I've been REAL lazy with updates. The last was after the Holiday Party... Uff. I actually meant to update on a daily basis! Anyway, here's whats been up.

Snow.

Clearing Snow.

Work.

Drama at Work.

Reading! I've started the Sookie Stackhouse series- you know, the stuff behind True Blood on HBO. Better than I'd expected, even if there are WAY too many vampires. I also reread the Otherworld series, and the latest of the Jane Yellowrock series. There is a collection coming out in February with a previously-unpublished Dresden story, and in March the next Dresden novel comes out, as does the next Mercy Thompson book. Woot!

Gaming! Slow month here, we skipped this last Sunday due to plaerus nonattendus, but we finished the Western Campaign arc the run before. I'll try to get it written up before the next meet.

MMO's! I played City Of Heroes with the Going Rogue expansion for a month, and had fun. I'll prolly go back again at some point. However, I'm doing DC Universe Online now, and its a lot of fun. I had MASSIVE trouble initially (totally different controlset from what I'm used to, little bits of stupid in the game, little bits of stupid on my part), but now I think Its gonna last. IF Sony backs it like an MMO needs.

I get to clear snow tomorrow after work, which is gonna suck but shouldn't take too long.

And that's about it for now. Off to work!

About a half hour ago I got back inside from clearing snow off the roof. I had ice dams building up, and had to get the snow off them so they'll melt clear. The snow up there is deeper than the vent pipes, so I'll prolly have to go up again to make sure those are cleared as well. I'll do that tomorrow. mirrdae assisted in getting the ladder in place after I discovered that the snow rake wasn't worth a crap with the heavy, sticky snow up there. I salted the dams (screw the lawn!), and hopefully they'll break up over the next few days. I think in the future, regardless of the inconvenience, I'll clear the snow right when it first comes down. :P

Other than that, today is quiet. I'll probably shower here in a bit, and I get to work later. Yay.

I got off work and came home, and immediately went and dug us out with the show blower. Migod- done in 45 minutes! When that stupid thing decides to work, it really works! iatro finished up by shoveling off the front steps, as I was fried by that point. Right now I'm doing laundry, and as soon as this first load is in the dryer and the second is in the washer, I'm going to bed.

I'm sore now, and I'm gonna be more sore later. Oh well- I made a good breakfast at least. French toast and sausage links with orange juice.

I got the snow blower around front, and the sidewalk is done in front of my house to Monroe St. and up to my door. I also kinda dug out some around my car, so I could move it to the back where the snow is far shallower because of the clearing I did earlier. I'll note that even with my blowing it out and the front-end loader that came through, th3e alley has around 4-6" on the ground, not counting the ridge the loader left.

I do love winter, but I REALLY loathe having to do the cleanup. It truly sucks with no help.

We've gotten about 5 inches so far, IF Northeast Minneapolis has gotten the same as southern Hennepin. I suspect we've gotten more than that. We're supposed to get between 9 and 16 inches before midnight, and its also supposed to go negative temp before 8 PM tonight I'll be digging ups out later this morning, even though I'll prolly have to do it again tomorrow morning. Bleah.

They've NOT declared a snow emergency (which triggers parking restrictions for plowing that vary from day to day over three days), but there is NO way that they won't before midnight. So likely tomorrow will be parkways and alleys, Monday will be Even sides of streets, and Tuesday will be odd side.

I'm awake now because the carbos and booze coma'd me out after I got home from the restaurant, kinda as was easily predictable. It was worth it though. :)

I just hope my remaining deliveries can get here, if they're due today. At least I get my white Christmas!

I crashed last night around 3, and woke up at about 6:30. There's a fair bit of snow out there, and in a few hours (when people here are awake) I'll go out and use the blower to clear the back. After that, I'll either shovel out the front or see if I can't recruit someone to do it for me. In the meantime, I've started on the first editing pass of the novel; mostly I'm making some notes on the printout and thinking about how to expand things. There are a LOT of little bugs and odd bits that fail to precisely fit, so this is going to take a while.

Also... I think that my cough might not be my asthma. It was STARTED by the cold and the asthma, but I think I've got a touch of acid reflux. I have a slight burning sensation at the top of my stomach, and the coughing happens even if my breathing is utterly clear. So I may go to the doctor about it, after maybe trying the over-the-counter version of prevacid. I'm not throwing up in my sleep or anything, so it might be just some damage from all the coughing... Which causes more coughing. Biology sucks, sometimes.

