WNBP: (ab)Normal Week

Hey!  Guess what?  There have been no storms this week!  Not one.  Just that nasty bit of flurries that kind of went on longer than we thought it would earlier in the week.  But that didn't amount to anything once the morning commute 'o terror was over and we actually had some melting later on.  Why it's been practically like living in the tropics here!

Well...except for the mile high snowbanks and whatnot.  And the sudden drop in temperature that has left us all shivering but who's complaining?

The downside of all this nice, non-stormy weather has been our total lack of work-sense.  Teachers and students alike are reeling from the expectation that we should come in to school for five straight days.  That seems like utter nonsense after a month of weather-induced short weeks.

I think that, given my current state of exhaustion, a Wednesday Night Bullet Post is a very good thing indeed.  Here's your weekly bout of random rambling!


*I'm acting all put-upon and downtrodden, but the truth of the matter is that I have a doctor's appointment on Friday and won't be going to work.


*I've had this one on the books for three months and I swear to you that I didn't plan it to coincide with my current inability to work for five consecutive days...


*I live kind of far from school and the trip back and forth makes it rather inefficient to take a partial day off.


*Plus I have a stupid amount of sick time racked up at this point.  Might as well use it.


*Did I ever mention to you how I made cranberry juice?


*Back in November, local cranberries were plentiful and on sale due to the holidays so I grabbed a bag every time the price was right.


*Then I made juice using a canning recipe from Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving.


*What?  You thought I'd get over the whole canning thing once the summer was over?


*Puh-leeeze!  I'm nothing if not a die hard when it comes to my obsessions.


*Had some juice when I got home today.  Worth all the effort.


*Not exactly economical, but what are you gonna do?  Sometimes the novelty of it all is where you find the value.


*Plus I know what's in it...


*I feel badly about not having a photo of my first ever toe-up socks for you.


*But I wore them a lot after I finished them.  They really, really had to be washed.


*I underestimated the cuff a bit.  They are kind of tight.


*I just smunch them down a little and all is well.  The fit through the foot is surprisingly good.


*High instep.  Who know I'd like a short row heel?


*Second pair is on the needles as we speak, but please know that I am so totally done with picking up wraps.  That is over.


*Am now experimenting with new and exciting ways of shortening rows.


*Ones that involve less in the way of cussing.


*I'll try to get some pictures for you but remember that I almost work full time now and don't have the spare minutes I used to have back in the day.


*Just got an email.  It's from the nice people at the Very Expensive Cat Food Place.


*They've shipped out a case of VECF for the Very Complicated Kitty.


*Good thing I work full time now...


*Although I have to admit, having cat food delivered kind of rocks the house.


*It's like we're rich aristocrats or something.


*They'd also ship his Anti-Stressed-Out-Feline medicine, but that is way cheaper to get at the pharmacy.


*VECFP doesn't offer a rewards program for discount prescriptions...


*I went to the school library last week because I wanted to read Leviathan.


*Actually had an overwhelming, all-consuming need to read it.


*They didn't have it.  Just Behemoth (Leviathan).  That's the sequel.


*Had to download it to my ereader.  Which was OK because I knew I could get the sequel on Monday.


*Except for the fact that it was so unbelievably, amazingly awesome that I finished it in a day and a half.


*And couldn't wait to get the next one.


*Alternate version of how WW1 might have played out.


*If there were wicked cool walking machines and living airships.


*Oh, and an honest-to-goodness heir left in Austria/Hungary.


*I refrained from emailing the school librarian on Sunday with a directive to order the first book.


*Waited until Monday to do it in person.


*My Favorite School Librarian can't read every book in the library.  When she gets book lists and recommendations, she orders based on what information she has.


*She praises me when I give her suggestions or let her know that series are incomplete.


*I practically preen under the approving glow of any librarian.  It's sort of embarrassing.


*BTW, she told me today that Brian Jacques had passed away.  Hadn't heard that.


*This is a loss to young readers everywhere.


*He wrote the Redwall series.  (Redwall (Redwall, Book 1)


*I have seen more kids turned on to reading through his books than I can count.


*Sad.  Truly sad.  But what a legacy...



I am feeling like that's a good place to end this.  I'm going to head off to read a bit more and great ready for the fourth day of the five day week.  I need time to adjust to normalcy.  And get ready for a Friday off because I'm really just dipping my toe in at this point.

Don't want to overdo it...

SA