Lindsey
12/31/06

Well we had a full day of sledding today! Amanda, Ryan, Tristen, Teghan, Little Ryan, and me and Liv all went out to the big hills up at Kahoa and went sledding, then went over by the new house looking for hills but no luck so we went to Braeda's for lunch! Really good! Then Sean met us there and we went for more sledding and then Dad came up and did some sledding with us. A few of us attempted to try and snowboard down the hill on those disc sleds--that didn't end so well and Amanda has the videos to prove it! Lot's of cool pictures though! Had a blast!

P.S Max LOVES the snow!!!

I was a little surprised, too, but I am a state employee after all. Thanks, by the way, for the Day 25 book on Roman art and architecture. I've read through quite a bit of it already, and it has really brought back some memories -- a great many of the things featured in that book I saw, in person! Yeah, it has been a little quiet here since Christmas -- everyone is playing with their toys, I suppose. :-) --Gary

I got word a few days ago that the campus will be closed on the 2nd in honor of Gerald Ford, meaning I get one more day tacked on to the end of my Christmas vacation.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Emily had her wisdom teeth removed yesterday. Didn't take very long at all and it went very well. She was pretty goofy for a couple of hours and we all laughed at her trying to eat (drool). Took a couple of pain pills and went to bed early, she should be doing much better today. Hope to go to mall to spend some gift cards this afternoon. Brent had a home project going yesterday. Had some water damage in the entryway -- it happened quite awhile ago, but then he got and sick and it got forgotten. So first thing yesterday he started to tear down the wall. Had it all fixed and drying before the day was over. I will need to paint in there, but not any time soon. I did take down the tree and most the decorations yesterday. Hadn't planned to do it so soon, but the the dust coming from the construction, I thought I may as well.

Marsha, I don't remember which cookie I requested, but I do remember the marshmallow-topped chocolate cookies. Yum! I also remember helping to make them once, and my task was to cut the marshmallows in half with a pair of kitchen scissors. Sticky. Those cookies must have been a real pain-in-the-neck to frost....

Party was ok, but not a huge success this year. Only six or seven guests showed up. Last year we must have had forty people come by, maybe more -- and lots of great food. This year we had a couple of desserts, and several variations on coleslaw. Luckily one of the people from my office brought a crockpot full of those little weenies in barbecue sauce, or it would have been all vegetarian. (I brought potato chips, sun chips, and dip.) We speculated that, because of the threatening weather (which never materialized), a lot of people either left early or stayed home. But we kept the tradition alive for another year. --Gary

OH, and I LOVE the picture today, LOVE the falling snow!

Thanks; and thanks for the countdown Home Makeover item. --Gary

I've got less than two days to go: finish out today, all day tomorrow, then on Friday we've agreed to shut down at noon. We just now had our "Stragglers and Survivors" party: Every year, in this last week before Christmas when almost all the students and professors and everyone else have fled, we host a pot-luck lunch in our library. (Which, if you haven't seen it, is a really nice big room.) Anyone who is still here in the building is invited to attend, with food or not, and we take a long long lunch hour. It has become a tradition people look forward to (they tell us). And it's always well attended -- even though the building feels empty, we always get a good crowd.

On the second page, the Alamo-cam had been frozen for like a week now. (I finally realized that one guy had been standing there for a looong time...) So I put in its place a cam overlooking a street of shops in Meersburg, Germany. Enjoy!

P.S. Also on the second page, I put in a new cam from Osijek, Croatia, in place of the Snoqualmie ski-slope cam which had also been inactive for a while.

Karen, glad you got the boxes. Yeah, I'm working from home today and the freezing rain better start soon or I'll look like a wimp for not driving in. So far all we've had is the rain but the temp is 33 so it could turn any time. And tomorrow more rain and snow. Teghan will be so happy to see it snow. ;-)

I think staying home was a good decision, based on what we were hearing last night. Early this morning, one of the local news channels sent a reporter to a truck stop near Lincoln to interview drivers coming in from the west. One trucker said, "Find yourself a hole, and pull it in after you." What I'm hearing now is that it is supposed to stay above freezing most or all of today, and possibly get nasty tonight or tomorrow. Got enough hot chocolate to get you through another day...? --Gary

Same weather expected here. Donna said she will probably take a snow day, but no such luck for the University (me) -- most students and teachers are already gone! --Gary

Gary, there's stuff with your name on it too. I'll bring it over tonight.

