Cold and tired

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    The last few days have been long and cold. We have been trying to get the Budget Host hotel wifi network up and running. One problem is that the average temperature while we’ve been working has been about 20 degrees. After you are out in that for 5-6 hours, you just are too cold and tired to think.

I’m also muscle sore. Dan is worse off, as he still has the hacking cough. Karen has stayed a few extra days to try and help us get things up, and between the three of us we are still barely getting things done. I’m also coming up with a loooong list of things to do “pre-installation. I’m going to have a book about 2 inches thick by the time we are done with Aguilar. sigh… Not exactly the kind of writing I expected to be doing.

However, on other fronts… We got the Tatra emergency vehicle pamphlet written. We had to edit Karen’s prose and then mine to get it to fit and meet everyone’s approval. Carlos presented it on Friday and the guy really liked it. Liked it enough that he told Carlos about another project that might see us wiring 300+ towers for communications down South. Now the “sit and wait” time to see if we get contract offers.

Today we are writing up the weekly article for the Huerfano Journal and then going back out in the cold to fix the wiring faults we had yesterday. gads…  I think I want a nap!

Happy New Year!

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    Wow! Every time I thought I’d have ten minutes to sit and write a post, it disappeared. Now it’s a whole new year! (ok, you can stop groaning now.)

As it is, On Sunday John and I were suppose to go to Pueblo to do the shopping. However, while I was finally over my headache from the snow glare, John was feeling poorly. His back was really giving him pain. So, I grabbed Little Morgan and Dan to go do the shopping. We drove to Pueblo and hit the main stores. Vitamin Cottage, Sam’s Club, Petsmart, Target and Walmart. We also took a side trip to Barnes and Noble. Dan got a magazine on woodworking, I got the latest Patricia Briggs novel and Morgan got two books on French. She is learning it in school and we wanted to give her a bit of help. We went to Chili’s for dinner. It was so funny as Morgan was looking through the appetizer menu and didn’t realize that there was a whole dinner menu behind that! Oh the glutenous glee when she found out. She opted for a huge burger while Dan had a steak and I had ribs. Yummm!

We got home around 10:30pm and by the time we unloaded all of the groceries, I was exhausted. John was still in a lot of pain, so we went straight to bed. Even slept in the next morning.

I got a roast out to thaw on Monday for New Year’s dinner and made up a bit of soy sour cream dip so that I could have something while the rest had ranch dip and caviar. It tasted pretty good. I have found a pesto that doesn’t have cheese in it and I used that as a flavour. We all relaxed and sorted out movies while watching TV. We finally started a film, and then the next thing we knew it was midnight. Kisses all round and sips of scotch. Then John popped out the back door and came round the front to First Foot the house. It’s a custom we picked up in England. You send a tall dark and handsome man to go to the front door and be the First Foot across the threshold. They traditionally bring gifts and say a little statement as they come in. “I bring food for the house, food for the soul, fuel for the house and money for the household.” The food is often some sort of cake or bread. The food for the soul is whiskey, and fuel for the house being coal or wood. The last item is usually coinage.

We slept in and the next morning we all worked on cleaning house. John tackled various flat surfaces that had gotten piled high with his stuff. I cleaned part of my room, the living room, took down all of the holiday decorations, put the Winter altars up, supervised the kitchen and breakfast nook cleaning and did laundry. Oh, and I put the roast in the oven for dinner.

Dan was feeling rather off because his knee was giving him grief, so I took dinner over to him after we had eaten. Of course, I first footed the house! A bit of a laugh as I am short, gray and female, but…. it worked.

Today I cleaned up the office and tried to keep Dan in bed. (ha!) He’s feeling ill. I also thawed the pipes which have been frozen for the last four days. After we got water flowing, I filled in the ditch and covered the pipes better than they had been. Our restoration on the office is at a standstill due to the weather. So,… the pipes were uncovered and froze. We will see if they stayed thawed in the morning. Meanwhile, my hands feel like hamburger from moving all of that dirt. It has taken me forever to type this!

Ciao!

Winter Solstice!

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    Gads, it has been ages since I wrote last. It has been a busy week or two. Lots of stuff done for Yule and prezzies wrapped at the last minute. Plus, Beth bought lamb for Yule dinner and therefore we had roast lamb! (more on that later)

Friday morning, (21st) we got up at the crack of dawn. I had my drum, and the kids had pots and pans. Dan had his elk call and John his drum. We all stood at the window facing east and just before sunrise, we started our usual cacophony of noise to wake up the sun.  Once we had felt that the sun was truly awake, we settled down in the living room with prezzies to open and sausage rolls and cookies to eat. I had made tons of sausage rolls the night before.  We took turns opening prezzies and Dan took lots of photos. Beth did as well, but I don’t have copies of those yet. Here is a link to the Yule pics. http://picasaweb.google.com/sudjja/December

There were lots of lovely prezzies. I got two new bags that I can use as yarn project bags, a new book, stickers, a keychain and candy. :> The funniest thing was all the cups. Dan got three, John two and Beth one. The year of the coffee cup!

