Wandering through E-Space

Hey Blogger, what's up with you today?  I can only access my blogs in draft mode-that kinda sucks. :p At least you still work with dial up (sorta-you're very slow.) *sigh* If this is eventually going to be the new Blogger, I'm not sure how I like the layout of things... Well, after that major hot spell we had back in July, I decided it was time to dig out my A/C from storage.  Hadn't used it since I left Coventry back in 2007!  (My co-worker Brian called me 'hard core'.  LOL)  Yeah, the heat wave was just too much this time around... Now to my main points-the Feast starts tomorrow night!!!  We'll have our usual walk around the neighborhood starting at 6, then we will have a sitdown concert around quarter after 8.  That's the plan for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Monday, the 15th (and the last day of the Feast) we'll have our usual morning procession, walk around the neighborhood in the evening, then the evening procession after 9.  (a...

Those in the Cleveland area-where were you when that crazy storm blew in around 4pm? Sharon and I were in the stacks on the third floor of the library when it happened. We watched the clouds roll in extremely fast, with some pretty impressive flashes of lightning. Didn't have my camera but did have my cell phone. Here are a couple of pictures I uploaded to Twitpic: 3rd floor KSL, facing west This one's my favorite: 3rd floor KSL, facing north When I got home, one of my pots of rose moss had tipped over (it's ok!) and my lantern lights were on. What's the big deal with the lights you say? Well, they are on a solar timer-when the sun goes down, they switch on for a few hours. It was so dark because of the storm, they switched on!! And no, that doesn't always happen when we get thunderstorms during the day. I think it happened at least once before earlier this summer. Well, the air has cooled a little bit-my house is still warm, but it's at least a bit more tolerab...

YUCK! It is waaaay too hot!! The heat index was at least 113 today. Bleh. No way I could walk home in this weather. (thank you Ron and Michele for the ride home!!!) . You know what's worse? The weather in Minnesota-we've only been at this extreme heat for about a day-they have been like this for a while now-along with the rest of the midwest. Gah! Not sure if this extreme heat is good for my plants-can't get out and water them fast enough!!! Speaking of plants, I've decided to devote this post to them-since I haven't done that in a while-sure this post would be more interesting with more photos-perhaps I will add some later. ;) (although I have posted some to my Twitter account , or, for more direct access, check out my Twitpic ) This year my outdoor container garden consists of most of the same plants I had last year-with the exception of no pumpkin or cucumber attempts. The marigolds are slightly different in terms of blooms, but the colors are still the same (ye...

Well then, I’m quite behind in my walk reporting... February was quite the snowy month. In fact, I was able to walk more in January. February breakdown: 02/01-02/05: 1.5 miles 02/06-02/12: 3 miles 02/13-02/19: 15.1 miles 02/20-02-26: 12 miles Total: 31.6 miles Actually, if it wasn’t for the fact that I was checking in on my friends’ cats, I might not have even walked that much! So much snow... (not that I’m complaining about snow in February. LOL) The 25th was an interesting day-I was watching the school closings to see if the Cleveland Hts/University Hts school district would be closed (the bus tends to be early when there are no kids), and I never saw Case in the listings. While on the bus, I decided to check Facebook, just for kicks-when I found out that the University had closed!!! Got into the library, turned right around and went home (special thanks to Robin-she gave me a lift so I wouldn’t have to wait for a bus. She is an excellent snow driver!) Snow days are much more e...

...or, as my friend Lee posted, 'Blizznarok'. LOL. Astronomer Phil Plait from Bad Astronomy posted this video that NASA and NOAA made with satellite images from January 31st to February 2nd: Wow! Anyone catch the front cover of the Plain Dealer yesterday? They had a satellite image from Tuesday, with a tiny 'you are here' arrow pointing to Cleveland. Pretty amazing. I was lucky-didn't loose power, and the ice wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been (although I think a combination of the ice and wind took out half a strand of my snowflake lights-I noticed last night that they were out. :() Still, if that's the worst that happened to me, it's nothing. We've got mountains of snow along the streets (thanks plow trucks), so the sidewalks are pretty impassable. It was amazing to see different posts from my friends all around the country-it was like we were all in the same area-it was just difficult to fathom that everyone was experience similar sit...

As promised, here are a couple of pictures from Wednesday night: (click to enlarge) Check out our lights, all covered in snow!!! They are saying we are going to be hit with a blizzard Sunday, so there may be more snowy pictures in the future. ;)

Wow! I hope everyone in the area survived the surprise lake effect snow storm that came through yesterday afternoon! (I say surprise, because it was all supposed to have passed by late Tuesday afternoon)I was lucky-I got a ride home, and we somehow managed to squeeze into an opening, then hit a pocket of no vehicles on the road and we whizzed up Cedar Hill (well, not exactly 'whizzed up', after all, the roads were nasty!) I had a couple of friends who were stuck downtown for quite some time. It took poor Arthur 5 and a half hours to get home! He could've been to Columbus and back at that rate! I've got a couple of pictures I'll hope to post sometime soon... Tomorrow Sharon and I are going to the Botanical Gardens during our lunch break to check out the Gingerbread Houses-I'm so excited!! I'll definitely have to post some pictures of that. This weekend is the annual holiday baking party that Perseph and I try to have each year. I'm making rum balls...

