Snow art

Can you tell what these are? They don't photograph very well.

Snow in Raleigh!

It is beautiful!






More pix here.

Excitement 'round these parts

From the National Weather Service:

Precipitation is expected to begin as a mix of rain and snow this evening... transitioning quickly to all snow overnight... continuing through Tuesday. Storm total snowfall is expected to be at least two inches across the area... and could reach four to six inches by Tuesday evening in some locations.

I asked a coworker what HVAC company he uses, and called them today. I got a machine, probably because they are closed due to MLK Day. So, likely no heater appointment tomorrow. However, the above news may indicate I get to stay home anyway!

In other exciting news, another coworker (Jace) sent out an email this morning offering up stray puppies for adoption.


Seems a daughter of a coworker of Jace's wife (could you follow that?) found them and is trying to find homes for them, but all the "adoption centers" have said they're full. She is even willing to pay for the first vet visit and first round of shots! I have already emailed to follow up. If it happens, it was meant to be! They look like they're gonna be big boys, but last weekend I was watching the Doggie Day Care at Petsmart, and I was so drawn to the Great Dane, it makes me think a big dog would be a Good Thing.

Dis. Gus. Ting.

9am, 86 degrees, 70% humidity. Yuck.

It's supposed to reach 100 here in Raleigh on Saturday and Sunday. The high for Santa Clarita this weekend? 82, with max humidity of 32%. Then in London, we're looking at highs in the low to mid 70's. Can I just say? Good time to get the heck out of Dodge.

This is how much it rained yesterday:

I left this glass sitting out Saturday night and all day Sunday just to see how full it would get. Looks like it was a nice good soaking for the yard. Free of charge. I likee!

Kuh-rayzee weather

One look at my inbox and you can tell it was a busy weather day:


Winter's like, "I'm cold," and Summer's like, "I'm hot," and Fall is like, "I'm perfect." Spring is the rebel of the family, the one who refuses to be labeled. Spring's like, "Hey, check out my flowers, aren't I pretty?" but she'll turn on you in a heartbeat, and show off her bag o' tricks.

One day, it's sunny and 80 and everyone breaks out the flip flops. The next, there's a frost warning threatening the strawberry crops. And then today, Spring had a tantrum. Warm and muggy air, hail, rain, and glorious sun all within 30 minutes. Here's a look at my gutter this afternoon:


My back patio was also temporarily flooded during a downpour, sending dirt from the shrub area all over the cement and brick. My poor, newly planted weeping willow was really quite thrashed; thank goodness for the supports that held her up.


And the hail did its best to beat down the freshly planted petunias, but I think they survived pretty well.


I must mention that all the landscaping improvements were courtesy of my dad, who came over on Thursday to mow my lawn. It was, shall we say, a tad on the overgrown side. I'd never mowed a lawn before, and he was going to show me, but then before we knew it, it was time for the housewarming party, and the lawn was still unmown. So he offered to do it for me, because he's such a great dad.


He also planted the tree and petunias, as well as installing an adorable little solar light. He's the best!

More Wintry Weather

The Triangle takes the threat of snow seriously. The forecast called for a "wintry mix" all day, and by last night all the school systems in the area declared they would be closed. So it was kind of funny when I woke up this morning and the ground was bone dry! I went into work an hour early so that I could get there before the snow started falling, and on the way the flurries started. It was so cool to see the snow blowing around on the road. At first I was puzzled by these strange lines that I noticed on the ground, but then I realized it must be that brine mixture that I heard about on the news.


I also passed by a snow plow sitting on the side of the road, and the local CBS affiliate's van pulled over with a reporter broadcasting live. I felt a swell of pride that lil' ol' Raleigh was so prepared for our version of "the worst," even if it never came.

By 9:30 the snow was coming down pretty good, but I doubt the plow ever had to spring into action. There was decent accumulation on the vegetation, but not much on the street.


I know this is a very trite observation, but falling snow is so beautiful. For so many people, it's as normal as rain, but it's still a new experience for me so I get excited by it. Days like today I am grateful for my desk near the window. (Most days I am just freezing.)