Afterwards, John and Beth had to go to work. Blah…. Then again, we just thought we might have a chance to rest when Dan and I also got called to work. One of our clients had their server crash. What a cluster that was. The person who had previously set up the server didn’t know his arse from his elbow. It took us 2.5 hours to fix things. sigh….

Then I went home and started working on dinner. Roast lamb, savoury pumpkin/potato soup, green beans and home made pecan pie for dessert. It was heavenly! When Dan got back from another job, (installing the NOC box at the hotel), we sat and watched the latest Harry Potter movie. It was good.

Woke up the next morning to new snow on the ground. Pretty good for the first day of winter. I greeted the sun privately, then went back to bed for a bit. Got up, made breakfast and then John and I headed out to run some errands. We stopped at Edla’s Yarn’s first and while I originally went in to just get a set of size 8 double pointed needles, I ended up adding some bulky yarn in two colors as well as some very fine sock yarn to my pile. :>

Then it was off to see Damon. I had a pecan pie that I made for him and Pauline. We visited with him for about two hours and then we stopped at Safeway for dog food and some soda. I dropped him off at the house and went over to the office for a little bit. Yeah! Mostly head time to just have some peace and quiet as Dan and Karen were out doing work on the hotel site. I got home a few hours later and knitted a bit before bed.

Sunday I slept in and then took some books and DVD’s over to Damon and Pauline. Also a birthday card for Pauline. After a lovely visit, I went over to 520 to check on Dan. When I had come by earlier, I had discovered that he was ill with a migraine. Still walking around trying to do things, but I stopped that. Put him to bed and took his shoes. When I came back around 5pm, he was still asleep. He finally woke around 5:45pm feeling better. A good thing too, as Karen wanted to take us to dinner and talk business. We went to the Rambler where the enchiladas are very good. Got a lot accomplished. When I got home, I knitted while watching a program on JFK and then Lincoln.

Woke up late this morning and hit the ground running. Shower, breakfast and then laundry. Gads it piled up! I swear that people hide it and then dump it down the chute just as I think I’m done. grrrrr….. Did a bunch of ironing and finished Dan’s second pair of sleep pants. Started on some repairs between laundry loads and even started some spaghetti sauce.

Got the sauce to the simmer point and then headed over to the office for the duration of the Bronco game. The guys don’t like me to even be in the same house when they are playing. Think I’m a jinx. ah well….

Sewage and ice and shopping oh my!

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What a day… (Saturday) The sewer blocked up again. So, Dan and I headed off to La Veta Tru Value to rent the sewage snake yet again. Gaggggggg! I guess I aught to be grateful that Dan knows how to work the damn thing and actually does it. Two hours later, the laundry room was clean and the sewer was draining properly.

Then we had to drive back to La Veta. The wind was blowing the snow all across the highway and it was slick! Everywhere it looked like water on the road was in fact ice! We stopped and got Dan something to eat as he was exhausted from working the snake. It took forever to go and come back.

Once we got back, we took turns showering and then I headed to Pueblo with John and Daniel. It’s our usual payday shopping trip. Granted, it was a little crowded with Daniel in the back. We did part of the shopping and then went to dinner at Taco Bell. After that we did the last of the shopping at Walmart. Daniel got Logan some little slippers and two shirts. They are really cute. We got home around midnight. Unpacked everything and tried to get it all put away. Sort of hard as there were dishes everywhere. They had forgotten to put dish soap on the list, so of course…. no one could do dishes. sigh… I remedied that this morning with a quick trip to Safeway. What a combo. Trashbags, dish soap and cat food. Wheee….

Today, it is still cold here, but compared to the last few days it is a heat wave. A whole 35 degrees! Snow is melting, pipes thawing and lots of drippy mess that will all turn to ice about fifteen minutes after sundown. Ah well…

So far today, I’ve done laundry, gone shopping, “gone to work” at 520, cleaned up a kitchen, done some dishes and edited two articles for the Huerfano Journal. Oh, and proof-read the website for Dan. Now to wrap a few gifts and do up a Yule Letter. Oh, and write Yule cards. Wheee……

