Winter continues ...

This is what causes schools to cancel classes in Frisco!! I kind of laugh because - seriously - it doesn't look that bad. If it was just snow it would be a different story but please notice how it's white on the street and sidewalk but not on the grass. It doesn't make much sense but then I'm not going to argue because it was those white snow/ice covered streets that kept me at home today. Yes!!! SNOW DAY! I suppose I should clean and do laundry and I'm sure that's what my husband would like to come home to but I think I'll curl up on the sofa with some hot chocolate and watch soap operas all day long! By the way, all local school districts are closed today ... except Dallas ISD. I told you so!!

So here I am re-thinking my decision to stay at home, like I'm some sort of flake, and the guy reporting on the news is right down the street from me!! Cars are slipping and sliding all over the place and not getting any traction on the small hills. Boy am I glad I didn't brave the roads for my part-time job!

Booooo!

The weather did not cooperate. I am here, at work, for the whole day. I braved the roads to be here and would have gotten here on time if Sonic hadn't taken so darn long with my big diet coke!! I slid through one intersection and almost slid through a second but other than that it wasn't so bad. I didn't go above 25 mph on the way here but it wasn't so bad. There won't be any more pictures to share because it just didn't do anything. Maybe we'll get another one before winter is over. That would be nice. :-)

Happy MLK Day to those of you who didn't have to work anyways!

Ice

It is cold but not cold enough to freeze the streets. I'm a little skeptical that the temps will drop enough to keep me from work tomorrow but 'they' seem to think it will so I'll just keep my fingers crossed!! Here's a pic of the icesicles (is that how you spell it?) that are literally growing on our arbor. The ice is on the trees and plants too but it was way too cold and rainy to go out there and get a pic of that for you!!

so

We're still waiting for the ice. It's still above freezing out there.
We've have lots of rain but nothing frozen yet.

Maybe it will come on Sunday night so there won't be work on Monday! I remember watching the morning news as a kid hoping I would see DISD among the school closures. I'll be hoping for that again because if there's no school in DISD then I probably can't make it to work!! They never cancel school in DISD!!

I think we're going to go to the mall. We'll pack a blanket and a snack in case we get stuck!
ha ha ha

It's coming!!!

Brrrr... We're preparing for the icy blast. OK, so not really. I mean we have enough booze and plenty of food in the freezer so we're not really doing much to prepare. I agreed to work full-time on Monday so now I have to worry about being there at 8:00 am. See, I keep my eye on the weather and none of the meteorologists knew if this was actually going to do anything so here I am, with a hair appointment tomorrow afternoon, a party to go to tomorrow night, and a full day at the office on Monday, and they're saying "heavy freezing rain" for all day on Sunday. I hope it really does nothing but get cold OR ... Is REALLY bad so there's no choice but to stay home on Monday.

You know, I guess I shouldn't hope for the worst. I remember an ice storm in the very early 80s that actually froze our local White Rock Lake in Dallas. I'm fairly certain this storm won't do that but I know ice storms can get pretty dangerous as they freeze and snap power lines and make roads pretty treacherous ... However the year the lake froze we drove down there to see it!! I was, maybe 5 - 7 years old? It was fascinating!

Wish it would actually snow instead of ice. That would be so much more fun! Oh well. I live in Texas so what do I expect?! If there's anything to share I'll definitely post pictures.
Until then ... Keep warm everyone!!

Train Pics

The depot at night. I had to use slow shutter since it was dark so it's a little on the blurry side. It was all decorated for Christmas with real garland and pretty red bows.

This is the inside of the dining car. Everyone has on their "Happy New Year" hats! Our table was directly beind the two men in the front of the picture. We didn't know anyone there but they were mostly train geeks like us (er...like my husband)! :-)

This is the open air car where everyone had their heads out the windows. You can see people at the very back looking out the windows. One of them is James ... ofcourse.

They had some big rains on Friday so this part of the double track at the Rusk Depot was washed out. The train usually arrives on this side of the track. The second track is a few feet to the right.

This is the steam engine that pulled our train both Saturday night and Sunday.

Happy New Year

James and I had a great New Year's Weekend. As I mentioned in a previous post, we went down to Palestine, TX for dinner aboard the Texas State Railroad on Saturday the 30th. It was a lot of fun even though we brought down the average age by quite a bit and increased the average alcohol consumption. We were allowed one bottle of wine per person (naturally we took two bottles) and it turned out we were paired with a couple from Katy who does not partake in beverages of that sort. We were able to wander the train after dinner and they had some open air cars where everyone was sticking their heads out the windows (much like dogs in cars). It was cold but a lot of fun. Our ride went about a third of the way to Rusk to a Y in the rail where the engine detached from the train and backed up the Y then came down the other side of the Y and hooked on to the other end of the train to take us back. The engine pulling the train was an old steam engine and you could see the fire glowing below as it passed us along the Y. We made it back to the depot around 10:00 so we headed back to our hotel. BUT ... the hotel next to ours had a bar that seemed to be pretty popular judging by the number of trucks in the lot so we walked down the hill to check it out. We actually had to show our ID and get our hands stamped and pay a cover to get into this place and it was a total dive. On one side, there was a live (country) band with people two steppin' on the dance floor and around the other side was full of TVs and pool tables. We were still dressed up from our dinner so we were really out of place, James in a sport coat and me in a sparkly top and strappy shoes, but we loved it. I think that's the first time in several months we've actually been in a bar when 'last call' was announced. We finally stumbled home at 1 am ready to come back for the New Year's Eve party they were having the next night. Live band! Champagne toast! Balloon drop! And all for $20 per person. The next morning we thought better of it and checked out of our hotel after ransacking the breakfast buffet!

So the next day, New Year's Eve, we decided to ride the train again in the daylight so we could see where we had been. Yes, we rode the same train twice in two days. Yes, we're dorks. It was a beautiful day and I couldn't think of a better way to spend it. The train took us all the way to Rusk where we had an hour and a half for a picnic lunch then took us back to Palestine. We left Palestine to head home around 4:00 Sunday afternoon and it's about a three hour drive so we celebrated New Year's Eve with a wonderful dinner at Dairy Queen on the outskirts of Dallas and were asleep by midnight.

James took the whole week off after New Year's to get some projects done around the house but he got sick (a cold) on Wednesday after we finished the attic so most of the time after that was spent watching Season 5 of "24". We have only one disc left and we're just waiting for Netflix to send it to us!! I'm sure we'll see the end before the new episodes next weekend! I can't wait!!

I hope 2007 has started off with nothing but happiness for everyone!