Okay, it’s not quite Friday. Believe me, that is a good thing. Power came back to our neighbourhood late last night and it wasn’t a moment too soon. After being a Louisesicle for a couple of days, all I wanted to do was set fire to myself in the hopes that my toes would thaw out. And to think it was all caused by ice.

Luckily it had been warmer than usual outside (yesterday was 3C, the day before -6C or something like that) so with plenty of blankets and books and flashlights we managed to keep mostly warm and occupied, if bedridden.

Yesterday Rob and I trekked in to my school (which does have power) and took a shower (although I forgot to bring soap so we had to use that pink school soap… mmm, floral!). Then we went out to an actual restaurant and ate actual hot food (as opposed to cold pork roast and jello).

When the power finally came back on (by the way, Maritime Electric? I love those dudes),
, the first thing we did was turn the furnace way up to like, 1000. Then we called my dad and told him to come warm up at our house (he was working in our neighbourhood). We called my mom but she had a propane-powered heater and camp stove set up and didn’t want to drive into town on the icy roads. So, my dad and my nephew (who was also working in town) stayed at our house last night. My mom and her dog showed up here this morning. She’s in my kitchen right now making me go crazy (she keeps cleaning things even though I keep telling her not to) but at least they’re safe and warm.

Here are a couple of photos. You can see more over at Flickr. Just click on any photo, that should take you there. It’s hard to reconcile such pretty sparkliness with so much cold and destruction.

We, like everyone else we know, are without power, heat, and water. So expect updates to be sparse until… Friday. Maybe.

I was right, I was home by noon. At around 11:00, the secretary came on the PA system to let us know that the streets were ice covered, so we’d all better “hit the road”, as ordered by the head office. I was home by 11:45 (yes my normally 12-minute drive took nearly 45; I like being safe). Rob was still sleeping (remember that he works til 1 am every night, and is usually up until 3 or 4 am), so I puttered around until probably around 1. Ate a bowl of Special K for lunch (by the way, is there any difference between Special K and Rice Krispies? They both taste the same to me), did a bunch more work, then fell asleep all crazy-like. I guess the fact that I’d only gotten 4 hours last night (my body demands more! much much more!) was catching up on me. Then I woke up and put in a roast and collard greens and Rob went to work and now I’m doing a bit more work and that is that. The freezing rain (everything’s coated with ice right now) is supposed to continue overnight. I’m not looking forward to trying to defrost my car in the morning.

Um. This post is boring. Sorry.

Another snow day today… we are getting 20+ cm of snow (that’s ummm… 8 inches?) which isn’t a huge amount but I guess the fact that there’s freezing rain mixed in was enough to convince the powers that be to close school for the kids.

I woke up at 5:45 to finish up my grades (the program lost my entire comment bank which meant I had to rewrite coments for each of my 165 students… bleh… which meant that at midnight when I wasn’t done last night Rob sent me to bed and told me to finish in the morning). At 6 am, it was beautiful out. At 7 am, it was starting to have a few freezing rain pellets. The announcement came on the radio about cancelled school. Next thing you know the snow was coming down all heavily, combined with freezing rain. All this by 7:15.

I was finished all my grades etc. by 7, so I decided to head to the gym before work, knowing that I could come in in my sweatpants and everything and not really have to interact with anyone. So I did that, then I stopped at WalMart to return a lamp that we’d gotten there to help with my little grow-op (I’m kidding — well I am growing things, but they’re parsley and coriander, nothing illegal). I had purchased a special sunlight bulb that needed a wider lamp so we picked up a cheap one on Saturday… but it was broken. On the way out of the store I slipped and fell right on my arse. So now the butt of my pants is soaking wet.

Luckily I am in my classroom all alone and no one is looking at my butt. That I know of. And wow, I can barely see out my window. I may be heading home at lunchtime, if this weather keeps up.

My oldest nephew’s father, before he left, brought home a car that he promised that he was going to ‘fix up’ with his son. Of course then he left, and my sister and her kids have had a half broken down Camaro sitting on blocks in their backyard for the past two years. They don’t want it, but nobody wants to buy it, so they’re not sure what to do with it.

I’ve been looking around the Internet and have found sites for car donations. One of them, carangel.com, uses the money they make from donated cars to make videos that they donate to schools and such. So far they’ve had such success that they have given away something like 2.4 million videos.

Here’s one of the videos they’ve made:

I’m going to try and find a car donation site closer to home because my sis just really wants that old car off her lawn. Even if they just sell it for parts, they’ll make some money off it.

I kind of wish I was pregnant instead of just fat. I was out shopping the other day and the fat lady clothes are just… so… ugly. And ill-fitting. I have big knockers and a big ass and a small(ish) waist. Fat lady clothes are like, if it has a big ass, the waist is also huge, and that doesn’t work for me. If it has a big knocker area, the rest of it is all saggy and baggy, too. At least the maternity clothing was cute, and my waist would be huge to match the huge ass. And it’s cheaper than fat lady clothing.

Plus I could totally rock a “future MILF” shirt. Not that I would.

So far I have spent the weekend correcting and correcting and correcting. Later today (hopefully within the next 2 or 3 hours) I will be entering all these grades into the computer and letting it do its scientific magic. I love science and magic, don’t you? I would much rather be vacationing on the Outer Banks than doing this. As I’ve said over and over and over again, I love my job, but I really wish I didn’t have to do all the clerical business.

I spent a lot of time this morning writing a page about how to de frizz a synthetic wig. You can check it out here, if you have any interest in that sort of thing.

Oh yeah baby I am back. So here we go again. And again, Lord only knows if I’ll finish. We shall see.

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We’re getting higher-speed Internet starting next week, which is exciting. When I called about it, I asked about getting an Internet/phone/high definition cable package (although we gave up cable months ago– we don’t watch that much TV anyway, certainly not enough to justify a $100 a month cable bill, adn if it turns out that there are any shows we want to watch, Rob has things set up so that we can download them and watch them via the xbox 360. Don’t ask me how it works. It’s like science and magic. There is no real explanation) but they don’t offer phone or HD to our area yet. It’s funny because last year when I called about the same thing, they said they’d be getting it within six months… it’s about oh, 13 months later and still, nothing.

Whatever though.

I will finish that long meme later on. At the moment I’m in the midst of some heavy-duty test correcting. Oh I hate report card time. Plus my nose is stuffed up and I have a headache. P’tooey. There ends my lament.