Month: December 2015

In a stroke of absolutely miserable timing, a huge winter storm is quickly bearing down on the upper Midwest. Our planned path to Memphis tomorrow will take us from heavy snow to ice to severe thunderstorms. I don’t think the weather is forecast to be anything less than miserable for even a small section of the 900 mile drive.

At the end of that white knuckle drive waits a  ridiculously adorable little girl. Her mom sent a photo of her wearing new red cowboy boots. She looks impossibly tall – how could she have grown that much in just under four months? Stop growing up!

We have just about the best vehicle possible for the upcoming trip, but, as usual, I’m worried about the idiots who will be out driving in junkers with bald tires. And you know there will be some. Hopefully the combination of bad weather and it being a holiday week will keep the traffic to a minimum. But it’s not going to be a fun trip.

It should be about 13 hours, but I’m guessing that 15-16 is more likely. Which is fine, as long as we get there in one piece. Today’s photos are the last few from our trip to Tasmania back in March. The top two are from Cradle Mountain National Park and the one on the left is from Cataract Gorge. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to nervously watching The Weather Channel.

We officially had a brown Christmas, but now that it’s Boxing Day, the snow decided to make an appearance. Even worse, we’re supposed to get 3-6 inches on Monday. I just hope it’s over by Monday night, as we need to start our long drive early on Tuesday morning.

It’s been a while since we’ve made a really long road trip. Sure, we went to Milwaukee in August, but anything under 10 hours doesn’t qualify as a long trip in our book. We could drive to Milwaukee and back in less time than it takes to get to Memphis.

Anything less than a multi-day drive is usually better than flying these days and at 12 hours, Memphis fits that requirement quite nicely. There are obvious advantages to driving – it’s cheaper, you don’t have to deal with a rental car and you can bring as much shit as you can fit in your vehicle. Being that it’s the holidays, the third point becomes the most important.

We have a big vehicle, so we are bringing a lot of shit. You can’t carry a big box of food, alcohol and presents on a plane, now can you? And you can’t go to visit family over the holidays without being well provisioned. Today’s photos are the last from my outing to the Arboretum in October. It’s always nice to look back on a little sunshine when it’s snowing outside.

It appears someone tried to have a Merry Christmas on my credit card. I received a fraud alert email/voicemail from American Express yesterday evening. I spent the first 10 minutes of Christmas Eve at my dad’s house on my phone explaining that I had not attempted to make a purchase at Old Navy an hour prior.

Really? You are going to try hacking my credit card on Christmas Eve? And you have the poor taste to do it at Old Navy? I’ve never made a purchase at Old Navy in my life. I’m guessing that’s why they flagged it as fraud. But who knows, AmEx has its secrets.

So I’m getting a new AmEx card for Christmas. Of course it won’t arrive until after we leave for Memphis, but I think I’ll manage to survive with my three Visa cards and my Mastercard. Up until about a year ago, the only cards I had were the AmEx and my Target Visa. Since I’ve now had to close a credit card for fraudulent activity about 5 times, I realize it’s prudent to carry a few extra cards. Especially given how much we travel for extended periods.

It’s just not fun to start the holiday season on the phone with a credit card company. Hopefully that’s the worst thing that happens. Today’s featured photos are from St. Mary’s Cemetery in Minneapolis. Since the year is drawing to a close, it seemed appropriate to recognize endings. Some people think cemeteries are creepy, but I find them peaceful and beautiful. I hope your Christmas is too.

Is another opportunity to photograph this gorgeous girl.

That gift will be arriving slightly late, when we are down in Memphis next week. I did receive word from her mom that they arrived safely yesterday afternoon and had completed 2 of the 7 hour drive from DFW to Memphis. I don’t envy the marathon trip with a toddler.

My husband spent a chunk of yesterday dealing with package snafus. Someone sent us something in Phoenix, no idea what or from who. He thinks he managed to get it put on hold until we arrive there in two weeks. He had another package that showed delivered, but we never received it. He bounced back and forth between FedEx (shipper) and USPS (delivery) with both of them pointing fingers.

He can’t find anything he ordered that’s gone missing and the shipper is a generic distribution center, so he has no idea what’s in the package. Meanwhile, I ordered something on December 16th that was guaranteed delivery by today and it hasn’t shipped yet. They haven’t even responded to the email I sent 3 days ago. Merry Christmas!

Once again I begin by bitching about the weather. I woke up to rain that changed into snow and then morphed into what the weather people like to call a “wintery mix.” Meaning anything goes – snow/rain/sleet. Just gross on so very many levels.

It wasn’t terrible to drive in, but the sidewalks were treacherous. What was terrible about driving was the traffic. I only had to go about two miles (for a facial, thanks for asking) but when I drove home there was a stretch of 6-7 blocks that was just a solid line of cars. Normally I wouldn’t go for a facial this close to Christmas, but my next opportunity won’t be until the end of January.

We’ll leave for Memphis next Tuesday and return on Sunday. Then we only have two days here before heading to Phoenix. The stack of stuff I have set aside to take down to Memphis is a bit worrisome. I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of room for clothing, but we’ll have plenty of food and alcohol. Which is the important stuff.

Today’s featured photos are from our November 2014 Pink Jeep Tour in Sedona. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve – are you ready?

Have you seen the new Star Wars movie yet? I haven’t. A number of my friends on Facebook have already seen it twice. My husband and I prefer to wait at least a week or two after the opening of a new blockbuster movie, so we can have the theater mostly to ourselves. Sometimes we even wait until it’s out on Blu-Ray.

We saw The Hunger Games a week after it opened and there were about dozen people in the theater. All of the hardcore fans go on opening weekend. Since this week and next week are school holidays, I’m guessing we’ll wait until after we come back from Memphis to see it. I will just have to avoid reading any spoilers on the internet.

On a completely unrelated topic, I was a little surprised to wake up to a dusting of snow this morning. We watched the news and I distinctly remember there being no precipitation in the forecast for the entire week. I was planning to go out and get my car washed today, as it’s starting to look like a salt lick. Not a lot of point to that if the roads aren’t dry. Oh god, I really am running out of things to write about.

I’ve been madly posting photos over the last few weeks, trying to empty out my folder of “unused” photos and bump up my posted photo count for the year. I’ve been pairing the photos with truly random thoughts about nothing much in particular.

But now I’m really starting to run out of things to write about. Even I can only take so much drivel about my experiences shopping online or running errands. That snoring sound you hear is me. Yesterday I had lunch with my mom for the fifth Saturday in a row. We alternated between the two best restaurants near her house for the first four weeks, but just couldn’t start a third round. So I googled for an alternative.

Fortunately, I found something close to, but not in the Eden Prairie mall. Traffic getting there was still hideous, but we managed to snag the last open handicapped parking spot in the restaurant’s parking lot. Small victories. Getting anywhere near a mall on the last Saturday before Christmas is just a recipe for disaster. Of course, now I need to find another spot for our Boxing Day lunch. I’ll have to look a little farther afield.

Today’s featured photos are from our Fourth of July trip to New Ulm.