Sir Moves A Lot (I Like Big Boxes, And I Can Not Lie...)

So hey, you know what sucks?

Moving.  Moving sucks a lot.  Like, a lot.  More than a lot.  Movie bites the big one.  Moving is the suck that created sucking.  You know what sucks worse than moving?  Moving and trying to work a full time job at the same time.  Yeah.  That's really dumb.  People shouldn't do that.  There should be some kind of special leave you get where you just get a couple weeks off when you move.  Like maternity leave only with a domicile instead of a child.

To my friends who just had children: I apologize for that and take it back.  Sorry.

Anyway, yeah.  The last... long time life has pretty much just been get up, go to work, go home *either pack or unpack, depending on how far back you go* then go to sleep and start all over again.

Aside from the night Steve took me out to get shoved into a coffin and licked by a stranger (not kidding) we haven't really had too much opportunity for fun.  And, come to think of it, the Haunted Basement at the Soap Factory - though highly effective at being quite scary - wasn't really, uh, "fun" in my book.  Yeah, in case you missed it there - I was licked by a stranger and then put in a coffin.  Woo freakin hoo.

So, uh, yeah... life's been a little busy lately.  There's a room in my house right now that's pretty much just dedicated to clothes and... piles of things.  They don't even have to be things that are eventually going to go in that room.  No, no.  Those are things that are totally going to go on a completely different floor than where they are now.  But are currently in a pile in that room.  Because that's what that room is for right now.  Not stressful at all.

On the other hand - I live somewhere new now.  Which means there's some new... stuff around for me to take pictures of when I stop and take pictures of... stuff.  And thus! I give you:

A pretty wicked picture of a raindrop on a branch of the tree that's by my deck:

What I like most about it?  That you can see part of the tree reflected in the raindrop.  I don't like to get braggy.  But in my opinion, that's pretty badass.  Thinking about putting that one on a wall someplace.  Except at the end of the day it's a picture of a stick.  So I'm having a hard time getting around that.

Other upside to the move?  Wrote this on my lunch break.  That's pretty awesome.

Back to work now, though.

Isn't a fit night out for man nor beast!

Here in the Twin Cities we're very used to snow. It comes every year, it beats the ever living crap out of us for several months in a row, and then it melts, we have a lovely summer and forget about it until winter comes 'round again. It's a pattern that is, if not comforting, at least familiar.

This year we had an exceptionally mild fall and our winter, though cold, lacked snow for much longer than normal. Two days before Christmas it started snowing. And it didn't stop until two days after Christmas.

It has since been varying degrees of yuck outside and it's been heavy hunker down mode for some time.

But here's one thing that most Minnesotans won't tell you:

Snow is pretty. Don't get me wrong - it's horrible. It's a pain in the ass, it's a hassle, it's cold and not fun and guh. It's tiring. Mixed with the ice, wind, cold and total lack of sunlight snow and winter are terrible. But the snow itself? It's pretty. It covers everything in this lovely blanket of marshmallowy goodness. Everything looks quiet and peaceful and sweet. It sucks to live with, but damn is it nice to look at.

This is taken out my parents' patio window on Christmas Eve night. That is straight snow nearly up to the seat of those chairs: it's not drifted or wind blown snow, that's just how it fell. It was ridiculous. I do love the reflection of the Christmas lights in the window, I think it adds a certain whimsy to the scene.