Sharon asked me to make her a cocktail so I came up with a new one inspired by the Negroni.
I might call it "Colby Dreams of Italy"
Cold and more cold. Spring officially arrived last week and it snowed. We had a hint of spring the next two days and then it turned colder again. I saw my gold fish when the ice melted and no longer covered the top of the pond, but then yesterday morning and this morning there was a new layer of ice on the pond. Yes, it was thin, but still ICE.
We are now expecting snow tonight and the temperature dropping to 16° and then warming all the way to 29° on Tuesday then slowly warming to the 40s and perhaps as high as the 60s on Sunday. Can you see how I am tired of this? Update March 26, 2014. The pond has been ice covered for three days now and yesterday morning we woke to one inch of snow. It is now 11:00am in Glen Ellyn and the temperature is a balmy 25°.
Cat pictures of the day. Every morning Shelby has to lick water from the shower by pushing his head around the corner of the shower curtain. He usually manages to get both his head and his tail wet which he then shares with us but rubbing up against us. He also has to be on the sink when we are using. LC will sit on the edge of the sink occasionally, and will drink from the water glass placed on the sink for them, but she is much nicer about the whole bathroom water issue. Other cat owners will understand the cat/human bathroom interactions. You are never alone in the bathroom with a cat or a toddler.
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| Shelby in the tub |
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| Shelby behaving |
Brady and Kathy visited last weekend. Kathy was here for the Shamrock Shuffle walk/run. We got to spend some time with Brady while Kathy was in the city. We had a nice, though sort visit.
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| Sun through the snow |
Sometimes snow can be pretty. One of our last snows came down wet and clung to the trees. Then after the snow the sky cleared and the sun and blue sky was beautiful against the snow. Our official snow totals this year indicate just over 80 inches of snow for the season. this is the second or third most snow since Chicago record keeping started in 1885. This has also been one of the coldest winters on record. Brrrr.
I smoked ribs today - this first time using the smoker since last fall. There is still snow on the patio but I can get to the grills and smoker. If I've done this right, this You Tube video shows you my secrets. I haven't done anything like this, except for some short ukulele and kazoo videos. This is a long one and was a learning experience! All done with my iPad.
I just got back from a visit with my opthamologist. Her first question was "Are you ready for surgery now?" I think I am, because three years after chemo the cataracts are not getting too much worse but they are bothering me. Thank you steroids! NOT.
I am bummed about the whole thing. First, that I did not have cataracts before chemo. Second that because of chemo I have cataracts. Third, I need cataract surgery. And fourth, I have to go without contact lenses for at least two weeks before they can do some measurements on my eyes. I am thinking that the last of these, two weeks or more with glasses is the worst. I feel my vision is best with contacts and I am uncomfortable out of the house with glasses. The doc checked my vision and I am legal to drive with my glasses, but still legal to drive and comfortable and confident to drive are different.
On the positive side, when the surgery is complete it is quite possible that I will only need glasses for reading. Because I have worn glasses for 64 years and contacts for 50 years, this will be life changing.
But, there are risks. I have short eye balls. This increases the risk of hemmorage and blindness as a result of the surgery. Research is in order.
I am drinking bourbon to help digest and cope with the situation.
Two blog posts in one day may allow me to keep up with January's good start.
We've pulled the plug on our land line phone and ported the number to a cell phone. Recently we decided to leave AT&T after many years for both land line and cellular use. Our service with AT&T has been very good since we switched to iPhones almost three years ago. But T-mobile promised to reduce our monthly cost for cell service and provide unlimited data service and much better voice and messaging pricing in Europe. Even though we may only be in Europe a few weeks to a month a year, this is a nice bonus with T-Mobile. We are using one of our old iPhones for our home service and this is costing us only $10 a month versus the $45 a month the land line cost. Sweet. And, I purchased a device from Cobra, a PhoneLynx BT215 that allows us to use our old home phones via cellular. This is a neat device, I connected it to the cell phone via Bluetooth. Now we can call out and receive on the old handsets. A year of so ago I cut the cable and put an antenna on th house for TV. We still are wired for Internet access, I don't yet have an option to replace that.
Sharon and I now each have an iPhone 5S. A little longer and a little lighter than the iPhone 4 with some nice touches - like Siri and the touch ID. The camera is said to be better but I have yet to use it. The screen quality is better - more pixels? Sharon and I both think the sound quality during calls is better.
Enough with phones - on to SNOW! Yes, it is snowing again. Right now we have big, fat snow flakes coming down in Glen Ellyn. It is March 5th darn it! Enough with the snow and the cold. I don't want to go outside and shovel it or drive in it. I just want it to go away!
Did I mention Brady's third birthday in a previous post? No? Shame on me. We went to Davenport to join in celebration of Brady's third birthday. Everyone had a great time, especially Brady. Kathy put together a very nice little party and made all of us feel welcome and comfortable. I made margartias with my 1,2,3 recipe (1 part fresh lime juice, 2 parts orange liquor, and three parts tequila, add a little agave nectar to taste, throw in some ice cubes, pour and serve.) Kathy brought in Chik-fil-A to eat and bought an awesome cake!
Enough cold. Enough snow. Enough winter. Enough already. As of this morning we have had 23 below 0° days in Chicago. And, with this weekend's snow we are up to 62.1" of snow for the season. We are promised a warmup to as much as 32° in the next week or so but the wether pattern that has produced all of our cold this winter may well continue into March.
The saving grace for me is a higher number of days with sunshine than we normally see in a Chicago winter. Today for example we have loads of sun and blue skies. Ice and snow is melting on the south facing roof and we have fantastic icecicles. But right now, 3:45 in the afternoon it is a whopping 10° outside.
BRRRRRRRRRR!
The sky opened up and it started snowing late yesterday afternoon and it is still coming down. Looks like about six inches here and I am done but the snow isn't. We seem to be done with the system snow now and are getting lake effect snow. We are due for more snow this weekend. And that one, as this one and the last one, are followed by plunging temperatures. This is a winter for the record books.
I am taking a break from blowing snow. There is so much piled at the end of our driveway it is hard to blow snow over it - and it is slowly blocking the end of the drive. Bless Carl for doing the sidewalks in our block, that made it a bit easier. I did Linda's sidewalk and stopped and had a nice chat.
Shelby ran out the back door a while ago. He looked at the snow and realized there was no escape and headed back in. Sometimes he does the right thing.
Yesterday and the day before I sat in our back room and watched activity at the bird feeder. On both days there was little activity early in the day, but by midday there was much activity. Late yesterday, around sunset, the bird activity peaked the feeder and the snow pack underneath was very busy. This morning in the snow, there was a squirrel on the feeder but no bird activity. Are they just hunkered down? I will be, but U have more snow to blow and shovel. Later.
