FF and GS (you'll see later)

There's a reason that my roommate is singing "Let it Snow!" this fine evening. And even though she's made clear that she would LIKE for it to snow (something about liking it and wanting to snowboard), it's a new reason.

First, a little background. Last winter, as most of you know, was a hard winter for the Coloradan. And while there is much debate as to whether or not this is the "new normal" for our state as a whole (thanks for that gem, Oprah!) or if last year was the weirdest year on the face of the planet...well, let's just say I'm not qualified to make that determination. Others seem quite forceful in their opinions. I am choosing, at this point, to stay out it. Mostly because I don't think I can affect any change that I really want and also because I will almost surely be discounted as a Californian for any theory that I choose to back.

But, let's get to the point, shall we? There's only so many minutes in one's life, and here I am wasting some of yours. Ahem...soooo, last winter my roommate and I spent a lot of time snowed in our apartment. When I first moved in, my landlord let me know that there was a pool, heat, and a fireplace that would have to be turned on by the utility company or a fireman. I personally, liked the idea of the fireman better as by their very occupation they are hot. And by hot I mean, running into blazing buildings, people! And just like that, there I go wasting your precious minutes again!

When things started to get a little frosty last winter, I called my trusty utility company to get them to come turn on the fireplace. Turns out, I wasn't their top priority. They scheduled a few times to come which I waited for with bated breath, with nothing happening. My roommate and I have a few jokes about our current place of residence. On any particular snowy morning, we would say, "Hey, let's just sit by the fire and read!" knowing very well that there was no way this was going to come to fruition.

THIS year, we decided, would be different. Before all of the OTHER folks in our area decided that it was time for THEIR fireplaces to be turned on, we would put in our request. So far, I hadn't done anything about it.

Episode 1 - The Gas Scare
Fast forward to last night. I walked out of my room, headed toward the kitchen and the ice water that my parched lips wanted. On the way, I encountered the smell of gas. Not trusting my nose as half of it is plugged, I got my roommate out of bed and had HER smell. She decided I was right. We turned off the gas furnace for the five minutes the panel said to adhere to, and then turned everything back on with no result. We left it off and marched ourselves off to bed. (I, of course, called my friend Greg to make certain that I was not about to die in my sleep)

I called the utility company bright and early this morning and was informed that they have a 24-hour service and could accommodate me after working hours. I'm telling you, cable and phone companies should take note! I was thrilled out of my gourd. I placed my request for an after 6 PM audience with said gas man and got a call at 9:48 PM that he was on his way.

He came out and checked everything (which was all in good working order, Mom and Dad) and Anne and I cajoled him into turning our fireplace on. We feel quite pleased with ourselves and Anne promptly broke into song. We win. The end.

Episode 2: Fantasy Football
Can I just say how much I love fantasy football? Well, I do. But here's a few reasons I'm not very good at it...

1. I'm not that familiar with other team's players. I was/am a Bronco Fan and know all/most of THEM, but I've found that having all of the players of one team on a fantasy football team is not only ill-advised, but ALSO practically impossible with the way the draft occurs.

2. The harder I try, the worse my team does. I've really tried...I bought Football for Idiots not considering myself an idiot, but perhaps only a novice in knowing all there is to know about this particular sport. I mean, I enjoy the basics and of course the bone-crunching action, but it took me a while to understand the two-point conversion. I also read up on all my players...I traded some of the unlucky ones out for players that were "scheduled" to get more points.

3. I can't really smack-talk that well.

4. I am usually not up to make trades (although I know it is a vital part of football - fantasy and otherwise) because I'm convinced that the other player has more information than me and is just trying to pull the wool over my eyes. This may or may not be true, but given my fellow players, I'm leaning toward the true.

5. I most likely will forget about checking it halfway through the season. You know when you can't make changes? Um, when the game is actually being played, that's when. And that's when it inevitably is brought to my mind. Now, we'd have a whole DIFFERENT game if they let us do that. It'd be more like the stock market...

Nevertheless, I enjoy it immensely and I also am glad for the players that they get the shot to stand alone, since it's usually such a team thing. :)

El Fin.

Ashes to Ashes...

Growing up we children had to pull our weight around the house. My sisters and I all had chores that were "assigned" to us and pretty much didn't change. Except, of course, when the mad winds of change liberated a sister (not a nun, just for clarification) to initiate the trading process. Much like the fur traders of yore, we would start with the bargaining...

Sister 1: "Hey, if you empty the trashes this week, I'll dust the living room AND vacuum the stairs!"

