Hey Janice,

I couldn’t look at an open blog with no responses and just ignore it, so I had to write something! It looks like we’ll wind up with about 1 1/2 inches of rain from the storm. There is a lot of ice in the higher elevations but the roads I traveled on were fine. It’s above freezing now so things should be in good shape by the time I leave this afternoon.

I saw your cut-in when I had my lunch and I must say you look great. I hope you’ll be able to get plenty of rest on your time off. We’ll be looking forward to hearing the news when your precious little one arrives.

Speaking of lunch–they had my favorite meal today (as opposed to yesterday when the menu was pretty lame). Today I had chicken parmesan, spaghetti and a bread stick–yummy! The only problem with that is now I’m full and ready for a nap!

I hope everyone has a great afternoon.

Margie

Hey Janice… Saw the cut in on Live Desk and you looked great. Of course if I knew it was my last day at work for a couple of months I would be happy too. LOL Hope you have that little one by your due date. My first 2 were both 3 weeks late and the third was early, she was only 2 1/2 weeks late. That is no fun, trust me. That was 30 years ago, these days they will not let you go that long.

We are very windy here in the Carolinas today. Now it is 25 mph, last night we slept with the window open and heard it raining hard sometime in the night. This morning I was watching the wind blowing the trees around in the back yard.

Have a great day

Barb

Dreary, cold, and rainy (very rainy) this morning in Williamsburg. Between lunchtime and the
pick-up time for the children from school, the temperatures have gone up what feels like 15-20
degrees up to 63! The sun peaked out from behind the clouds temporarily but has now hidden
its face again.

Not much too report or decide – just 15 pages into my new book and working hard. It’s a good
start towards my March 1 deadline. I like what I’ve written so far. Mostly laying the groundwork
and setting the scene for smallpox to erupt in Boston in 1721 from a ship from the West Indies.
I love the creative process of narrating a great story that readers will get lost in. But, man o
man is it a lot of work!

Have a great day!
Tony

Oh, oh — I hope by not checking in right away tomorrow JD means a little weather machine could be on the way!

Very rainy and chilly here in Woodbridge, VA (15 or so miles outside D.C.).

Nothing much going on here I have to find out something before taking the classes necessary to become a Teachers Assistant or Teachers Aid as we called em when I was a kid. Its snowing again here BLECH!!!! Oh for another soaking rain to take it all away. Janice it sure sounds like Fox is pulling out all the stops in anticipation for the new baby. Although having been around pregnant women before I have serveed hand and foot to them. I took one for the team as we say.

Take It Easy

Kelly

Margie, how did you know what I had for my birthday dinner last night?

Jennifer,

Was it chicken parm? ‘Cause that’s what my wife made us last night! One of my
favorites too!

Tony

January is a good month.

My mother was born on January 5th, 1916.

Today, I learned that Lauren, my hair stylist, was born on January 4th, 1965. Lauren has two children.

By the way, I had my first hair cut in four months today! Hey, I’m retired! The best thing about getting my hair cut is seeing Lauren. I’ve been going to her since 1991. She is a terrific stylist and a wonderful woman.

George Spink
Los Angeles

Hey everybody!
Just checking in before I leave work and head to church. I must admit I’m really beat and don’t feel like going, but I’ll feel better when I get there. It’s been a rough couple of days….closing out a pay year and opening another is always trying. Yesterday was especially so! I thought I had crashed a year’s worth of payroll info. A glitch in the program I run overwrote my file that held all my W2 info, 2008 earnings info, etc. We were able to recreate the file, however, after about 30 minutes of nail biting, profuse sweating and prayer. Took about 10 years off my life.

Tony, I thought about you the other night. My husband and I were talking about a guy in the community who hascollected all types of local historical artifacts and info. He has a quasi-museum at his home and will let anybody come by and check out the stuff. The property hubby and I live on is called “Battlefield”. I believe that comes from a battle during the French-Indian War. Although Sherman did march through here burning everything in his path. He spared the little town of Union, but marched on to Meridian and burned it. Meridian re-built and is actually a pretty decent small city now. At one time there was actually a school, post office and store on the property we own. My husband’s grandfather was the post master there.
So much for the history lesson. Better get to church. Catch y’all later.
Gwen

Hey Jennifer and Tony,

Chicken parmesan must be popular! I love it and I’m always happy when they serve it in the cafeteria. It’s one of the things they do best. I’m glad they had something really good today because it made up for my hot dog I had yesterday when nothing on the menu looked good. Now I have to get something to eat for dinner. I took a little nap when I got home from work because I didn’t sleep well last night and I was tired. Hopefully I’ll have a better night tonight.

