I’m Melting, melt…ing. Cuz I’m a Snowlady!

We have this tradition in our family to make our snow people a little more special.  It’ll all began about 5 years ago when Alfred couldn’t come home for Christmas.  And then, the next year, we made Mr. Trizzle.  A few years later, we tried to make Snow Nathy-Boo, but it was raining and he didn’t turn out too well, or last very long.  This year, Alfred and I tried to make a Snow Stevie for our Uncle Stevie, but the snow wasn’t the right type; we couldn’t do anything bigger than a snowball.

Usually, we make our snow people at Christmas, to be whoever’s missing.  However, Milwaukee recently had a good snow storm and Pretty Little Munchkinhead  had enough of the right type of snow to make a snow person.  And you know who she made?  Me!

I love it.  Look, I’m knitting!  And, she gave me fabulous hoop earrings, which I almost always wear.  (Snow Me’s earrings are pipe cleaners Munchkinhead found in the basement.)  She has blue eyes, like me, though mine aren’t made of poker chips.  And she even has my monstrous thighs.  I don’t usually wear my hair down, so Snow Me must be getting ready for an extra special occasion.  I suppose standing in the front yard is extra special.

She’s so fabulous!  Thanks, Munchkinhead!

A Doctor, an Engineer and a Vampire Walk into a Metallica Concert...

It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but it was a great night!
(And by "vampire" I mean Munchkinhead, not me!  I'm still just a law student.)

The History

Orgfish and I have been going to Metallica concerts together since we were sophomores in high school.  It seems each time we go, we add someone new.  So we assembled our usual group: Orgfish, me, Alfred, Munchkinhead and Dr. Beaker and added in The Great Ecclestone (and Foo Foo).  6 people, from 6 states, 1 city, 1 amazing band.

Metallica is probably the only show all three of us, my sisters and I, would agree to go see, except maybe for Sesame Street Live.  It's not that we don't have some other musical tastes in common, but those bands don't really tour anymore.  Metallica also has the unique characteristic of being highly loved by each of us.

The Show

The show opened with Call of Ktulu, which is actually one of my favs, and a lot of  special lighting effects.  I was quite relieved when the lazer light show ended and some spot lights came up on stage.  The lazer lights sort of pissed me off, especially when they brought them back at the beginning of Fight Fire with Fire.  The special effects were taking away from Kirk's guitar solo.  A band as good as Metallica does not need fancy light shows and pyrotechnics.

When the helicopter intro to One started in fairly early on in the set, Orgfish and I looked at each other in amazement.  At every concert we have attended, One has always been in the encore.  "What on earth were they going to play for the encore?"  Well, when the encore started, it was an even bigger surprise.  I had just turned to Munchkinhead and said, "they'll never play my favorite song (Loverman) at a concert," because it's off of Garage, Inc.  And right as I'm saying this, the band busts out with Die, Die My Darling!  And then they follow it up with Stone Cold Crazy!  I had always figured they'd never do cover songs at a concert.  Welp, I was wrong!  (For those of you that don't know, those songs are also off of Garage, Inc.   They are covers of The Misfits and Queen, respectively.)

The concert was part of the World Magnetic tour, the title coming from their newest release, Death Magnetic.  As appropriate, they played a lot of songs off the new album.  It was clear the audience wasn't really familiar with these new tracks yet, but it was also clear that we were all willing to get to know them.  This was a lot different than the last concert our big group went to together, where the new album was St. Anger.  I don't recall them playing too many songs off that album at the Summer Sanitarium show, but I do remember Orgfish and I both agreed the songs sounded much better live than on the album.  (For that concert Dr. Beaker, Alfred, a very young Munchkinhead and I loaded into the teen mobile and drove to Ohio where we met Orgfish and her friends Happy, PH and Not-Death (I don't remember his name, but I know it wasn't Death.  My favorite part of the trip was Munchkinhead walking around going "plan-e-tarium" to try to get us to go to the planetarium.)

The Snow

It started snowing during the show, and for some reason the parking garage was closed unless you had a special pass so everyone was parked in lots outside.  Our big group quickly set to work with ice scraper, drivers license, gloves and whatever else we could find to clean off Mommy's mini-van.  It didn't take long, but it take long to get out of the lot.  (Longer than it took to drive home.)  We were about to go lend our ice scraping assistance to another driver who was scraping his car with what Alfred thought was a Twister box.  (It turned out to be a pizza box; a little more reasonable to have in your back seat.)  But, someone with an ice scraper appeared out of nowhere.  Alfred did help clear off the windshield of the guys next to us, since there were only two of them and so many of us.

