SNOW DAY

It snowed in Portland today.

Many of you are scratching your heads going, "So?", but snow in Portland might as well be snow in L.A. We don't get snow very often. The slightest dusting cancels school, snarls traffic and gives the local news stations a reason to preempt the entire day/nights programing to offer weather updates. It also means that they have to come up with new names for the white stuff.


Today's offerings from the 4 local networks:
"Surprise Snow" (FOX)
"Storm Watch 07" (ABC)
"Winter Blast" (NBC)
"Storm Alert" (CBS)


Driving was laughable here today. The frustrating thing for me is that I learned how to drive in the snow. I grew up in eastern Oregon. It snows there all the time. I think in my entire life I had 2 whole snow days. That was because the drifts were 4 feet deep and the snow plows couldn't keep up. Here kids have two or three a year. And not always for actual snow. Last week they were out for "patches of black ice". That was the day I drove over the coast range in a foot of snow so I could get to an account. If I had kids I guess they would have been with me. Oh, and the black ice? Never found any.


At any rate, I drove all over town today, going about my business. I had errands to run, people to call, an office to get to. And I did. No problems. The only people at the office? Me and my regional coordinator. He grew up in Utah and went to college in Colorado.


While I was out and about I saw dozens of people either driving too fast (I have 4 wheel drive, I can go anywhere!). Too slow, (I can't go too fast or I will spin out. Oh wait, now I am sliding back down this hill!). Too stupid, (Once I hit the gas or brakes I can't move my foot ever again.) And too scared. I actually watched a lady cover her eyes as her car lost a little traction and drifted toward the curb. Rather than correct, she just let it go and ran up over the curb and into a small tree.


Check out this video from our local NBC affiliate. It is a good representation of what driving was like today and a good example of what happens if you never take your foot off the brake when you start to slide.


Everywhere I went people were shocked that A) I would go out in the snow and B) that I was a girl out in the snow. Yeah. Girls in the snow. Driving. Scary stuff. Having said that, I may be stuck at home tomorrow. Why you ask? They are predicting freezing rain tomorrow. Even I don't drive in that crap!

BEFORE (Also known as procrastination)

So here are all the pictures of the disaster known as my house. I haven't made it out to the car yet. That is tomorrows project.

The Living room
See the boxes to the left of the tv? Been there since before Thanksgiving. Also, there are 7 pairs of shoes in the living room. You can see two of them in this shot.

The Coffee Table
First of all, I HATE this coffee table. It is a hand me down. It is too small for the space and is wobbly. Also, please note two additional pair of shoes. There are three more that did not make it into the shot. On the couch are files from work, on the table are notes from work and an assortment of drinking glasses and newspapers.

The Christmas Pile
Well, the tree came down on New Years Day. Along with all the other decorations. And here they sit. Oh look, more shoes!

The Kitchen
Okay, so this is what it always looks like after about three days. I do keep on on this end of the house a little better. Mostly out of necessity for clean dishes. That and I HATE stinky kitchens. Oh, and I am sure our house was built on the center of an ant hill because we have a year round ant problem if ANYTHING gets left out for very long.

The counter from hell
I hate this counter. Everything lands here when we come in the door. This is actually only half as bad as it gets. You can actually still see counter in this picture!

Now onto the back of the house......

The Hallway
This is the dumping ground for laundry, things that need to move to another part of the house and stuff that can't get where it lives because something else is taking up residence there. Case in point, the box at the forward of the picture is Christmas ornaments. They belong in the closet. There are bowling balls in their spot right now. The boxes at the rear of the photo belong at my away office. They can't get in the car right now. And the laundry just needs to get washed.

Home Office
Paperless society my ass! There is a chair in here that belongs in the living room. It had to move for the tree at Christmas. And then there is everything else that gets shoved in here when we do "emergency cleaning" when company is coming. Ugh. I hate this room.

Closet
Why is there a closet of clothing in my office? Well, we started a bedroom remodel almost 4 years ago. Then we ran out of money. So my hanging clothes are in this closet and DH's are in the closet of the guest room. He does a better job of actually hanging his up. Mine are EVERYWHERE!

Guest Room
Speaking of the guest room.....here it is! Not as bad as it looks. Just a couple loads of clean laundry to be folded and oh, look, wrapping paper from Christmas. Ummm, yeah.

Master Bedroom
Where to start? Laundry. Work stuff. Clothes to hang. Shoes. Who knows what else! See the dresser in the hole that should be the closet? No clothes hang in here. Oh, the boxes. DH's beer can collection. Don't get me started on that. (love you honey!)

The Bathroom

Its only advantage is that it is small. You are looking at about 60% of the whole room right now. Being small means it can only get so bad. It also means that it can get this bad in about a day. And don't you dig the Avocado Green countertop?





Okay, that is it for now. I have to go get moving on this disaster for a couple of hours before I go to work. After pictures will be forthcoming!

CLEAN SWEEP

I have been working three jobs for the past month. Not that you would ever guess by looking at my house or car. Oh no. You would guess that it had been at least a year or more!


Disaster area. Seriously.



There is crap everywhere. Piles of newspapers on the floor. No clean clothes. A stack of canned food that needs to go in the cupboards, in the garage. There is a cake pan in the trunk of my car. Along with a bowling ball, paperwork, a pack of toilet paper, a bag of clothes for Goodwill, and one half of a pair of shoes. Speaking of shoes......DH just pointed out that there are 7 pair of my shoes in the living room alone. (Just because he doesn't even own that many shoes. Sheesh!)



So what am I doing on my first weekend off of two of three jobs? Cleaning house of course. I was inspired by Laurie over at Crazy Aunt Purl who is having a massive office organization fit this weekend. She is in the midst of a sneak attack cleaning frenzy, whereas I am merely cleaning out of self preservation. I figure if I know that others are cleaning it might make it a little less painful.



Besides, I am taking before and after pics. So you know you have a good laugh coming Sunday night when you try to figure out why I had a roll of linoleum in my dining room, laundry detergent in my living room and an empty fish tank in my home office.

PS- The picture at the top should serve as a cautionary tale to anyone who dares to open the back doors of my car.