Gah!! It's hot-very hot-hot and muggy. We were spoiled this summer-cooler temps, not as muggy as it had been. Even when I went up north, it was unusually cool. Blah to those who whined about the temperatures never being above 90 degrees!!! I am happy with cooler summers-75 degrees, with the lower 80s tolerable for a time. But I digress... The summer has flown by so quickly!!! Mt. Carmel came and went, the week of many actives flew by. Jerm and Allison got hitched! (Yah, I've got lots of pics, but I need to put new batteries in my camera-wedding shower, staff picnic, retirement party, baby shower, wedding from said shower-I used my camera ALOT in the last month!) And now the Feast is upon us! Oh, my-not only do I need to pick up batteries for my camera, but I could use a couple of extra reeds for my clarinet as well!) I've spent the last couple of evenings (ok, more like later at night) on my back porch reading and enjoying the breeze (strong wind) and other nighttime sounds...

My friend Peter posted a link to this video on Facebook, and I just had to share: (original link here: The Sideways Tornado ). It gave me goosebumps!!! Tornadoes have been on my mind lately (with all the activity this weekend, no wonder!) I've always been fascinated by thunderstorms and tornadoes-no wonder this was one of my favorite books growing up: (I loved those Lets Read and Find Out books!!!) No, I am not a storm chaser, but I wouldn't mind playing one on tv. ;) Growing up in MN, while not exactly what you would call 'tornado alley', we certainly had our fair share of tornadoes. Tornado drills were the norm (hey, do they still test the sirens on the first Wed. of every month at 1pm?), and I can remember having a set plan to get all of our outdoor toys inside the fastest way possible whenever a tornado siren sounded. Here's a picture I took with my cell phone almost 2 years ago. My sister and I were on our way back to her place from the Cities when we got a ...

Woo! So how's everyone holding up with the storm? I've got mounds and mounds of snow up and down my street. It's a good thing I had a ride home yesterday, because now I live too far to walk, like I did during the Valentine's Blizzard of '07 . Although we didn't have the whole day off like we did in '07, the University did close early yesterday. So I've been thinking about New Years resolutions-I was going to post them, but now it's like, 'what's the point?' After all, one of them is writing here more, and I've already broken that one! LOL. Seriously, though-I may just do a post of some goals I've set for myself this year. One thing I have been thinking about, though-I'm going to start re-posting my blog entries in LiveJournal. Originally I just got the account so I could respond to some of my friend's entries, and would just post random things there, but I haven't posted there in a while, and I really dislike having an...

D.W.Q.: "I can see you've been doing the TARDIS up a bit. I don't like it." -the Second Doctor (from the Third Doctor story, the Three Doctors ) I've just done a little template cleaning on my blog-actually, not much-I need to do more. I've finally added some countdowns to my sidebar, and I decided to move my archive list to the end, since it's getting so long. I still have to go through my links to see which ones are still live, but I'll do that another day. Chicago Tardis is next week!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY! :) Thanksgiving, too. :) Fall is being overrun by winter, but that's another story. Been unpacking my boxes-discovered I'm missing a couple of boxes of books, and one of cds. Dang it! Back to storage...

D.W.Q.M.: "When everything is new, can anything be a surprise?" -Cho-je (from the Third Doctor story, Planet of the Spiders Happy Summer! (well, almost.) ;) I can't believe it's summer (partly because, well-it's been quite chilly the past couple of days-even for me!! It is supposed to warm up, though) This past Thursday was the summer debut of the annual Coventry Street Fair (or is it the art fair? Geez, I should know better) Anyhoo-every third Thursday of the month during the summer, Coventry Village closes off the streets for the fair. In the past, I've only passed on through-my apartment was far enough away that once I was home, I didn't hear or see any of it. This year, I'm quite a bit closer! There was a cop at the corner of my street, directing traffic away from the fair, and, of course, people were parking up and down my street-I sat on my porch Thursday evening and watching families come and go. Next month I'm going to try to mosey on over...

D.W.Q.M.: The Second Doctor: "If only I could find my recorder, I could play you a little something to pass the time." The Brigadier: "We should be thankful for small mercies." (from the Third Doctor story, the Three Doctors Ha-ha! For once, I actually bought reeds before the Italian Band season started!! I didn't forget until the day before and say, 'Aww, crap! I forgot again! ' Well, unless you count Good Friday, then, nevermind... We had a procession at Holy Redeemer for St. Anthony's Feast yesterday. We were a small band (not unusual for procession), but we were pretty well-rounded. We had Nick, our fearless leader, plus 3 clarinets, 2 trumpets, 2 saxs, a euphonium, 2 precussionists and a sousaphone. Mike even drove up from Dayton to join us. When Mike and I were walking towards the church, I noticed the big tree we usually sit under while waiting for the precession, and stand under for the blessings afterwards, was gone. I couldn't believe...