Have a great evening everyone!

Margie

P.S. I just heard a big gust of wind outside so I’m glad I’m not going anywhere this evening. These new windows I got a little over a year ago don’t rattle like the old ones but I can hear when the wind blows hard against them.

Gwen, very interesting to be literally right on top of history and have such an interesting
man in the area! I come across a lot of people visiting Williamsburg who share neat little
stories about themselves, their family history, or nuggets that they know and just want
to share. Makes book-signings very interesting.

A thunderstorm with strong gusts blew through Williamsburg unleashing some lightning
and thunder while we were eating dinner. It was over within fifteen minutes – quick
moving system. It made the dog nervous as all get out!

Gotta put the kiddies to bed and then range around in my library a bit organizing my thoughts
for my writing tomorrow.

All the best,
Tony

Hi Janice!

Hello from Virginia!

I’m a first time blogger but I have to admit… I’ve been secretly rooting for you for years.

I remember a few years ago while on the air you held up you left hand and stated to ‘a Mr. Fireman’ that there was no ring on your hand. Well, a year or so later, you shared your rubber duckie pics from your honeymoon and now I’m looking forward to seeing you’re little weather bundle.

Before I had my first child a friend of mine gave me a bit of advice and I’d like to share it with you. She said, “labor will be very difficult and painful, but enjoy it!” What? Well, she explained that if I have one child in my lifetime, then this is it! Enjoy! Having a child is a life changing event. Take in every (painful) second of it. The very first time your hold your little bundle in your arms you’ll realize how wonderful labor was. I’m so excited for you! (And, oh, it makes a good story but it’s probably not a good idea to put your husband in a headlock while in labor).

God bless, Janice. Will send extra prayers for a wonderful, healthy, bundley of joy!

Marian

Good morning everyone…

Let me start your day off with a “HI” and a ” ” !!!!!

Hi Dawn,
Back at ya with that “HI” and smiley face.

Mornin’ everybody,
Just trying to collect my thoughts and get my day going. Smoother sailing for me today and tomorrow as I did get my guys paid yesterday.

Now I must get coffee!
Gwen

Hi Weather Friends.
Still hanging in there. Hubby had his dental surgery and he’s doing o.k., swollen like a chipmunk on one side and finding eating a challenge, but that shouldn’t last more than a day or two. Dawn, thanks for the empathy on the other thread – not at all offended by the “colorful” language, it in fact embraced exactly how I’ve been feeling about the matter of surgery and recovery. With both of us having medical issues this week, a friend of ours said that we should have hijacked a nurse for the week. Wish I’d thought of that!!
Speaking of food, I have to say that the food at our military hospital was actually quite good. I also liked that you could choose exactly what you wanted and order it just like room service at a hotel. A great improvement over when I delivered my son at the military hospital at Fort Knox – I remember that even though I was starving I could not eat the rubber eggs they served for breakfast!
Tony, the Hubby said to tell you he’s read the first two chapters of “Hurricane” and is enjoying it immensely. Sounds like the new one is well underway, I hope the words continue to come easily and the work progresses smoothly – is having a deadline a help or hindrance for you??? I work better “under pressure” so having a deadline would probably be a good thing for me. External motivation is sometimes just what I need.
Speaking of, guess I better try to do a little laundry. The overflowing baskets are definitely motivating on that score!

Hey Everybody!

It ’s windy and chilly here today…temp is 38, but feels much colder due to the wind. We had some snow flurries late yesterday evening..but didn’t last long. The sun is shining bright, so that’s a plus!

Nothing much going on with me today…just the usual unusual.ha

Hope everyone has a great Thursday, can’t wait to hear some baby news soon.

Take care,
Deb

Gina,

Thanks so much for the praise. I am very pleased your hubby is enjoying my book.

I’m about 20 pp. into the new one and have to stop to read 3-4 books by Monday or Tuesday
on my next few chapters. I am trying to ignore the deadline, because I’ve written almost all
of my manuscripts within this timeframe. So, it really shouldn’t matter one way or another.
Plus I can add and change things during the editing process. I am incredibly busy and donating
most of my day and then spare time to writing, reading, researching, and editing. My wife
was laid off from her job the other day, so she’s very busy with that, freeing up a bit of time
for me to write that we would have spent together more leisurely. I found out that the release
date will probably be in October. I’ll have some signed copies for everyone when it comes out.

Have a great day Gina and all,
Tony

Hi Tony. It was chicken parm, with the side of spaghetti and bread. (And a glass of wine and chocolate for dessert.) Yum yum. I have a recipe that I make on really bad days that is very therapeutic. (Something about banging chicken with a meat mallet.)

