19.12.09

Awake for 36 hours.

Yes, it's true. Let me explain.

We left our rental sparkling clean at 12pm yesterday to pick the pup up from boarding. Upon forking over a large chunk of money to the USDA and the vet in order to send our dog to England, we were on the road North by 12:30pm.

Our trip started off well enough.




A truck full of the future's bacon and Christmas hams.

Hubs had mentioned that there was a winter storm blowing across the Eastern US that was predicted to drop up to ten inches of snow. Driving my trusty Subaru and having grown up in the mountains of Colorado I didn't give it much thought and neither did my snow-hungry husband from Wisconsin.



No problem, right?

That was our first mistake.



To be continued when I have regained consciousness and found the transfer cable for my camera.
----------------
Post continued December 25th after much needed relaxation.


Minnie remained unconvinced.


As the sun began to set and the snow began to stick we made a quick gas and snack stop and I took over driving. All was well as we started passing slow moving two-wheel drives and big rigs. But with each passing mile the snow was thicker and the traffic slower. The next thing I know I'm dodging cars at 45mph as they struggle to get up the increasingly steep rolling hills. Cars begin to appear in the ditches, wheels spinning and back ends fish-tailing. We even passed a Suburban that somehow managed to pop it's front wheels over and high-center its self on the guard rail. Wow!

After an hour or two of very focused driving I was ready for a dinner break. We pulled off I-77 for our second meal at Burger King and snorked down some burgers. While we ate, more and more people began to pour in. I don't know what it is about potential crisies but strangers are always so friendly and willing to talk. Hubs talked to a lady who had come from the direction we were headed and she said traffic was stopped going both North and South. I overheard a few other people discussing whether or not they should try to get a hotel before everything was booked up. A current of nervous energy was building with each snow covered head that passed through the door.

Not ones to let a little snow hold us back from reaching the state line, we returned to the car and drove down the entrance ramp of the interstate.

That was our second mistake.

At 7:30pm we slowly merged into the five mile per hour traffic, naively positive that the pace would increase.


Fast forward two hours. Hubs and I are irritated that we've only traveled a mere quarter of a mile and complaining about the state of the roadways and Virginia's inability to prepare ahead of time fails to cheer us up. With little else to do, I grabbed my camera.



These videos give a good account of how we felt through out the night.

7:30pm


12:03am


5:56am


9:30am

17.12.09

Five Crates

The day has finally arrived. Our second home together was wrapped in brown paper and cardboard, and stuffed into wooden crates. I was ready this morning at 9am with a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts, a gallon of coffee and the dog off to boarding. After a GPS induced detour, our packers/movers arrived about 10:30am and promptly got to work.


Chad, Nate and Dave worked diligently to stuff everything (that we didn't pack in four suitcases) into boxes, the smell of permanent marker filling the air. I really wanted to help but couldn't because of liability so I cleaned.

When lunch rolled around almost everything was packed up. After a quick pizza break I had to take the car to Firestone to get a weird brake noise checked out. A few hours passed and I made some progress in my current read, The Alibi Club. When I get the car back it turns out they had no idea why the break was grinding. However, after taking everything off the wheel and putting it all back on again, the noise stopped. Thankfully, after the $800+ bill for a new clutch yesterday they were kind enough to let me go for free today.

I arrived back at the house to find half of the crates already packed with our stuff. Let me tell you it is weird to see all your stuff stuffed into grungy, plywood, boxes on the back of a truck.


On the plus side, all the moving I've done has kept me from collecting lots of extra crap. The Air Force allows us to move 13,00 lbs of household goods to the UK and we figure we've only hit the 6,000 lb mark. I guess that means I have lots of shopping to do!

Tomorrow is the first of our driving days and I expect an adventure. This will be our first road trip with Minnie, and we face a winter storm in the Appalachians. Wish us luck!

(Photos added 12.25)

3.12.09

DIY: Ribbon Wreath with a Twist


I know this tutorial is old news in the blogosphere but upon discovering a bin of $1 ribbon spools at Michael's I decided to try it out. I wanted to create a "holiday-ish" version so I also picked up some gold ball ornaments and glitter gold leaves.


I don't know if I got the right base ring for the wreath but I figured wood would work just as well as wire or foam and it was cheap. I cut 11-ish inch lengths of ribbon and tied them around the ring with double knots, attempting to tie them each the same way. (This was hard as I was also watching an intense movie and had a dog distracting me.)


This is what it looked like with the ribbons finished.


Behold, the final product! I used my hand little hot glue gun to attach the gold balls and foliage. I think the battleship grey ribbon with the gold accents give it a nice non-specific holiday vibe while still feeling festive.

I had so much fun with it I've contemplated making more ... but who knows if that'll happen.