Christmas in the Sunshine State

Now that the feast and football of Thanksgiving are over it's time to start thinking about Christmas. Chris and I put out our Christmas decorations today. This is the first year we've ever had a fireplace to hang stockings on! We put in some Christmas music and put up the tree and ornaments and stockings and creche and garland and...and... (it just goes on and on).


We have a new helper for Christmas this year. Her name is Cici and she is a three months old. I managed to capture a brief (and I do mean brief) moment of stillness to capture a picture. She is a little ball of pure energy - in fact I think she's nuclear powered. Sophie isn't so sure about the idea of having a little sister, but we're hoping they will get used to each other eventually.


Other than that, not much new here. I'm having a tough time remembering that it will be December on Monday and I can't believe that we've already had Thanksgiving.

Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving and a wonderful Advent. We're keeping Uncle Bob in our thoughts and prayers as he recovers from his recent surgery and we wish him the best of luck as he struggles to quit smoking.

I saw it! I saw it! I saw it! I saw it!

For the non-geek people of the world, the Space Shuttle just went up and.....

I saw it! I saw it! I saw it! I saw it!

I know that Cape Canaveral is only a few hours south of us and I knew that my living room faces south, so on the off chance I might see something I went outside to look and

I saw it! I saw it! I saw it! I saw it!

It was a bright orange ball flying through the sky - definitely not something that would be normally seen on an average Friday evening.

So, the science geek in me is SUPER excited - and I can't wait until the next launch!!!

November?

I knew that moving south would be a different experience for me - but I didn't realize that it would be such a challenge mentally. It's November (and we'll just ignore the fact that the Red Sox had a bad October) and I'm sitting here with the windows open and the thermometer reads 83 degrees. My struggle here is that I'm not feeling the passage of time. I feel like I'm stuck in a time warp and that August and September keep repeating themselves...it's like Groundhog Day. I knew that I loved the foliage and the change of seasons and I knew the not having that was going to be an adjustment, but I honestly didn't think it would be this hard. I feel like I have reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder in that I'm getting too much sun and warm weather. If I feel like this now - what is February going to feel like?

On another note, now that the election is over we've stopped getting phone calls from Michelle Obama and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s neice (all recorded of course) which is nice. I knew that Florida was a "battleground" state, but this was insane!

Work is going well - the crew from Vermont was in the office this week and it was SO nice to see familiar faces. We caught up on how everyone up there was - there are two new babies coming later this month and early in '09 and the dogs are doing well. I was saddened to learn that Erin's cat Coco died though.

Chris has been busy doing PA at UNF and I'm taking the First Responder class at the community college in January. I'm pretty excited!

Red Sox fan in Tampa Bay country

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays - this team couldn't fill their stadium all year if their future had depended on it. Despite all of that, they somehow manages to climb to the top of the AL East and are now battling for the league championship. The Red Sox, down 3 games to 1 in the series and down 7-0 in the seventh inning managed to pull out the magic that we citizens of Red Sox Nation have come to expect and thanks to the help of Big Papi, Youk and JD Drew are still alive to face the Rays tonight in Game 7. If we still lived in New England, this would all be par for the course; looking sleepy at your desk after a long fought 9 innings the night before; the look of expectation and sudden lift of hope and happiness could easily be attributed to the heroics of New England's favorite boys of summer.

Sadly, we don't live in New England anymore. Here in Florida, the team that couldn't fill a stadium all year suddenly has diehard Rays fans and there are cowbells everywhere. What is a Sox fan to do? Simple...stay up late to watch games and read the Boston Globe online...oh, yeah one more thing...send sympathy cards to all of those poor Rays fans when they lose tonight.

GO SOX!

The plagues of Egypt

Frogs were one of the plagues of Egypt, right? Let me tell you - it sounded like a plague of frogs this morning at Chez Polson.

First off it rained all night. This isn't a sprinkle or even a solid rain, it POURED ALL NIGHT. The backyard, which was damp, but dry yesterday, now closely resembles a lake. We have about 18 inches of standing water in the backyard. Standing water = frogs! Chris and I were both awakened from a dead sleep by the croaking of the frogs. I looked out and there were easily a dozen frogs in this large pool of standing water. As far as I can tell they are probably leopard frogs, not that it really matters that much. All I know for sure is that they produce a racket.

