Could we get some spring please?

Last night Mother Nature dumped 7 inches of snow on us.  7 inches of super heavy, wet snow.

Of course, everything was shut down.

Our cars are covered and the roads are almost impassable.

So far today I've made lunch, washed dishes and let the dog out the back.

There's only 2 or three inches out there.  This will be Misty's potty for a few days.  Why?

This is what happens when she goes out in the deep snow:

Yes, that's snow stuck to her fur.  The dangers of a longhair doxie in the snow!

I tried to plan for this.  I tried to buy a snow shovel.

There were none.  NONE!

I'm a little tired of this.  The cold and snow are breaking my give-a-damn!  All I want to do is stay home under blankets and drink cocoa.  But I can't.  I have working out to do.  Sunday marks the beginning of March.  I hope the roads are passable by then.  Actually, I wouldn't mind the roads being passable by tomorrow!  I have work that needs to happen!

And now for something different

last month, I ran across something in a blog that I follow.  Ashley was looking for people to do that month's challenge group.

from johngroberg.com

I was in a serious rut, so I inquired.  It cost money, so I had to decline for a bit.  Waiting on the tax return and all....









But in the end, I decided to commit.  It was money that I had to play with.  And in the end, it's a workout series that I'll have forever.

I now am an owner of the 21 Day Fix.

So far I've done nothing with the eating plan (which will work with Weight Watchers very well).

I tried a work out today.  Apparently I'm out of shape, because it kicked my ass.  I do like that each work out is 30 minutes, and there is even a count down clock (if you're like me and are a clock-watcher).

The kit also included Shakeology.  I've tried the chocolate and so far I'm not impressed.  The flavor wasn't great.  And the price (we I to keep this up) was a total non-starter.  $130 a month.  A MONTH!  That's $20 less than my monthly grocery (for 2 people) budget.  I just hope that I can find a way to make this stuff taste better!

But anyways... the challenge starts on March 2nd.  Hopefully it'll kick my rear in gear.

Wish me luck!

Snow day!

Holy Crap, it's been quite the two days!

Monday and Tuesday, told through things I posted to Facebook!

Monday morning it was cold.  And there was a storm coming in.  I live in the South.  Neither of these are typical.

But the shouts of "It's raining in my office" sadly were typical.

Again, there was water was pouring out of his ceiling.  (this isn't the first time this has happened.  Just the first time this has happened this year).  So I made calls, and laid plastic in 5 other offices.  All while prepping for snow and the likelihood that there would be no work the next day.

All while it was this cold out:

I left early, to be off the road before the snow.  I tried to wait at the bus stop for the Spousal Equivalent, but after almost hitting another car trying to take a left, I went home.

And it start to snow!!

Before:

And after:

The snow right now is about to my ankles, which has it well above Misty's lady bits, so going potty is fun.  The icy snow just barely supports her wight, which means that every third step, she breaks through and sinks to her middle.

So we're home today.  The college cancelled.  SE's work had liberal leave.

And the rest of the city is all:

There's no word yet on if there will be school tomorrow.  There's also no word yet on if I can get out of the parking lot.  (There's no plowing the parking lots here...  which sucks)

Folks, welcome to snow in the south.  We got 7 inches of snow and ice and everything has shut down.

I'm just hoping that there's heat at work and those professor's offices haven't frozen.

Viniterra Race for the Chocolate 10K

from http://www.raceforthechocolate.com/

Saturday, Valentine's day.  The Race for the Chocolate.  My first 10K!

Everything went wrong in this mess.

I'm serious....

Let me tell you why:

• Weather:  This was no one's fault, but I don't think it cracked the freezing mark.  Ever.
• Parking:  We parked on a field.  There should have been parking assistance, especially since there was a car-swollowing hole in the middle of the field!  There was a guy standing in the hole when we left but I was SHOCKED there wasn't a car stuck in the hole when we got there.
• Port-a-potties-  all ran out of TP.  before the race.
• Water stops-  Stop #1, a guy was filling individual cups of water as we ran up.  Like you had to wait in a line for water on the course.  #2 had no water... but we were handed bottles of water a mile after.  Who likes running clutching a bottle of water?
• The course- not bad, but the last mile was ALL uphill.  REALLY?
• The end- at the end we were handed medals, still in their shipping baggies.  There were no bottles of water or bananas or anything at the finish.  What there was ... was a tent down the hill and a line.
• The lines-  there was a HUGE line to stand in post-race.  a line to get chocolate (a plastic tray of 2 chocolate, 2 marshmallows and a biscotti all handled by people not wearing gloves) and a stemless wine glass (that had the New Kent winery logo on it, not the race logo, as advertised).  There was also a long line for wine tasting.  I believe the words "screw this" were used, and we went home.

I was tired, sore and cold after.  My toes were numb until mile 3.  I didn't much care that I had just run my first 10K.  It's not like there were volunteers there to cheer me.  Actually there was an AMAZING lack of volunteers.  This isn't the fault of the race organizers.New company, new race and all.  But you REALLY see how vital volunteers are for a race!

So, I got home and took a hot shower,  I devoured last night's left over pizza and then snuggled into a nest and waited for the Spousal Equivalent to get home.

We brought me dinner, then left again for the church's game night.  I was in a blanket nest, thank you very much, and was not leaving for anything.

Later on the wind started to pick up, and concerned puppy was concerned for her daddy.

My weekend to recap:

A below freezing hot mess of a race that I'm never doing again followed by a blanket nest.