Woo-hoo! (I'll take the one with no tag!) The Minnesota parcel (from us) arrived in Eagan, MN, around noon -- should be in your house tomorrow. And the Sioux City shipment is in Sioux City -- that could be UPS at the door right now! --Gary

Marsha, I tried calling yesterday to tell you I forgot to include some stuff in your box. I just mailed it from work and they said you should get it by the end of the week -- coming via USPS. Hope you like them. ;-)

Forgot to mention that your box was delivered to my office the next day, and that night I had a bed-night snack of tiny bread and hot chocolate. And also the next night, except with the spiced cider which was in that day's package. Thanks! ("Tiny bread," as you have probably gathered, is Tristen's nickname for those little pumpkin and pear loaves you made, and we've all adopted the name.)

We shipped boxes to Sioux City and Minneapolis on Saturday. Sioux City, expect yours Tuesday or Wednesday; Minneapolis, Wednesday or Thursday.

And one week from today is Christmas day!

And for another item from the memory vault, who can forget this -- from six years ago today:

from Amanda Amanda lets out in Amanda and talking to the right now Amanda and moonlit headset from America Online to read this in the theme and so fine you can see if trying to get the package working lower to as my speech really bad I must not be able to talk very clearly in because everything that put on the screen so far is no accident is no accident?, that Beth F.to him and that sitting without them to west Lithuania and horse cattle cattle cattle cattle cattle smitten with like snake like inning Amanda and Ryan augmented and they lived in Omaha that had a daughter named Justin no named Justin Tristan is I. as to be in his every minute of this is every bit as it is informational they. 1 and a melancholy tonight on on that bad that the part that I have a money, will Monte Carlo Staten Island juveniles 1993 GMC in 1500 second on baths sitting on baths sitting on our programs sitting on a grown twenty inch wheels sitting on a pile from twenty inch wheels that wide-eyed guidelines on the wide-eyed and media and beady eyes his eye behind me at his beady eyes behind his eyes behind me behind me behind me behind me behind me behind me behind behind me behind behind me and presently in front of the president in front of me in front of me into and to answer to answer to the

Yeah, that is the issue -- I meant to mention that before. I don't have a front porch, just a sidewalk visible to the entire street; and a locked front door shared by up to six apartment-dwellers. So I wouldn't really want them to just leave a box by the front door. And people do take stuff: Part of my job is sending out testing materials to people who will examine and review them for us. I recently sent a test kit -- valued at around $1000 -- to a reviewer whose UPS guy (I found out later) just left it at her front door. Weeks later she wrote me and asked when I was going to send it.... --Gary

Not a problem, really. Ideally, after I get the first sticky, I can call UPS and have them re-deliver the package to my office the next day -- which is what they will do tomorrow. The tricky part is you have to call them at just the right time, for some reason (after delivery is attempted but before the truck comes back to the warehouse), otherwise they try to deliver it to the same place the next day. Or, you can call them and have them hold it for pickup at the warehouse the following day. Anyway, as I said, I made the call and they will bring it to my office tomorrow. Woo-hoo! :-) Thanks much! --Gary

Aarrgh! I can't get mine til tomorrow, when I drive over to UPS to pick it up. I hate UPS! It's great, as long as you stay home all day; if not, they come when you're gone and leave little stickers on your door. I want my Tiny Bread! :-) --Gary

Ooooh Tristen, I have my very own tiny bread.

Really quiet at work again today. The estimate I heard is there's about a third that's still out sick.

Or Mer- E. Coli...? --Gary

Merry Christmas, ho ho ho! Just like Rudolph. Umm. Clowns that hurt their selves & bite. Ummm. Trees don't fight & trees like kids, people, dads & the computer food. And trees like kids, moms, dads, people and trash cans, yup. Daddy has a saxophone in the umm... what is this called again? Mom? A case for saxophone stuff for my dad when he was born. Umm.... People click food, yeah that's funny. And people click CD's. Zoe just click her kitty litter. And zoe clicked her tail. Umm... You just clicked your coffee. Umm... Charlie Browns Christmas cookies. We will see you on your birthday, think they will have corn again? --Love, Tristen Bailey Metcalf

Excellent! Thanks, by the way, for Days 9, 10, 11, and 12. Love the Simpsons miniatures -- never seen them before! --Gary

Thanks, Karen, for Days 5, 6, 7, and 8! I always wanted one of those little hand-held fans. And the cocoa this morning really hit the spot (see above paragraph).

How's everybody doing on Christmas shopping? Not so well here. After having no ideas for a long time, I finally found three different items online that I wanted to get. Ordered them. And was notified by email last night and this morning that two of them are back-ordered and won't arrive til sometime in January. Nertz!

Karen, thanks for Days 2, 3 & 4. This is so great! :-)

And thanks, Karen, for the Day 1 gift (a talking dashboard Homer)! Getting to the bottom of this bag is going to be fun! :-)