Happy day Victoria

ditto ... y'all really don't want me to sing so I'm adding my congrats to this thread instead of the other one.

I totally understand. We keep the house around 66-68 during the day - and a lot of sunlight warms up the main level so it's not much of the heat except in the morning. At night - more like around 60. The coldest I can remember sleeping indoors - visiting in the Himalayas. Very, very cold. We slept with this amazingly heavy, about 5" thick, full of wool/cotton batting, comforter. It was so heavy that it was almost impossible to move under it. In the a.m. I (not DCH) had to run across the room to the bathroom, and break the ice on the water bucket to poke the electric coil in to heat it! And of course, the indoor toilet couldn't be used for a couple of hours till it had warmed up enough.

Waldorf is much closer to the coast, and south a bit, lower altitude, warmer. Laurel - near the race track - used to be a nothing little town, and in the last 20 years has grown quite a bit. There are some nice sections, and some not as nice. It has a cutesy main street, and used to have Stitchin' Pretty - nice LNS - home of Michelle Ink. (Michelle & Gail, plus a couple of other designers they rep - do web/mail stuff now). Laurel is north a bit - say about 1-2 o'clock if you think of the Capitol as center of a clock face. It's east of Silver Spring. Loudoun Cty is 9-10 o'clock - due west in VA. Think here is that the elevation starts to go up, so those few hundred feet make a difference. Also - proximity as one is heading towards the Shenandoah, and the upper part of the Blue Ridge. For whatever bunch of climate reasons, we're on the path that is more likely to get snow, and stay cooler in the summer. DH is always talking about the "Loudoun" breeze. Could be a dusting or nothing in Reston - where Donna lives, about

8 mi east - and 2" here, with nothing in town. Loudoun Cty - now famous for Dulles Airport, and the border of traditional Virginia meeting Northern Virginia (DC). It's definitely much breezier here than the more Easterly 'burbs.

Ellice

Border collie mix. She just loves cold weather! I think the cold weather must also make things smell more or better or something, because she's generally not a big sniffer except in cold weather.

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Big bearl =A0I miss having a dog and

You know, it's a trade off, but my life has always seemed less complete when we did not have a pet. Of course, I am lucky: my mother lives in town and whenever we all have to go somewhere she take in Belle. She gets to have a pet temporarily and I get a great dog sitter!

We could argue whether "it is absolutely caused by global warmign", but is it caused by too much CO2 and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere? Jim

\

And do you think for a second Al Gore keeps his mansions at those temperatures ? I don't.

Ah, sorry - typo, DXH - as in ex - my first husband was/is Indian. We spent about 10 days in the Himalyas - starting at Shimla and then moving about a bit. Essentially along the China Border. Gorgeous. Quite the mix of people, and clothing. On one outing we went to a ski resort - where they had Yak rides. His BIL was a Col in the army, so we had access to some areas that aren't normally touristic. And in town there is also a community of Tibetan exiles. Very cold - we were there in winter. I have some nice shawls, and a couple of hats. The different patterns or shapes of the hats indicate the community/tribe up there. Also - to get there, we had to travel through the restricted area of the Punjab. Foreigners not alloeed, but being married to an Indian citizen my visa had exceptions which allowed me to travel, and use local currency (normally in a closed currency country like that you must pay w/ foreign money that has been exchanged and keep your documents). Worst carsick moments of my life - the drive back down. We flew up - landing on a small strip cut into the side of a mountain. But drove down all the way to Chandigarh. Horrible - me hanging off side of mountain grabbing scrub tree stalks to not fall.

As I've said before - I don't recommend to Americans, or anyone that lives in a high standard of living, modern, country that their first foreign travel be to someplace like India. It could be overwhelming - the difference. Although now much is more similar to here - in terms of social behaviour, clothing, etc. But, when we started going almost 25 years ago you actually didn't see women wearing slacks in public, and if they did - certainly not with a shortish top. Now, jeans w/ tunics are pretty standard. I did love travelling there and have some amazing pictures and memories.

Virginia - near Richmond - was a well known speed trap. We did that drive many times when I was growing up. We'd be in LI for the summer, and then head back to FLA.

It is amazing thinking of these things - my grandfather died at 62, my mom at 63, dad at 67 - and now I think how young - especially my grandfather - was. I remember my mom being so upset - and now I realize she was almost 10 years younger than I am now when that happened. OTOH, my DB & I were in our early-mid 30s when our folks died.

