First Week on February 2011

Monday had one of the strangest beginnings I've ever had. I woke up, got ready for work, and headed out on the east side of the subdivision, I was planning on going to Bucky's on 370. I came up over the hill, and in the middle of the intersection, that I had to stop sign for, was a garbage truck, two garbage men, and pickup truck. I hit the brakes and nothing. The road was sheet ice. I had plenty of time to react, and managed to get the car into a snow bank. I scared myself pretty badly though, and went home and stayed home ... too dangerous out there.

I mostly played video games all day, not a productive day, but no one was killed by my car, so it turned out to be on the plus side. In a related weather note, VK had to drive Kristie down to Bellevue to get a four wheel drive truck, and on the way back, they stopped in and I made dinner, chili, curried rice, and a fresh salad. Kristie left, and VK and I played Dance Central.

Tuesday Snowmageddon 2011 continued, but it was snow, not ice, and I got into work just fine. After work, I went over to VK's and Kristie, her, and I played Settlers of Catan, VK won. I got fed in the process. The drive home was not as pleasant, but not as bad as Monday morning. By Wednesday morning Snowmeggedon 2011 had ended, and really, the Omaha area got missed mostly. I got up early to shovel, but Merinda already did half of the driveway. I did half of what was left, and then went into work. I guess getting up early didn't agree with me, I went to bed pretty early after work.

All that good rest must have done my body good, Thursday I was in a ridiculously happy mood. Everything was sunshine and roses. After work I met VK at Peony Park Hy-Vee and ate. It was a short meal because Thursday night is bowling night. It was the only thorn in my day, I bowled quite badly, a 346 series.

Friday during lunch I got my driver's side front tire fixed over my lunch "hour". Jensen tires took an hour, so obviously I took longer than an hour. Later in the evening, I was on the clean up crew for Jitterbugs, so I went to the dance. We had some very funny moments in the bar, sorry, can't relay it here. After the dance, surprise, we went to Alvarado's.

Saturday was Merinda's big day planned for Mount Crescent. We were going to go tubing, but when we got there the tubing was horrible, so they had us do this thing called zibobbing. It's a minisled, about 18 inches wide and 30 inches long with a big handle on it. They hauled us up the chairlift, and we walked down a bit, and then road these things over about 1/4 mile long and 200 foot drop in elevation. They were really fast, snow flying up in your face, feeling like you're about to wipe out the whole way down. So in other words good times. I probably had ten runs, I did not take my camera, but the scenery was beautiful: big snowflakes, little wind, temp between 25F and 30F, and a pretty view looking back at Crescent, IA, I'll remember it for a while. You may be able see James video of the experience here, it's on Facebook.

Unfortunately, so will Todd. He had a wipeout and blew out his MCL. I felt pretty bad for him, it was at least a spectacular fall. Jillian also had a close encounter with the snow, I'm sure you can read about it on her blog. The worst thing I happen to me was ripping a huge hole in my rain gear. We had about 90 runs between all of the people there, and we had one and a quarter injuries. Despite the couple of bad things, I would do this again. It was a hoot.

Sunday was a busy day. First up Mass Chaos, I learn something new every week. Saint Matthew in Bellevue meets in the school gymnasium. After Mass we went up to Culver's as a group, but there was no where to sit, so we ran over to my place and ate in the basement.

Next up was the memorial for Bart Wormington. It was only a couple months ago that I went to his wedding with Margaret, six weeks later he passed away without any warning. Matt did a fabulous job on a video slideshow from Bart's life, he used (with my permission) some of my pictures, and it really brought it home to me when I saw pictures that I took of Bart. He was a good guy. Hugs to you Margaret, you deserve better.

Next up was the Superbowl party at CJ's. I mostly did not watch the game, I ate, drank, socialized, and played games. During the game, we played Endeavor, and after the game we played a game called Telestrations that led to much laughter, it was kind of a mix up of the telephone game and Pictionary.