A Very Special Weather Statement

The last few days have been gorgeous, sunny and warm. On Friday we stripped down to t-shirts and felt the sunshine on our arms. In January!

I'd heard there would be cold weather moving in on Monday, so I looked up the forecast. Here is a Special Weather Statement issued for our county. I love the first sentence. It almost feels like comeuppance.

Issued by The National Weather Service
Denver/Boulder, CO
4:43 am MST, Sun., Jan. 30, 2011

... YES IT IS STILL WINTER...

BITTERLY COLD AIR WILL DROP ACROSS NORTHEAST COLORADO MONDAY... BRINGING THE COLDEST TEMPERATURES WE HAVE SEEN THIS WINTER. TUESDAY WILL BE THE COLDEST DAY OF THE WEEK... WITH TEMPERATURES STRUGGLING TO GET ABOVE ZERO. TUESDAY NIGHT MOST LOCATIONS IN EASTERN COLORADO WILL HAVE LOWS BETWEEN 10 BELOW TO 20 BELOW ZERO. SNOW WILL ALSO DEVELOP BEHIND THE FRONT... WITH THE HEAVIEST PERIOD OF SNOW OCCURRING MONDAY AFTERNOON AND MONDAY NIGHT. SEVERAL INCHES OF SNOW WILL BE POSSIBLE... ESPECIALLY ALONG THE FRONT RANGE FOOTHILLS AND PALMER DIVIDE. THE RUSH HOUR COMMUTES FOR MONDAY AFTERNOON AND TUESDAY MORNING MAY BE SEVERELY IMPACTED.

Polar bears smash the spy cams - Polar Bear: Spy On The Ice - BBC One

Resolute

I've been making a concerted effort lately to exercise regularly and often. It isn't a New Year's resolution which are too often temporary. It is more a gnawing realization that, here in my middle age, something must be done and I'm the only person who can do it. I don't want to pay for a gym membership, and I really prefer to work out alone. Part of the attraction for me, in exercise, is doing it on my own. It is a sort of meditation for me. Winter in Colorado complicates things. The cold and snow and ice keep me off of my bike, which is how I would prefer to work up a sweat. I love to be outdoors and notice all the critters, the seasonal changes, etc. But riding even just 10 miles per hour means a 10 degree wind chill, and when it is only 40 degrees outside (or colder) my desire for it dies.

Consequently, I've been cooped up and sluggish and fat and ooooolllldddd. Which is wearing me down. BUT!
I have found some fun, challenging, and free (!) workout videos to stream from Netflix through my Roku and I can now say that my groove is in sight. Thanks to these yoga and pilates-inspired workouts, I'm pleasantly sore all over my body, suddenly really aware of my inner thighs, hamstrings, triceps and neck muscles. When I sneeze, my abdominals hurt. But the strangest place to be sore has to be the muscles between my shoulder blades. These workouts really do work EVERYTHING.

p.s. Ellen Barrett, if you're out there, {{crush!}}.

Nightmare Revisited Overture (DeVotchKa)

I love love love this. The Nightmare Before Christmas turned 15 years old back in 2008 (wow. let's just take a moment to let that sink in.) and someone put together a tribute album to the Danny Elfman score. It is a tribute to how uncool I am that I'm just now finding out about it.

Junebug & I are totally going to do this for Science Fair.

And by that I mean she will do it and I will document it, of course. Because it is her experiment and not mine, her grade and not mine. Even though I already decided this will be the project, without any input from her. But once I described it to her, she was stoked. Luckily for me.

new post in which we win Parenting!

This morning, as Junebug made her bleary-eyed way into the kitchen, I pointed to her and said "Hey, you."
She correctly replied, "I know you, I know you!". See video, at about 1 minute, 29 seconds in.

arrangements

We re-arranged the furniture in our living room to accommodate the Christmas tree. Now the tree has been taken down (I've left up a string of lights, though. They cheer me so.) and the room is more or less back to the new normal. 

Sorry I don't have a proper "before" photo. The one above was shot long before we had the red and gold cushioned bench, which used to be on the wall below the large canvas but is now by the window.

We really like the new arrangements so much, it uses the light from the windows to much greater effect. 

I wonder if we will ever have curtains. Turnip prefers the windows bare, the better to perch on the loveseat and growl at cars, people, birds, squirrels, etc., down below. During the holiday rush, a nice UPS delivery man left Turnip a little gift. Isn't that so sweet?

Happy Birthday anyway.

How the hell can A. R. Rahman be one year younger than I am? He has been successfully composing music for what seems like most of my adult life. Jeez, some people are such annoying over-achievers.

budding photographers

The new food pornographers? Both girls got real grown-up cameras from Santa. After I made my birthday cake (yes, I was born on New Year's Day. No, it isn't that much fun.) and I brought out my camera to snap the cake, the girls ran to grab their cameras. What has Santa wrought?