Happy New Year. I think it's just now sinking in that it's actually 2005. I have spent much of the new year working on the kitchen and it still seems like nothing is happening. Today, if it can be applied, I applied it. Plaster, joint compound, wood putty, caulk, liquid nails and more. Each one of these has it's own tools that required cleaning after each use and because I'm a slob, I required cleaning after each use. It's coming along though. I put a new ceiling in the mud room at the back door along with a light and switch. We can now see in the pantry so we can see how little food we keep in there at any time. I also took a shot at plaster repair on the walls back there. They were in very bad shape but I didn't want to mess with drywall in such a small area. I also took some molding out of the inside of one of the closets and put it down there. Nothing looks as nice as I want it but things usually seem to end up nice at the end. Hopefully this will too. The new door casings in the kitchen look really nice. Gotta do the window and the crown molding and the base and it'll be time to hit the cabinets. I guess it doesn't have to be in that order.

We brought in the new year at home watching the tube after a nice dinner out. I found myself on New Year's Eve agreeing with Rush Limbaugh and everything he was saying as I was scanning channels on the way home. I'm not sure what that means but it scares me slightly. New Year's Day was spent doing low stress stuff like riding around and eating. Right now, I'm making a pot roast with all the good stuff and cleaning the house at the same time.

Our day after Christmas snow is gone and has been for a while. The grass is green but that should change soon because the winter is on the way tomorrow. Happy 2005.

..........

I've gotten several battle scars over the last few days by hitting myself in the face and head. I've smashed my glasses into my face at least twice and hit my head two or three more times. The scabs under my eyepiece just keep getting irritated and won't stop bleeding. I also have numerous sores on my fingers just from having dry skin. It seems like they take forever to heal. I also have a purple toenail on my big toe that I smashed more than four months ago that just won't seem to fall off or do whatever they do. I decided to spare you the picture I took of it.

We spent last night at the emergency vet. I noticed blood on the snow after Kaleb peed and she had been peeing quite a bit yesterday afternoon, so a missed Saturday night and $131.00 later, she has a urinary tract infection. She does enjoy eating yogurt with her antibiotics though. If you noticed, I said the word snow. It finally started snowing this week with about three inches on Thursday and four or five yesterday. Between having a snow thrower, (snow throwers rock) and it not being articly cold like it has been the last two Januarys, this winter is actually tolerable so far. The river has always been frozen by this time but not this year. It's hard to believe we've been here almost two years, though we lived in a hotel for the first month and a half actually.

I talked to my dad yesterday. He will always repeat himself sometimes, but yesterday, he told me the same things three times. Over and over he would tell me something and as soon as we get off the subject, he would come back to it and tell me again. He just doesn't remember. I guess it was one of the bad days my mom talks about. She said she does most of the long distance driving these days while he stays close to home when he drives. I'm gonna try to make it down there next month or in March for a week or so. I can't believe it's been since June that I've been down there. For a while, it seemed we were down there every month. I'm not really homesick, I don't really have time to be. I guess it's just that time.

By the way, I changed my e-mail address for no other reason other than I am sick of spam. I tried very hard to notify everybody of my new address. If I missed you, please let me know.

..........

Sometimes the smallest things make me happy...

..........

Today I had a physical for work. It's not the most through of exams because they're only looking for the things affecting my job. They did a urine test and noticed a little blood in it. It was out of the doctor's scope to do any further testing so I have to make an appointment to see my own doctor to see what's going on. It's most likely an infection or a stone or something, but the weird thing is, as I sat in the waiting room waiting for her to fill out some paperwork, I could have almost cried thinking about all the bad things it could be. I didn't, and got over it quickly, but it was really bizarre the way I felt for just a minute or two.

..........

The temperature hovered around 3 all day Tuesday. When I tried to leave for lunch, my battery in my truck was dead. It's six or seven years old so I guess I can't really complain. During lunch today, I stopped and got another one. I got home from work, cleaned the snow from the driveway and started to put the new battery in the truck. It was dark and cold as shit and I was in a pissed off mood anyway because I've been having a hard time making an appointment at the doctor's office, bla, bla, bla. I put the battery in without looking at the positive and the negative thinking it was just like my other one. I hooked it up backwards and it let out a big spark. I was now even more cold and pissed. I turned the battery around and the cables didn't reach. They gave me the wrong battery. I'm hoping I didn't fuck up my whole electrical system. It still won't start even when I hook it up to another battery. It only does the same thing it was doing with the old battery...making dead battery sounds. Man I hope my truck isn't dead. I've also been trying to make a doctor's appointment since yesterday morning. Could I talk to a live person please who can actually help me? Not just take a message.

