Fun With Dry Ice

I've been suffering the various stages of a cold for the greater part of the second half of December. It's a drag and I'm ready to be done with it. We hosted Christmas at our house this year and being sick wasn't in the plans, but I think I did a pretty good job of handing out a lot of the food responsibilities ahead of time, so there wasn't too much for me to do. Plus, the family of course jumped right in to relieve me of having to do too much. And Jim was a super-star in getting the house ready which is usually my biggest stress.

But even with the sickies it was a pretty nice Christmas and wonderful time spent with family.

One of the gifts I was most excited to receive came with an early notice. Around December 18th or so, we had a message on our machine saying that someone had given us the gift of Omaha Steaks and that they would be delivered on December 23rd. I have never had Omaha Steaks, but have heard they are good and Jim and I love to grill meat! So I was super excited and anxious for the 23rd to roll around. I later learned that my mom had received the same call. So we tried to guess who it could be from that would be giving to both of us. Jim eventually guessed that it was my sister, Susan, and that is indeed who they came from. Thanks, Sis!!

So the day of December 23rd arrived and I came home from work feeling icky but hoping Jim hadn't opened the steaks without me. Well, he hadn't even discovered them on the porch so we broke into it together. Once we made room in the freezer and stored it all away, Jim really started having fun.

You see, what we have here is a piece of dry ice. Dry ice is about 100 degrees below zero. Dat's pretttttyy c-c-c-cold! No TOUCHY!!!


Now, you put said dry ice in a bowl of water...


...and the fun really begins.


It's so simple, yet so fascinating at the same time.


Double, Double Toil and Trouble;


Fire burn, and caldron bubble.


heh heh heh...


We had lot's of dry ice and Boy Scout Jim said it couldn't be thrown in the trash.
So....
More Witches Brew!!!


We're so easy to amuse. :)

Gratuitous Cat Photos

It's time for the fuzzy children to shine for a little bit. Sophie and Bailey, I think, are two of the cutest cats I have ever owned. Many have endeared my heart as I have had cats my entire life. And Isabo was definitely very special to me and could never be replaced. But these two rascals are everything that is sweet, funny, mischievous, cuddly, stupid, irritating and down-right lovable about cats.

Here is the first picture Jim and I ever saw of them when we first heard they needed a home. I ask you, how can you not love those faces? For those of you that have met my cats, can you tell which one is which? Can you believe how blonde they used to be?

Bailey is on the left (stripes) and Sophie is on the right (raccoon eyes).

The next two pictures were also sent to us to see what these babies looked like. You can see their markings are already darkening a bit. These were kitties that were rescued by a friend of Jim's (he's the cat whisperer).

Bailey was quite the proper cat from the very beginning. Those sphinx eyes are pretty awesome. I also think his tale looks so much like the markings of a snake.


One thing that just cracks me up about Sophie is the way she lays with her legs extended. It looks so goofy and makes me laugh. You can sort of see her tail - it is shorter than usual as she apparently had the end bitten off before she was rescued. It's got the cutest little kink at the tip.


She had her legs extended here, which was why I grabbed my camera, but I wasn't fast enough before she moved. So instead I snapped away just trying to capture the two beasts.

Sophie can look a little dopey at times.

And Bailey's a momma's boy.
With a face like that? C'mon!!

Jim has started to describe Bailey as the proper prince and Sophie is the chick from the 'hood who just lets it all hang out. Decorum is not her style. Demure is not her name. In this photo above you can get a taste of this in one shot.

And let's just not talk about the rolls in her neck.
(Diet starts in the New Year, right?)

I think it's called "Winter"

I've been fighting a cold all week and feeling pretty lousy. Even though I laid pretty low over the weekend, I just couldn't get better. I finally decided to stay home from work today, rest and maybe get some work done as well. I drank a couple mugs of hot cider to pacify my yucky chest and cuddled with my kitties.

We had a pretty good storm system move through this past weekend and the second system made its way to us today. Now, I personally LOVE the rain. The biggest flaw of where I live is the low ratio of rainy to sunny days. I love the smell of rain. I love driving in the rain. I love how beautiful the snowy mountains look after a rain - which, by the way, did not disappoint yesterday! Today's storm was almost constant rain all day and lots of blustery wind.

Just before one o'clock today I laid down for a nap. Sophie was already tucked beneath the covers and Bailey snuggled in once I was settled. The heater had been working hard to keep the house warm and I was aware of how quickly it was already turning back on as I closed my eyes. But then...it turned off. Very strange to have such a short spurt. At the same time, Bailey kinda jumped up and I thought I heard a beep from the office. I looked at our cable box and the lights were off. I turned on my bedside lamp and it was a very dim brown and it was flickering. All the lights did this when I turned them on. But nothing else had power. We do tend to get occasional power outages at our house, but they never last long. I went to sleep expecting the power to have returned when I woke up.

Wrong.

AND, the house had cooled five degrees in the one hour I was asleep. The heater couldn't work and neither could my electric blanket. I called the electric company and they were aware of the problem but had no time estimate for when it would be fixed. I was freezing and it was only going to get worse. So I packed up and headed over to my parents' house so I could thaw out.

It wasn't until 9:00 pm that the power company finally said the issue was resolved. I called my answering machine to confirm, and sure enough, it answered me. So I headed home. However, when I got home there was a message from my mother-in-law at 7:30, so apparently the power had been on for at least a little while already.

I checked the house temperature and it had dipped to 60 degrees. That is way too cold for my little toes. I like the house at a nice toasty 70 degrees (or 68 when Jim is home).

But it's good to back home and warm.

Hooray for Dr. K!

Today was my next follow up liver appointment.

You may recall my troubles with Dr. Stupid-Head. Well, when I got my confirmation for my scheduled appointment, I was informed the appointment was with Stupid-Head. So I called to change my appointment to make sure I could see Dr. K. - - Mr. Wonderful; Mr. Nice; Mr. Knowledgeable.

He's nice.

I've spoken with him on the phone but haven't actually seen him since February!

No big news to report today. My liver numbers are about the same, just slightly higher. I had gained some weight since my last appointment and since my medication is based on weight, Dr. K upped my meds to hopefully bring the numbers back down. I've already started losing weight again, so hopefully we can bring the meds back down soon too.

I go back in three months and then we'll probably talk about the wonderful procedure which shall go unnamed. Stupid-Head said I should get it done every year, but Dr. K is okay with every two years and the last one was in June '07. See? We like him!