Category: Just Saying …

We welcome Justin McEwan as the latest member of our family. Stacy and Justin were married on Friday (1/15/10). It was a great day for the families. A nice luncheon after the morning ceremony in the Bountiful (UT) LDS temple, and an excellent reception later that evening.

Justin has Scottish heritage, so he and his groomsmen wore authentic Scottish kilts regalia for the reception. They looked really classy. Fortunately, I was only required to wear a tux (the story is that my legs were too ugly for a kilt). The reception had soup and yummy desserts, the decorations were excellent.

At the end of the reception, a bagpiper played while they walked out to their car to leave on their honeymoon. The whole day was excellent, although a bit long.

The New Year started off with a mild case of a 24-hour flu bug. It was shared from the grandkids. Their whole family got it, I just got a mild case. So I spent New Year’s Day in front of the TV, with some quick trips to our ‘library’ (the small room with a personal fan). Better today, though I am still in front of the TV. Today, the laptop is in use; didn’t touch it yesterday.

Christine launched her new blog site “StickyFingerprints” (http://www.stickyfingerprints.com). Some good “mommy blogging” there, including giveaways and cute grandkid stories. Since she has five children under 10 yrs old, there is much opportunity for sticky fingerprints at her house.

Stacy stopped by this morning to get ready for some pre-wedding pictures. She tells me there are 13 more days. She could be somewhat excited. Her husband has Scottish ancestry, so he’s planning on wearing a kilt at the wedding reception. Fortunately, I am just wearing a tux.

We survived the holidays, and had lots of fun doing that. It’s fun to watch others – especially grandchildren – open their presents. And it’s almost fun extracting their toys from the boxes, with twisty (twisted?) ties galore. No Kevlar-reinforced plastic-wrapped toys this year, and no toys that required excessive sticker placement (the Barbie Bus of years past must have had 100 stickers that needed to be applied in just the right spot).

And the weather cooperated. Some snow before Christmas day (just a couple of inches) to make things look nice. It has been cold, under freezing most days and nights. There’s been a bit of fog, so all the moisture in the air freezing on the trees and bushes (and weeds in the surrounding empty lots) did make things quite picturesque.

On the ‘looking-for-a-job’ front: things have slowed down a bit during the holidays, but had a promising interview last week. Waiting for results of that one; I should know by the end of the week. And there’s a possibility of a website development job to keep me busy.

In the meantime, some geeky stuff is being done. I’ve modified a WordPress site (http://www.thebbqgrail.com ) to include a custom-written hunk of PHP code that displays “Tweets”. (A great place, by the way, if you are into real BBQ’ing, as opposed to just ‘grilling’ on the outdoor cooking appliance.) I’ve also finished a new blogging site for the oldest daughter. It will go live next week, I think.

A little bit of snow flurrying today. Just enough that I needed to clear off the driveways, but not too much at the moment. More snow predicted for later today and tomorrow. But the snow is new enough (and not very much) for this ex-California native to still think that it’s nice to look at, and not too bad to shovel. We’ll see if my opinion will change by March.

Another 4 inches last night here, although much more south of us. The result is that I got to use my almost-brand-new snow shovel on the front driveway again. Most of it is now cleared off, except for a patch down the middle between the two doors of the garage. I figured that patch can stay there, since all I need is a clear path in and out of the garage for the two cars.

The snow wasn’t really wet, so it was fairly easy to push across the driveway into piles along the edge. I am starting to give consideration for the purchase of a snow blower. Leaning towards a Toro two-stage blower. But I may defer the purchase until I get employment. I have lots of time now for the manual method, but if I start working, the snow blower would be more efficient and more useful before/after work.

The sky is clearing tonight, which means it will be colder than before. Forecasts for a low of 9F. That’s pretty cold to this once-California guy.

I mentioned on Facebook that after today’s shoveling, I was considering a snow blower purchase. A cousin (who lives in Sacramento CA) said that I should consider moving back to CA. I countered that that was not an option: it would be too far away from the grandkids. And that CA was too dysfunctional. I’d rather deal with a bit of snow.

We got a bit more snow overnight, so I grabbed my brand-new snow shovel and cleaned off the driveway. There was about 2 inches of very fluffy/dry snow, so it wasn’t too hard to clear off my giant driveway (you can get five cars parked side-by-side).

And it looks like our street is very low on the snowplow priority list. In fact, probably not even on the list. There are only six houses on our street, and two are empty. Not very slippery at the moment. Perhaps when there is more snow we’ll get a snowplow pass.

Went to “Wally World” today to grab a fiber-filled nylon jacket (they look sort of puffy). They were only $7.00, so couldn’t pass up that deal. Also grabbed a knit hat and a pair of gloves. During today’s snow-shoveling, I just had a baseball cap, and my ears and cheeks got a bit cold. When I came in, my ears and cheeks were cold. I spent a few minutes in a “Oh, No!” position (hands over cheeks and ears) to help warm them up.

More snow predicted for tonight, but the big part of the storm is in the southern part of Utah. It was a cold one; there was snow in Sacramento overnight, with a couple of inches in Auburn (elev about 1100ft). Much excitement in the old hometown. Around here, we may get another inch or two by tomorrow night, then another storm this weekend.

So far, this California transplant into Utah is still liking the snow. It is sort of pretty outside. And since I don’t have to go anywhere if I don’t want, I can stay inside and look at it from a warm house.

Woke up this morning to it snowing outside. Got almost 2 inches, then started to clear late afternoon. Still cold, high today will probably be only 25F. More snow predicted for Sunday and Monday.

I suppose I ought to think about a snow shovel. But the front of the house faces south, so any sunshine will help keep the driveway clean. Besides, both cars are in the garage. And I don’t really have to go anywhere, so can just stay home.

Worked a bit on the family wiki site. Got some pictures and memories pages finished off while watching the football games.

Really cold outside – for this California native. High today was about 30F, right now (9pm MST) is 15F. Went out to the garage to get a bottle of water, and the water was just as cold as it would be if refrigerated — temp in the garage is 44F. Quite refreshing. Supposed to be 10-30F the rest of the week, with maybe some snow by Monday.

So, the plan has been to stay inside. Didn’t get a whole lot accomplished today. Did some research on Mediawiki and Drupal techniques. Poked around the job boards, but nothing interesting available.

The advantage to staying inside today – Pam made some Snickerdoodles and Chocolate Crackles cookies. Most of them went to the grandkids’ house, but there were enough left over for me.