Thursday, January 22, 2009

Sammie the Smelly

In my last post, I complained about the low temperatures in Central PA and mentioned that we were anticipating some "low highs." Last Friday, we reached a whopping high of 8. During this mini ice age, Sammie and I were driving in the car when a rather indiscreet noise came from his side of the car. This was soon followed by an even less discreet smell. I followed standard procedure for this situation which is to quickly roll down my window, stick my head out of the car as far as it will go, and breathe deeply until I feel the air in the car might once again be safe for respiration. As I did this, Sammie complained that I was letting cold air into the car. I complained that HE was letting BAD air into the car. When I finally deemed the atmosphere in the car once again non-toxic, I pressed on the button to raise the car window and protect us from the bitter January afternoon. What an unlucky time to discover that our car windows weren't working properly. I sat with my finger on the button for what seemed like hours as the window slowly crept up and the cold air rapidly rushed in. Sammie's usually pretty proud of his indiscretions, but his embarassment rose higher and higher as the window rose more and more slowly.
Oh. And did I mention we were sitting at the drive through window at the bank?

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

New Year's Resolutions

My sister Martha is frustrated with me for not blogging more. She "suggested" I set a New Year's resolution to blog each week. I think it's a pretty good idea, even though I've already failed by missing the first week. Oh well. I have three random thoughts to post.
1 - The weather. 10-day forecast for State College includes 8 days of snow showers. Most daily highs are in the teens or twenties. Friday's high is 8. We actually had a discussion in Relief Society about not wearing earrings out in that kind of weather cuz they'll freeze to your ears. But it's not that bad. The next week, we'll have two days where we actually get "up" to 32 degrees! I better stock up on sunscreen. (I know, I know Cath. I'm thinking about you up there in Alberta...) On the other hand, 10-day forecast for Austin, where we're moving in May, is 3 days of partly cloudy and the rest sunny or mostly sunny. Tomorrow's high will be a frigid 49, but the next week it will make it up into the 70s. I wish I could bottle up some of this cold and take it out next July when I'll be melting and wishing we had moved to the North Pole instead of Texas.
2 - My mom. Those of you who know Lori undoubtedly know her sense of humor. The Monday after Christmas, we went skiing with 3 generations of Boyers! It was awesome! Mom was there, plus a bunch of my sibs and their spouses, and Matt, my nephew. I thought it was pretty cool that Matt was skiing with his grandma. Anyway, we were enjoying ourselves on Challenger at Solitude. It's one of the steepest hills I've ever skiied, but it's well-groomed, so you just have to keep your edges and make lots of turns. On about our 3rd time down, Sammie lost his edge in the middle of the hill, fell, and slid and slid and slid, ending up as a crumpled heap at the bottom of Challenger. (I can't remember if it was that run or another one, but as we were at the top he questioned why they would name a ski hill after a space shuttle that blew up.) Anyway, there he was wadded up at the bottom of the hill and I was at the top, wanting to laugh but needing to make sure he was okay first. My Mom, skiing ahead of me, was the first one to him. Upon reaching the prone, lifeless form of my husband, she said, "I guess now's a bad time to tell you that your hat's on inside out."
3 - Martha. (This is for "making" me blog. :]) We've always said that, since the day she was born, Martha has been in charge of the universe. These days, that translates into her being a natural leader and very talented, capable, and intelligent. When she was little, it translated into her being bossy. She could stare a hole through anyone with her dark brown eyes. And she wasn't afraid of telling anyone what was what. For example, we had a family rule that you could only have two rolls at dinner. Martha would count the number of rolls guests took and inform them when they'd had too many. My favorite quote about her, though, comes from a jocular and rotund man in our ward in Toronto, Canada. (Martha was two when we moved there and four when we moved home.) He informed my mom, "Martha is the littlest person that I'm scared of."