Minus nine degrees tonight by the way but enough said about that. It's just butt ass cold. It's finally winter in the northeast. Evaluation at work this week was really good. Now give me some more money...

..........

The high temperature was three again yesterday, it's minus eight now and we're up to a big 13 later today. Yee Haw. It struck me funny that all the local news media have caught the story of one inch of snow shutting down the city of Raleigh, granted there was some ice mixed in with it. We haven't had much snow this year, in fact it's been quite pleasant until this week. We expect between 12 and 18 inches today and tonight and when we wake up tomorrow, the streets will be basically clear except for around cars parked on the street and that includes every side street. My first blizzard warning runs from noon today to noon tomorrow.

I finally got a call back from the doctor's office yesterday and we scheduled some blood test for Monday and another appointment for Tuesday. I'm sure it's nothing but it sure is nice to finally be doing something. It's been on the back of my mind. I also went back to the Autozone yesterday and traded my battery for the correct one. My truck started and drove just fine but the interior lights and turn signals don't work. I probably blew some fuses but it was too freaking clod to stay out there and mess with it yesterday. There's nothing like working on a car with no gloves when it's zero degrees.

I have tentatively scheduled a trip to North Carolina in mid March. It's hard to believe June was the last time I was down there.

..........

Am I talking too much about the weather? Tomorrow will be the last day, I promise. Down south, if they even mention snow, the stores are packed and sell out of bread and milk every time. Here, a blizzard warning does the same thing. The store was packed like a sardine can today and there were lines at all the gas stations. I hate grocery shopping with a passion anyway. Put twenty shopping carts on every aisle and I'm ready to blow my brains out.

As bad as this week has been, I turn around from the computer and Duncan is sitting there. I love him and I know he loves me. One of the things I love about him is he gets me. I seriously don't know why. I do some strange shit sometimes and the majority doesn't bother him. In fact, he gets it. He even joins in sometimes.

..........

So long blizzard. You weren't so tough.

..........

I have pee in the refrigerator. It's in a large orange container that resembles an orange juice jug. I wonder how many mistakes have happened over the years with that thing. I have to pee in it every time for 24 hours. Carrying that around work tomorrow should be fun. I went to the doctor today about the blood in my urine and they couldn't find anything significant. He also did a physical and all the stuff was good. I just have to wait on my blood work to come back. I'm just a little worried about the cholesterol. I don't really know why because it's never been bad before. Tonight and tomorrow? ...another snow storm.

Watching American Idol tonight makes me want to go back to New Orleans.

..........

I woke up this week and exclaimed to myself, "I can't feel my lips! I can't feel my lips!" But it's OK, my lips were there. I'm glad this week is finally over. I have been to the doctor's office too many times and have had my arm stuck way too many times. All my results were good by the way and found I probably had some sort of infection when I went for my company physical a couple of weeks ago.

I bought tickets for a trip home to NC in mid March. It's common knowledge it's expensive to fly into Charlotte if there's no competition for that flight and because US Airways flies 90% of the flights through that airport, there's not a lot. Even the new "low cost carrier", Independence Air, is quite expensive. Southwest is the major carrier in Raleigh so all the flights there are always cheaper. The same US Airways flight to Raleigh that has a layover in Charlotte is a hundred bucks cheaper than getting off in Charlotte. That just pisses me off. So I'll fly to Raleigh and get the cheap price for the flight and rent a car for the week and the total for both will be less than flying to Charlotte and having someone pick me up. It's not that much of a pain in the ass since my travels will take me across the state anyway. I plan on wearing shorts no matter the weather. It's been brutal here this week getting down into the negative double digits a few times and 12 inches of snow followed by 5 more later in the week. We're getting up to 32 today. Woo Whoo!

And last, filing taxes electronically rocks. I filed last weekend and my refund should be deposited into my account this week.

..........

Ok, so the reason it cost so much to fly into Charlotte for my vacation is because it's the same week as the NCAA championship in Charlotte. Can't say that I'll be watching. Today I've been making a video tape of Kaleb for my mom because my mom hasn't seen her in a while and they've been taking care of my brother's dog a lot lately and I don't think I like that. Kaleb is supposed to be the special one.

The pictures above are from the NY snow sculpture championship we went to this afternoon. The first is my favorite. We also ate lunch at the A&W.

..........