Hey Jennifer,

I like the meat mallet idea. I have some chicken I can beat up on and I’ll just pretend it’s a particular person or two in my life! Actually I think I’ll take out my frustrations in a less violent way and get on my exercise bike this evening to work off my frustrations.

Hi Everyone,

It’s cold and windy in Cumberland. The sun came out for a little while but it’s pretty cloudy outside. I wish I would have had my camera at work yesterday. I was at the hospital on top of the mountain yesterday and there was ice all over the trees and grass. At one point the sun made a brief appearance and the ice was beautiful glistening in the sunlight. It was interesting driving home last night. The temperature rose above freezing and as I drove along the road, pieces of ice fell off the trees and onto my windshield. They weren’t big but they were big enough to get your attention. Some areas in the higher elevations lost power because the branches fell on power lines. I’m glad that didn’t happen around here.

Have a great afternoon everyone.

Margie

Margie,
YIKES! Watch out for falling ice!!! We are actually having another beautiful, brilliantly sunny day. Temp is around 63 degrees right now. That’s 2 sunny days in a row. I guess the dreary, rainy weather has moved on up your way. I think the rain is supposed to move back in over the weekend though. When I went out to meet my husband for lunch, I noticed that the camillas are in bloom. I hadn’t noticed them until today; but the bushes were covered with gorgeous flowers. So pretty!! You’d probably have had your camera ready and jumped out to take a pic. Unfortunately, I didn’t have mine with me. Note to self…remember to put camera in vehicle.

Later guys!
Gwen

Gwen,

Thankfully I was in my car when the ice was falling. I’m sure even small pieces would hurt if they fell from high up. When I saw the trees glistening it was during the day as I walked down the hallway to the library. There’s a door at the end of the hall and that’s how I check my weather when I’m at the Braddock Campus since the library has no windows. It was so foggy most of the day that the sun really captured my attention. I walked to the end of the hallway and just couldn’t believe how beautiful the trees were in the sun. Of course, that’s what caused all the ice to melt off! It must be nice to have flowers in bloom in January. We have bare trees and brown dormant grass! I think our weather is supposed to get bad again over the weekend. I can hardly wait for that! I think I will take my camera with me the next time we have similar weather. I could probably get some good pictures.

Enjoy your camillas! (I’m jealous!)

Margie

Hi Margie (as I watch football). I love my therapy. I can’t always get to the gym when I need to for therapeutic reasons and I don’t have any of the necessary stuff in the house. I don’t know where I’d put it. So, I make chicken parm from my Southern Living ‘04 cookbook when I need therapy. I like the kick of cayenne that it calls for vs. other recipes that I’ve seen. It also calls for pounding the chicken breasts until they are like 1/2 inch thick. Using the meat mallet to break up frozen veggies before opening the bag works well also. So does crushing chips/crackers for the tops of casseroles. It’s probably better for me than Jack Daniels when things get ugly.

I’m also very happy that my ex decided to not be a jerk before I had to put my claws on. My mom and grandma (who has celebrated 46 annual 34th birthdays) are trying to come over later this month, coincidentally the same day that the boys are supposed to go to his house for 3 days. Only 1 day of their visit with him would be impacted, so he was not going to let them stay. He changed his mind. Wise move grasshopper. So Mom is coming over on the 23rd. Grandma will be a gametime decision since she’s been sick since New Years. I hope she can come because she is very cool. She is probably my husband’s favorite in-law.

We got up close to 80 today. Where’s winter? It’s spring today. Supposedly winter comes back this weekend.

Out of space now. Stupid character counter.

Good morning everyone,

I’m glad it’s Friday. It’s been a week that I’d like to forget. I am going out to lunch today so that will be nice. My friend feels bad that she canceled out on me on Tuesday so she’s treating me to lunch at my favorite restaurant. That’ll be fun! They have great chicken parmesan but since I just had that the other day, I’ll get something else I like. I think the weather is actually worse today than it was on Tuesday when she canceled out. It’s colder and windier and we have snow showers. I’m back on top of the mountain and it’s cold up here! I had another “I wish I had my camera” incident this morning. When I parked my car I could see the sun was trying to break through the clouds. It was out enough to add a really strange effect to the snow that was coming down from the clouds in front of it. The snow sort of diffused the light and made a really interesting effect–that’s really hard to describe! It was really pretty.

Hey Jennifer,

Can you send your 80 degree temperatures up to Maryland? It was 27 degrees and windy this morning–yuck! Having snow blow in your face isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world. And I agree with you about the character counter!

