Safety Spotlight

It being winter and all, the good folks at the University issued their Safety Spotlight (A Quarterly Newsletter for Safety and Loss Prevention) to all faculty. It's a two-sided 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper issued four times a year with safety and loss prevention tips, though I'm not necessarily sure those two concepts are as related as they think. Aside from having a "Winter Safety Wordhunt" game and spelling out the University's Holiday decoration policy, an entire page is dedicated to "Winter, Your Car, and You".

In case you happen to be driving this winter in snowy or icy conditions, I'd like to pass along the following actual pieces of advice from the University of North Dakota (and please remember that this is directed at university faculty only):

- Do not leave your vehicle unless you know exactly where you are, how far it is to get to possible help, and if you are certain you will improve your situation (good and practical advice here)

- Keep at least one window open slightly. Heavy snow and ice can seal a vehicle door shut. (Also good advice, this will prevent carbon monoxide poisoning)

- To protect yourself from frostbite and hypothermia use the woolen items and blankets to keep warm. (woolen items? and anyone who needs to be told this may not necessarily deserve to live)

- Eat a hard candy to keep your mouth moist. (I'm not kidding this was the final piece of advice. Huhhh??? What should we be keeping our mouths moist for??? This is troublesome)

Christmas Letter

You'd think with all the practice I've had over the last year writing on this blog about, well about myself and the family unit, that writing the annual Christmas letter would be a breeze. But strangely enough I've been procrastinating on getting it done and even have a mild case of writers angst. For me procrastinating is a sign not of laziness (well not always), but of a task that is going to require a higher level of concentration and focus that I can put forth, so I put it off, and off, and off.

I think the problems are that 1) I hold myself up to high standards for our family Christmas letter, especially since I know that Alycia sends it to her family and friends and I want them to think well of her and 2) I feel like all the big changes in our lives - Alycia graduating, getting a job, and moving to North Dakota are already well known. I've got to get over these mental hurdles though and just write the dang thing, we're running out of days before the holiday.

Multiple requests have come in over the past week or so from friends and family who need our new address to ship us their annual Christmas letter, and I realized how much respect I have for the folks who actually mail out hard copies (we just e-mail an attachment) of their letter. The record keeping to gather all the addresses and the actual mailing of all those letters is an organizational feat that is well beyond my comprehension, and I'm always impressed by the folks who pull it off. Well done.

Homemade Gluten Free Granola

I always thought making your own granola would be somewhat complicated, but really you just melt a bit of butter and brown sugar, toss it with whatever dry ingredients you like in granola (and there are lots of choices) and bake for an hour or so. Shame on me for thinking it was difficult.

Here's a great recipe for Homemade Gluten Free Granola.

It's from Alycia's Mom (aka Mama Bear), and has become a staple in our household. Lord knows what would happen to me should the granola jar go empty.

More Cold Stories

So you're gonna keep hearing stories about the cold until, well at least until it stops being insane-clown level of cold. At 11:45am weather.com is reporting the official temp at -3, with a wind chill index of -19, and it ain't even that windy today. But there are a few cold related stories (since it's dominating our lives right now) to pass along.

We had our first cold related equipment failure, the doggy door that leads from the mud room to the outside world. On Monday morning, with the mercury in the negative double digits, Alycia informed me that the door "wasn't quite working right". Mind you this was at 6:45 in the morning and her eloquence and my mental cognition were both worlds away from optimum functioning. After some mutual clarification, I went out to check the door, and gave it one gentle nudge with my foot, and watched as the door snapped off the upper plastic flashing with my second nudge.

It was so cold, that the malleable plastic door had become a slab of hardened polymer goodness and couldn't swing more than a couple inches from perpendicular. My foot nudge (which I can assure you gentle reader, was gentle) pushed it a few inches to far and it pulled the flashing off from the top where the door hangs.

Verily I sprang into action since we couldn't have a gaping hole into the mudroom from outside. So I fashioned a makeshift door from three eye hooks mounted into the door, three of those ring things that you use to hold note cards, and an old towel. Calling it deliciously ghetto would be an understatement. I'll let the picture below speak for itself.
We have Alycia's Mom, aka The High Priestess of Craftiness, at work on a more permanent fabric covering. I don't think that the plastic door is going to be able to remain during the winter, so we're going to abandon it for a heavy fabric one instead.

Our second cold related failure was Shaak Ti, who finally had to give up on walking due to cold toes. On Monday afternoon we only made it to the park (just a few blocks away) before she stopped and picked up her feet, unable to go on even though she had her sweater on. Since then she hasn't been able to go more than a half a block before being done, afflicted with cold toes. I have gotten some good exercise carrying her though, since as soon as she stops I have to carry her back home. We already have an assortment of sweaters and jackets for her, but we need some doggie booties, we'll pick some up this weekend. Now whether or not she lets us put them on her, that's another story. Stay tuned.

Cold!!!

Yeah, it's here, the official first blast of icy winter. The Grand Forks Herald reported that the official low at the airport was -16 early this morning, and with light winds the wind chill was only -20 or so. And it's supposed to get colder later this week.

Just to prove that it is that cold, I bravely (though briefly) ventured outisde to snap a picture of the thermometer in our yard.

A New Poll To Start Your Week

It seems like the Thanksgiving poll wasn't statistically significant in any one category, thus we're unable to extrapolate any meaningful data, expect that you, faithful readers, did enjoy yourselves on Thanksgiving.

Here's another bit of fun. What's your favorite thing about winter?

Sunday Morning

It's a chilly, snowy Sunday morning. Fat flakes have been drifting down lazily all morning, no real accumulation, just enough to make for pretty outdoor vistas. Everyone has had a walk and some tasty breakfast - duck and potato kibble for the four leggers and eggs and potatoes for the two leggers, and settled in to their Sunday tasks. So let's set the scene with pictures:
I've built a cozy little fire in the fireplace....
...and set the newly decorated Christmas tree to twinkle. I'm busy tapping away on the keyboard keeping the faithful blog friends up to date with our happenings, and eventually doing some light work. What about the rest of the family unit? What are they up to?
Alycia is crafting up lesson plans for her class next semester.
Tito is solving complex quadratic equations and calculating optimum angles for snatching fallen bits of food from the kitchen.
And Shaak Ti is...well she's just napping. The peer pressure to stay awake is enormous right now, but I think we can do it, at least until the first football game comes on, then all bets are off.

A Shaak Ti Story

The last few days have given us an opportunity to assess how Shaak Ti is going to deal with life in a snowy climate. She loves the snow, but hasn't mastered it by any means. I've already witnessed this sequence two or three time in the past few days.

- Smell something really good.
- Insert face into snowbank/under snow convinced that the bunny/squirrel/moose is underneath.
- Inhale and snort deeply to get all the good scents.
- Spend the next 2 minutes sneezing and vigorously pawing at her nose while squinting painfully due to what I can only assume is severe brain freeze.
- Ten minutes later, forget the entire incident and repeat the above process.

I'll get an amusing picture or two of this in the next day or two if I can.

On the other end of the spectrum is Tito, who due to his Christmas break visitations with Alycia over his seven years, is an old pro dealing with snow and cold. When it gets cold, like this morning when the temp was near zero, Tito gets hooked up his leash, but quickly realizes how cold it is and does his all business before we get to end of our driveway, then stops and refuses to go any further. He's probably smarter than I give him credit for....

We're going to decorate our Christmas tree later today or tomorrow, so prepare yourself for some festive photo fun.