Power Back Up and Running

We finally got power back this afternoon.  Normally the power being out for a while doesn't bother me, but when the power, and thus heat and hot water, goes away on days where the high temp is still below freezing isn't my idea of a good time.  All I can say is, thank goodness for generators!  We had several  friends and family members offer to take us in for the duration, but with three unruly dogs, one cantankerous cat, three mice, one evil rabbit and two beta fish we figured we were better off staying put.

We settled in for the long haul by hooking up the generator under the back porch (to lessen the noise) and running extension cords up through the deck and into the kitchen window, which we then sealed off with masking tape and plastic.  We have a 5000 watt generator so we were able to run both fridge's, the freezer, the tv, the Wii, two laptops, two lights, one space heater and a few other things as needed.  One little space heater wasn't going to cut it for the entire house, so we settled into the living room and put plastic up over the doorway leading to the rest of the house.  It worked brilliantly!  The  living room stayed at a nice 65 degrees while the rest of the main floor was around 50 degrees and the upstairs bedroms around 42 degrees.  We still slept in the bedroom and kept really warm up there due to our awesome bed and mattress.  The issue was getting out of bed in the morning...brrr...talk about a wake up call!

Wednesday wasn't too bad.  We had only generator power, but we still had our cable modem for Internet usage.  By the time we woke up Thursday morning the cable was out as well.  So no tv and no Internet.  Luckily the TiVo was hooked up so we had tons of stuff to watch. But there is only so much tv one can watch in a day.  And no Internet - gasp!  What did we do before Internet?!  I thought I was going to lose my mind.  I was actually excited to get back to work!  Luckily the power came back on about 2 hours before I got home from work today so it was already almost back up to normal temp...and I got to take a shower!  Ahhh clean and warm.  Life is good.

Brrrr!

So we got this nice ice storm yesterday and we were doing pretty good until this morning.  At 9:45am our power went out.  It is now after 10:30pm and still no power.  Worse yet, the word is it could be 7 - 10 days before they get it restored due to the 475,000 homes without power.  All I can say is thank goodness for generators!  We sectioned off the main living room from the rest of the house with plastic over the door to the kitchen (and thus the rest of the house) and powered the living room for the lights, tv, laptops and a space heater.  The plastic is keeping the heat in the room - though the rest of the house is freezing!  I think I'll be sleeping on the couch tonight for the sake of my appendages staying intact.

Our office closed today, but I'm sure we'll be back in business tomorrow.  At least there I can get warm, assuming I can make it out of my driveway.

A branch of the maple tree in our front yard - this is pretty much what all of our surrounds look like, with an inch of snow on top:

Yup, Snow!

Wow, it actually happened!  We got about 4" of snow.  We're now getting a nice layer of ice before the next 4" comes in.  Got out of work at 2:00 today, too!  Happy birthday to me!  :D

The sparkly view from my front porch while waiting for my truck to thaw out this morning:

Got Snow?

Looks like we will after tonight - possibly 10 inches of snow and ice by Tuesday evening for the Kentuckiana area.  I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

The Twilight Saga

About ten minutes ago I finished the fourth book of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.  I really
had no intention of reading them.  But the week of Christmas I took Portia and her friend to see the Twilight movie.  I was going to drop them off to see Twilight and then head to see something else on my own, but the girls talked me into seeing it.  I'm usually not into the whole vampire thing, but Portia had already read all of the books and knew I would probably like it.  So due to curiosity and the diminishing occasions where Portia actually wants me to be in her presence, I decided to give it a shot.  And then I was hooked.

After we got home I immediately asked Portia for the books.  I was in the middle of reading one of my book club books, and since I can't read more than one book at a time (personal affliction I have), it was well into January before I got a chance to start the first book.  Within about 20 days I finished the entire saga - all 2,560 pages.  I'm not a slow reader, but I'm not a particularly fast reader - I just couldn't put them down (much to Jason's dismay).  Plus they are in the "young adult" category, so a fairly easy read.  Now I'm reading the beginnings of "Midnight Sun" online, the Twilight book rewritten in Edward's perspective.  It's not complete, but it's interesting to read from a different character's view point.  If you're interested, you can download the PDF from Stephenie Meyer's blog.   (Go to the end of the first section of the page - right before the first horizontal line - and click on the link that says "Midnight Sun Chapter 1".)  It's a 246 page draft of what she was going to publish.  Her blog explains the reasoning behind not publishing it, as initially intended.

