Freezing Cold

Oh man, today is a cold one.  Currently it is 2 degrees outside, overcast and snow on the ground.   I don't see me getting out with Pebbles today.  To cold for her and honestly to cold for me.

I think we are going to try to sneak out and see the new Hobbit movie.    Better let the truck warm up for a while.   I hope it is nicer tomorrow.

Cold out!

Yesterday was a decent day, I think it was in the 30's.  One of the neighbors  was taking down his outside lights and with the temperature supposed to drop and believe me it did drop today.  I figured I might as well get it done.   Didn't take long and while we were at it, we took down the tree in the house and put everything away.   Party's over.

The weather did change, today the high was 17 and looking currently it is 8 degrees outside.  It has been snowing, but very light, we have maybe had 3 inches.   It is supposed to be colder tomorrow, the forecast is calling for a high of 8 degrees and more light snow.

This cold weather has really cut into some of my plans that I had for my time off.   I had hoped to be working over at the shop on a new project.  I have been walking everyday so that has been good.  In addition to my new walking buddy Pebbles, I also got a fitbit for Christmas.   I have been trying to get my 10K steps in everyday, so getting out and walking 3 to 4 miles each day hasn't hurt my cause. I am just over 23 miles, since Christmas day, Going to have to figure out something tomorrow with the cold.

So Pebbles, for the last two days I have let her off her leash when we are up on the trails.   She has done great!  I couldn't be more pleased.   Yesterday we took Mable and Pebbles out and the was the first time we let Pebbles loose.  She stayed with us or would run 20 ft ahead and stop and wait and then do it again.  She has been great around the house, no accidents and everyone is getting along fine.   I think this is going to work out.

Merry Christmas

From our house to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas.   For us we spent our time together in our home.   We had a big spread on Christmas Eve. and both of the boys were here.   We ate and then opened our gifts from each other and those sent by our family.

We made our best attempt to get a family picture:

On Christmas day, we all played with our our new toys and put on our new shirts.   Candy cooked up an awesome dinner.   We had rib roast, cheesy corn, green bean casserole, rolls, pie, it was all awesome.

I guess the big gift around our house was our new dog Pebbles.   Pebbles is a three year old Fox Terrier mix that we adopted from the Humane Society.    We were looking for a small to medium sized dog that didn't shed and had a good temperament with people and other dogs.  We looked at several dogs, they were all very cute, but we opted for a little older dog.   So far things have gone very well.  Mable seems to be OK with the new addition.   It seems that Pebbles is already house trained or at least none of us has found any messes.

I have taken Pebbles for a walk every  day since we have gotten her.   I keep her on the leash and after about two weeks I may give her a chance off the leash.  She does pretty well and doesn't try to pull to much.  

Candy has been going to town with her crocheting.   She has made several stocking caps for me and the boys.   The most recent is her Ninja Turtles.    She finished mine today and as soon as I tried it on, I was ready to eat pizza.

What's up race fans.....

I manged to get off my ass and walk to work today.   It was a little warmer this morning, I made it in the office at 8:45 AM.   I did catch a ride home, I should have walked.

Hopefully it will be nice tomorrow and I can walk again.   I do have an 8 AM call so will have to head out early.   Friday I have a breakfast meeting across town, so will have to figure out when to get some walking in.

That's all I know,  just looking forward to some time off and working on a few projects at the shop.

Home for the Holidays

I was looking this evening and my last entry was 17 days ago, shame on me.   I was traveling for a week and have just been super busy with work, and tired.  It is dark here at 5 PM, by 6:30 I am usually ready for bed.  I am trying to get myself motivated and walk more, but I can usually find a good excuse to get out of it.  I did walk to work yesterday and last week I did get 7.5 miles in.   A start but not where I should be.

So traveling, I went up to NJ and celebrated the holidays with our team there and then up at 5 AM the next morning on our way to Austin for another company holiday party that evening.  I had a blast and this time I bought a ticket for Candy and flew her with me.   I think she had a great time and it was nice to see everyone as well as present how great we are doing as a company.

We had an extra day in Austin and we went out antiquing.  Found a lot of cool stuff to look at.   I picked up two small s wrenches and Candy bought a candy jar.   It was fun to look around and see antiques from a different part of the country.   I came across several items that I had not seen before in our area.  All in all it was a world wind trip and I was exhausted when we got home.

I haven’t really even spent much time in the shop over the last couple of weeks.  It has been cold, plus the flu bug is going around.   Candy was down most of last week with it and now both Eric and Clark seem to have it.   I have been lucky thus far, but I do have a container of Lysol cleaning wipes attached to my belt and hand sanitizer in each pocket.    I don’t want it, it looks and sounds nasty!

Next week I get to go on a little PTO and I am looking forward to it.   I am off work from December 20^th through January 4^th.  16 days off, oh man I am so excited, so many things I want to do, from hiking to coming up with some cool stuff in the shop.  

I have been needing a new ladder for the shop, the one I have is old, made of wood and not very stable.   I am looking to hang some items from the ceiling and told Santa that I could use one for Christmas.   When I came home this evening there was a 12 ft. ladder in the entry way that I had to step over.   How the hell she got it into the house, let alone home I have no idea.   It’s great that I got this early as I can get started sooner since I am off work and don’t have to wait until after Christmas to get started.

Speaking of ladders, I did build one this weekend.   Candy has been asking me for a quilt ladder to hang her quilts on, so I ran over the too the Depot and picked up some quality pine studs and dowels.   Took them over to the shop and in about 20 minutes I had built my first quilt ladder.   I cut the sides to length then placed one on top of the other and clamped them together.   Drilled ¾ holes through both of them at the same time and then just cut the dowels to length and glue it all together.    I have enough wood to make two of them; I just need to put the second one together.