It rained pretty heavily most of the day but stopped at about 1 o'clock. It's about 3 o'clock now and it's very calm outside, no rain and just a slight breeze.

I've been watching the news and it appears that Chris and I got REALLY lucky. There is substantial flooding on Riverside Ave (where my office is). The whole Riverside area is off-limits, shut down by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. The beaches are still getting hammered by heavy winds and surf, JTB (one of the east/west road between 95 and the beach) has been shut off and on throughout the day. The big bridges have been shut down off and on as well.

For an initiation into tropical weather, I have to say that it was amazing, but I'm glad we got off easy. (Yes, I took some pictures, but since I still need to post/edit the driving pictures these will have to wait).

So far so good

So far, despite the build up, TS Fay isn't doing much...here anyway. I heard from a coworker who lives literally on the beach and her roof tiles are all over her driveway and A1A (the highway) and she had to go chasing her screen door down the street.

We've had some significant rain and pretty blustery conditions but the power is still on. The office was closed today, but that didn't keep me from working (like that comes as a surprise to anyone!). I've been tempted to go out driving around, but a) I don't really know where to go and b) I don't want it to get suddenly MUCH worse while I'm out and about.

We'll see what happens tonight as the storm hasn't really moved much since this morning. I'll keep you posted.

Things you don't want to see in your first month in Florida

1. Palmetto bug...trust me - unpleasant! Don't believe me - check this out. Believe me now?
2. This picture:

It's going to be a rainy few days. I hear they shut down the bridges if it gets to windy...fun, since you can't get anywhere in this city without going over a bridge (no, I'm serious...you can't.) See those little Hs in that graphic...that mean hurricane folks. Nope, no starter storm for Alex - she gets a hurricane watch her first time out! Oh! See that H marked 2PM Thu...that H is Jacksonville. Hurrah!

Lucky me!

New home - new neighbors

So, the good news is I found the cord that connects my camera to my computer. The bad news is that I took 70 pictures on the drive to Florida! So, in the interest of not completely boring everyone to tears I'm going to have to do some editing, but I haven't gotten to that yet.

BUT! I did take a picture of one of my new neighbors...he's got lots of friends to. They are all pretty quiet and generally don't cause any real problems.


I hope to get some photo editing done in the next few days, and will post when I have them.

In the meantime - keep an eye on Tropical Storm Fay...she seems to be headed in our general direction. We're not worried yet, but that would certainly be one heck of a "Welcome to Florida!"

Later days.

We're here...

That's right, we've arrived in Florida. We arrived on August 1st at about 2 o'clock. We are staying at the Riverdale Inn for the next few days. We heard from our movers that our furniture is supposed to arrive on Monday.

The trip was SO uneventful it was great. There was only one incident. Chris realized on Tuesday night that he had forgotten to give his car keys to the team moving his car, so he had to drive back to Burlington on Tuesday night from Chelsea. That was the worse thing that happened, and that was minor in the grand scheme of things.

We drove through or around some major cities, including Baltimore, DC, Charleston, Richmond and New York City. We only hit stop and go traffic twice - both times in the middle of NOWHERE due to construction. Once in South Carolina and one in Virginia.

I was able to take pictures of all but one "Welcome to XXXXX" signs. I missed New York of all things. I wasn't paying attention as we entered Whitehall, but I got pictures of the "Entering Whitehall" sign, so that will have to do. I have loads of other pictures, but I can't load them until I get our computer up and running, so they should be ready next weekend.

Sophie and Simon were both troopers. Sophie spent a lot of the trip on my lap, she was much calmer there than in her carrier, so in the interest of keeping her calm that's what we went with. Sophie had no trouble getting comfortable at the hotel in Baltimore and Charleston, but here she's barely left the space under the bed. She'll come out eventually, but I think she's protesting - can't say I blame her.

Later days.

The countdown is on...