(I just had to include this pic even though Alfred's not in it.  You can see FooFoo's shirt, and there's something particularly eerie about Orgfish's eye peering over my shoulder, not to mention The Great Ecclestone's theatrical smile.)

It was a wonderful night with wonderful people and wonderful music.   The performance was great, the frozen custard delicious (you know we went to Leon's first!) and the company great fun.  I can't wait for the next tour!

SPECIAL! SPECIAL!

Announced today, Metallica will be inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame!  The day before my birthday! [(Anybody want to get me a really nice birthday present? ;)  ]
Photo credits: Dr. Beaker

Our Snowman

What do you do when someone can't make it to Christmas Eve? Why, build them out of snow, of course!

Last year, it was Wendy.

This year, a good friend of mine wanted to come, but he had to work. (He also has like 8 families in Cali that he has to divide the holidays with, but I'll blame it on work and pretend he would be here if it weren't for that, because then I feel more special.)

Here I am, making the base. It took two of us to role it into place by the end.

Alfred, Munchkinhead and Nathy-Boo starting to sculpt. It took all four of us to get the middle up there and the two tallest of us to put the head on.

Alfred working on the laptop bag.

Munchkinhead sculpting the arm.

TaDa! Nathy-Boo and the finished Snow-Trizzle.

Looking up at hand and bling. :)

The sculptors and our creation.

The original Mr. Trizzle.

I Love Wisconsin!

Ok, ok, I've been home nearly a week and I haven't updated.  I've been getting complaints.  I've been busy!  Wisconsin is so wonderful, and my whole family's home :D

Here's a little glimpse at some of the wonderfulness that is home:

Friday we had a BIG snowstorm.  Isn't it beautiful?

The drifts were really high in some places.  (I'm standing and not bending my knees.)

Katrina and I got to play in the snow and help Daddy shovel. 

  There's supposed to be another storm tomorrow and on Wednesday and on Friday and on Saturday.  Yay!  I hope we finally get packing snow; Katrina and I want to build a snowman.

'Tis the Season to be Jolly

I saw my first Christmas lights of the season this past week at work.  There are several banks located inside the Federal Secretariat, and one of them had hung garland and lights outside its door and window.  It nearly made me cry.  It really is Christmas time!  Another bank had put a Christmas tree in front of its door, complete with ornaments and lights.  It was very pretty.

I really do love Christmas time, even though Christmas is only my fifth favorite holiday.  There are so many Christmas things to do at home that I can hardly wait to get there.  I have to attempt to hide the sandwich cookies that Mommy better make, so that no one else can eat them.  I said attempt, because it will not work.  Mommy will catch me and make me put them back.  But, I have to try, all the same.

Katrina and I are already conspiring about where to hide the plastic Abominable Snowman, and Wendy's already trying to guess where it'll be so she can get it and put it back where it belongs.  (Where does it belong?)

The plastic canvas snowman and snowlady have to take the plastic canvas choo choo from their plastic canvas gingerbread house to the stable to see baby Jesus.

A few various Santa Clauses, elves, and little musicians need to form a train behind the three wise-men, on their way to visit baby Jesus.

We have to turn on all of Mommy's sound and motion activated fiber optic toys, dancing reindeer and singing what-nots at the same time and then wait for Daddy to enter the room.

I'll hang my pretty silver ballerina ornament on the tree by a blue light.  (Or move it, if Mommy already has the tree decorated before I get home.)

Katrina and I must whine about how the Christmas tree is fake and it's no fun that the tree doesn't rain.  Hopefully Mommy will have that Christmas-tree scented room spray again, so it'll at least smell like Christmas.

Wendy, Katrina and Nathan and I have to build a snowman, if there's snow.  It won't have to look like Wendy this year, because she'll be home!  We also need to go to the Museum and see the Streets of Old Milwaukee and the European Village all decorated for Christmas.  I love the upside-down Christmas tree in the Polish house!

I have to drink off-white egg nog and eat red cake.  And make my Christmas dress!  (Unless I decide to wear my new natives; they're green.)

We have to spend the whole day, every day, listening to wonderful Christmas music!  "And a beer... in a tree."  Mommy has to watch White Christmas with us.

Daddy Bunny will help me open my presents on Christmas morning.

But most important of all, we get to spend time together, the whole family.  The big, big group on Christmas Eve, and the little group on Christmas Day (and the surrounding weekends).  I love Christmas; I love spending time with my family.

