Christmas 2008 and New Years 2009

After a harrowing journey east (thanks Northwest Airlines ground crew in Billings, MT for a horrible experience) I spent the holidays in Virginia. The flight out of Montana was delayed for 3.5 hours and when I did arrive in Minneapolis all of the flights out were canceled so I got the extreme pleasure of camping in the airport...that SUCKED big time. Pictures from the Minneapolis airport can be found here...looks like fun huh? Finally, I arrived in Charlotte, NC which is as close as the airlines could get me to my parents (Charlotte isn't really close) however, they did forget my luggage in MN (figures) so all of that threw my travel plans out of whack by about 2 days. I did get to go down to Patrick County and see some friends and eat at El Rancho and have a Honduras Coffee chaser (I recommend the Coco-Mocha Nut Latte Frio...mui bueno!!!). I spent Christmas eve and morning in Tazewell and then spent a few days with the folks in Gate City. I traveled to Blacksburg to visit some family and friends and am spending the New Year in Tazewell. Tomorrow I am meeting the folks and we are going to Oak Hill, WV to see my brother and his wife and Kathryn, and then back to Tazewell for the Orange Bowl. Anyhow, Happy New Years! Pictures from the trip thus far can be found here.

Home for the holidays

Well, since no one wants to come to Montana to visit, I thought that I would show you what you are missing. At least what my house looks like decorated for Christmas...click here.

Someone left the freezer open!

Winter has officially arrived in Montana! We have been experiencing the wonder that is sub-zero temps for the last couple of days. The high today is -11 and the high yesterday was -5. We will be experiencing something of a tropical heat wave on Wednesday with temperatures around 10 above for highs! One of my secretaries just phoned in and said that she will be late this morning...she drives a school bus and it is -36 where her route begins! I think that the low in town last night was -25, but I haven't seen an official temp yet.

We also have some snow...about 5 inches. That isn't a whole lot of snow, but it is something. The snow came in on Saturday morning along with 60 mph winds (which was a whole lot of fun working outside in).

I had a Christmas party on Saturday night...which I DID shovel my sidewalk, but the forementioned winds took care of my work for me by the time anyone showed up. I just turned on the XM Christmas music and served up some yummy Santa Fe Cheese soup and we had a pretty good time. It was actually surprising to have as many folks show up as I did. I really didn't expect anyone to get out in the storm, but I guess I had 10 or so people at one point or another...they all just wanted my cooking!!!

End of Semester...Time to Party!!!

Today is the end of fall classes!!! I just need to finish my finals and I am done! It will be such a wonderful feeling to not have to worry about class work for a few weeks. It will be such an uplifting feeling that I am throwing a party tomorrow night. I have invited nearly the entire town, although I think that actual attendance will be slightly less than that. I bought and put up a "permanent" Christmas tree last night (it's a biggen') and to be honest it is a lot bigger than it looked like at the store, but it's OK. I will probably spend most of the day tomorrow cleaning up the house and splitting firewood for next week. That is another story all together. If you want to see something scary, look up the forecast for Billings, MT for the next week...we are not supposed to see positive numbers in the temperature department for a while. After today, it's gonna be COLD!

New look and writers block

Well, what do you think of the new look? I thought that the shades of brown were a little "tired" at this point.

Can someone please write my paper for me? I have tried to make this thing come together all week and I'm just not feelin' it. Which is a problem, the paper is due tonight. I guess at some point I will finish this thing and submit it, but at this point, I am having to really trim down my data to make it fit within the prescribed 5 page limit. At some point in my life I would have thought that 5 pages would have been a chore to reach and now I find it a chore to trim down my material...maybe I won't be docked too much for 6 or 7 pages, I think that I can get everything to fit in that space.

Also, another paper that I have to write this month...my faculty report for the university. This is a really important one and I am kind of stressing out about it. This is the "Justify you job" paper required of all faculty at MSU. It's easy to justify my position, but I hope that I can truly relate the amount of new programming that I have put into practice this year. I was looking back over my calendar today and it's amazing to me just how much new programming (not to mention continuation of programs) that I have done this year...big programs too! I have always had trouble putting these programs and their impacts into a concise report, but I will give it another try this year. Wish me luck with these things.

Snow in December!!!

We have SNOW!!! About 2 inches of the white stuff fell yesterday and covered Big Horn County. I know that it isn't a lot of snow and that our Columbus Day storm was much larger, but it is nice to say that winter has arrived (very cold today too). I usually don't like snow and I'm sure that I will be tired of the cold by January, but for now...at least until Christmas, the snow and cold weather are nice. Town is starting to look like Christmas, with all the decorations going up (I was second this year in putting up my outdoor decorations) but now there are several houses sporting festive lighting!

Bambi lives...for now

Hunting season for deer and elk ended yesterday...without another animal finding its way into my freezer. I wish that would have had a different outcome but alas all we saw were bucks and with only doe tags, we had to let the deer live. Now, bird season is still in so hunting for me is not totally over for the year! I enjoy pheasant hunting more than deer hunting so really the season is just beginning for me! I may still yet buy a duck stamp and migratory bird license and go goose hunting as well...we saw hundreds of Canadian geese while we were hunting deer this weekend and had I been carrying a shotgun I would've taken a couple of geese and given up on the deer.