Flying lessons

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    Well, nearly. Today we had to go down to the Huerfano Journal and move the banner sign that we mounted to the wall. We were suppose to put it on the north side of the building, but it was way too cold and windy. We parked the bucket truck up against the curb as tight as we could and then we started to try and take the sign down. The wind buffeted Dan all over the place and when he started to hand down the banner, the wind caught it and whipped it all over the place. I caught it and held on for dear life as the wind picked it and me up! I could feel myself sliding back and forth on the ice. I grabbed the corner of the building and held tight.  Dan took out the last screw that was holding the banner and then I worked my way into the building. I felt like I was part of a mime performance! Brian Orr and I rolled up the banner and then I went back out and helped Dan bring down the banner frame. Once we got that in place, we decided that we would wait for a much less windy day to do that part of the job. Have to admit that I didn’t envy the canopy people who had to do their work later in the day. We did drive by and see the finished job. The canopy is beautiful.

After that job, we headed to Aguilar where we shoveled snow out of the NOC building that we will be putting the network services equipment in for Aguilar. There is no glass in the window, so the snow blew in. Then we went to see Carl. He is one of our older customers and although a sweet man, he loves to visit. Granted, when he and Dan get together, they talk for hours. We had a short visit today though as we had to go pick up the kids. With the wind, ice and snow blowing, Dan didn’t want me driving.

We grabbed lunch at A&W and then headed out to pick up the kids. The normal 17 minute trip took 35 minutes. A harried 35 minutes on icey roads with heavy winds. I was very glad that Dan was driving. It took about the same amount of time to drive home.  We took Little Morgan to the Family Dollar so that she could get her Yule gift for her secret pal at school. I got Matt a pair of polar fleece gloves for $2. He’s been borrowing L.Morgan’s extra pair.

Tonight I am reading through Acceptable Use Policies for RBT. Yawn….. Maybe I’ll just give up for the night. The office is a balmy 54 and it’s 9 outside with 20 mph winds. Brrrr!

8 Degrees…

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    Not of seperation, but of temperature~! It’s bloody cold today. We have a grand total of about 8 inches of snow and although it has stopped, nothing is melting because it is so cold! My car is parked at the moment because the snow is deeper than the bottom of my car. I was ‘plowing’ the snow just to park. My office is a balmy 52!

My plans for later tonight are knitting and curling up with a good book under lots of blankets.  I laugh too at all the layers I’m wearing. We are so getting a better heating system in the office as soon as possible!

Meanwhile, I’m getting the urge to climb back into my writing. I have so much other stuff to do, but I want to finish my stories. Awwwgh! I also have all these projects to finish! I need a clone!

Brrr! ~~~Phewwwww~~~ Brrr!!!

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    It is 55 degrees in my office. Bloody cold! We got about 8 inches of snow the other day and it has yet to warm up. Granted, it is suppose to snow more tonight. Brrr!!! I know we need the moisture, but oh my for better heating.

We also dealt with a skunk yesterday. Yeah, the one under the house at 520 Penn. I was only suppose to be over there briefly to grab a few things when Dan realized that the trap had been sprung and we had a skunk. So, we started trying to deal with it and it of course sprayed. Luckily, we had put a black trashbag around the trap and most of the spray hit the bag. Dan got a bit of it, and the rest went into the air. We loaded the skunk up in the truck and headed out of town to let it go. We didn’t want to kill it. Well, it sprayed again while in the truck. Phewwww!!! We let it go and then headed home to the house on Walsen. Dan and I both had to shower as we stank. I washed all the clothes and coats as well as gloves and hats. Ugghh….. We bombed the truck with air freshener and left the hatch open. Hopefully, it will de-skunk soon.

Meanwhile, I made an awesome pot of lentil soup and homemade drop biscuits. Ate way too much! I got some knitting done and even some sewing done over the weekend. Sleep pants for some at Yule. :> Hopefully a new hot water bottle cover too.

This morning, Dan and I took the kids to school. He was worried about the road. I was rather relieved to let him drive. Then we spent the day trying to sort out a huge delivery from UPS.  When it was time to pick up the kids, Dan decided to drive again. I was so happy he did as we had car problems. One of the spark plugs came loose and was causing the car to run really rough. We pulled over and Dan checked things out while I called John to go pick up the kids. He did while we took the car slowly back to Burg. We got to NAPA  in time and bought a new spark plug and a tool to put it in. Brrrroooomm! Started up just fine.  We took it for a bit of a test drive and then came home. Dan will tighten the spark plug down in a bit and then I will head home for the night. Brrrrr!!!

Mondays, elk legs and organization

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    Here it is Monday afternoon and while in one way I don’t think I’ve gotten much done, when I look at my list of things to do, I’ve managed plenty.

Saturday, after sleeping in late, I got to work on stuff over at the office. In the end, Dan and I realized that we needed to head to Pueblo. So, off we went. Six hours later, we had a desk for Karen, three new chairs, two book cases, and some other bits and bobs.

