nothing original

I just read a news article that the “.ly” extension in a web address is the country-code domain for Libya. All those shortened URLs (e.g. “ow.ly” or “bit.ly”) are all going through Libya! Can you imagine all the information that that country has gathered from around the world?!? And we’re handing it freely to them! Zoiks!

I think I can official say that L is potty trained. He hasn’t had any wet pants for a couple of weeks. He still wears pull-ups for outings like to school, shopping, or to a restaurant… somewhere where we might not get to a toilet right away. I think he understands the difference between pull-up versus being in undies. Now all we need to do is get him trained for overnight. That’s going to be hard because he sleeps like a log. That and stop playing with the water in the sink – it’s fine AFTER you’ve actually gone, but just sitting on the toilet doesn’t count!

So, I spoke to my brother the Colonel. He’s on a selection committee to review applicants that have been forwarded to be promoted from Major to Lt. Colonel. How cool is that? He says it’s a once in a career opportunity. It’s amazing. The committee consists of about 30 people and they review about 6,000 files. They give each file 3-4 minutes… and we’re talking paper files.  I was on an interview committee and it took about 15 minutes to go through an application and rate it to see if that person will get an interview. Can you imagine? No wonder he’s the Colonel.

I am heartbroken each time I watch video of the tsunami that decimated the coastal cities in Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures. The people had essentially no warning… less than 10 minutes from the earthquake to the tsunami hitting the coastline. Although there were foreshocks a couple of days before, you don’t know they are foreshocks until the bigger quake hits. Unfortunately, it’s normal to have quakes of 5-6 magnitude in that region. It’s one of the most active areas in the “Ring of Fire.” Having lived in Yokota AFB for 5 years, it was almost desensitizing… almost. But we were trained: if you’re indoors, stay away from brick and glass, and get under a table. If your outside, get away from buildings. We were constantly reminded why we had all those drills.

When the Nisqually earthquake hit our area, I knew in less than a second what was happening. Today, I start thinking of the recent earthquakes: New Zealand, Chile, and China. The Pacific Northwest is supposed to have ours. If Nisqually wasn’t our “big one,” then all we can do is learn from what we see and prepare ourselves.

The old saying goes “___ comes in threes.” I really hope not. I don’t think my bank account can handle any more medical happenstances. First was L’s hospital stay last month. Today was my cat’s turn at the vet hospital for an asthma attack. It’s not the first time, and it’s far in between. Her last attack was two years ago. Still, it’s a lot of money. I need to get a second job… or a better one that pays more. Yeah, that might take a while.

A couple of months ago, we had to get rid of our old mattress foam topper. L’s overnight diaper leaked after crawling into our bed at some awful time of the night. It’s happened a few too many times and it was time to get rid of it. The only problem was: we didn’t have a replacement and the ones in the stores were too expensive. It finally dawned on me to shop online. A lot of stores will give you free shipping. Couple that with points gained through MyPoints, and Overstock.com is 10 points per dollar… I’m ready to shop! I found a nice 3″ foam topper that came with a cover. It came yesterday. I opened the box this morning when I started laundry and let it slowly unfold itself on the bed for most of the day. It took me forever to get the cover over it – it just didn’t want to fit. My friend finally came to the rescue and we made it fit. Okay, so there’s a slight curl at head and foot of the bed. I’m not going to complain… yet. I’m just excited to finally get a good night’s sleep.

I’ll let y’all know tomorrow… maybe… <snore>

Being a state employee has it’s perks. It’s even better if you don’t live in the State of Wisconsin. I received my Explanation of Benefits from my health insurance and the bill from Seattle Children’s Hospital for L’s stay… all I can say is thank goodness I have good medical insurance! Coincide that with a flexible spending account and I think we’ll be able to deal with it pretty smoothly, financially speaking. It’ll definitly take a while to pay off, a lot less than what I was expecting.

There are two things I can’t wait to finish: taxes and paying off my car.

We only got a couple of inches of snow where I live; however, the foothills got much more. I saw on news reports that a few roads from the valley up to the foothills (Kent) were closes this morning until snowplow and de-icer trucks could clear them. Got a message this morning at 5:30a that day classes at the College and were cancelled, but employee would need to report at 10a, but that would be reassessed at 8a. At 8:24a, they suspended operations, but at 2:15p, the roads were fine and evening classes were to take place as scheduled starting at 4p. Currently, it’s clear, no snow falling, and bare roads. 27 degrees to slowly drop each hour until it reaches a low of 19 degrees at 5a. Weather.com is predicting it to be 20 degrees and sunny by the time I leave. I was hoping for another snow day, but oh well. Maybe there won’t be too many students and I can finally clean off my desk of the stack of papers that desperately need filing.

Going to my car this morning was different. I kept hearing about the snow advisory reports, but I couldn’t tell that it would snow this morning. It was cold, 35 degrees, but a warm 35. It didn’t have that “bite” of cold that said “snow is coming.” Today was weird. Didn’t see anything until after lunch when we got a dumping. Soon after, the sun came out and melted everything. A couple of hours later, another dumping. People were worried and told me I should leave because of my commute, but after looking at the DoT cameras, the roads were clear and wet. The snow was nonexistent in some areas. Still, the College cancelled evening classes after 5 p.m.

Currently it’s about 10 p.m. PST and the snow flurries stopped. It’s supposed to get down to 30 degrees by 6 a.m. with snow flurries on and off throughout the night. I just might get my snow day tomorrow. Too bad my boss has to go to a conference down in Tacoma… with my old boss. I’ve been told it will happen no matter what.

I still don’t like snow and cold, but I don’t mind the benefit of spending time with my kids. Okay, so it’ll probably be indoors.

I do not like the cold;
I wish it would just snow.
The temperature hovers at 32,
But will not go below.

I keep finding my car covered with a nice layer of frost in the morning… sometimes ice. The kids are on mid-winter break, and I wouldn’t mind being home either. The forecast is 35 down to 33 at 3a with possible snow. Then it’s supposed to warm up to 35 again and go back down. We might see up to 6 inches, but that will probably be Thursday afternoon… and more towards the foothills. sigh…