It's NOT a Blizzard

So there's about 3 inches of snow on the ground outside. It's beautiful, heavy, packing snow, a little bit of wind and just below freezing. i.e. perfect night for walking in the snow, having a snowball fight, or skiing. However, in this instance, I suggest staying inside. Why? Because it's Nashville, and outdoors is just not safe.

I left home about a half hour ago to go pick up a friend from the airport. The whole feeling of winter felt wonderful as I scraped off my car. The fresh flakes, the smell of the air, the slight chill on my nose, the rumble of the car heating up. I was excited to be out in the snow. I pulled out of the parking lot, down my side street and out onto the main road. Within a few blocks, trouble. I got stuck behind a driver from Missouri who decided to somehow turn a 3-lane road with parked cars into a one-lane road, with a 10mph speed limit!

I got as far as the law school. That alone took 15 minutes. I can walk there in 20. I decided to go on just a little further. One driver apparently just gave up, the car was sitting in the traffic lane with its flashers on. Up ahead, I watched another car fish-tailing for half a block. Yes, cars will fish-tail in the snow, but you do it once and recover. The car should not look like it's swimming. After seeing that, and looking down the hill at the quasi-lanes of very slow moving cars, I turned around.

The back streets were so much better. I got back home in about 5 minutes. The time it should take to drive that distance. When I had to get back on the main street, I grabbed the right line, and drove. Unlike the cars in the middle/sort of right/sort of left lane that felt like reincarnating infants and crawling to their destinations.

Maybe everyone should have to go to Wisconsin, or better yet Minnesota or Fargo, for lessons before they can get a driver's license. And since it does snow here a few times a year, maybe Nashville should look into getting some plows!

And my friend, don't worry, he's fine taking a taxi.

(Original Post)

Hell, or right next door to it

Aggravated

Heater and fridge

Gotta Get Broom Off Roof

an event that could only happen here!

One time when we were little; ok, not so little; ok it was Yesterday!
Wendy and I decided Nathan couldn't come all the way to Wisconsin and not play roof volleyball. However, it was the middle of a long period of lake effect snow which had accumulated quite a bit, including on the roof. The cold temperatures also contributed to our problems by making the balls a bit flat, but we decided to try anyway.

First serve that makes it on the roof, goes right over the side - great, we can play!
Second serve on roof, oops! ball stuck. So we get out the broom with the nice telescoping handle and manage to get it on the roof so that the broom is behind the ball and the handle is hanging off the end of the roof. Luckily, Nathan has a nice vertical jump and is able to grab the handle, bringing broom and ball off roof.

Third serve on roof, (yes, there was a third, but not a fourth) ball got stuck higher up. So we tried our first method. Well, the broom got on the roof again, but this time so did the handle!
Problem, it's winter, it's snowing, there's too much snow on the ground to put a ladder there, not to mention the ladder's put away. Time for drastic measures (that's Daddy's brand new telescoping handle on the roof!) gotta get broom off roof.

Now, once upon a time we used to crawl out my bathroom window to go on the roof. So I went up to the bathroom to discover, since then, the window's been replaced, it's now about 6" narrower and quite a bit smaller than before - it was already a tight squeeze back then. So I went window hunting. Wendy had a new window too, bigger though so promising. The screen doesn't come off... next stop, Katrina's room. One look at the windows, uh nope. Back to square one. Okay, If I wiggle enough, I might fit through, gotta get broom off roof.

I took down the curtain rod, took off the screen and opened the window only to discover that when the pane is cranked open, it moves towards the middle, making the window even smaller, great :\ gotta get broom off roof.

I cranked the window back a bit so it wasn't open all the way but then wasn't in the middle of the space either. Somehow, in my big poofy jacket, I stepped from the counter top, through the window, onto the roof. Then it was time to grab hold of the house as tight as possible, one broken leg = no Africa. I quickly gave up on walking and sat down, slowly pushing myself towards the front. (My bathroom window is towards the back of the house on the side, the broom was on the front of the other side.) gotta get broom off roof.

I got to the front and crawled, on my hands and knees as close to the house as I could, until I got to the spot above the broom and ball. Then I went back to sitting and scooted to the objects, scooped them up and launched them off the roof down to Nathan and Wendy. Then I had to begin the trip back. Crawled back to the window and then, the most dangerous part, jumping from the roof into the bathroom, onto the smooth floor, shoes covered in snow. Just as I feared, sliiiip sliiide into toilet, ow! But I am ok! And the broom is off the roof! And I had an adventure!

(Original Post)

Accomplished