Other than digging out and editing and such, I may do a little housecleaning as well. Plus I really need to get some actual sleep- I do work tonight after all.

I've been utterly unambitious of late, and I've gotten very little of the things I need to do around the house and otherwise done. I need to paint the garage doors, prime and paint the windowframes (can't do it til we determine what we need in terms of primer and such), vacuum the front and back rooms and my bedroom, rearrange the furniture in the front room, and a bunch of other general chores. I also need to get the synopsis for the Sunday game done, and I have something I need to do at work as well that I've been putting off.

Its not depression or anything, I just haven't DONE it. I've been feeling kinda blah, and I think it has two roots- my lousy sleep of late and the fact my allergies have been driving me crazy. Regardless, I'm going to get it ALL done this week.

... My addiction to City of Heroes hasn't exactly helped either. :P

Other than this, I've looked into fares on the Megabus to Chicago. Migod, it's cheaper than the taxi fare from Union Station to the hotel! $40.50 ROUND TRIP!! Wow. Guess how I'll be going to the con! Now all I have to do is get the money for the convention together...

Finally, I plan to make fried chicken thighs and mashed potatoes this week, probably Tuesday or Wednesday- I need to get buttermilk tho.

Last rambly bit- my car is having issues again. The antilock brakes have some kind of problem, so Dad his it to work on and I have his til its fixed. Its safe to drive, but the brakes are standard with the problem rather than antilock. O well.

Well, on Wednesday I talked to the folks on the phone and was informed that dad and my brother were coming out today (Friday the 4th) to work on my garage doors. I hadn't expected this, and while I DO appreciate the volunteered labor I don't like them just working on stuff for me. Between my work-hours and being tired a lot, and frankly being lazy, I don't get nearly enough done around the house as I should... And I feel bad enough about it without them coming and doing it for me. So, I kinda resolved to be up when they got here to at least pull some of the load.

Of course, I slept like crap. They got here at the crack of 9 AM, which was about 2 1/2 hours after I crashed. I'd been figuring noon or later! Anyway, as I'd not really been asleep anyway I heard their arrival and went down to help. We got both doors stripped of the old paint, vacuumed up the dust, swept out the garage, tossed out a TON of crap from the garage and made a lot of progress.

Now... As I'd totally spaced warning mirrdae and khirsahdrgn about this, and I didn't do anything myself about it before we got started, Mirr's car and Khir's motorcycle got dusty. REAL dusty in the case of Mirr's car. I put the cover over the motorcycle before it got as bad as the car. With pretty much everything else done, I'll be hosing it down later today to get the worst of the dust off, and I'll give each of them $10 or so for the trouble; it WAS my fault that I didnt' warn them, after all.

And now, its almost 3 PM. I'll paint tonight sometime, either before or after fireworks. Its a quiet job, so I can do it when I damn well please. :) The tentative plan is for me and ataramos to head to Keegan's Pub, hang out there for a while then walk to the Stone Arch Bridge for the fireworks, then head home after. Possibly we'll catch a midnight show of 'Hancock' but that's in the air.

The garage is (compared to the way it USUALLY is) SCARY clean. I also got my brother his birthday gift, and dad took my car home to look at whatever is making the horrible grinding sound. Likely its bad bearings.

The trash bin is FULL, too... This is bad, cos we still have trash upstairs. I'll try to mash it down later.

Yay! Now its reassembling the room, putting crap away and steamcleaning the traffic areas of the rugs. And mowing the lawn. Bleah. And getting new blinds. O well. Saturday will make it worthwhile. :)

This morning I took mirrdae to the airport for his trip. Originally, I had thought his flight was in the evening, not the morning, and I'd planned to use the morning to clean the bathroom; so much for that. I got back from the drive and DID manage to get the last boxes moved to their semi-final resting places, and had breakfast. After that and a little time on the net, I crashed.

I didn't get up till about 7:30 PM. So much for getting things done today. The carpeters will arrive between 7 and 9 AM, and I'm debating just what to do- I have to do the grocery run for the party, do some banking for Mirr, and I STILL have cleaning to do. Bleah.

O well, I'll get it done. I just won't LIKE it.