Oliver in the New Year

Oliver is trying to be helpful. Here he is helping me put the Christmas Ornaments away. Good kitty.

Hello 2009

We spent our New Year's Eve with our worldly, delightful and (did I mention?) good-looking friends Sean & Shannon. Dining at Ponti for their prix fixe menu kept the choices easy and the conversation flowing. I did question the judgement of serving Monte Cristo dough balls with Huckleberries as dessert--seems like an odd heavy choice. But alas, we got to do what we love best: eat and engage in riveting conversation. But I must confess, Ken and I were in bed by 11pm. Oh the shame!

2008 was a tough year on many levels. To me it represented a sort of coming clean and shedding of unrealistic expectations in the economic and political arenas. Personally it was a year of discovering what is really important to me and letting go…a little. I am really glad that 2009 is here. It’s a clean slate that stretches out like a field of newly fallen snow. No footprints, no dirty slush--just endless possibility to place one foot in front of the other where no one else has stepped yet.

Photo taken from HERE.

Things I’m looking forward to in 2009:

1. The Obama Presidency
2. Depeche Mode’s new album
3. Playing more Rock Band & singing karaoke
4. Finding out who the final Cylon is
5. Eating strawberry ice cream this summer from Empire Ice cream
6. Listening to the “Day and Age” album by The Killers 1000 more times
7. Spending time with my beloved friends, family & husband
8. More blogging, twittering, googling and youtubing
9. Seeing Watchmen & Wolverine
10. Starting a monthly savings plan

Oliver and the Magic Flute

Ken noticed on previous occasions that Oliver responds to the sound of the flute. A few nights ago, here was the scene in our kitchen:



If you follow this blog or know Oliver personally, you also know that he can be aloof, uninterested and sometimes confused. But the flute seems to bring out the best in him. Even replaying this YouTube video in his presence gets his full attention. Ah, the mysteries of the animal kingdom.

Snow driving...remember that?

With the snow and the headaches of driving in it well in our rear view mirror, I thought it might be fun to just revisit some of the moments that made this Christmas truly memorable.

Navigating the treacherous

I can't recall a Christmas where weather has had such an effect on this region.

Ken and I took off from Seattle today at 10:30 am in our trusty Prius with borrowed chains in the trunk just in case. (Thanks Marcos!) There was some concern that the snow accumulation overnight might vex the progress of the recent warming trend and ruin our chances for a smooth journey. But little did we know what awaited....

We made it to Portland in record time. In 3 hours. We don't even make it down here that quickly in normal weather. There was light traffic and I-5 was just wet pavement. I was utterly amazed. One thing I did do was follow WDOT on Twitter and get updates on my phone of all the troubled spots. It's a good idea if you're traveling. Unfortunately Oregon isn't yet down with the Twittering but does have a comprehensive website.

One interesting thing is that Olympia has its own micro-climate and was colder than anywhere else. We got a little snow and the slightest bit of slush just south of Tumwater, but other than that--easy peezy. It rained a little then it was clear--but less eventful than our normal SEA-PTD drives.

Everything was easy until we neared the WA/OR border. The car's thermometer said outside temp on the WA side was 36, as soon as we hit the 205 bridge it was 32 and it stayed there as we drove. Mother has been house-bound for several days and requested that we go to the store and pick up some things once we hit Portland. I was razzing her a few days ago that she should get out and use the 4wd in her Subaru. I was thinking how bad can it be in Portland? I figured, the side streets are snowy here in Seattle but all main arterials are clear so it should be exactly the same in Portland. Well...we got off 205 and we immediately realized Portland has a little more thawing to do. Sandy Blvd which I assumed would be clear was slushy and the Safeway parking lot was ridiculously slippery. And getting down the 500 feet of mom's cul-de-sac in Portland was the most adventure we had the whole trip.

But my brother has a much more difficult route from Pullman to Portland. He's already traversed from Pullman to Tri-cities and will stay there overnight. But he's going to continue tomorrow which will take him through the Gorge--and from all indications that area is still sub-freezing during the day. He's got a back up plan and can stay overnight in any of the cities along the way but he wants to make it for Christmas. If any one can do it, it's him.

Set Watches to 15 minutes---and go...

Ken on NPR's All Things Considered HERE.

Insulation: overhead but not on your mind

Days like this....

(Ken in a Ballard park making snow boulders)

(Not our car but someone left a delightfully ironic message about the weather.)

make me glad we have insulation now. Everywhere we turned this past summer & fall, Puget Sound Energy or someone was encouraging homeowners to have good insulation for energy efficiency. We really had no idea how good or bad ours was. We were shocked and amazed to find out that prior to pumping a whole bunch of loose cellulose insulation into our attic that we only had an R-factor* of 8? You're supposed to have 38. Up until a few weeks ago, all that had been keeping our expensive oil-fired heat from floating off into space were 1930's newspapers and old rat droppings. Lovely.

Do you know how you can tell if someone has good or adequate insulation? I learned from an appraiser the other day if you look at roofs after it's snowed those with no snow or considerably less have poor insulation while the roofs with lots of snow signal good insulation. When you look around the neighborhood especially now in the PNW, you will know.

Now we notice that when we move from the back rooms to the front of the house, the air is the practically the same temperature. Before, it was noticeably colder in the front rooms (single pane windows don't help either). Yeah, windows are next year.

*R-Factor (Thermal Resistance Factor) - The National Commercial & Industrial Insulation Standards Manual defines R-Value as - a measure of the ability to retard heat flow rather than to transmit heat. The higher the "R", the higher (better) the insulating value. Source

Put down the gloves and step away from the Wii-mote...

To celebrate the season and showcase how geek-o-rific things can get, Ken plays Santa is Coming to Town on the Wii Theremin. This is for a submission to NPR's National Caroling Party. If he makes it on, you can be assured it will be reported here. But for now, we have dismantled the Wii Theremin "studio" in the basement and hope to get back to less-geeky pursuits.