caught up in the stress and setbacks that may occur during the holidays. Everyone deserves something to smile about. Everyone in the travel industry is trying their best to make the holidays as good not only for them, but to you as well. That's one reason why I make it a point to ask how they are doing with a smile before asking for help with my latest minimal drama.

Maddie Update

Maddie's been up to a few things since last I wrote about her.

Playing with socks,
or sleeping in a box.
swatting her paws through a tree,
or paws on snow freezing.
Cruisin' the food.
or staring at some potential food,
She is hiding and ready to pounce for every ounce.

WRAP: Snow Storm - 12/09

The sun came out and after a couple hours of digging, got my car out and helped 4 other neighbors with their cars. I've done my good deed today. This link has the preliminary snowfall totals for the area. Here are the remaining pics:
The round object on the right sitting on a bar is a bird that hid from the storm in our patio.


Note how deep the snow is by the windshield wiper blades I left up before the snow fell.

STUCK!

That's what I am! Yesterday, all the flights I tried to get on to go see Squirrel and the fam were all cancelled. I've rescheduled to see them next week. Fortunately, I get to be a part of Winter Wallop (according to the Weather Channel). Here are some pics I took earlier:





See the little yellow sliver on top of the car? That is the tip of a 12-inch ruler I stuck in the snow for a simple measurement. It said 11 inches at that point!!

Keep in mind

• The time stamp is on Daylight Savings time - it was an hour earlier that I took the pics, and


• It is still snowing heavily at 16:00 hours (according to the camera). I've heard 2 Baltimore TV stations say they believe we're going to get over 20 inches.

More later!

Bag Charges

I saw a sign when I went to get my breakfast sandwich
Curious, I decided to stop and read. I'm glad I did. I found out that effective January 1, 2010, businesses that sell food and alchohol must charge $0.05 per disposable bag (plastic or paper). I've heard proposals like this in Annapolis, to save the environment as well, but the proposals don't go anywhere. It will be interesting to see how this works.

I Haven't Fallen Off The Planet!

I've been quite busy lately. So busy that I've had to priortize things and this blog was dropped in the priority ladder compared with things such as work, talk with Squirrel, contribute to another blog that Squirrel and I keep for ourselves, bills, etc. I'll try to do better in the near future. I have many pics to post and show you what's been going on.

I Know I Watched It, You Might Have, Too!

I heard a story about the 10 most watched episodes this century. The first - the Friends finale, duh! Yes, I watched #2 - the finale of the first Survivor. Lastly, yes I watched #3 - the Joe Millionnaire finale. From the article, about 40 million others watched as well!!! Remember Joe Millionnaire? Average Joe Construction Worker moonlights as a millionniare and then he has to confess to the winner his real job to see if she stays with him. She initially stayed with him, but they broke up shortly there after. If my memory is correct, didn't the runner up cash in her 15-minutes of fame via a Playboy pictorial?

How Bad Is It?

After a 30-0 drubbing by the Huskies, the 1-11 season record, and the 0-9 conference record, it is apparent things are not good at all with WSU football. It appeared that they were more competitive in some games. There were still many games that the 'Cougs did not look like they belonged in the same conference as their opponent.

A recent post by ESPN blogger Ted Miller shines a whole new light (or lack thereof) about the Cougars' Season. WARNING - It is quite depressing to Cougar fans.

Ted Miller's Article where WSU Football Stands After This Season

Well, there's no where to go but up - but that's what Cougar faithful said last year. At least basketball season is here.

Stark Differences Between State Schools

During my breakfast reads online, I read this musing from ESPN's Ted Miller about how different Oregon and Oregon State are adding to the hype of Thursday Night's Civil War game.

While I agree with the differences that Ted points out, in my mind there is no apparent of difference between in-state schools of the same conference than Washington and Washington State. While many of the differences between Oregon and Oregon State apply to the Washington schools, there's no bigger difference than the towns the main campus resides in: Seattle vs Pullman - do you know where Pullman is?. The overall impression is that Washington is the far better school and tougher to get into than WSU. Some UW alumni and fans have told me WSU is referred to as the "Cow College" of Washington.

Being a native Oregonian, I will watch this monumental Civil War Thursday night {and probably be late into work on Friday as a result}. Proud that Oregon is the center of the Pac-10 Football Universe and also rooting for Oregon's "Cow College", OSU.

Go Beavs!