Snow.

And my flight was delayed due to lots and lots of snow...  they're sending me out tomorrow morning, so here's hoping...

p.s. Who knew about This website?!  It started snowing again and I was freakin' out, wondering if it was too much or not, but now I can refresh every half an hour and watch flights land and take off, and attempt to make estimations about the likelihood of my flight taking off...  I realize that doesn't sound terribly helpful, but it's comforting to me to feel informed...

p.p.s. The irony here, is that all the other flights from Missoula to Minneapolis and vis versa, have been on time, in the last 36 hours.  The only ones that have been cancelled were the first two flights yesterday, and the first flight today...  my flight...  again.  I could have picked the later flight when I booked, but I wanted to leave as early as possible.  Had I picked the flight that left four hours later yesterday, I would have been in Des Moines for about twelve hours now...

and despite the fact that flights are now leaving the Missoula airport again, I can't get on any of them...  instead, I'll be driving 2-1/2 hours to Kalispell for a 2pm flight to Salt Lake, then Minneapolis, then Des Moines...  hopefully, if everything goes to plan, I'll arrive about 36 hours after originally scheduled...

however, the really nice lady at the reservation desk did reschedule both my and D's flights from the 25th into Missoula, to the 26th into Kalispell, so I'll get to make up some of the time I was going to lose in Iowa, and D and I still get to return home together.   Which, is really pretty great...  it's still just frustrating to know that had I chosen a different flight this all wouldn't have been necessary...  blah.

The holiday.

I've been having a difficult time at work lately.  I just haven't managed to hit the right interpersonal grove with my coworkers...

some people would say that's putting it mildly.  Anyway - months ago when D and I were trying to plan our holiday, he expressed an interest in Not traveling, cause he hates to fly.  And I thought we'd do something together, and then after Christmas I might go Iowa to visit my family for a few days, while my sissy was in from NYC.  However, my boss told me the closest to Christmas that I could get time off would be January 2nd...  so D ended up going to his folks and I was staying here to work.

Now back to the interpersonal stuff.  I went to work on Friday and the schedule was up for this coming week.  I had Monday through Friday off, only working Saturday and Sunday.  I believe this might have been done for punitive purposes (typically in restaurants, the schedule is the way to reward and penalize people) because my boss certainly knows that I want a full work week whenever possible.

However - instead of being annoyed, I went home and bought plane tickets.  I get to go to Iowa for Christmas after all.  My time in town will only over lap with my sissy's for about 24 hours...  and my other sister recently moved to North Carolina with her family, so Iowa isn't going to be quite the same this year...  but I did manage to get the same connecting flight home that D will be on.  So I'll meet him in the Minneapolis airport in the early evening, Christmas day, and we'll get to fly back Home together.

Everything seems to have worked out beautifully...

except, I guess, at work.  Where my coworkers are all jealous that I'm getting most of Christmas week off, even though I didn't ask for it, when they'd all like to be able to go home too :)

Couches

Our downstairs neighbor has, for some time, thought it a good idea to leave two old, scraggly couches, stacked on top of each other, behind the garage, in the alley way.  There's a wire fence with wood poles and a two door gate across the back of the property.  You can see one side of the gate, broken off it's hinges in this photo taken out our door...  apparently the snow plows do the alleys???

That gate is normally the way we come and go on our bikes, but I guess not so much today...

New boots

65 $!

Hunting.

Here's a hint if you ever list something on Craig's List -

Tell us where you are.

Up here in The Great North, we just have a state wide Craig's List, and I can't tell you how many people list apartments for rent without mentioning, anywhere in the listing, what city they're in.  Details.

I'm also sick of people saying things like "Close to Downtown" or "Right next to the U" when most towns in Idaho are closer to my Downtown than these stupid people's apartments.  I'm going to realize you're lying when I Google Map the address, why waste my time trying to make me think it's somewhere it's not.

I don't get why everyone seems to get a little overly optimistic when writing up descriptions of real estate.  It's the one situation were the buyer will most definitely be inspecting the object of sale before purchase, is anyone really going to be like "Why you're right, this three bedroom, two hundred square foot apartment isn't small, it's just cozy, I'll take it!" or "The map says it's four miles away from the nearest paved road, but if you say it's only a five minute walk to downtown, than where do I sign!"

Idiots.

To brighten things up - here's a photo essay from our Thanksgiving trip to Yellowstone!

The boy sees something in the distance, and he's off!!!

Wait - what's that???

Wait - maybe it will be even more fun on ice!!!

And he's off again!!!

Finally - King of the Wild, at last.

(Please disregard any semblance of sarcasm.)