Things to during "Winter Storm 2010"

So if you're stuck in the house today because of "Winter Storm 2010", which, I have to say, is better than being stuck in the office, and if you give up on trying to actually accomplish meaningful work, here's a little entertainment.

The Gary England Drinking Game - while I'm not advocating actually taking shots as the instructions direct, because as The Lost Ogle points out, you will soon die of alcohol poisoning, this is very funny. Maybe you could make it into a bingo game. Or eat M&Ms instead of taking shots. And of course, you have to be an Okie and familiar with our very own millionaire weather man to think this is even slightly amusing. ( I bought one of those shirts for my niece. Yes I did).

From this blog I was highly entertained for about 8 minutes. "Curb Mining" was very popular when we lived in Bulgaria. And in Bethany for that matter!

Blu Dot Real Good Experiment from Real Good Chair on Vimeo.

Visit the home page of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and catch up on their podcasts, play the Daily News Quiz game, or find out Harry Reid's reaction to the State of the Union address at Wait Wait Don't Blog Me .

Or you could do something old school like read a good book or take a nap. Just don't plan to go to Starbucks. They are closed indefinitely. They closed at 10:00 a.m. so their associates could get home before the weather got really bad. Where do the associates live? Texas? Seriously, they could have waited to close until 10:30 so I could have drown my irritation at my boss for calling me to say we were working from home today AFTER I was in the office already. But no, all Starbucks are closed. So don't go there hoping for solace. Panchos Liquortown, however, is still open and very busy.

28 years of wedded bliss.

I have not excuse for falling off the bloggy wagon so much here lately except that life has hit me upside the head with a two-by-four, effectively knocking any creative thought right out of the overloaded brain. Survival is the goal for each day. There has been no excessive TV watching, no leisurely thumbing through a decorating magazine, no reading of summer novels. Nope. Because none of those things would work up a sweat, forcing me to change clothes three times per day, or just let the sweat-soaked panties dry on my aching body, leaving me chilled and wishing I'd brought a change of clothes. I can handle a sweaty shirt, but it's the sopping undies that make one miserable in this 105 degree heat. And unlike when I lived in Arizona, the heat here in Oklahoma is definitely not a "dry heat".

In the midst of all this sweatiness (are you still reading, or have you moved on to a less graphic representation of life in Oklahoma in June of 2009) - so, aaaannnyway, in the midst of the sweaty moving of the aforementioned in-laws, of the sweaty house renovation, of the sweaty everything involving moving off of the couch, Mark and I celebrated our 28th anniversary. In style. In Ada.

Don't be so judgy. Ada is a lovely town. I had to work there on Saturday, which was our official anniversary. And since I work for a non-profit and we have pretty much been doing the community serving thing as a family for about twenty of those years, Mark thought nothing of coming along and spending our anniversary serving the good folks of Coalgate, just down the road, forty miles or so, from Ada.

The thing I love about hotels is that you can crank the AC up (down?) to a decadent 52 degrees and lie shivering happily under several layers of blankets without worrying about next month's electric bill. I know. That's not a very tree-hugging thing to say. I should be more concerned about the environment, global warming, blah blah blah. Don't be so judgy. Sheesh. It was 105 degrees outside where I had been working all day in the service of humanity. I can't be responsible for the state of the ozone every waking moment!

We stayed in Ada an extra 24 hours just to bask in the coolness that was the Ada Holiday Inn Express, away from the naggy to-do list that awaited us back home. After 28 years you take your celebrations wherever and whenever you can get them.

I'm back home and ready to tackle the long list of things to do to get this house on the market. Anyone want to buy a much loved and renovated cottage in Bethany? Today you can take it as-is for a steal of a price. I'll leave you the to-do list under the magnet on the fridge.

Blizzard 2009. Or not.

I'm in for the day, folks. It's not because of the half foot of snow piled outside my window. Because, as Mark predicted, that just didn't happen. Mark is a weather curmudgeon. If Millionaire weather man Gary England or the 4-Warn Storm Team are interrupting local programing for an important weather advisory, with their big logos and tense, attention-grabbing music, Mark is sitting on the couch mumbling "it's gonna miss us" under his breath.

Which is good I guess, when it comes to dire warnings about bowling ball sized hail or ten feet of snow in March. OK, I exaggerate; and usually some part of the state gets pounded as predicted. Just not always us. Mark pulls up the weather map and watches the radar and the direction in which the storm is moving and makes his own prediction for Bethany. Angela still calls him some mornings to ask him what the weather will be for the day so she'll know how to dress for playground duty. Guess he's shown more reliability than the television weather dudes.

Did I ever tell you about the time we were in Galveston waiting to board a cruise the next day? We were considering a sunset walk on the beach and I wondered aloud what time the sun set. Without hesitating he answered "7:12". Oh, OK then. Let's take a walk. He just knows weird things like that.

If a sport involves a ball and there are also numbers involved, his brain absorbes the stats like white on rice. I'm sure he has the entire NCAA March Madness bracket in his head, easily moving winning teams into the next slot without benefit of paper. It's a phenomenon.

But he can't remember that Monday is trash day. I just don't get that.

Fun with Tornadoes

Weird when so many whom you love are in the path of one of these freakishly random tornadoes. With Angela stuck in a windowless room in an elementary school full of sweaty children, Tessa hunkered down at the university, Mark in a hallway holding babies from the daycare in his building, and me and the dogs unexpectedly at home, it gets a little crazy. Gotta love Twitter and text messages. Even when phone calls don't go through, texts usually do. No one gets anything productive done!

Like most houses in Oklahoma, ours doesn't have a basement. After having done remodeling work in the original part of the house, I'd say anywhere there would be a safe place. The old lathe and plaster walls are like cement. The contents of Tessa's closet are now flung into her room, just in case I needed to take cover. Usually we go to the local church for shelter. It has a roomy basement and opens its doors in severe weather. The trick is always whether to go or to stay. After the 5th sounding of tornado sirens I finally gave up and went to the shelter.

The place was crawling with well dressed elderly folks. Well, maybe that's not a good word. Swarming? Overrun? Apparently there was a funeral. They all started toddling en mass out the door. Walkers, wheelchairs, slow walkers, all heading out into the storm while the tornado sirens wailed. Did they not hear? Were their hearing aids turned down? Did they seriously think they could outrun the storm? Are they just that stubborn? A few decided to head down the stairs to the basement. At one point I was trying to decide if I could catapult over the slow moving crowd if things got hairy, or if I should actually pick up that tiny lady pushing her walker, toss her over my shoulder and run. Fortunately it didn't come to that.

Ah life in Oklahoma. My heroes of the day are the teachers and principals who spent hours stuffed into smelly small spaces with wiggly children. Not my idea of a good time.

Make the world go away

I don't want to go out into the cold, icy world today. I want to stay snuggled up on my corner of the couch with a cup of coffee, reading blogs and forgetting all responsibilities. Wait, I just described my dog's life. Well, except for the coffee. I'm pretty sure she reads blogs when I'm not home.