The countdown has reached the single digits. I have five days left in the office in Vermont, and next Monday the movers come to box up the contents of the apartment. We're trying to do some preliminary packing before they get here. I mostly just don't like the idea of strangers touching my stuff. I don't really have anything of any great monetary value, but I do have some things that have some sentimental value. I'd be crushed if those things got damaged in the move process.

So, besides packing what have I been up to?

I'm trying to finish up some knitting for the family - gloves for mom and flip-top mittens and matching hat for Hannah. We're having a family "good-bye" on Sunday, so need to have the pieces done by then. I've also started my "drive to Florida" project. I'm making the Estonian Garden Shawl out of some wool/bamboo/nylon yarn from A Piece of Vermont. Seemed appropriate to take "A Piece of Vermont" with me to Florida. That is going to be my "overly air conditioned office" shawl. It's so far a really easy knit. I'm working on the middle first, and it's just an 8 row repeat that is easy to memorize.

The Dark Knight - You have to check out this movie, it is awesome? I have to admit that seeing the Aaron Eckhard Two-Face was a little shocking. Firstly, it kicks the Tommy Lee Jones Two-Face in the butt, but second - YIKES. It is much truer to the comic than the Tommy Lee version, that's all I'll say. Overall the movie is really good. I was wondering if all of the positive buzz it has received was due to the quality of the movie or the performance of Heath Ledger's last movie. If I hadn't know it was Heath behind the makeup I wouldn't have known. Although, his first appearence in the movie - any one who has ever seen anything he's been in knew just by the way he stood. My two favorite parts were the flipping tractor trailer truck and the Batman vs. The Joker interregation. Gordon should go get coffee more often.

So, knitting, movies and packing. That's pretty much it. Exciting, isn't it?

Later days!

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls....

Welcome to Fenway Park!

This year for my birthday I bought Chris and I two tickets to a Red Sox game. We met a bus in Burlington at noon and from there rode to Boston. The ride down was only about 4 hours, even with four stops. I don't think I could have done any better.

Since we went on June 12th, and it was my birthday, I wanted three things:

1. Curt Schilling to pitch (Curt's been on the DL since spring training, so no luck there) STRIKE ONE!
2. Jason Varitek to catch (He came down with a random case of strep throat and couldn't play) STRIKE TWO!!
3. Jonathon Papelbon to pitch (we were winning so didn't need to rely on the star closer) STRIKE THREE!!!

Don't feel too bad for me though - I was at Fenway Park, the Sox won, and Mike Lowell hit a grand slam home run - so it was an okay trip overall!

May you live in interesting times...

Sorry for my long term absence...just haven't been feeling the blog bug lately, but since there is so much going on I figured it would be a good idea to update the few readers of this blog (okay - the one person who I KNOW reads it already knows 90% of what I'm going to say...).

Running
We'll start with the personal achievements first. As I stated in my last post I've been doing the Couch to 5K program from Coolrunning.com. I've stuck with it and I'm about to start week 8 of the 9 week program. That means that last week I ran for 25 straight minutes three times last week. If you've been following the weather in NE you know that it's finally summer which means that it's getting hot and humid - not such pleasant running weather. I had some trouble finishing week 7 of the program (that's the 25 minutes 3x/week) so I think I might go back to week 6 which is broken up walking and running for 8 and 10 minutes (depending on the day). I so far haven't let myself quit - I've even gone out when it's sprinking and icky outside. It feels mentally really good.

Florida
Florida? you say? What does that mean? Well that means that Chris and I are moving to Florida at the end of July. I've accepted a transfer at EverBank and will be moving to Jacksonville, Florida - in August - the hottest month of the year! This decision was made with a LOT of thinking. Chris and I are in just about the perfect position to make this move - Chris doesn't have a full-time job to leave, we don't own any real estate and don't have kids (relax grandparents-to-be...the time isn't right yet) so besides Mom and Dad there isn't a lot holding us here. Leaving Mom and Dad is NOT an easy thing for me to do, esp. since Dad's health isn't really great and Mom is just newly retired and has time to do all of the things that we haven't had time to do in the past - but as Mom said it give her an excuse to fly.

