Winter Bummerland

Yeah, that's right. That IS the street in front of my house. Or rather, the ice-rink in front of my house. You'll notice I'm posting at noon on Monday. Would I rather be at work right now? Hmmmm, I have one week before break, a test scheduled on Wednesday, three projects unfinished, 75 kids in the grips of Vacation Crazy...nah. Trapped in my house is way better. I'm not stressed AT ALL! Aaargh! Honest to Frank, I'm ready to walk to work!!
Tempering that ulcer-inducing cabin fever is the grin on my kid's face when she goes thundering past on a skim of plastic over a sheet of ice. Check this out:

The part that is amazing...did you see how long that run is? I kid you not, that is 50 seconds of flying. How the shite am I ever going to get to work? It's negative two right now with wind chill. NEGATIVE TWO!! That ain't ice melting temperature my friends. Sweet crap in a basket. I'm screwed!

Sing it Sister!

Day-um we liberals are funny mo-fos.

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... by Jack Black

Guess what I did yesterday? I took 75 ten-year olds to downtown Seattle to sit through a two hour ballet. Stupid? You'd think so wouldn't you. But this is such a great trip! Ok, there was a ton of help, really, a ton! Parents love this trip. But the kids adore being in the big city, and the PNB's Nutcracker is cool-looking enough to even overcome fifth-grade boys' opinions of no dialogue poncy dancing. This is my third time going and I enjoyed it the most this time. The first was all so new and I was really nervous with all the kids. The second dragged for me, but this time it just flew. I saw things I hadn't before, and was really taken by the beauty of it.I was beat tired too. The night before we had dinner with the girl's two best friends. This is picture is of them shopping in the living room. Get this. Is it possible for a shot to more completely capture these three? You have the one in the princess get-up, which she came downstairs in IMMEDIATELEY upon arrival to the house. Then there's the cutie with the glasses on the head, she was a little more surreal customer. Last, True. All business. When you play shopping, you shop for crying out loud. By the book!

Let me close with this shot.

Remember a little while ago I took that picture of White Horse Mountain? Which, incidentally, someone thinks is not White Horse Mountain. You'll never know! Anyway, this is the same place. The mountains are behind that huge cloud bank. As was the moon. I'm driving along, and from out behind that little arm of cloud, this gigantic round ball just hove into view. Seriously, do not drive near me. I am not safe.

Oh my word!

You have to help me out here. I don't know if this is as funny as I think it is, or if I just burst my spleen because I think Simon Pegg is currently the funniest man on the planet. He did a movie a while ago, Run Fatboy Run. Cute. Not spectacular, but funny. Especially if you are working through a very serious crush. This is from the press junket, some dude crashed, "on behalf of fatboys everywhere" and Simon and David Schwimmer, who directed, seriously seem unable to tell if he's for real or not. Now granted, they are actors by profession, but I seriously think they don't know what the hell is going on! I LOVE random humor. If I were in the middle of 14 hours of answering the exact same questions ad infinitum, I would pray for some crazy running fatboy to shake my tree! Their reactions as they try desperately not to offend while clearly not wanting to be suckered...gold, baby

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Wanna see somethin cool?

Have your eyes been drawn upward over the last week? We've had these crazy cool deep blue skies at sunset, with vivid purple and magenta horizons. Then a high beam bright crescent moon shining in crisp glory. For a while, right next to the white slice of lunar brilliance, these two spotlights of glimmer. Jupiter and Venus have been making themselves known around these parts a bit. The first time I saw it, I thought it had to be satellites or something like that, they were that bright. And huddled right close together. It's one of those things that just screams out what is whizzing and flaring and, most awe-inspiring to me, floating in massive silent vastness just out of sight. I adore the night sky. It's one of the shiver inducing, perspective jarring, "Wake up!!!" things I can never get enough of. Love it. Unfortunately, the light show is almost over, sinking below our horizon, separating from each other until another meeting in the night three years from now. Not even a blink in the time tables of these two.

As exciting to my girl, the tree is up! Let the festivities begin. We've had the ritual live sacrifice to the altar of shopping on Wal-Mart's doorstep, holiday sales are reportedly up despite the brutal economy...let's do this thing!

Ok, you know how I'm so crazy busy doing report cards? Well, I took a little break.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Little late, but really grateful

Ok, I'm a little late with this one. I haven't been online in two days and it feels like a decade! Weird. Anyway....

We had a lovely holiday. I am embarrassingly overendowed with good things. My family, my friends, my job...I'm really glad to be where I am. It was nice to be able to share that with my daughter, who is starting to realize what I'm talking about. She made some really cute "thankful fors" too. The first one was "I am thankful Jesus loves me." I very nearly abandoned the whole enterprise right there!

But we had a great day, all working together to make a wonderful meal, set a beautiful table with wedding crystal and the gorgeous Wedgwood china from my dadii. On a hideous tablecloth, but what are you going to do?

And of course, the topper, the turtle centerpeice. Tradition, with an edge. Or a shell. Whatever.So you gotta know...we are so very grateful for all y'all. We don't have a ton of "stuff," but we've got piles and piles of what counts. Happy Thanksgiving and the best of everything in the year to come!