I'm here now, prepping food for the week, and waiting for the weather people to decide how craptastic Monday and Tuesday will be.  Yay?

Religion vs the World

So, apparently President Obama said something at the National Prayer Breakfast that has made Republicans see red.

I looked up what he said.  And what pissed them off:

We see sectarian war in Syria, the murder of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, religious war in the Central African Republic, a rising tide of anti-Semitism and hate crimes in Europe, so often perpetrated in the name of religion.

So how do we, as people of faith, reconcile these realities -- the profound good, the strength, the tenacity, the compassion and love that can flow from all of our faiths, operating alongside those who seek to hijack religious for their own murderous ends? 

Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history.  And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.  In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.  Michelle and I returned from India -- an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity -- but a place where, in past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs -- acts of intolerance that would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation. 

Well, he is right.  He also is wrong.  The events that were mentioned all were about using religion to legitimize the gathering of power and wealth.

The crusades were more about gaining land and wealth as much as they were about liberating the Holy Land from the forces of Islam.  The Inquisition was more about killing off opposition to the Medieval total power of the Catholic Church than combating heresy.

Slavery and the Jim Crow Laws were more about keeping white citizen in power than anything else, but there were bible verses that were used to quasi-legitimize this.

What people are missing is the message behind the speech.  Extremism and extreme fundamentalism in any faith can hurt other people.  While people in the country look at Islam and say that it's the enemy, many of the negative traits that they cite are also found in the faith that they hold.  They rail against Sharia Law, but want laws based in their own faith.  This boggles my mind.  Pot calling the kettle black and all....

Why get angry?  Are they really saying that slavery and the Inquisition were a good idea?

Let's go back to the Golden Rule people.  How about following your own religion, and leave everyone else alone.

And remember:

(this message brought to you by someone that is VERY tired of this)

Damn, I've been busy today!

In my attempt to spring clean myself (and my house), I got busy today.

It's currently 12:50 and I've already:

• Cut a bag of potatoes, and have them roasting- for dinners and lunches this week
• similarly, a bad of frozen chicken breasts are also cooking, ready for me to shred it... for meals for the week
• I cut up everything for dinner
• unloaded and loaded the dishwasher
• went on a morning run
• bagged up trash
• did a bunch of dishes by hand
• cleaned the kitchen counters
• pre-made a week's worth of lunch salads

I still have to:

• put away laundry (see image right.  that's totally me)
• tidy the living room
• change the sheets on the bed
• cut quilt squares.

I should exercise some more (there's a race Saturday.  I'm SO unprepared)

I should be doing the pile of chores above.

Lord of the Rings is on, and I so want to sit there and watch it.

But I'll be good.  I'll do some more in the kitchen and then take a break.

I'll make good choices.

What did get me through my kitchen chores was an audiobook and a bluetooth speaker.

It's weird.  I've had people say they'd rather take a year to read a book than to listen to audiobooks.  I love audiobooks.  And I use the hell out of my Audible subscription.  I've currently been listening to the Rachel Morgan Hollows series.  LOVE it!  It's like the Anita Blake books, but without the gratuitous sex!  It's set place in a world where a genetically modified virus revealing that witches, werewolves, vampires and other supernatural things were with us all the time. The books are smart and funny and full of that world building that gives me the intellectual lady boner.  The CW bought the rights to make a TV show and then passed on it.  That just pisses me off!  It would make such an awesome show!!  The narration of this series is simply amazing too.  She's what really make the books enjoyable to listen to.

I think that after I'd done with that series I'll move onto Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series.

Now that a new book is on my phone, it's time for lunch, then more work.  Have a happy Sunday everyone!

Jupiter Ascending

I have a HUGE thing for high concept world building.

Defiance

Star Wars

Dominion

Stargate


So when I I heard about Jupiter Ascending, I knew I had to see it.

It gave me that lovely world-building intellectual lady boner

I loved it!

I was basically the only one.

The movie is visually stunning.  I mean.. look at that!

The plot is ambitious.  Very ambitious.  

I don't think it's as bad as some of the reviews say.  It's about greed, massive greed.  A greed so large that it destroys civilizations.

It also has Channing Tatum looking all fine skating around on anti-gravity shoes.  I wonder if they motion captured a hokey player for it.  And Sean Bean (spoiler alert:  he lives!)

The movie seemed rushed.  Like that way too much story to tell for the time allotted.  It would have worked MUCH better as an HBO mini-series.  With 10 or so hours to work with the intrigue of the royal family could have played out more effectively.  We could have seen more into the world that the Wachowskis’ so painstakingly set up.  With extra time the plot might have smoothed out.  Lost the clunkiness.

I wonder if they had a sequel in mind?  We'll never know.  I SERIOUSLY doubt that it'll happen.

But that being said, and the reviews aside:  I loved it!

Thank God for Reveille

Last night, this was me:



Yeah, totally eating my feelings.

So I made a plan.  I was going to get up and run in the morning and run.  The weather was supposed to be great (and get colder and more awful as the day went on).  I was excited.  The dog was excited.

What happened?

Some sort of update on my phone turned off my alarms.

I was supposed to get up at 5.  When did I get up?

6:30

I woke up to reveille at Fort Eustis.  If I hadn't heard that, I would still be asleep now.!

Tomorrow it's suppose dot be 18 degrees when I go running, so that's not happening (I'll be taking the Spousal Equivalent to the bus stop if it's that cold).  I'll have to simply find time this weekend to run.

And also stopping eating my feelings:

from rebloggy.com