We have a time honored tradition of giving weapons of daft destruction on Yule. This year was no exception.
Wind, eclipses and Yule!
The wind has been blowing hard enough to toss all the loose bits in any yard clear to Kansas. Lots of semi’s flipped on I-25 in the last day or two. Only good thing was that the wind blew all the clouds away and we got to see the lunar eclipse. It was really cool.
Today is Solstice and the beginning of Yule. 🙂 Here are pictures of our decorations. 🙂
Winter Solstice!
   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….
Hot pockets, knitting blogs and code monkeys
It’s been a long and busy day. Normally on a Friday, I get to sleep in just a little. No bus run to Badito. (16 miles one way) Our school district operates on a four day week. (m-th) However, the local school district moved the calendar around so that everyone could have a whole week off for Thanksgiving. Part of that adjustment meant that the kids went to school today.
So, Morgan and Matt got up at the usual 5:45am and started getting ready for school. They did a One Room School House event which is usually held the last day before T-day. Gardner school does this every year to commemorate the old fashioned schools. It is a really neat event with people dressing up in old fashioned clothes and the kids learning modern lessons in old fashioned style. I got to call Daniel off of school, because on Fridays since there normally isn’t school, he works a double shift at Alys’ Fireside Cafe. At one time or another, everyone in the family has worked there.
After I got back from Badito, I laid down for a few minutes to relax. (ahahaha!) 8am rolled around and Dan was up to code the website that he has promised to Brian and Gretchen Orr. They are the owners of the Huerfano Journal, the newspaper that is starting up in about a week. http://huerfanojournal.com/ This meant that my free time was up, and I needed to get going in the office at 520 Penn. Dan mumbled something akin to thanks when hot tea appeared under his nose and actually stopped typing long enough to eat some scrambled eggs. Then it was back to coding. He wouldn’t be doing this website, except that G&B hired this French computer firm that promised them the moon and sort of handed them a slice of green cheese. The website should have been up over two weeks earlier and we happened to walk in with an article for Brian about the time he was pulling out his hair. So, Dan promised that we (Raton Basin Technologies) could put up a placeholder website for him. (see Dan. See Dan promise. See Dan write code till 2am.)
So, while Dan wrote code, I got a few chores done in my office. It is a mess.
I got some of it tidy, but there are still spots where I probably aught to use a bulldozer. I have a speaker system to add to my desk as well. :>
Then we went down to the Huerfano Journal to talk to B&G about the website and some options. We also gave the software to build the site to John Viel, who hosts their site. It was a good meeting, and afterwards we grabbed lunch. Dan went back to coding, and I decided to play with Ravelry and take photos of my projects and yarn. I played with Flickr too! I got that done in time to go pick up the kids at Badito.
I dropped the kids off at the house, threw laundry into the washer and then grabbed a few things and headed to the library. John’s hardhat had arrived and I wanted to give it to him. Oh was he surprised! It fits too! The one the construction company gave to him looked like an apple sitting on top of a watermelon. The library is turning the old high school into the new library. http://www.spld.org/hchs.htm I found a new book to read and then after kisses and hugs, headed out the door.
Ten seconds down the road, I stopped at Erin and Morgan’s house. I had candy for them. English candy! Erin was in heaven, and little Logan loved his chocolate buttons.
Then it was off to Safeway. I grabbed milk, Dr. Pepper, iced tea and hot pockets. Must feed the code monkey! I dropped the milk off at the house and headed back to the office. Dan was so funny too, when he realized that I had brought him caffeine and hot pockets! He grabbed a soda and went back to coding. The website is looking beautiful.
Now it is my turn to relax. Playing on the web, eating hot pockets and looking forward to finishing up a sock! (Yule prezzie!)