I hope everyone has a great day today.

Margie

Mornin’ Margie,
Glad you’re going to have your lunch out with you friend today! I’ll be going to lunch w/hubby again today. Mon-Wed is usually so busy that I don’t get to go out, so he treats me on Thurs & Fri. We haven’t always been able to afford lunches out; but for the past several years we’ve been able to. (Probably due to kids growing up and moving out.) Sorry about that gloomy weather. That’s what we had for several days and I was so excited to see the sun again. We’ve had 3 beautiful sunny days in a row, but supposed to be rain for the weekend and temps dropping.

Hi Dawn, Deb, Gina, Jennifer, Guillaume, Bill, Tony, George, Richard….and anybody else I left out! Hope y’all are having a blessed day!

Catch y’all later!
Gwen

One more thing…..HOW ‘BOUT THEM GATORS!

Sorry! Pardon my grammar, but I just couldn’t resist. Florida played GREAT last night. Tebow is quite an amazing young man as well as a very talented quarterback. Gator defense was AWESOME! I’m always a fan of SEC teams when they play. Ole Miss Rebels won last week, too. Shep and I are happy campers!

P.S. I realize I left out David, the Dons, Kelly, Sonny and I’m sure others will come to mind. That always happens when you try to name names.

Hi All.
Yes, Jennifer, the weather is crazy here in Texas, but I hear we might get some cooler temps by Sunday. Wish we could box it up and send it your way Margie!! Glad to hear your friend is making up for missing the original lunch date and treating you too – I say order dessert! I have a future health topic for you, by the way . . . I am really struggling with insomnia. Trouble going to sleep and/or staying asleep. This predated my surgery, but certainly hasn’t improved since then either.
Have a good day, everyone!

Hey Gina,

I can relate to insomnia, although I’ll blame mine on the problems I’m dealing with this week. MedlinePlus has some great information on insomnia if you want to take a look. They have it grouped in with sleep disorders so just scroll down the page looking for the insomnia topics. Here’s the link:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/sleepdisorders.html

I have more to say but I’ll put it in a separate post in case my link causes this post to get sucked into the vortex!

Margie

Hey Gina,

I was too full to order dessert at lunch! It was nice and sunny at lunch but it’s still cold and windy. My friend more than made up for the windy weather I had to go out in. I had a nice bowl of minestrone soup to start off with and then I had a vegetable panino with homemade chips. The panino had grilled peppers, onions, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese–yummy!

The best part of the meal was spending time with Lisa. She’s one person I can always count on for godly wisdom so I decided to share with her what happened to me this week. Although I shared my dilemma with Deb, sometimes it’s good to share things with someone face to face. And of course (and most importantly) I’ve been sharing it with God because He always listens and understands, unlike some people who I thought I could trust. So now that I had my therapy for the day, I feel much better! And it’s Friday, so I can sleep in tomorrow!

Hey Gwen,

That was a great game last night! Go Gators! I love Tim Tebow and I was cheering for him the whole way. He’s a very special young man and I am so impressed with him. Tomorrow I’ll have some NFL games to watch. I’ll have to start planning for my football withdrawal that I suffer once football season is over!

I hope everyone has a great afternoon!

Margie

Hey Y’all,

It’s a beautiful sunny mild day here…temp is 45..but feels great!

Margie…I know you have had a rough week so have a good time at your lunch today…and I’m with Gina…order a nice gooey dessert.

Gina…I can relate to the insomnia thing…I have been dealing with that for the past 2 years..my body is tierd when I go to bed, but my mind just won’t shut down for awhile…it goes and goes……and…I am hoping they well get together soon, so I can get some must needed sleep.

Hey Gwen…have a great weekend.

Hey to everybody else…if I name names, I will leave somebody out…So have a great weekend EVERYBODY!!!

Deb

Hey Margie. I wish I could send some of this 80 degree weather up there. Although, it is supposed to get cold over the weekend. This back and forth is driving us all nuts in the allergy department. Even little Elizabeth is on Claritin now (by prescription). My aloe plant has even bloomed. (It got this 3 foot flowery thing on it, and Jason googled it. It’s a blossom and harmless, but it happens in SPRING.)

I’m trying to figure out what to make for dinner tonight. Any suggestions?

Jennifer,

When you say it’s supposed to get “cold” over the weekend, what do you mean by cold? Cold is relative depending on where you live. My “cold” and windy 32 degrees would feel lovely to those people with -60 degrees in Alaska! And your cold temperature would probably feel pretty good to me! I am very thankful I don’t live in Alaska!

