Where's the Snow?

Didn't the Farmer's Almanac kind of promise me a real winter this year? I'm seeing right now that it snowed several inches in Vegas, but here I'm sitting in a dreary 40ish land without any flakes in sight. We've had a few little flurries here and there, which is often more than we can say here in central Virginia in December, but I'm geared up, both literally and figuratively, for some real accumulation. Bring it on!

It was a lovely, lovely morning. I got to sleep until 9:30 without any small people kicking me, having a fight about TV show choice, or urging me to listen to their stomach growl. Schoolwork was done rather promptly, and in Walter's case, before I even woke up. He's one motivated guy these days. Ollie, not so much.

It was a provocative reading day. We finished _The Higher Power of Lucky_, and talk about a conversation-provoking read for a book club. Beyond the infamous use of the word "scrotum" beginning in paragraph 2, here's a book for 9-12 year olds about, surprise surprise, a girl whose mother has died (have we read any books this year where the mother wasn't dead? It's not just for fairy tales anymore...) in a rather horrific way, whose father has abandoned her, and who is left to be reared by a quirky Guardian. We get to hear all about her mother's remains--pieces of bone--and AA and Gambler's Anonymous and Smoker's Anonymous. There is a 5 year old who discovers his mother is in jail on drug charges. Hey, what's not to talk about with this middle grade novel?!

We also read a picture book about a Catholic schoolgirl who is harrassed on her way to school in Belfast. This is precisely the kind of book up Ollie's alley.

Played Johnny Money again and ended with $40 million in business value at the end.

Went to Inflation Nation for a few hours. What an amazing concept--adults can sit down for pretty much the whole time and the kids make themselves scarce. At one point, I looked into the giant inflatable 18 wheeler and Ollie and a friend were saying something about taking hostages. I just love boys.

Walter practiced with the rest of the band for his concert tomorrow night. I think they had to axe one song from their lineup, which is unfortunate.

Wrapped 14 gifts tonight. I'm in love with the Scotch pop-up tape thingy that you put on the back of your hand. Alas, I ran out of little tape strips, so my wrapping party came to a quick halt (yeah, I could have used normal tape, but where's the fun in that?).

The van was officially pronounced totaled today. We're only getting $1750 for it, but I guess that's better than nothing. And think of all the good we got out of this--thousands upon thousands in debt! Seriously, I do love driving the Prius and appreciate its current cleanliness. Kerry reached his goal of 50 mpg yesterday. I prefer to actually look at the road.

I'm wondering what Wintergreen is like right now. Ollie's annual predictable gift is a lift ticket, and we usually go sometime in February, but this year it might be nicer to go sooner rather than later. I think Kerry is going to go this time, and I'm a bit jealous. I haven't seen the 2-packs of tickets from Costco this year yet, and I haven't been organized enough to check into whether there are any special offers from Wintergreen itself, especially ones that might permit us all to go together and sleep there. Unfortunately, my strongest memories now of these ski trips are of the throbbing headache I inevitably get every time I go. There's so very much something wrong with me!

The outrageous time on my clock right now reminds me that I need to go and prepare for my class tomorrow morning. Ooops.