Nephew? Still cute. Crazy day, though. And Snowpocolypse! It sure is pretty though!

(I say this as a Seattle native. My people, sometimes not good drivers.)

They honestly suck, I have to say. It's like driving in California again when I drive up there. Nostalgic.

I asked meara about how Seattlites deal with snow because DC residents ... well, their ideas about how to deal with snow are on a par with how many of them have dealt with the economy. The city pretends we're a southern city and don't get snow ... until we do. At which point everyone freaks out - mad dashes to the stores for food, beer, snow shovels, salt, etc. Schools close, which means people have to get home and pick up their children AND food. The government closes, which means everyone gets dumped onto the streets and into the transit system at once (most businesses will close when the government does). Meanwhile, once the snow is actually falling, they drive as though it were drive pavement. A lot of people never bother buying snow tires. I've seen people going sideways down a major street (due to not knowing how to brake on a slippery surface). Once there's snow on the ground, every morning I'll hear people who've gotten stuck spinning their wheels. Over and over again. Me? if I have to go out, I hike up to the main street (which is one of the first to be cleared) and catch a bus. Or, if I'm going to/from the grocery, I walk.

Shit I Haven't Said(Yet) Ok, Crush Guy, yes, I can be incredibly perceptive. But not liking your ex-fiancee is not "keen detective instincts," It's about like Gollum and the Ring and "precious, my precious," With the freaky side bonus that I was right. For a smart man, you can be very stupid, dear. xxoo

Okay, folks, I need oomph. I have to pack up my room for the two-week break and head home. Where oh where is my oomph?

Emily, I can GUARANTEE I don't have it.

We sort of close down when it snows because it *USUALLY* only happens one or two days a year. ::glares meaningfully at snow::

Kristin, I am so happy for Zoe's good news!

Emily, your oomph is not here in Texas with me. Instead of working, I've been thinking about home building again. What I forgot is, the Monolithic Dome Institute is here in Texas! About an hour south of me. I could go and visit. Alas, I have no land to build on, or money to pay for building, so, it would be a bit of a waste of time. But could make for a nice road trip to explore.

Alas, that doesn't help you find your oomph. Good luck with that.

I skimmed.

Steph, I think you can make your profile private on Facebook, but I'd just ignore them. I have some oddball friends requests from people I don't think I know and they are just waiting in limbo.

I'm tired, and experienced the Christmas Party at my job. We ended up getting out at 2:00 pm! which meant we could all go home, but I went and did some Christmas Shopping. We got bonuses, I'm not sure if it's normal but..wow. I've never had a Xmas bonus before and didn't know what to expect. I'm floored. We also had a dessert competition and I entered, and despite a small incident of discovering the raspberries had molded (berries I bought yesterday) I took Best Overall!!

Oh and we are switching over to a Cisco phone system and so far I seem to be the queen of the system. I mean, it's new to everyone and I use it the most, But there's a feature called "PArk" which sends a call to an extension out "in space" and then someone can go to any phone and call it and get that call. So I parked a call to our IT guy because I didn't know where he was, he asked me "Why didn't you just put it on hold". I said that I wasn't sure how long he'd be and I didn't want to tie up one of the two lines if he was a long time.

Then he said that was a really great idea and he wouldn't have thought of using it that way but it made sense and was a smart idea. And my boss was right there! so that was cool.

YAY for Zoe

My oomph has been AWOL for years.

Atlanta deals badly with snow, but rarely gets more than one snowfall past a few flurries a year. It would be fiscally crazy to have the equipment sitting around the other 364 days a year. The airport has snowplows and the DOT salts the overpasses, but that's about it.

People from the north mock the fact that Atlanta-area schools close on the faintest of chances of snow, but after SnowJam, they're unlikely to take any chances. About 25 years ago, a snowstorm that was much earlier and much worse than predicted hit at about noon, and the schools tried to send kids home. Some kids were stuck in buses in freezing weather for 8+ hours and some traffic jams were so bad that people abandoned their cars where they were. Wrecks blocked every exit from where I worked, so I gave up and slept in my office.