The snow stopped around noon, and it turned to rain. We were supposed to get freezing rain, but I don't think that ever came to be. My drive home was a breeze; wet ground but very light traffic. It's supposed to be warm enough tonight not to freeze, and tomorrow is supposed to be dry. This is my kind of weather! Snowy for one day--enough to be pretty and novel--and then back to normal.

Winter wonderland!

I know my first post after my tropical vacation should be filled with pictures of crystal blue waters and sandy beaches, but I can't resist breaking news: it snowed here this morning!


I'm told that the snow started falling after 6am. All I know is I woke up at 7:20, looked out the window, and holy smokes, it was actual white stuff!


This is the first time it's really snowed since I moved here. I was half dreading the day, and half anticipating it with glee. Turned out to be totally glee-worthy!

I called work right away and since my boss had planned to be out today anyway recovering from minor surgery, I spoke with my "other" boss, who said with a bit of amusement, "I already counted you out for today since I know you don't drive in snow!" So I got to stay home for the morning. The roads probably would have been fine if I left at my normal time, but you never know what they'll be like till you get out there, so I worked from home until about noon, then went in, because as you can imagine, things were a tad crazy at the office. Schools were closed in Wake County and surrounding areas today, which meant lots of calls were sent out. I know people from Colorado, where they recently had FEET of snow, and from places like Buffalo are rolling their eyes at us because the tiniest accumulation shuts us down. But we get it so infrequently that a) no one knows how to drive in it, so there are a ton of accidents, and b) we are not equipped to deal with it in terms of salt trucks, etc.

On my way home tonight, most of the snow had melted away. Tomorrow it's supposed to be sunny and in the 50's but Sunday there's another chance of "wintry weather." It's kinda fun!

Seriously, I'm not a Luddite

Can I just tell you how domestic I was this morning? I could not get over myself. I was frosting cupcakes, putting ingredients in a Crock Pot, and running the dishwasher at the same time! These may not sound like earth-shattering tasks to you, but they are rare for me. The occasion for cupcakes: a coworker's birthday. I made some last month for a different coworker, but these turned out so much better because a) I left them uncovered overnight, and b) I stirred the frosting before I tried to spread it (it helps to read the directions, folks.) Last time the cupcake tops were too moist and the frosting was too thick, and the result was a crumby frosting mess. This time, though, I felt like freakin' Martha Stewart!

Meanwhile I loaded corn, stewed tomatoes, kidney beans, chiles, taco seasoning, and ground turkey into the Crock Pot to stew up some tasty dinner for tonight. I really need to look for some good Crock Pot recipes. I underutilize that lovely contraption. I mean, it can't get much easier than that!

And last but certainly not least, the dishwasher. Every apartment I've ever had was equipped with an automatic dishwasher, but I've always been a hand-washer. The only explanation I have is that living alone, the quanitity of dirty dishes never justified using a dishwasher. And I always thought it was lame that you had to basically wash the dishes before loading them anyway. But lately I've been so busy, and uber lazy, so the dishes have just piled up. It occurred to me to try using the dishwasher to get caught up, and now I'm hooked! It is quite ironic, because I consider myself to be interested in all the latest gadgets, yet here I am just now catching on to something that's been around for decades! But it really is quite fabulous.

The other household item I've recently fallen in love with is the electric blanket. My apartment is not very warm unless I crank the heater way up, so it's usually pretty chilly in there during the winter. We had a cold snap recently, and despite wearing three layers, I was cold. You can imagine my glee when I slipped between the sheets and felt the cozy warmth envelop me. Again, been around for ages (and I even had one for a spell as a teen back in CA) but I'm just now hopping on the bandwagon.

I wonder what other ingenious products are out there that I've been clueless about?!

~ ~ ~

So I never went to Texas! The customer cancelled the training at the last minute. And by "last minute," I mean that if they called 45 minutes later, I'd have been at the airport already! Craziness. Our training director tried to convince them to go through with it, but to no avail. The superintendent decided they weren't ready for it yet, she waved her hand, and her will was done. They are going to have to pay a hefty rescheduling fee, because of course I'd already paid for my plane ticket and rental car, and the hotel is not refundable unless you give them 24 hours notice....I was giving them about 6. I was able to get most of the money back for the plane ticket, in the form of a credit at Air Tran, so that's good. Of course I will be reimbursed for everything, so if there had been any loss, it would have been the company's, not mine. There was about an hour of will-I-be-in-Texas tonight or won't I, and I was kind of ambivalent. If I go, cool, I get to touch the Gulf of Mexico. If I don't go, fine, I get to sleep in my own bed tonight.

