This has been a lost week. I came down with a cold last Friday night and have spent the last seven days battling the virus. I went back to work yesterday and had the sick slow start, this is where a 15 minute routine takes 45 minutes. By the time I was finished ironing my clothes (I had been too ill to do it after washing) I was sweating like a hard run horse. Fortunately, I had been wise enough to leave my shower to the nearly end. Carol is now doing battle with the cold, hopefully, she will start feeling better soon.

Back to my regular work schedule, finally. Winter break was long but I still managed to get my full hours in, yeah!

The weather has been a bit crazy here lately with some nice days and some not so nice days. Yesterday was a gorgeous day with a high of 79. It made my trip home slow as everyone was driving at half speed with their windows open. Not so nice for the next few days though. Even have a dense fog warning in effect this morning.

It is with great sadness that I note tomorrow's temperature will be no better here than way up north. Rather depressing, what?

It's been a good week for me. I had a good (glowing?) work review, I did a presentation at a staff retreat, and I actually slept past 5 one morning!! The weather has been semi decent for much of the week with one day reaching 70. I am turning into a broken record though, I keep saying I am tired of the cold and gray. I wish we had some Lenten roses or the other winter flowering shrub (which I can never remember the name of) blooming in our yard.

Still no luck on the house move/search. We saw one nice new duplex that would perhaps work. It is nearly new with the paint smell still lingering. The problems are that it is not necessarily close to C's work (might have trouble getting to work if she must when I am not home) and it has no yard. Deal breakers? I don't know. I would be sad to leave my rosemary behind, but I don't want to be in the current place come summer.

post christmas blog

Christmas was a mix of nice and incomplete. The trip up was nice, sunny and warm. The first night was fine though Carol and I did force the family to eat a hot bowl of Mexican veggie soup (real good if anyone wants the recipe let me know, it does not have to be spicy-hot). The next day Carol, one of her sises (the other was not able to come due to family health concerns), and their mom went shopping. All three of them came home exhausted and grumpy. I stayed at the home we were using and relaxed, a nice little treat for me and, I believe, for Carol's dad. He rarely gets anytime to himself anymore. Christmas morning we all had a great breakfast and enjoyed opening gifts (well they did, I still do not find it my most happy hour). It started to rain early Christmas morning and by the time gifts were done we were getting worried. We went back to the rental home, cleaned, and left. I still feel bad about leaving in a rush like that. But if we had not we would have been stuck there for another 2-3 days.

The drive home was stressful. By the time we made it to Hot Springs, the trees were icing. A fierce rain continued for the next two hours (about Hope AR I believe) before quitting. We then had an hour of no rain before it began again. Around 3:00 PM it began to snow and by 4 we were considering a hotel. But, we persevered and managed to get home after 7. The 6 hour trip took us about 8 so slow, but not as bad as it could have been.

The rest of the holiday was quiet. We both hung out and watched rather dull stuff on Netflix, relaxed, and tried to stay warm. It has been rather cold here lately.

I went back to work last week. Nice to be making money again. My schedule won't get back to normal until after the 21st of this month, but I am still putting in my full hours.

We are thinking about moving this spring or summer so I have not been doing anything with the garden (sounds like a great excuse to me!!) though I have thought about it. I could be planting some things right now if I were more energetic.