1. Sorry about the blog break. The Tuesday before Valentine's Day I came down with the stomach flu and life ground to a halt. That Tuesday afternoon my mother came over to feed the kids dinner and supervise homework. I sent my honey to sleep at my parents' house so he wouldn't be exposed to my germs. Wednesday morning my mother came back to do the breakfast and get on the bus show, since I had been up all night. I think we both napped that afternoon and then she came back again to pick up the kids and all their stuff to keep them through the snow-pocalypse. Marshall stayed in the city Wednesday and Thursday night, courtesy of his employer, so he could walk to work each day. The children we re-delivered Friday morning before the delayed-opening of school so they could go back to school. Oh, and don't forget, my dad came over Thursday to use the snow blower he gave us to clear the driveway.
If you missed it, we would have died without my parents' help the week of Valentine's day. Of course, we've had so much snow in February that they are now considering spending all of February, 2015, in California, moving from house to house and they visit friends, family and grandchildren, completely avoiding NJ snow.
2. Since all I did when I was up all night feeling awful was play on the Internet, here's what I spent my time doing: sending FB messages to friends on the West coast and then, when they were asleep, in Japan; watch Olympic curling live, visit the Veronica Mars Tumblr page, watch Keith Green on YouTube. And then the next day, I watched a lot more Olympic coverage on my laptop. Because the tv wasn't exactly working. And still isn't, kinda.
3. So our television system is rather complex. Marshall built a DVR many years ago (we can't remember how long) and we've been adjusting the system every since. However, the software that runs it stopped getting official updates after the company was purchased by Google several years ago, so sooner or later, we're going to have to change our system. 2 years ago we switched from DirecTV to Comcast for both better service and price, but those advantages have slipped away. Now I have to decide how much I want to pay to be able to watch Tennis competitions and Phillies games. $150 per month seems too much.
Currently, we can watch anything on the system (nearly a terabyte of videos) but we can't record anything new. Somehow, a leaky roof after the snow-pocolypse took precedent.
4. So our roof didn't like all the snow and ice it was holding for weeks on end, so we have a leak in an inconvenient place. Marshall was able to patch it temporarily and now we have to interview roofers to see how hard it will be to repair the problem and how much more will a new roof cost. The roof is at least 15 years old and we know it will need to be replaced eventually but we really didn't want to do that this spring. But then, when is it a good time to get a new roof?
5. My new favorite podcast is Hang Up and Listen from Slate. I read most of what Slate publishes (my mother-in-law and I love Dear Prudence and the weekly news quizzes by Ken Jennings). Lots of weird stuff there, too, but still interesting.
6. The snow is melting. We had rain last week and then a warm weekend so most of the pile is gone. Of course, the polar vortex is back so the children were grabbing for gloves and big coats again today. The bright sunshine helps in that it is cheering but it also fools you into thinking it's not 30 degrees out, before wind chill.
Yesterday, we all spent time outside cleaning up trash and Marshall and I spent some time looking at the trees, checking for broken branches. It took us quite a bit of maneuvering but we got it down to the ground. Now all we need is another nice day to cut it up for pick up.
Here's the branch:
The picture doesn't do it justice. The end is about as thick as my thigh.
Signs of spring are pretty sparse around here (although my mother and I are going to the Philadelphia Flower Show next week), but I found this yesterday:
7. Before I got sick, I did get a little more stitching done:
Two weeks from today we leave for a week in San Antonio, Texas. Eeek! I've a lot to do before then.
Here's Jen.
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