Now after reading the books, I'm interested to see the movie again.  I believe I read that it comes out on DVD on March 21.  Twilight party, anyone?  ;)

Site Theme Change

If you are reading this, and if you are a regular blog reader here, then you have already noticed the change in site theme. I tend to change my themes often, but I wanted a theme that I could better personalize with my own photography, but still have a clean feel to it and have an additional column to work with.  So voila! All the header images are made up of my own personal photos and randomly rotate on refresh.  They are mostly my wildlife and pet shots, as those are my favorite subjects.  :)   More will be added as new favorite shots are acquired. It's actually the same theme I use for my PetResearch blog, but configured a bit differently.  I have a few other changes to  make, but this is the bulk of it.  Enjoy!

Work, Work and More Work

Wow, it's been a busy week.  Work has been hectic, stressful and crazy for the last week with no end in sight.  I'm reaching major deadlines for my day job and for my side business and it's really keeping me on my toes.  We've gone into mandatory overtime for the next two months for a project implementation at work  and I'm struggling to catch up with another deadline for one of the Mesker side business projects.  On top of that I have two agency visits this week to Eastern Kentucky, which means another over night trip (had one the week before last, also).  But at least it should be interesting - it's a part of the state I've never been to before and I plan to take my camera with me for some sight seeing opportunities!

Luckily we got to go hang out with some good friends last night.  It's amazing how a few hours with good company can de-stress the body!  I love my friends!

On a side note, we just launched another blog project this week...sort of a pet project (no pun intended!) call PetResearch.net.  This is a joint effort between Jason and I to publish some of the research we've done over the many years each of us have had animals and pets.  It will range anywhere from the average household of dogs and cats and span out to pocket pets (rats, mice, gerbils, etc) and also going into wildlife rehabilitation and capture and release tips.  It's still work, but it's a break from the everyday work that both of us do, to an extent, in that we really have a passion for it and enjoy it.

And on that note...it's back to work for me!

Rats and Cats (Video)

My friend Jenn sent this YouTube video to me the other day and I just had to post it!  I have so many rat owners that read my blog that I know it will be appreciated!  I sure do miss having pet rats.  They are so much fun and so curious about everything.  They really do make great pets.  For more information on keeping rats as pets check out my RatPalace site for tons of information.  (Note: Not all cats get along with pet rodents - please take care in introducing different animal species!)

Spring in January

Welcome to Kentucky - where if you don't like the weather, just stick around for a few days, it'll
change!  Here it is, the beginning of January when it's usually beginning to hit the bitterly cold temperatures, and I'm sitting on the screened in porch with my laptop,  in my pj's, drinking coffee, blogging and listening the birds chirping like it's a nice spring morning.  At 9:00 am it was 59 degrees.  The only thing keeping it from being warmer is the overcast skies that will bring in the thunderstorms later this afternoon.

The dogs are getting a kick out of it, too.  When it's nice like this we leave the back door open so they can come in and out as they please.  I think they spend a lot of the day going in and out just because they can!

Yup, my kind of weather.  Anything to be outside and I'm happy!  So if you're in the Kentuckiana area, get outside and enjoy because snow is in the forecast for Wednesday!

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2009!  It's going to be an interesting year.  Portia turns 16 in a couple of weeks, Jason is working for himself full time and I'm vowing to get in shape - and am actually going to do it this year.  Business is booming, friends are plentiful and life is good!

Speaking of friends, we had a great turnout for the New Year's party last night.  I think we had about 30 people in the house.  It's been a while since we've thrown a New Year's party and we had a blast!  The night went so fast, as it always does when having fun.  We slept in until 9:30 this morning, cleaned up from the party aftermath and are focusing the rest of the day on vegging out and relaxing - a rare occurance for us.  I'm relaxing so much that I changed out of one pair of pajamas in trade for another pair of pajamas!  Can't beat comfort.

Some other miscellaneous updates.  Jason has started his new finance blog called Understanding Finances.  This is something he's been wanting to do for quite some time and I'm glad he finally got it started.  Also, Emily, my mother-in-law, started her own blog for her wonderfully delicious recipes.  You don't want to miss out on the Marvelous Recipes blog!  Both blogs are highly recommended...no bias at all, nope.  ;)

All the Mesker critters are doing well.  Pip the mouse is growing, but still isn't big enough to go in a cage.  We have discovered that Pip is a girl, so at least we can stop calling her s/he.  She prefers to keep to herself for the most part and mainly comes out at night to play and eat.  She's a bit intimidated by Hazel, one of the pet store mice who is the biggest girl in the cage, but I think in time they will get along just fine in the long run.  I can put my hand in the cage now without freaking them all out too badly, so progress is being made.  I hope to have more photos soon.

That's my update for now.  Happy New Year to all!  I hope 2009 brings you much peace and happiness.