is snow! And it's finally snowing today. I probably shouldn't be so glad about it since it's going to make running errands and being productive kind of hard, but snow makes everything so pretty! But since I don't really feel like going out in it, I'm postponing my errands 'til tomorrow and I'm going to stay home, look at how beautiful it is, and get work done! It'll be good. 
Brrrrr
Currently, it's -6 out. With a windchill of -25. And Matt still holds hopes of going skiing in this frigid climate. Ha! Taking the dog out 3x/day has become really really hard. Especially since Ms. Puppy clearly does not feel the cold like we do. Yesterday she had me outside in the wind for a good 10 minutes while she did her business. Usually it's closer to 5. But who can be mad at the puppy? 
And of course, I must wish you a happy Chinese New Year. It's the year of the monkey! Just like it was when Matt and I were born. In honor, Google has decorated their banner with a couple of monkeys.
Happy New Year!
Le Manual Transmission
In the US you CANNOT rent a manual transmission car anymore. You just can't. Well in France, people under 25 can't rent an automatic. None of us knows how to drive an automatic … See where I'm going with this? Not only that, but none of the driving schools within an hour's drive (I didn't check any further out) have any manual cars that they'll teach you on.
So I envision our car rental experience going something like this:
Pierre: Thank you for renting with FrenchRent. Have a nice trip.
Us: Thanks Pierre. By the way, we don't know how to drive a manual. Could you spare a few moments to show us the ropes?
Pierre: But I am le tired.
Us: Uh Pierre, we bought le Damage Waiver. If you want your car back in one piece, you might do well to show us the ropes.
Pierre: Non.
Us: Oui.
Pierre: Non.
Us: Oui!
Pierre: Non.
Us: Fine. Your car is le screwed.
Chicken Stock
Last night I started some chicken stock cooking in the crockpot and MAN DOES THAT SMELL GOOD. It was so excellent to wake up to a nice smelling house this morning. The stock will be done in about an hour and I'll use it this evening to cook some pumpkin soup.
Cleaning … UGH
It's awful. We totally managed to trash this apartment over the weekend. So congratulations to us. I guess it was a successful weekend. I will, of course, be cleaning up today. But not that much … our vacuum is in the shop for its yearly checkup. Hopefully it will come back tomorrow and I can rid our floor of all the dog hair that has accumulated. It's quite gross.
It's absolutely freezing here … still. We got up early this morning to go visit a travel agent. She was not very nice and absolutely no help (quoted us about $300 worse than what we could do!) and we had to get up way early. Anyhow, when we were in Matt's car, the thermometer was reading 5 degrees. Brrr!
Nice Weekend
It's been a really nice weekend. Nothing in particular happened that was real exciting, but who cares. We relaxed a lot and worked a bit too. Now it's Sunday night and Alias is on and we're in good spirits to start the week.
I completed a new project, but more importantly, I finished the automation of my crafts section. So you can now take a gander at my latest crafty endeavor … paint chip wallets. Link's below. 
Don't You Love Weekends??
I certainly do. Matt and I get to do what we do best … have fun. We ran errands this morning, which is something we really like to do because we get to spend some time together. This afternoon we'll be doing work at our respective computers and then we'll make some dinner together and then we're going to embark on the latest final fantasy adventure, X-2. Those are always so enjoyable. I will also probably work on my paint-chip wallet sometime.
I went out yesterday and picked up the chips from our local hardware store. Then Matt helped me cut them up last night and I've started to weave them together. They look really really pretty! Tonight, I've got to coax my sewing machine into sewing them for me and add on a few pockets and such.
I've also got a lot more pictures from our trip to put up, but I'm waiting because the newest pictures are the ones that show up on the home page, and I don't do new pics all that often, so I'd like for these to stay up for a bit…
Sooo Cold!
It is sooooo cold. 22 degrees according to Weather.com. It was snowing when I took May out and I could actually look down on my jacket and see the snowflakes still perfect on my jacket. That was kinda cool. The puppy of course, taking no notice of the cold, took her sweet time with her outdoors business. Whereas I froze my buns off. It's supposed to keep staying this cold. So of course, I don't want to go anywhere, even though we have errands to run.
I'm revamping the crafts section now. It's going to be all automated. So that's why not all is up yet. It will be soon though.
Dealing with the Government and Arts and Crafts
Without getting into specifics (I just don't feel like typing that much) Matt and I have been dealing with govenment agencies at all levels for the past two days. It's been exhausting. The most frustrating individual who we had to deal with was the Dane County Clerk. She's supposed to handle name changes, yet when I called to ask her how Matt would legally change his name, she said, “I don't know. Call a laywer.” But today, I think it's mostly over with. Thank goodness. I can't handle any more completely pointless phone calls.
I've been really into starting some new crafts lately and I've come across two or three on Craftster, in the latest issue of ReadyMade, and various other sources that I would like to try out:
+ Tyvek Bag
+ Shrinky-Dink Pushpins
+ woven paint chip wallets (sounds out there, no?)
+ a more girly version of the duct tape wallet
+ some sort of bag (I just got my sewing machine back!)
I think I'm in project mode. But I've also made myself promise that I won't start anything new before I reorganize my craft/art supplies. They're consuming lots of space and they're very un-tidy.
Dead Tired
I just did probably one of the hardest workouts I've ever done. In about 45 minutes, I managed to burn 500 calories. As some old dude was on my treadmill, I went to the other workout room and used the elliptical machine. Man! That thing kicks your butt. So now, post shower, I'm actually feeling very good. I have that feeling of being tired but in a satisfying way.
And as usual, I'm looking at Amazon. They give me the most ridiculous suggestions. Half of them are something I've already bought in another form (VHS instead of DVD) and half of them are stuff I'd never buy in the first place. For instance, today, they have a biography of Pete Rose listed. What the hell? I hate baseball. Amazon: Why would you put this on my suggestions list?? Just stop trying. You could do better with random suggestions.
For fun, some things I wonder about:
+ Ladies, if you put lipstick on in the morning and then carry some with you in your purse, is it the same color or a different one?
+ There's tons of 1800 numbers with letters behind them where there's way more than 7 letters (1.800.ONLYCABLECAN for example). How does that work?
+ If you could get in someone else's head, would something you normally see as say … yellow (a banana for example) look like what you tink of as blue instead?
+ If you go back in time and spend a year there, and then go forward in time to the same day you left, are you a year older or the same age?