Today it got to about 80 degrees here, which was quite nice. Meanwhile the leaves are falling off the trees like nobody's business. I sit in front of a window at work, looking out on the front parking lot, and several times the past few days when I've looked up, it's appeared to be raining leaves. Kinda cool. But the trees are becoming barren and that is so very, very bleak.

Lost comment: They built up to the "Fall Finale" as if it was going to be some spectacular thing, and it thus it was kind of disappointing. It's also a bummer that we have to wait until Feb for new episodes, but that's better than them running reruns the whole time, with a new episode thrown in just often enough that you are afraid to stop watching in case you miss it.

Grey's Anatomy comment: Last night's episode was about to veer into throw-your-hands-in-the-air territory when Mer was tempted by McSteamy, but thank GOD she chose Derek. My question, though, is "Now what?" The hero and heroine are together. That scene we saw at the end where they introduced themselves to each other would have made a perfect series finale. So it'll be interesting to see how the writers (hopefully) keep things interesting between these two.

P.S. Yes, the post time is correct; I'm writing this at work. Things were pretty quiet today since most schools had the day off for Veterans Day. Days like this make me miss being a teacher! (But then I quickly get over it!)

Glorious Fall

If I won the lottery, and I could afford a dozen houses all over the country and world, I would have one in North Carolina so I could visit in the fall. Autumn is the most spectacular time here. The weather has cooled off, the humidity is gone, and of course the leaves change color. The beauty of fall foliage is not a new topic on this blog, and you may be tiring of my endless photos of it. And I'll even admit that they're all starting to look rather similar. But I can't help snapping more because the sight it is just so amazing. I took these on the way to work the other morning:

~ ~ ~

Last weekend I went to the Pittsboro Street Fair again with my parents.


There was a caricature artist there and I'd always wanted to get one done. So my mom and I posed in the gusty wind while the lady sketched cartoon versions of us with our pets.

~ ~ ~

Sunday afternoon I had to drive to Asheville for a marathon training day on Monday. This was the second weekend in a row when my Sunday was not my own. :( At least the mountains were beautiful, of course, and it was not too cold yet.

~ ~ ~

I got a new cell phone a couple weeks ago, the Motorola 325. I chose it because the salesperson recommended it for its good reception quality. It did seem to work fine in my apartment (the same as, if not slightly better than, my previous model) but it did not work at all at my office. My boss sends out at least two or three test messages a day, and my phone just was not ringing. It would show three bars, then zero, then back to three again, then back to zero, all within 20 seconds. This was not acceptable to me, and thankfully Verizon has a 15-day satisfaction guarantee so I exchanged it for a Nokia 6315i. I really like it. It's not as bulky as the Motorola, and it has great reception. The sales rep said that contrary to what you'd think, sometimes a pure digital phone (like the Nokia) works better than a tri-band phone (like the Motorola).

~ ~ ~

My Weekend of Cleaning was quite productive. The apartment looks much better, and I feel better when I look at it. I finally got around to filing all my bills, etc., which I had not done since I moved in (yikes!) and I sorted through the piles and piles of mail that had accumulated over the past couple months. Ninety percent of it ended up in the recycle bin, but I did come across my Wake County voter card, which will come in handy on Tuesday. I have to vote before work, because I have a 2 pm flight to Houston. Yep, I'm goin' to Texas. Galveston, to be precise. It's on an island in the Gulf of Mexico, so it should be pretty.

Catching up

So here's how it goes. Either there's nothing going on in my life, which means there's nothing to blog about. Or there are tons of things going on but I don't have time to blog about them. Either way, the blog gets neglected. Stinko. The current case is that I have tons to write about, but very little time or energy to spare. I've been burning the candle at both ends, as they say, and my life is suffering the consequences. Email goes unchecked. Blogs go unread. Cars go uninspected. Gifts go unfinished. Groceries go unbought. Where on earth does the time fly? Well, lately it has literally been spent flying. I've been on six flights in the last four days. Cah-razeey!

