I hear you, Sistah. Boise's inversions are just as bad. However, it's snowing now! Yessss!!!!!! It hasn't snowed in more than a week, and most of the snow in my yard is gone, for the only reason I have snow still is because my front yard faces north; most of the yards in this town that face south have NO snow left.

I got (most) of my Christmas tree taken down--the ornaments and other decorations were taken down and put away. We will put the the tree away tomorrow, and my house is semi-clean. (We found places for almost everything we acquired yesterday.) ...and, as I'm typing this, I'm viewing Monty Python's Flying Circus streaming onto my TV via Netflix (by way of my NEW Blu Ray player)!

After I left my mom's house, I went over to a good friend's house and visited with HER family for a while. We've been friends for 17 years now, so it was really like visiting my "second" family. Then my mom stopped by to see my friend, and she was very excited: she actually went and woke up her oldest daughter so my mom could visit with her! #lol# (She said, "you don't understand, your mom is like my second mom.") THAT made me happy.

Christmas made me happy! I was very excited that I got everyone presents they enjoyed! All my hard work (earning the money to pay for the gifts) didn't go to waste, for sure! My sweet baby niece made me super happy this morning, watching her open presents. Soo sweet.

38 and pouring. The forecast says tomorrow's high will be 36 and it will be snowy. Hopefully, it's not 36 while it's snowing, because we need snow, dangit. ...and I just read elsewhere that it's supposed to rain, but snow OVERNIGHT tonight.

^Yay! I'm on Christmas Break. Or, as the more PC people call it, "Winter Break." It's Christmas break for me.

Last year, I wasn't able to buy gifts for my loved ones for Christmas because I was student teaching and totally broke. THIS year, I was able to buy gifts! I bought a ton! They're all wrapped, and I have maybe three or four more to go, (small ones to even up the amounts I've spent on everyone)! Yay me!

38 degrees, rainy. I miss the snow.

...and again, I'm even happier now than I was when I posted that last one. I upgraded my (NEW) Macbook Pro's OS to Snow Leopard. In July, I bought a new printer, computer, router, the works. All we need to do it literally replace the CPU for our desktop computer, and we have a brand-new computer system. Well, when I upgraded to Snow Leopard, the printer would no longer work. I called and called and called customer support, Apple wasn't returning my phone calls after the first call in late October. I did a software update tonight, and viola! My printer works now! Yessss!

Officially, I've got only three more people to buy gifts for. I bought my niece a lot of stuff (educational toys and books), my sisters both got a nice pair of fleece pajamas, and my mom a set of baking dishes that she REALLY wants. I'm hoping to get both my sisters something else, I need to buy my stepdad something, and I need to buy for my boyfriend. I'm happy though--the stuff is ALMOST done! I'm also baking goodies for my night school kids. Tomorrow is the last night before Christmas, so I thought I'd make them some goodies tot take home. I only have ten students, so it's not going to kill me.

That's what I was going to say: it's been about 40 all day here, but last week it was -20. This is a difference of SIXTY degrees! It's raining here, which with the snow, has made the roads a mess.

I sarted reading Taming of the Shrew with my night school class tonight, and it looks like it will be a hit. They're engaged, yay!

I read the book, which was written by Jon Krakhauer, long before it was turned into a movie. I've seen the movie, but the book is much, much better.

^I think we're going to go out to play today. We haven't talked about it, but I just have a feeling. We got MORE snow last night. I'm sure the ski resorts around here are LOVING it! It's nice and bright outside now, which is why I love snow in the winter. If it's got to be cold (23 degrees F), it had better be nice and bright!

Awww, thanks!

It's not an issue for me anyhow, Charles. No fireplace here.

24, light snow and fog! Yesss! I love snow in the winter! It makes me bundle up and just sit by the windows!

I figure if it's so cold that I have to wear a coat all the freakin' time, it had BETTER snow! Some of the neighbors have wood burning fireplaces. I wish we had one. Not just a fireplace, but a WOOD burning one. I love the smell of pine wood burning in a fireplace. It's so cozy.

We've had about 4" of snow today! Yess!

Nice! That would be an awesome gift! I think that's a great idea. I'd much rather have ONE large gift I wouldn't buy for myself than a lot of smaller ones that I would. Happy belated birthday! Today, I subbed at my favorite school. I always work with these kids, and I love them. I showed them two movie clips from A Christmas Story because they haven't seen it, (they're all immigrant kids). The scene with the tongue on the pole and the "I can't put my arms down!" scene. A lot of these kids are from Iraq, Afghanistan, Nepal and India, so they don't know the cultural references really well, but they were laughing.

^I think we got about 2-4 inches on Monday. According to my Accuweather plug-in on my Firefox, it's 14 degrees outside and sunny. There's no light outside--it's totally dark.

2 freakn' degrees out there! It's supposed to be -17 tonight! I'm going to bed, damnit! It's freezing!

She's adorable, Hotplant! My niece turned 1 last Wednesday. She's such a blast!

Congrats, Hotplant!