Worst Blog Entry EVER!!

Sorry for the gap in the "action" here.
I've been busy. OK...I've been lazy.

Well, I've tried two recipes out of the "More with Less" cookbook Jonny sent. Both were quite good. Beans and rice and...I forget what the other one was. Something simple and delicious. That resolution is going fine.

Yesterday I briefly flirted with the idea of signing up for the weight loss incentive program at the gym in Plummer. But, they weigh you alot and when I weigh myself I just end up eating more. I'll just hope the Christmas fat goes away on its own. They are also having a fitness challenge where you log your minutes at the gym and if you log enough, you get a gift certificate. The certificate is to the pro shop at the golf course. There is nothing there I want. Not joining that challenge either. I think it would be a demotivator for me...why go to my yoga class if I'm just earning points toward a gift certificate I don't want?

That said, I skipped yoga yesterday because I was having intestinal distress. Didn't want to do all the bending and twisting in public. Since I wasn't there, I was available to take a call...to help a friend move her big screen TV to her brother's house. This resulted in more intestinal distress, but was very funny. The TV would not fit in her van...no one had a truck handy. So as a JOKE I mention the lift on the back meant to carry her wheel chair (which she no longer needs after knee surgery). ... We ended up hauling the TV strapped to the wheel chair lift. We looked ridiculous but it did work. It hit the road if we went over about 2 miles an hour or went over the least bump (of which there are many on the dirt "streets" in the winter here). People were pointing and laughing but I'm thinking we started a trend. We were able to roll the TV right off the lift and into the house. Strapping it on was a challenge but we know how now. I'm thinking we'll be getting calls to move other large awkward objects. It took quite a while but we got to hear great stories...I'll see if I can get permission to put them in the blog, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. They are pretty good stories partly because they are gross and embarrassing involving blood, a body part falling off, and a bar fight. That's just ONE story. I'll see if I can get it.

I spent the week of christmas and the next one in Plummer and since then have been back in Spokane supposedly so El Kid could go to school. Last week was a bust. They went 2 days. The other days were cancelled due to whiny parents saying their precious children could not possibly walk in the street. So the superintendent canceled school for the entire district! What the hell? Even HIGH SCHOOL? Other reasons given: The parking lots weren't plowed (they had 2 weeks of break to get that done). They hadn't checked the roofs to see if they could take the snowload (again, they had 2 weeks to do that). They didn't have the school sidewalks de-iced (It's winter...sidewalks will be icy, and they had 2 weeks to deal with that). This was all announced on MONDAY that the kids were supposed to go back. Sounds a bit stupid to me. And a bit "snowflake generation". Why are kids too special to walk on ice now? Are they going to expect days off work when it's icy when they are adults? (Won't it be infuriating if they get them?)

Enough ranting about the stupid schools here. The city-wide performance art piece called "I can't plow snow" continues. I'll rant about that. The snow is melting. This makes ice. But there must be some sort of sand and gravel shortage because they are not gravelling the streets (they don't sand here, they put down basalt pea gravel which the passing vehicles throw onto each others' windshields producing the requisite cracks and chips). They are putting gravel in the CENTER of a few intersections but frankly, once I'm in the middle of the intersection, I no longer want to stop. I'd prefer to just keep going and get past the hazard. I'm using rocksalt on the walk to the apartment and the parking on the street. It's helping some. I had El Kid shovel out an extra parking spot but one of the neighbors in explicably parked in a way that prevents that shoveled bit from being used (not enough room to get in or out of it) and has not driven her car in a week. Usually she's in and out every day so I can take up the leading or trailing spot and force her into a more efficient parking position, but not now. Now she's committed. The kicker is that she drives a jeep! She could make it over the remaining 8 inch ice berm even if she parked way at the front of the shoveled bit. I don't know what her plan is. Maybe she just wanted to park under the pine tree. That will be self punishing (I even was tempted to try it once this winter...nothing like a snow dump over pine needles glued to the roof of your car).

Man. No wonder I haven't blogged. My life is dull and I'm all whiny.