First I flew to Philly on Thursday morning--6:30 am flight = arrive at airport at 5:30 = leave home at 5:00 = get up at 4:00. Could there be a more ungodly hour? The upside: short wait at security, practically empty flight, no line at the car rental counter. Avis gave me a PT Cruiser which was very exciting for me because I love to try out different cars.


This one had an auxiliary jack where I could hook up my iPod. Of course I didn't have a cord with me, but $4.50 at Target and I was set. Oh, the sound is so much better than through the pitiful FM transmitter thingie.

I had about five hours to kill before my training, so I drove around. I crossed the Delaware/Pennsylvania border like eight times trying to snap a good photo of the "welcome to" signs, just because I could.



And hey, did you know there's no sales tax in Delaware? Sah-weet! After my training (which went fine) I met up with an old friend for dinner in Wilmington. We went to a chi-chi Italian restaurant. You can tell when I'm in a spontaneous mood because I'll order from the specials listed by the waiter rather than from the menu (oh yeah, I live on the edge). The appetizer was some mozzarella thing, and the waiter said if you like cheese you can't miss it. Well I lurrrrve cheese so I ordered it, but it was very disappointing. Yuck-o. For the entree the special was chicken ravioli, which was quite tasty, so that made up it a little. It was delightful to catch up with my friend, because we're both so busy we can never seem to find time to call each other up.
After dinner I drove up to my hotel where I was greeted at the front desk with, "Are you Melissa?" Seems I was the last one to check in for the night! I got settled in my room, which was adequate, and went to bed sooner rather than later. I did watch Grey's Anatomy though. Gotta get my McDreamy fix!

My training the next morning was at 8, and was located about half an hour away, so I had to get up pretty early. The training was not the greatest, because the district wanted their principals to use the system only for sending out emails, but they do not have any email addresses for parents yet. Plus they apparently had made all these policy decisions about when things would get updated and how, but without a strong knowledge of how the system works, which resulted in their decisions being inappropriate. But instead of accepting my offer to give some guidance, they just dismissed me in what felt like a bit of a dissatisfied huff. Well then.

Off I was to visit Crystal Cave. It was about 45 minutes away from the training, and the weather was drizzly and grey, with some fog in areas, but that made for some beautiful views.


Once again the Garmin got me to where I needed to go, but on a somewhat backroads path. Which is fine by me, because you get to see so much more that way. I even came across this giant pumpkin patch!


Driving to Crystal Cave, I was convinced it was going to be some little nothing roadside attraction, but when I pulled up there were several school busses there. The cave was discovered in 1871 and in my opinion a more accurate name would be Stalagmite Cave, but that doesn't have much of a ring to it. I went on the tour with an elementary school group, which wasn't all that bad. The kids were kinda cute in their enthusiasm, and they actually behaved really well. Before the tour, there's a "panning for gems" area where they were all so excited to find "gold" and "rubies" and the like in their bags of dirt.


The tour guide was obviously jaded, and he recited his lines like a reluctant third-grader quoting the Gettysburg Address. But the info was fascinating. It really takes so long for these mineral deposits to form. The drip, drip, drip from the cave ceiling creates stalactites up above, and when the water hits the ground it eventually builds up to create a stalagmite below.


When the two meet it's called a column, but it's very rare. There was one formation that was about four inches from meeting and the guide said it would take like 1200 years for them to join. Wowzers! One of the cool parts of the tour was when the guide turned out all the lights and there was just total darkness. Amazing to think that's what it looked like when the guys who discovered it first went inside. How did they ever realize what they'd found?

After one more training session Friday at 3, I headed for the airport. Now, while I was on the cave tour, some water dripped on my head, and the tour guide said that I would have a year of good luck. Well, that's a bunch of hooey because that night my flight was delayed, my wireless card stopped working so I couldn't even surf the internet at the airport while I waited, and then when I resorted to playing solitaire, I went through like five games straight before I could finally win. I finally got home around 11:30.

Saturday I got a massage and then went to my parents' house where my brother and his family were visiting. They brought their new puppy, Bubbles. She is very cute.


