Winter Precautions

Well, I know we're about halfway through winter, but with the mountain passes getting closed on a constant basis lately and my own recent snow-related incident, I thought it might be a good idea remind you all to be prepared.

There's a great winter driving emergency car kit you can put together located on the WA State Dept. of Transportation site.

In hindsight, I wish I'd had some sand or kitty litter the day I slid of the road.
I had everything else, fortunately.

More Snow Camping Pix

Here are a few more pictures from our snow camping adventure the other weekend.

It was really good timing when we went, since the passes have been plagued with avalanches and road closures since then.

It wasn't our fault... honestly!

Enjoy the pictures, and thanks to Shane for taking them:

Romeo et Juliette

On Groundhog's Day, Hotness and I attended the ballet in Seattle.

This performance was Romeo & Juliette with a more modern approach to the choreography by Jean-Christophe Maillot.

The sets were stipped-down in favor of showcasing the dancers' talents, rather than relying on the visual spectacle of a heavily decorated stage.

It was very impressive, but I had a hard time accepting it as a new interpretation of the classic I was used to seeing.

Don't get me wrong! It was still a stellar perfomance by the dancers, but I saw it less as "Romeo & Juliette" and viewed it more as a new piece entirely. Also, the music was different than the previous versions I've heard before.

I'm most familiar with Tchaikovsky when I think of the music, but this one was set to Prokofiev.

In fact, had it not been called Romeo & Juliette, I probably would have enjoyed it more thinking it was something new. It was just hard for me to process what I was seeing now compared to what I have seen traditionally on stage.

Afterwards, we headed over to Pomodoro for a late dinner before going back home.

This time we skipped appetizers in favor of a main dish. Hotness had veal scallopini and I had chicken in a gorganzola and pistachio creme sauce with apricots.

By the time we got back to the house, it was well after 1:00 a.m. and it was all we could do to get into bed before falling over onto the floor.

We're just not night owls like we used to be.

Random Crap - 02/01/08 Edition

'Cause I thought it was funny, here's a baby scared by his dad's flatulence:

Baby Scared of Fart


And for you bacon lovers out there;

Bacon Earrings!

Bacon Panties!

Bacon Vodka!

.... Uh wait. "bacon vodka"?!?

Happy NGSD!

For a list of fun things you can do today, check out what Bully did last year.

"Bully's Big Day: National Gorilla Suit Day 2007"

Personally, I'm plannng on having a banana daquiri tonight to celebrate!

National Gorilla Suit Day

It's National Gorilla Suit Day!

Although the holiday is really tomorrow, I wanted to give you all a heads-up about it so you'd have time to go get your suits ready tonight.

Created by MAD Magazine artist, Don Martin, this is the day to let the world know.... well... nothing actually.

Except that you're really weird.

So let your freak flag fly and wear your gorilla suit with pride tomorrow!

P.S. Mark Evanier used to promote this day on his blog, but has recently been asked not to.

Happy Monday

Well, after such a great weekend what could be better than a Monday morning like this one?

It started to snow shortly after I got home from camping and continued throughout the night.

This morning, Hotness got up and out and called en route to let me know it was pretty slippery on the roads.

I debated whether I should attempt going into work or not, but seeing as I had taken time off last week and missed work on my birthday due to snow, I thought I'd better go in.

So I dressed warm. Packed my lunch. And headed out.

I should have known, right when I got on the road, that it was a bad idea.

But no.

I continued to drive down our hill and make it about halfway when I lost traction and started to slide.

On a hill.

Just after a corner.

I went off the road and LUCKILY did not crash into the guardrail but just barely touched it.

Knowing that this was a very bad spot to be stuck, I immediately got out and took a small shovel out of my emergency bag and tried to dig some traction for my tires.

At any moment, another car coming down the hill could have slid and totaled my car (and me with it).

A few folks tried to stop and offer help, but when they did they started to slide towards my car.

They stepped on the gas and just narrowly avoided colliding with my car.

About an hour into this mess, a snow plow / sand spreader truck came down the hill.

I had dug a few feet of road in front of the tires and the sand was just enough to get and keep traction the rest of the way down into town.

I parked the car at a grocery store parking lot and went to get coffee.

I called Hotness, who came to pick me up and take me home (and she brought stuff to work from home) where I have been all day.

Thankfully I did not sustain any damage to the body of my car, but I did manage to warp the plastic fenders on the passenger side and one of the trucks that almost hit me scraped a little bit of plastic off the driver side front fender.

It could have been worse, but what a lousy way to start the week.