Hooked on Traffic Cams

I have been closely following Steve and Alex's progress home from Rexburg today..through traffic camera pictures.  I looked at the roads in Idaho and Oregon...and now Washington.  If he has been able to keep up his speed somewhat...he should be nearing Ellensburg right about now.  The above picture was taken about 40 miles this side of Ellensburg.

Drive carefully.  I mean it.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adeiu...

I took more pictures, I just didn't realize I had the camera on video. 

Steve, Alex, Nathan and Rebekah left here nearly an hour ago...heading east.  East to Rexburg.  The weather is okay here - cold and overcast... but they're bound to find some snow sooner or later.  I vote later.

Steve picked up some chains earlier today...I'm hoping he won't have to use them.  I think we've only ever had to use them once or twice in the past 30 years.  Les Schwab Tires said he can return them in April if they haven't been used.  We'll see.  We'll see if we remember that we have them in April.

Getting Through

Each year, around New Year's, I like to get my house in order.  I didn't really give it much thought this year...until today.  I have been running on "get through it" mode for the past few weeks...get through the wedding...get through Christmas...get through company...get through getting Nathan and Rebekah moved...

I've "gotten through" most of the above (Nathan and Rebekah leave tomorrow)...so I'm running out of excuses.

Saturday morning the Verizon guy came out to install our new Fios system (all I know is that it involves internet and phones).  I was just going to ignore the mess in my office for a few days while I worked on other chores...but I sort of got on a roll...and low and behold, here it is Monday night and my office is pretty much done.  So is the big hall closet. Wow.

Tomorrow I plan to focus on helping the happy couple gather up their belongings from the four quarters of the house...and in the process I should be able to knock a couple more rooms off my list of places to clean and organize.  Ring out wild bells!

Speaking of Ring Out Wild Bells...we sang that as the closing song in Sacrament Meeting yesterday.  I usually hate it - it is sooo not a congregational hymn, but yesterday I must admit was much better than usual.  Sure, the congregation didn't have a clue about the words or the rhythm, as usual,but the organist did.  Brother Toy played it fast and loud - the song was fairly rolicking.  Rebekah turned around after the meeting was over and pronounced it "hardcore".  Thank you, Brother Toy.

Farewell to Christmas....

The tree is down...and while it was a pretty tree, I am happy to reclaim floor/window space.  While I'm at it, I think I will go ahead and take down most of the rest of our Christmas decorations.

Steve has already given me another major project...he tore apart my office this morning so that the new internet router could be installed behind my desk (it happens to be the most central place in the house, darn it).

I plan on focusing my efforts on cleaning up Christmas...and shall place a virtual invisibility cloak over the whole mess.  Since we don't really have an invisibility cloak, I shall borrow heavily from Douglas Adams and wrap it all in a "SEP Field" (Someone Else's Problem).  That way, even though it is still there, it will be undectable.

Cruise Control

Steve surprised me with a new sewing machine for Christmas.  As I opened the wrapping paper I was a little dismayed to see the amount of buttons this puppy came with.  It looked complicated.  Within about 10 or 15 minutes I had the bobbin loaded, the machine threaded and started sewing some test patterns.  Turns out it is pretty easy.  You can even push a button and it will sew on its own.  Cruise control.  It is pretty darn awesome.  This machine does not come close to Stephanie's fancy one - but for a point and shoot gal like me, it's just fine.

I don't plan on getting rid of my vintage Kenmore...when my sisters visit we will be able to do twice the sewing.

Christmas Toy

It may not be anywhere near the fanciest camera in the family - but it sure beats the sucky Nikon I had. 

I do like a good point and shoot camera, because that's the kind of girl I am.  I used to have a Kodak EasyShare - several years ago - that's the camera we took to Europe...but then the rechargeable battery started to get less dependable.  Then came the Nikon.  On the one hand, it's great that the Nikon is prominently featured in a song ("I got a Nikon camera...") but that doesn't make up for the dark, fuzzy pictures.

Bring it on Kodak.

Christmas Baking 2009

I was feeling a little bad about not doing any Christmas baking this year.  So I did a little today.  I made a family favorite - it's a variation on coconut macaroons.  We call them "coconut flatties".  It uses the same recipe as the macaroons, you just neglect to beat the egg whites to stiff peaks (oops). 

After that fiasco wonderful batch of cookies I decided to try another one.  These actually turned out quite cute.  Maybe even cute enough to take to the neighbors.  I made chocolate cake mix cookies, dipped them in white chocolate and then sprinkled pulverized candy canes on the top.  Those cookies along with some leftover candy canes....I think we may be on to something.