Now, for your dinner–when I get stuck for something to make, I order Chinese! Not really, but I do love Chinese food. I don’t know how popular that is in Texas, though. I love making stir fries. I don’t always follow a particular recipe but will use whatever I have in my refrigerator. The other night I used some of the broccoli and cauliflower that was leftover from the vege. tray we had at my parents’ place and I added mushrooms and onions to it. That was yummy! I got a George Foreman grill from my brother and his wife for Christmas and I grilled some chicken on that. I’ll have to try a steak on that sometime. I don’t usually cook steak for myself but I bet it would be good on the grill.

Well, now I’m making myself hungry with all this food talk! I hope you think of something good to make for dinner!

Margie

Hi Margie. Our “cold” is highs in the mid 50s and lows around freezing. I like the stir fry idea. I have brocoli and chicken breasts in the freezer. I can also get Jason to pick up some stir fry mixed veggies at the store. I just love the selection of pre cut frozen veggies now! Makes my life easy.

I’m getting a good laugh at my dear husband’s expense. My dad teaches band in a small, rural school district about 30 minutes from us. He had 4 of his 5 drummers have to quit on Monday so that they could get a last required credit so that they could graduate. Good for kids to graduate, not good for Dad. They have a pep rally for their basketball teams as I type. My dad recruited my husband to come play. He says that it’s 1986 all over again. (That was when he was a high school freshman drumming at high school pep rallies.)

Shep’s commentary during Blago’s press conference was hilarious!!! I especially loved the comment asking if the journalist who threw the shoes at Pres. Bush was available.

Jennifer,

There is certainly plenty of variety in frozen vegetables these days. It does make life so much easier. I hope everyone enjoys your stir fry.

I don’t know what your husband looks like but the thought of him playing in a school band is pretty funny! Does he have to wear a uniform? I’m glad your dad had someone to call upon during this difficult time.

Highs in the mid 50’s would feel warm around here! I can’t remember the last time it was in the 50’s. I know we had a couple warm days in December but it’s been a while. I remember one day, after a long stretch of really cold weather (lows in the teens and highs in the 20’s), I went outside on a Saturday and thought how warm it felt. You know what the temperature was that day–37! I couldn’t believe that 37 actually felt warm but after cold, windy days it felt rather nice.

Margie

He just wore jeans and a shirt. He’s been texting me from there. I’ll have to get our family Christmas picture up here when I have the portable hard drive available. I think Jason left it at the office. He’s also been given the task of tuning the drums.

If Dad would have had just one more flute player, than I probably would have been recruited too! As it was, he had to move his only remaining flute player to bass drum. He had a total of 10 kids have to quit to get required credits in for graduation. I had to talk him down big time because he was livid. Another year or so and he can recruit Scooter to play!

There’s been talk from the local meteorologists that the air mass in Alaska could break free and head this way giving us lows in the teens and highs in the 20s (colder than it’s been in years supposedly), but we’ll see. Officially, the extended forecast says lows in the mid 20s. I don’t remember the predicted highs.

Thanks for the link, Margie. I’ll check it out. Your lunch sounded really good, I like vegeterian dishes, even though I’m not a vegetarian. And I LOVE paninis and the homemade chips sound great too. San Antonio is a large town and you can get just about any cuisine you might think of here. For Chinese food we usually get it from Pei Wei (the less expensive version of PF Changs). My son is going to pick up some BBQ for us to have for dinner tonight from a Texas chain called Bill Miller. We’ll get the “small family meal deal” with lean brisket, hashbrown potatoes, green beans and cole slaw. Guess you can tell, I’ve definitely got my appetite back!

Also glad to hear you had a good visit with your friend. I have three friends who are slightly older than me and we try to meet for lunch monthly. It’s always so good to reconnect with them because I can always count on them for good advice, never sugarcoated, that is always Godly and supportive. I treasure these relationships because I went through a period, after having some negative experiences with female friendship, of shunning female bonding. But we women really need good girlfriends, don’t we?!?!?! At the very least, they save me the money I’d have to spend on therapy otherwise!

Jennifer, can’t imagine doing anything now that I did in High School!!LOL Your husband has definitely accrued some good in-law points. Glad he didn’t have to wear a uniform, that might have been a little much to live down, right??!?!

All this food talk is making me hungry. I ditched the stir fry idea for tonight. It got too late and we got too busy. So, Jason is currently at Casa Ole picking up something. I am just in a mood and really don’t care either way if I eat.

He got enough in-law points for marrying me. If he would’ve had to wear a uniform, I would have demanded pictures. Scooter would never let him live that down.