Holy purple bruise, Batman!

GOOO! This is what Molly's leg looks like after her sledding accident. You can see the whole event unfold online by looking at a previous blog post (two posts ago) where I have posted a video of Molly sledding. If you listen closely to the end of the video you can hear Molly going "Whhooo hooooo............ (pause) Ohwwwww..."

Portland news - ARCTIC BLAST coverage!

This pretty much sums up the portland news coverage that we've been watching for the last 2 weeks...

http://mikevogel.com/?p=152

Perfect, fitting end to a crappy year

Molly and I had purchased plane tickets in November to fly to Atlanta for the Holidays to visit her brother, Mom, Step-Mom, sister and grandparents for the holidays.

As you may know, we've had the worst snowstorm in 40 years. It started on Sunday evening (yeah, LAST Sunday evening, the 14th) and has snowed or frozen-rained nearly every day since then. We personally have about 14 inches of snow in our back-yard.

Saturday and Sunday we got the house all cleaned up (well, Molly did, I was working) and got our bags packed up. The roads, at this point, are impossible to drive on with several inches of ice and snow... (they don't plow here) so without chains, you can't leave the house. Luckily, Lindsey and Josh have chains for their cars, so they picked us up and brought us over to their house so we could be just that much closer to the airport. Our plane was scheduled to leave on Monday morning at 8:30 am. We closely watched the news and airport and airline websites all night long... and just kept seeing flight after flight after flight get canceled. All but maybe 10 flights were canceled on Sunday but they had not canceled anything for Monday and the snow was still coming down. Finally, at 10pm, they posted that our flight was canceled. We frantically attempted to get another flight booked... but because everyone had done the same thing ALL DAY SUNDAY, there was nothing left in our price range, and the earliest that we could get booked was Friday. It didn't make a ton of sense to fly for 24 hours for 48 hours of visit, and some of our family would have already left by then anyway. We opted to cancel the trip, so we could save the money to have for a more worthwhile visit later. Molly is really upset about the whole thing, because it is this time of year that we first found out about Max's cancer, and she really wanted to spend this time with her family.

On a brighter note, here is the good side:

1. It is very beautiful outside
2. As nice as it is to visit family, traveling to get there is always sucky
3. Lindsey and Josh invited us to spend Christmas with them and their family (if they can get here)
4. We've saved a ton of money
5. We now have purchased chains for my car... so that is a unique experience
6. We may go snowshoeing
7. We will probably go skiing

All of those things together, obviously do not come close to making up for not spending the Holdays with Brian, Andrea, Cherie and Ed, Norma and Katie, Ted and Sarah, of course. But we're trying to remain positive.

Here are some pictures that we have been taking through the week:

Snow, Dec. 2008

We're alive

So, yeah, its been SOOOO long since I've updated. I've got some excuses, of course, but its mostly that I just got out of habit. I'll try to fix that. But with the holidays coming up, that will be tough. Look for more in the new year, I think.

October:
1. I went to KC and Omaha for a software development conference
2. Got my family to start talking again to each other (this was quite a feat, but I really didn't do much)
3. Molly went on a hike, but I don't have the pictures readily available
4. Halloween was uninteresting... stayed at home and drank martinis, got in the hot tub

November:
1. Wes Stueve came to visit for the weekend, Molly went to Florida because her step-brother, Aubry, was getting deployed to the middle-east
2. My grandma passed away from a very quick bout of cancer. I went into KC for 7 days for the funeral and spent most of that time with family... so if I didn't see you, don't feel bad, I didn't really see anybody except family.
3. Beajolias Noveaux (sp?) party... only 5 people were there. Had a good time, though
4. Thanksgiving: had April (Molly's step-sister-in-law) drive in from Florida, Norma and Katie (step-mom & half-sister) flew out. Had a WONDERFUL dinner at Lindsey and Josh's place
5. Thanksgiving weekend we rented a mini-van and went wine tasting (2 full days of wine-fun!)
6. Josh Yoder turns 32!

December:
1. My step-nephew, Owen, passed away from heart complications. He was three weeks from his first birthday. For those who didn't know, he had lots of medical problems his whole life.
2. Molly's Birthday... molly turned 32! Didn't do anything too crazy. A nice dinner, and used some free hotel coupons in Lake Oswego's Crowne Plaza.
3. I caught a cold (still have it)
4. Portland Winter Ale Festival! SOOOO fun
5. Molly catches my cold
6. Molly and I celebrate our 11 year anniversary (of when we first started dating)
7. Portland gets "dumped" on by a ARCTIC STORM! School closes down for 3 days (possibly more... I'll let you know)

Well I have you up to speed now, I think! I'll try to do another post soon with details about the up-coming holiday events.

Cheers!