You Were Caught In The Crossfire

It. Is. Fucking. COLD.

ForecastFox is telling me that it's 12 degrees outside. DAMN. It's the coldest day of a young 2008 so far, and if you ask my muscles (which are still tense from being out there and shivering so damned much), it's easily the coldest day of the winter as a whole. Granted, officially, winter is only about three weeks old, but this frigid-ass weather has been going on for long enough. Mother Nature needs to get her shit together.

This morning, though, she managed to give me a sign that she's still got some tricks up her green sleeves. I had to go to Weis on a mission to buy some milk for The Bear, and after I'd finished my lengthy trip around the store, I checked out and headed for the doors to trek back out into what can only be described as shirtsleeve weather in Anchorage. But when I walked out the door, I noticed that it was snowing.

It wasn't the big, fat, wet-ass snow we've been used to seeing lately. It was more like the fine, powdery snow that skiers like myself love to see, with a twist: If any of you watched the ball drop Monday night, you saw confetti out the yin-yang floating freely above Times Square. Well, the snow was coming down like that, and reflected in the sliver of sunlight shining down on the market's parking lot, was transformed into a transleucent crystal blanket of diamonds, slowly floating towards the pavement below.

For a second, I forgot how cold it was, but then I was quickly reminded that I'd become a dudecicle if I stood there like a gawking oaf for much longer, so I shook the sparkles from my eyes and made my way to the Explorer. But, for that little moment, I was reminded that Mother Nature can still look good at times, even when she's PMSing.

Might be time to dust off the ol' skis and head over to Tussey Mountain for a trip down the hills. Just another reason they call it Happy Valley...

Ice Capades

I'm about to bundle up and head out into yet another ice storm. Why am I doing this? Well, it sure as hell ain't because I like to wander about town in ice storms, that's for sure.

So far, the fire whistle has gone off four times in the last two hours, with apparatus flying up and down the streets. That should pretty much tell you that there's no way I'm driving, even just the four blocks down to the convenience store. Not worth it. I'd probably get so frustrated going that slow, I'd do something stupid anyway.

So, off we go, then. Wonder if Admiral Perry felt this way as he headed north...

Quiet Passing

Well, I would have blogged about my birthday party yesterday, and I would have posted the video to YouTube, but Verizon made my decisions for me. For once, they decided that they were going to live up to their reputation and have a rather long outage. Thankfully, we have plenty to entertain ourselves without the Internet, but it does limit communications to local phone calls, which can be quite the pain in the ass.

At any rate, my birthday party was teh hawsome! Fred, Andy, Mikey, Angel, Dee, Matt, Scuba Steve, Joe and Justin were all that made it, but that's all I needed, really. We took over Karaoke for a bit after witnessing the Steelers trounce the crap out of the Baltimore Ravens in the first half of Monday Night's game, and then retired up to the office to watch the karaoke vids before we all left for the night. Quiet, fun, I couldn't ask for much of anything more. Once Windows decides that it likes the codecs needed to play and edit the vids (something GOMPlayer does enough to play on it's own, MUCH better than Media Player), I'll post the clips on YouTube for all 10 of you to enjoy.

Hey, 10! Up from 3! Rock on! LOL And thanks to my de facto twin sister Laura for actually posting a comment!

And yes, let it be known: I love Angel to death! I was right: She got me Happiest Days, and it is awesome! I'm still prepping my review of Just a Geek, but I couldn't resist the urge to crack open the new dead tree edition of Wil's stuff. And while we're talking about reviews of Wil's stuff, here are Two Reviews of Happiest. Listen well, for they are spot-on in their praise of our fearless leader's latest release. By the time I get around to writing my review, I'm going to look like I'm just jumping on the bandwagon, but I don't really much care. Yeah, the book is that good...

Koga is adjusting pretty well to his new home, and housebreaking him has been the worst part. Even then, in the two and a half days he's been here, he's learning quickly that sitting at the door expectantly is usually enough to tear Dad away from his Internet Box long enough to grab the leash and take him out into the backyard. In 40 degree weather. In a sweat suit. At 4am on my 30th fucking birthday.

Nah, I'm not that bitter. But it is that bitter cold, or at least the wind chill makes it feel that bitter cold...