You'll recall (or read below) that I was exploring becoming an EMT. Well, that is still going to happen, but it's just had to be adjusted. I can't join Essex Rescue, but I can join the Jacksonville Emergency Medical Auxillary. It's essentially a volunteer rescue squad for the city of Jacksonville. Unlike Essex I have to get my certification before I join the squad, but the Florida Community College, Jacksonville (FCCJ) offers the class.

Chris and I are going to Florida on June 18th so Chris can get a lay of the land and try to find us a place to live. It's a very stressful time, but I think in the end it will be a good choice.

Birthday(s)
Chris' birthday was June 3 and mine is June 12. This year we are doing something that for us is pretty extravagant. We are going to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play the Orioles. I bought tickets from Milne Travel. It includes bus transport to and from Boston and right field box seats. At $4.00 a gallon for gas, we actually got a REALLY good deal. I can't complain. So - if you're watching the game on Thursday watch for me - I think I might make a big obnoxious sign proclaiming my birthday status.

Later days!

The next step...

Well, after over a month of hounding I finally have all of the pieces of the puzzle together. My Essex Rescue application will go in the mail tonight!

In other news, Chris is recovering from hand surgery. He had surgery to repair trigger finger in his right hand (good thing he's left handed). He got the stitches taken out yesterday, but hasn't managed to scrub off the pen marks yet. He had a job interview this morning and reports that it went well, so fingers crossed on that one.

Spring is rapidly coming to the Champlain Valley. Temps in the 60s all week with bright sunny skies. My plants went back outside on Monday, but got a bit nipped by a slight frost overnight. Nothing serious - I think they'll recover.

Spring also finds me back out hitting the pavement - with my running shoes. It seems that every Spring I try to take up running, with little success. Kate has agreed to run with me, and Chris is even talking about joining me. We'll be quite the sight I'm sure, but every little bit of encouragement helps!

Dogs in sweaters, new vocation and movie review...

Dogs in sweaters...

I gave the sweater to Max. It's a little bit tight, but not too bad. Will said he (Max) had a little trouble getting used to the sweater, but by the time Max got to work he was fine. If I made it again (which I probably won't) I'd do one more repeat of the pattern on the back and make the neck longer.

New vocation...

I want to be an EMT...and, unlike other things I've wanted to do, this time I'm actually doing something about it. On March 15th I'm going to take CPR for Professional Rescuers at the Red Cross in Burlington. Where did this come from? Well, I've always had an interest in health and medicine. My dad and my Uncle Herb were both volunteer firefighters. So I've been interested in the general area and emergency service is semi-hereditary. I've seen the good that EMTs do a lot in the past year or so with Dad's multiple trips to the hospital that I feel called to be able to provide that to other people. I want to reassure people that their loved ones are in good hands and will get the best care possible. I want to be more connected to my community. I want to give to the community that has given me so much. So, I'm hoping to join Essex Rescue in Essex Junction. With any luck I'll be starting in April (I have no basis for saying that, but if I submit my application on March 16th, it would make sense...).

Review of Jumper
It was not the best movie I've ever seen, but it wasn't bad. It was a halfway good escapist movie. It had A LOT of potential, but didn't deliver on it. I've found out since I saw it that it was based on a graphic novel and was a poor remake. Never having read the graphic novel - I'll take their word for that.

Sophie Hates Me

Okay, maybe hate is a bit too strong, but she wasn't happy.

I'm making a sweater for a colleague's dog (Max) and I wanted to try it on a living animal. Since Sophie and Max are about the same size, I figured why not!

She wasn't exactly a willing model, but I think she looked pretty. I'm making the sweater out of Comfort DK from Berroco. I'm planning to give the sweater to Max on Tuesday - maybe I'll even take pictures....

Well, I'm off to call Kate. We're planning to go see Jumper.

What to do when...

you have the whole house to yourself for the weekend.

Chris is in DC this weekend doing some basketball games for someone. There were supposed to be two, but today's got cancelled, so he's out on the town in DC. He's called twice to give me updates on his location "I'm at the Washington Monument...I'm at the Air and Space Museum..." anyway...

I've spent my day cleaning of my dresser, cleaning my jewelry (which I never wear, but what ever), right now I'm doing laundry and running the dishwasher. I've been knitting and watching Heath Ledger movies.