Sunday morning, I was up and moving by 8:30am… yawn! We had furniture to build for the office. My cabinet for my office was first. Not to difficult, but we think that directions were getting scrambled in translation. Engrish! sigh….. Then the desk. Not too difficult, but still time consuming. After that we stopped for a bit of food and then tackled the bookshelves. First one was slow. Second one was fast, but Dan put two shelves in backwards. So, I colored the raw edges with sharpie. :> We also moved furniture around and put an old bookcase in his room when we moved one of the new ones into his office area. We got the big metal shelf into the back porch and now have the beginnings of organized tools, components, etc. Huzzah!!! We also got the glass into the window frames. It isn’t caulked yet, but there is quarter round in place to hold the glass. We will do the pretty bits later when it is just a tad warmer!

This  morning, I started the school run again. We have a month left before the holidays. I drove out to Badito with a glorious sunrise in the rear view mirror. Drove home and then picked up Daniel to take him to school. On the way there, there was something in the road. I wasn’t sure what it was. It looked like a very weird piece of wood. Drove by it slowly on the way home and realized it was the lower leg of an elk! Complete with hoof! Found out later that one of the high school guys went hunting and  as a joke stuck bits of the rotting left overs all over the high school campus. sigh!

Today of course since we built all of those lovely bits of furniture, I have to organize things. My desk looks like a tornado hit it. However, I have more shelf and cupboard space than I did last week! Now to get some stuff done before it is time to pick up the wee trolls.

Parade of Lights and more Snow!

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Oh gods! Woke up this morning at around 6am to discover it was snowing! Cold too! So, I crawled back into bed for a few hours. My shoulder was hurting too, so I relished a bit of a sleep in.

Snow! Brrrr!!!!

Once I did get up, there was a bunch of stuff to do. Lunch of course was left over pizza. :> I went off to do some shopping. One stop was at Edla’s Yarns. It’s our local yarn shop. Got some lovely wool and needles to make a hat. Yellow, orange and red wool. Yummm! Then I went off to the Family Dollar to buy wrapping paper, ribbons and a hat for the bucket truck. Reason being that tonight was the Parade of Lights, and we were dressing up the bucket truck to put in the parade. Little Morgan gave us a hand. I did the paper on the sides while Dan worked on the electrics. Granted, they were giving him fits. The inverter didn’t want to put out the power we needed. sigh…. So, we ran the penguin and not the lights. After we got the truck ready, we went to Carl’s for a bit of dinner and then went to line up for the parade.

Dan and the bucket truck

We must have sat in line for 90 minutes. It was cold! It snowed, and we waited while everyone got in line. Little Morgan and I sat in the back of the bucket truck on cushions and under a quilt with a huge box of candy next to us. The parade finally got underway, and we were tossing handfuls out to people standing by the road. One of the best shots we managed was a guy who complained that Dan was too cheap to buy candy, and we hit him with a double handful right after he shut his mouth! Oh, and we nailed the cops standing at the crossroads with candy too. teeheehee……

Linux the penguin

After the parade, we stopped by the Huerfano Journal for their open house. Chatted with Gretchen and her dad, Sig. I’m going to write a cooking article for the paper too. My great-grandma made this cake called a depression cake which was a chocolate cake made with mayonnaise instead of eggs and oil. That’s what I’m going to put in the paper. Plus, Dan is doing weekly Tech articles. I might even do one from the “ladies” point of view.

In a bit, we are going to watch a movie and then head to bed. I am looking forward to sleeping in!

Brrrr!!!!

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    Oh gods is it cold! It’s about 28 degrees and trying very hard to snow.  We tried to get some winterizing done yesterday at 520 Penn, but… Dan and I ended up running to Pueblo instead. Got some of the stuff, but not enough. Came home tired enough to want to head straight to bed, but I needed to do catch up on laundry. Yerch… At least I got some of my story edited. I’m working on Sheeple at the moment.

Today, we woke up with the cold front breathing down our necks. This means we didn’t get to put the window glass in the kitchen, but have to deal with the leaky windows. brrrr! We also took a look at the heater in the kitchen. Dan almost electrocuted himself trying to disconnect it, as it was a wonky wiring job on a 220 line. Aieee!!! It means that we will be totally re-wiring the house instead of just sections of it. sigh….. glum….. sigh… I really was hoping to not have to redo the entire kitchen that way.

We also went down and got our copies of the Huerfano Journal! Huzzah!!! Very happy! Brian and Gretchen were glad to have the first one under their belts.

Tomorrow is turkey day. We are having home made pizza. I really don’t like turkey, so I tend to find alternative dinners for Tday and Yule.