Sometimes the good does come along with the awful giving us these bittersweet memories.

I have no doubt your life has been pretty full - but not to the brim, yet!

Ellice

Our weather has no 'normal' - the saying in NS goes "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute and it will change" and that is pretty much it.

Ours is going to see saw, provided it actually follows the forecast it should not be too bad as the main days when people move about such as Xmas Day etc are currently forecast to be reasonable.

We have all had extraordinary weather right across Canada, I heard one weather person saying that this is the first time for forty years that it will be a white Christmas from coast to coast to coast. Whooppee dooppee, could do without setting any records !

I`m a day late, but Happy Birthday!

Pat

Normally the last thing I do is watch television but I was knitting like mad trying to finish a pair of socks. I am round the heel headed for the toe, but there is no way. So I have put the other stuff in and one sock, with an explanation. Do you know, my hands actually ache this a.m. from trying to do that lol

It must have been difficult for those rescuers as I know some people will freeze even when rescue is offered and who was to blame them, that water was gushing past, very scary.

I think gas fireplaces are great for those occasions, that and a bbq and one can subsist. Nice to also have a little primus for a quick coffee etc. I have one and when the power goes here although the generator operates elevators, garage doors and hallway lighting, there is nothing else. So I have a steady stream of people coming with mugs in hand looking for boiling water lol You would think they might buy one themselves against the next power outage but I don't really mind, it gets to be fun.

Today we have miserable little snowflakes falling this a.m. I should be going to my elder granddaughter early evening but that could be shaky, however, main thing good weather forecast tomorrow when most people are on the road.

Have a good relaxing time and the very best for a better 2009 for you.

Sheena

Totally understand the aching hands. At least you got somewhat finished!

Truly. On the local news this a.m. They interviewed the park police chopper pilot - who rescued the rescuer. Said that when they pulled the Lt out of the water, he'd been in there over an hour, and that when he reached the helicopter saw that he literally was an icicle - had ice frozen covering his chest. The rescue squad that I was riding at (am on admin off for now) has the water rescue & heavy rescue main charge for Loudoun Cty. I keep thinking I may take some of the rescue training - it's totally cool - but definitely not for everyone. I just don't do fires - the occupational MD said my breathiing doesn't make the firefighting standard (the chronic bronchitis/asthma damage). But, I can still do the other stuff. It is amazing - and the whole overcoming your fear thing.

Absolutely good to have fun in those circumstances. When I was a kid, we had a gas bbq - built on a permanent gas line. During hurricanes - all the neighbors came over for the big cooking extravaganze - what with power being out for many days. Emptying fridges and freezers. With our current fireplace it has a sort of permanent glass - you have to be very careful when opening it to light if the pilot isn't working, or throw color stuff in there. The glass marks up - I suspect it's like a heat resistant version of museum glass. And there are screens in front of it - mostly I think to prevent the glass from getting marked up.

It's not quite as cold here, so that's nice. Hope you get to the family tonight.

From your mouth to.....as they say. Thanks so much. I'm sure it'll be relaxing. DH has picked out some cookie recipes from his mom's file. Of course they are all huge batches - I read the first one and almost choked -

8 C flour, 2 sticks butter, 2 sticks shortening, 1 stick margarine, etc. But, cleverly what she'd done was the normal size recipe is on an index card, and she had stapled a note over that with the huge batch qty. I was looking at that top tab. So, I expect I'll use his mom's older than us cookie press gun, and give some a whirl.

DH is deciding if he'll speak to his sisters. He's still angry that they never returned his B-day calls to them, nor T-giving, nor yet have we ever had an anniversary call or card.. The topper this year in the bad SIL - the crazy one sent a holiday card - clearly addressed in sharpie to DH only. When he came home and opened it, indeed, she'd written "Dear Jon" and continued, adding the Christmas sentiments to the just non-specific holiday card, etc. We both burst out laughing - so now I've gone from the horrible, pudgy SIL who stole her wonderful brother, and is a heathen, to non-existence. So, this is the mean, crazy one. The other is just mean, selfish, and a liar. Ah, what fun. DH got so annoyed about the card that he refused to take their respective boxes to the post office. Ah, well. So, I think we'll just have plenty of hanging out time - and relax. All our local friends are either away or full of family and cheer. But, this is pretty normal for us, and we'll call my DB, and our cousins that we love. And plan for next week's "getting the house in order". I'm thinking I should answer the phone, if a call comes, as "The ghost in the house"

Have a great holiday!

Ellice