No Doctor Who quote tonight-I couldn't think of anything clever enough for this post. ;) Ever go through a period of writers block? That's what's happenening to me right now! So much has been going on, but whenever I sit down to write, I just don't know where to begin. The other day I was looking at some of my older blogs-I couldn't believe how much I used to write here! (and look how much it's dwindled!) Maybe if I wasn't so tired... ;) This past weekend I was in Cincinatti and Dayton with the IceHawks (babysitting!) I had alot of fun. The tournament next month is in Cincinatti, and if we stay in the same place, I'm going to have to remember my swimsuit-they have an indoor/outdoor heated pool!! I also hope I have the same roomies-then I'll have to remember to bring Phase 10! So where were you during the big storm two weeks ago? I was stuck at home-everything I had planned on Saturday was cancelled (with good reason, too). I stepped off the front ste...

D.W.Q.M.: "You know Doctor, I could play all day in my green cathedral." -Harrison Chase (from the Fourth Doctor Story, the Seeds of Doom ) As I was out on a walk this past Monday, I suddenly realized how green everything was!! Hard to believe that 2 weeks ago the trees were still bare. Now, the leaves are starting to come out, flowers are starting to pop up and bloom in gardens, and the grass is so green! Even though winter is my favorite season, I do appreciate all seasons, and I love the transitions between seasons. Summer to fall, fall to winter, and winter to spring! Ahh, the smell of new flowers, of freshly cut grass, the manure-scent of fertilizer (ok, so maybe that last one isn't so great. ;) ) Must enjoy it now, before my allergies remind me why I have a bottle of Allegra in my medicine cabinet. ;) Yay, spring!

D.W.Q.M: "Who sold you on that, an Eskimo?" -Sarah Jane Smith (yes, I know I used this quote last time-but give me a break-there's 20 inches of snow outside my door!) ;) "I don't know whether to wish you a Happy Easter...or a Merry Christmas." -Fr. Mike, at the beginning of his Easter homily. Yeah, getting to church this morning was a bear. Of course, none of the sidewalks were shoveled (they didn't even bother to shovel our walks during the Valentine's Day blizzard!) And the streets were just plain awful. In East Cleveland, it was so bad that they closed all the hills-told people not to drive until the snow stopped. (yeah, right, it's still falling!) Oh, no-wait. It actually looks like it might have stopped...for now. They didn't get to the roads until mid-afternoon. Anyhoo, while sitting at church, I heard this loud rustling sound-I (along with several other parishoners) looked up just in time to see the shadow of snow falling off the ro...

D.W.Q.M.: "Who sold you on that? An Eskimo?" -Sarah Jane Smith (from the Fourth Doctor story, Seeds of Doom ) I think I may have mentioned this before, but living in Ohio has made me soft. Years ago, the prospect of having a white Easter wouldn't have shocked or upset me so. I mean, we may not have enjoyed having a white Easter in MN, but when it happened, it wasn't as unusual as it is here. (Snow in April? sure! bring it on! ;)) The snow looked so pretty as it was falling outside my window at work...too bad it's spring and Easter around the corner, rather than winter and Christmas being around the corner. When we got to St. Rocco's, despite being reassured earlier in the day that the procession was still on-we found out that they decided to cancel it. They were worried that the streets would start to freeze over. Although I was a little disappointed, in all honesty, I was not looking forward to playing my clarinet in 20 degree weather. brrrrr! So several o...

D.W.Q.M.: Barbara: "Perhaps it's frozen?" the First Doctor: "No, impossible... not in this temperature. Besides, it's too warm." It's snowing. It's snowing. Hard to believe that it was 80 degrees on Tuesday, and by Wednesday night, we had snow on the ground. Come on, it's April! It's spring! (Wow, living in Ohio has made me soft. Snow in April used to be 'normal'.) ;) So much to say, so much has been going on. I'm not even sure where to begin with updates. I guess I should start with my promotion-yes, I got a promotion at work. However, it's name only (no money for raises this year). My job title went from a II to a III, and I have more responsiblity. Now I'm an ordering assistant. I actually order books now! I'm still receiving and cataloging Approval plan books-but now I'm also dealing with firm orders-searching, downloading records, ordering books/dvds from different vendors. So many new logins and passwords t...

D.W.Q.M.: "Who sold you on that? An Eskimo?" -Sarah Jane Smith (from the Fourth Doctor story, Seeds of Doom ) I never thought I'd see the day. Case Western Reserve University will be closed tomorrow. That's how bad the weather is. Case never closes. I've been on the phone all night with people-including my supervisor-he said it's official, we don't have to report into work tomorrow. WOO! My first snow day as an adult!!!!!!!!!! Today has just been crazy. 8:00am Radar shows all of Ohio covered in some sort of precipitation. Mostly snow, except for a slight line of pink, followed by a bit of green in southwest Ohio. Ohio is under a winter storm warning...except for the Toledo area...they are under a blizzard warning. 11:00am Karen, in Columbus, is worried about being able to dig out her car. Up here, the snow isn't that bad...yet. 1:15pm Her boss comes back from lunch-says it's only going to get worse-but doesn't let them go home. Ohio State ...