It was so sad to see her limping--I guess she fell off the bed and broke her leg so she had to have a rod inserted surgically. But she hobbled along on three legs without any problems. Being a puppy, she wanted to play, and kept optimistically nosing up to my parents' three chihuahuas, but they were having nothing of it. Lots of growling and yipping, but thank goodness no fighting. Little Cassidy got stung by a bee (what is it with her always getting sick or injured when she visits grandma and grandpa?) but rebounded rather well. She is such a ham. If you say, "Say cheese" to her, she makes the most adorable face where she wrinkles her nose and opens her lips to show all her teeth like a monkey does when it smiles. It's hilarious.


Sunday morning I got up early to go back to the airport, this time for a 9:30 flight to Cleveland. Alas, Southwest does not have a direct flight from Raleigh, so I had to layover in Baltimore, which meant an even longer travel time. But I brought along DVD's since I knew my wireless wasn't working right. I watched Click, with Adam Sandler. Perfect airplane/airport movie. It was very entertaining. Loved it. By the time I got settled into my hotel, it was 4 pm. I'd found several brochures of things I wanted to do, but they were all an hour away, and because it was late in the day, and a Sunday at that, nothing would have worked out. So I looked in the Garmin to see what was nearby. The Boulevard of 500 Flags sounded intriguing, and it was only 2 miles away. Off we go. This is what I found:


Okay, how about the Fairport Lighthouse? Good photo op, plus I get to touch Lake Erie. Kewl.




The foliage in Ohio was the most colorful I've seen. Beautiful and vibrant and abundant.


Although this pic was taken in PA, and it's pretty nice too.


On the way home from the lighthouse I saw a Gabriel Brothers, which my friend Amy recommended to me if I ever came across one in my travels. I checked it out and found it was like a Ross or TJ Maxx, but with even cheaper prices. I'm talking practically thrift store prices. Shirts for $2.99, jeans for $9.99. I got a couple turtleneck sweaters and the world's softest long-sleeved shirt. For dinner I decided on Smokey Bones (a BBQ place). Good call. The take out order was filled super fast and it was super delicious. Plus, apparently there's no tax on restaurant food in Ohio. Score.

Monday morning I awoke to snow on the ground.


Crap. Oh, crappity crap crap. I've never driven in snow! Holy cow. My plan if it ever snowed here in Raleigh was to call in sick. No can do in this situation. So I got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast (kick-butt buffet at the Comfort Inn in Wickliffe, Ohio, by the way). I called my boss and said, "Tell me everything you know about driving in the snow." Pump the brakes, don't follow closely, etc. Okay. Here goes. Turned out to be fine. No big deal at all. Of course, these people actually know what they're doing, because they live where it snows a lot. I bet if it snowed here there'd be a ton of accidents. Anyway, I made it to the training, and that one went well. On the way out I looked out the window and holy snowstorm, Batman, instead of melting, there was more! It was coming down like mad and there were at least two more inches on the ground. My car was even more covered than before! It was really quite a sight.


I was giddy with excitement because I'd never really seen snow falling that much. I'd seen the results of snow falling (i.e., day trip up to Frazier Park or a weekend in Big Bear) and I even lived in New Hampshire one fall and the last two weeks I was there it was snowy. But this was different somehow, maybe because it was a surprise. It was just so pretty.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to bask in the beauty because I had to hustle to my next appointment--this was the three-district training day. I drove not more than 20 miles south and suddenly there was no snow at all. Amazing. It took quite a while for the snow on my car to melt/fly off. The two trainings south of Cleveland went pretty well. The last one took place at an absolutely gorgeous high school. The view from the picture windows in the library was spectacular. Again, most colorful foliage ever. Although I will say we're doing pretty well ourselves here in NC:


After I finished up, it was back to the airport and onto a plane to Baltimore, then finally home to Raleigh. Made it home around 10:30. Can you say "exhausted"?

Welcome to 3.0!

Au revoir to Odyssey version 2.0!


My one-year blogiversary was on 9/5/06, and I've been wanting to update my template for a while now, so welcome to my new look! If you visited last night and commented on the first draft of it, thanks! I hope that this one looks a little more polished. I had some fun playing with Photoshop. I really should learn that program more fully. I'm sure I'm utilizing like 5% of its capabilities.