Sister 2: "WHY?"

(The sister that was being presumed among was usually suspicious...knowing that there could and usually was a REASON why said sister didn't want to complete the task)

Sister 1: "I'm sick of emptying trashes. I just want to change!"

Sister 2: (warily) "Well...alright. But next week you have to empty the trashes yourself."

Sister 1: (happily) "I will!"

During the summer, my mother upped the ante on our chore-world and commenced with the leaving of "The List". The list was always written in neat print (daring us to use the excuse "We couldn't read it!") with nursing shorthand (I'm half-way to a nursing degree already), and ALWAYS delineated by name of the sister with check boxes beside each task. With Mom and Dad at work, Mom knew that all we would do is read, watch TV and/or perform various other activities completely devoid of being "productive". So, the list was set out on the counter or magneted to the fridge to keep us in line throughout the summer hours.

Usually "The List" didn't take us long so we would, of course, do aforementioned summer-time activities of our choosing and about 1/2 an hour before a returning parent was due to arrive we would hustle through all the tasks to keep us from my mother's exacting evil eye. As you can imagine, these chores were always really thoroughly executed... :)

Today, I embarked on a task I put on my internal List...the dusting of the fan blades. What you will see next is a pictorial reckoning of my dusting adventure. And can I just say...ew. I can't believe it has come to this...

I suited up for the task in typical MacGuiver style..wetting a towel and tying it around my nose and mouth. This method is good for dusting fan blades in the comfort of your own home AND entering burning buildings. So maybe it was a little overkill, but better to overkill than BE killed, right? Oh, and I might have also been inspired by the movie I saw yesterday "3:10 to Yuma".

I tried to take a picture that would accurately display for you the severity of the situation. This is the best I could do...

This dusting cloth shows one swipe of my hand across the blade. Now, this doesn't look too bad, but remember that most of the dust hopped off the blade as a dust bunny, so this only reflects about 2/3 of the dust removed.

I do really like dusting things. At first, it was because mom would let us use a feather duster (c'mon, now...that's just good fun). Then later it was deemed as a tool that "just pushed the dust around", which apparently was a bad thing. Even then, I liked dusting, through because it is instant gratification cleaning. Sometimes when I'm cleaning I feel the futility. So I wiped off the counter. So what? A crumb will be there no less than 15 minutes later. But with dusting, I can see the fruit of my labor right away and it tends to stay that way for at least a week. And as a bonus, we also get the lemon-y fresh smell of pledge to keep us company.

Thanks for sticking through my massive tale. I know it was long and seemingly pointless, but wasn't it FUN?! :)

Surfin'

Way back when, in a Californian city far far away lived a duchess named Amy. Why a duchess, you ask? Well, they get to be nobility and have all of those perks...wearing the pretty, flow-y dresses, going to all the parties, living in fun manors with thousands of acres - all without the pressure of being a princess.

Ahem...but what I really wanted to say was...a few years ago I had a roommate who brought home an interesting time-waster. Basically, it was a medium sized oval board that when placed over a big hard pipe "roll" was designed to help one learn balance for surfing. I spent many a minute on that board rolling back and forth, trying to attain the "hang ten" ease that I admired in so many of my peers. All to no avail. Although I improved dramatically from when I began, I never did get to test my skills on an actual surf board...and I'm pretty sure that if I HAD, I would not have come out unscathed.

No matter...today I made up for it in a whole different way. I'm sure that you have all heard of the phrase "Surfing the Web". Well, I never really got the analogy until now. I opened up my instant messenger today and signed on. As usual, the box full of multiple links to different web stories surfaced. What the heck, I thought. I'll click on a few and become wiser about the things going on in the world. So, I tenuously clicked on the first heading cleverly entitled Diaper-free Babies. I must say it was the title, more than the subject matter that interested me (having no children and all). Diaper-free Babies? I thought, Who comes UP with this stuff? And so it began.

From there, I clicked on a link about Hillary Clinton appearing on Ellen (nice try, Hil, but you aren't getting me with that one!). Then I went to an interesting link about High School Musical 2 and from there clickety clacked my way to a page about a Miss Teen USA contestant's bizarre answer in the competition. And then it hit me...I was SURFING! From one page to another with nary a space in between browses.

So this is what Surfing the Web is all about! I gleefully shouted to myself internally. This is what I've been missing out on for so many years! Now, not to say that I will have this much free time again in the near future, but I am glad to be on board with the English language again.

Ha!! On board...that's a good one...