Brokeback Mountain is at least a three Kleenex movie anyway, but watching in the aftermath of Heath's death just made it that much worse.

I'm not sure how it is that I'm am so struck by the loss of someone I don't even know, but I am. It's just so sad that someone who has essentially lived outside the tabloid media heck that is celebrity should die so suddenly. If someone had told me that Britney had OD'd or that Lindsey had been killed in a DUI I wouldn't feel so shocked. I mean, let's be serious here - does anyone expect those hard partying girls to live past 30?

I had big plans to start taking some pictures of my knitting, but I really need to get a larger SD card for my camera - 16MB just doesn't cut it.

What a week...

Sorry no pictures yet - I have nothing to take pictures of.

I've started a pair of socks, maybe I'll take a picture when I'm done with them.

For those of you who have offered assistance to me this week, I say thank you. I know I haven't responded much to email, but I'm not in the most social of mind sets.

No decisions have been made on either side of the coin as yet, but things are slowly becoming clearer. If they continue down the path they are currently on, there is much change in my future. That said there is some small glimmer of a change of pace, and it that doesn't get snuffed out (or given up on) then maybe things will work out.

At this point I just don't know. I'm confused and I'm just not sure what it is that I'm supposed to do, think or say to make any impact. The really scary part is that I'm not so sure that I care anymore.

Merry Christmas Me

I just bought myself a late Christmas present - a digital camera.

No, I haven't complete installed everything yet, but when I do, you will see many more pictures posted on this blog.

I had a $100 gift card at Circuit City, and a $50 AMEX gift card, so the camera was practically $0!.

I've wanted a camera for myself for a while and this will allow me to take pictures of stuff for work as well as my knitting projects.

So, in short - stay tuned...

I can't take it any more...

I've held this in for long enough...

Chris hasn't been paid since November 9, 2007...that's 8 weeks ago. EIGHT WEEKS!

We've been trying to live on my salary, which isn't that difficult, but it is getting harder and harder all the time. I don't have the money to pay my student loan bill, Chris's credit card bills or the heat and electricity. Why? Because I chose to pay the cell phone bill, my credit card bill, the rent and 2 of my three student loan bills.

NEB is a sham of a company! I've had serious doubts about them since they offered Chris a full time job based on a 5 minute phone call and no review of his experience. Who does that?!?! Chris loves his job, and I love that he loves his job, but at some point that becomes less important.

How does a company get away with not paying someone for 8 weeks! Not only have they not paid him, but they owe him $450 for a cell phone bill because Chris used his phone to broadcast games. Have we seen that, no...so essentially I've paid for those games to be broadcast.

He's filed complaints with the appropriate people, but that doesn't help me when I have to pay the bills. It's so bad that my parents (the ones with the massive hospital and pharmacy bills) floated me a loan so I could buy new tires for my car. My tires badly need to be replaced, but I just don't have the money to pay for them.

I didn't have money to buy any Christmas presents this year - the ones I did buy were a huge stretch and I shouldn't have purchased what I did anyway.

I can't handle this stress anymore...I'm afraid to check my bank balance, I'm terrified to check Chris' balance. I dread it when bills come in.

Chris spent thousands of dollars to go to a foreign country and rescue family, but does anyone in his family offer to help recover the expenses...no! They expect him to drop his life and fly home to deal with disasters as they happen. If we didn't have to still pay off that trip, things wouldn't be quite so bad. They'd still be tough, but better. His family expects us to spend $700 - $800 to fly to them for Christmas every other year, but do they come visit us? Nope...apparently they think we are made of money - newsflash - we are broke! We are scraping by on one income, and slowly drowning.

I digress...Holiday recap: Christmas with Mom and Dad was nice. One of the better family gatherings in recent history. It was a bummer that Hannah and Josh couldn't make it, we missed them, but she had to work. Hannah visited Chelsea on Wednesday, so at least some time was spent with her.

After several weeks of multiple inches of snow, we are in a bit of a January thaw. It's in the 40s today, which is a nice change of pace.

Here's to hoping 2008 is better than 2007, can't get much worse.