Anyway, I can't believe I've kept this blog for a year now! I've written about 186 posts, which averages to about one every other day. I have had such fun writing about my experiences, from moving to settling in and now just living my life here. I don't know how long I'll keep it up, but I think as long as I've got readers and I've got things to say (the latter being much easier to guarantee than the former), I'll probably persevere. One day I hope to publish my blog as a keepsake book, through a website such as Lulu.

It was a busy week at work, so I'm exhausted. I didn't do any traveling, but I did about 8 phone trainings and the customer support line has been ringing off the hook! Today was my six-month anniversary at my job and my boss offered to buy me Chinese for lunch, but I had trainings at 11, 12, and 1 and didn't have time to eat but for five minutes in between. Next week I'll be doing on-site trainings in NC, SC, and VA, so I'll be out of town from Tuesday afternoon through Friday night. But I will actually get to sleep at home one night due to the way the schedules and locations worked out.

Oh, a word about the weather before I go. It has been lovely the past few days. I guess September means it cools off here. The humidity hasn't been awful, and the temps have been very comfortable in the low to mid 80's. All I can say is YIPPEE! Assuming it only gets cooler from here on out, we sweltered through two months, but considering the other 10 are fine, I think it's a pretty good deal.

Where's the ark?

Prestonwood Golf Course, Cary, NC - June 14, 2006

Yesterday, the "remnants" of tropical storm Alberto made their way through the Triangle region. If you live around here, you could not escape the news coverage, but for those of you out-of-staters, I'll fill you in on the drama. The rain started around 4-ish in the morning, and by the time I left for work a little before 8 it was falling at the rate where you would start invoking felines and canines to describe it. My drive to work was a white-knuckler, but at least the freeway was not flooded. Once I got onto Six Forks Road, however, I found that the lane closest to the curb was more or less unusable due to the rushing torrents of water in the gutter. I made it to work fine, though, and even early. We always keep the radio on for a little background music, and at noon they switched over to carrying the audio of their TV sister station's news broadcast. We found out that Crabtree Valley Mall was closed due to the parking lot flooding,


and we kept hearing about all the streets that were closed.

Sunset Lake Road, Apex, NC - June 14, 2006

The newscasters must have said a hundred times, do NOT drive through water, and yet still people did it.

(This guy ultimately got a ticket for crossing a police barricade.)

Online I was able to watch video of the live coverage and they kept showing the feed from the traffic camera located at the intersection of Glenwood and Creedmoor, which showed a flooded out street and cars floating in it. Crabtree Creek was something like 5 feet over flood level. By 2 pm, Apex had gotten 6.7 inches, while Raleigh had gotten 7.6! We're talking in a matter of 10 hours, people! Considering that, the area managed relatively well, although there were some, uh, major problems.

Sinkhole near the Wake-Granville border, June 14, 2006

By the time 5:00 rolled around, I was fearing the worst for my commute home. After nearly five hours of listening to all the frantic reporting, I was more than a little on edge. I even called to cancel my massage (gasp!) thinking that once I got home, I would not want to risk leaving. Well, wouldn't you know, I get out on the roads, and by that time they were bone dry! Quite a relief. As soon as I got inside my apartment, I began inspecting for leaks, because I've had leaks before. I noticed that my kitchen floor had a puddle, and I looked up to find water dripping from the light fixture! I called the management office and they offered to send their on-call maintenance person right away, but I'd dealt with that guy before and he was useless (not to mention I smelled alcohol on him). So I said to just wait until tomorrow. Knowing my luck, I figured the water in the fixture would dry overnight and the guy would come in the next day, see nothing amiss, and think I'm a loon (especially since this is my fourth call for a leak--that bathroom ceiling was quite a bugger for a while). But this morning there was still water in it, so at least the guy will see I have a legitimate problem. Let's hope it's an easy fix!

All photos "borrowed" from WRAL. See the slide show of over 200 photos here.

Update: Yeah, no one came to take care of my leaky lighting fixture today. Grrr!! Also, on the news at the gym, I heard that even after all that rain yesterday, we are only one-tenth of an inch above normal for the year. So we're caught up from the drought, but not for long. Since there's no rain in the forecast until late next week, we'll be behind again in a matter of days!