He made me an Elf.

This is what Daryl does on his day off. I really need to find him something to do.


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Merry Christmas and Happy New Years everyone. Tom and I would like to give you a Christmas dance!!! Check it out at :

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1481725198

the 15th of December

The snow has started to fall again this morning. At least it isn't ice. Last night I got the SUV stuck in the driveway, that is until I put it in 4 wheel drive. We have this big ice hump at the end of the driveway. The snow plow always piles everything back up after you clear it off. This last week, with the ice we never did get it completely cleared. Now we will have snow on top of it again.

We picked up our living room furniture last night. I found this set on the buy and sell sight at work. This guy was getting a divorce and moving to a new house and needed to part with his leather furniture. It turns out his house was right across the street from my friend Jeff's house. I think this furniture fits our living room a lot better. The other furniture we had is really too big for the room. Now we have to find someone to buy the other set.

Book Club:

Book club meeting was held at Danial Arthur's on 3rd Ave Thursday night. The food was great, but the service kind of was slow. I think when they automatically add the gratuity the server doesn't seem to work as hard. Why would they when they know they are going to receive a tip no matter what they do? The service wasn't that big of deal, as we had a good time exchanging books for Christmas and discussing next years plans.

The Christmas Train received a 2.4 rating from us. We try to pick a holiday themed book to read, but it seems that we struck out again with this one.

Ice, Ice and More Ice

The storm coated everything with a thick layer of ice. I think it looks very beautiful. To bad it is so very destructive to the trees in an older neighborhood. I was glad that when I got home I didn’t find any branches in our yard or driveway

We lost power for about 6 hours. Most of that time I was at work and it didn’t affect me very much, because we never lose power at work. After getting home from work, I helped our neighbors with clearing some of the ice off their sidewalks. They had our half of the driveway cleared off and I thought that was super nice of them to help us like that. When I finally got back inside to the dark house, found the flashlight, candles and the matches, the power came back on. Perfect timing!

Daryl has been off on his annual family deer hunting event. Normally he would have been home every night, but with the icy weather, he has been staying with his parents. He got his deer on Monday. They hunt all week until they get the total number of deer for the tags they have. As of today, they still have four tags left. I'm not sure how they get around so well with all this ice all over the ground.

Great Start this Morning.

You know it’s going to be a bad Monday when you don’t miss the bus, but the bus misses you. Yeah, it went right by me without stopping this morning! I guess I should have jumped up and down instead of just standing at the bus stop with my arm out?

So, I catch the next bus and get to the door at work and realize I don’t have my badge to get in. I had to walk down to the other end of the building to find a guard. It has to get better, don’t you think?

Listen to what they say

With the Iowa Caucus on January 3rd this year we have been inundated with phone calls about events with the candidates and who we will be supporting. Oprah Winfrey was in Cedar Rapids yesterday and after getting home late from my niece’s wedding last night, we had a message that Bill Clinton will be in Iowa City On December 5th. It seems every day one of the candidates are in the area on both sides of the political spectrum. Living in Iowa all my life, it seems kind of funny, I haven't ever had the desire to participate in the Iowa Caucus before. It just seemed a little intimidating to me. I always felt you had to be a hard core political member to attend the event. This year I'm thinking that my voting in the main election isn't enough. We have seen that frightening people to the polls is all it takes for a fundamentalist nut bag want-to-be dictator to be elected to two terms as president. What will it take for us to wake up?

I have always been politically aware, but apathetic when participating in any political events other than voting. I am a registered Democrat. This has not always been the case. For many years I had the Independent label. I didn’t vote for President Clinton the first term. Of course, I am glad that Bill Clinton was elected. The first Bush was a totally different president than the current Bush. At least he had the common sence that we didn't need to invade the country to change its government. With the fundamentalist Christens taking over the Republican Party, I found that my home was on the side of the Democrats. It just seemed that I was more represented and welcomed.

Clinton and Obama are my two top picks. I was disappointed that I couldn't attend this last Oprah/Obama event, but family always comes first. I have been to a Clinton rally and I am impressed by her. I think she would be a good president if she is able to get elected. Well, who wouldn't after what we have? The only problem I have is all this anti-Clinton crap that will be rehashed again. I don’t really understand the right wing hate mongering fest they have with her, but it is a fact that we have to deal with. If Obama could clear the air and bring back some rational debate about moving the country into a sane path without rehashing all this red state verses blue state shit, I for one would welcome the change. I’m tired of feeling that I am some evil person for wanting the same rights as other Americans and that being gay means that we are not moral people and have no value in our country. Romney and Huckabee are the two Republican candidates that disturb me the most on that side. A president should represent all Americans not just Christians. It perplexes me that Christan's who have a overwhelmingly majority in this country somehow feel that they are under some an assault is beyond my comprehension. Fear, fear, fear. We are frightened of everything and most of it is just ignorance and prejudice .

Last week I was watching a program about the presidential libraries on PBS. Bill Clinton made a statement that really kind of made me think. He said that he believed that most people running for office are honest people that want to change government for the better as to their idea of better. If you listen to them they will tell you what kind of government policies they will try to implement and they do what they say they will do. We need to listen to them even if we get tired of all the commercials and phone calls. It may be a pain, but the consequence of elections are real. Hopefully,we have learned this lesson with this current President.

Grumpy Old Men

Shoveling out of our snow/ice storm reminded me of this movie that I love. "Eat my Shorts!" If you don't like it. LOL

The Tree is Up

Daryl's family moved up their family tree cutting weekend this year and I didn't get to go. This year and it fell on the day that I always help Jeff decorate for his Christmas party. I was finished over there just in time to help him unload our tree. After seeing the tree that Daryl picked out this year, I think I should have been with him to help. He went a little over the top with getting a tree much to large for our house. The angel is scraping her poor little head on the ceiling this year.

No gifts under the tree yet.

The lights and stockings are up around the fireplace (I wish we could get the fire working). Cole is checking out the decorations in the lower left of the picture.

Daryl went shopping for the grand kids already. The bags of gifts will sit around until about a day before they come over for the holidays and then he will stuff the stockings and wrap the gifts.