Super-snow and Government Shutdown

Well, we're actually getting some snow.  Not a Northern Utah snow (at least not yet), but it's more than we've ever seen here.  We're at about five inches right now, loving it!  Charlie thinks it's great--he is, in fact, ringing his little "I have to go outside!" bell every five minutes or so.  It was adorable.  Now it's getting to be a little less so.  A little more obnoxious.  Good think I like him, huh?

My poor computer is so bogged down it doesn't like me to watch home-shot videos (it does fine with YouTube stuff), so I haven't had a chance to pre-screen this.  Hope I didn't swear.

Snowing hard enough now it's blowing sideways and sticking to vertical surfaces.  I love that.  They're saying we may get thundersnow.  I love that even more!  Don't love the lights flickering, though.  We're on NOVEC, and we have yet to lose power here.  Hope this isn't a first time.

It's a bad, sad pay period.  Talk about BROKE.  If we pool together the $10.72 in the credit union account, the twenty I keep in my wallet, and the $6.02 in the checking account, we've got . . . not really enough to last nine days.  But it's going to have to, isn't it?  Cross your finger there's no auto-pay disaster out there we've spaced.

Luckily, we are pretty good on food, and we have a half a tank of gas, so we'll make it.  But it's gonna not be fun.

Pasta tonight.  One of my favorite meals.  With the Dreamfield's pasta, I can keep my carbs good and my glucose happy, and by mixing in julienned carrots, I can bulk it up and feel full without going over on servings.  Instead of garlic bread or some other carb-y thing, we have cheese crisps--just parmesan (or parmesan and asiago) grated in the Cuisinart and mixed with Italian herbs, then spooned into a non-stick muffin pan.  This is not the Kraft-type parmesan sprinkle stuff, which has all sorts of emulsifiers that might not do well in a muffin pan.  This is real hard cheese, ground at home.  Super-tasty, not a lot of calories (a little cheese goes a long way).  I'll have a chicken Italian sausage, too.  Plus a salad, and it's a big, happy meal without a big, awful dietary price.

I've lost two more Facebook friends.  Don't know who, I'm sure eventually I'll figure it out.  Makes me sad--I take a lot of trouble to try and split my friends list between "folks who are okay with the political" and "folks who don't want to deal with that."  And I have, so many times, told folks to please let me know if they don't want that, I'll take care of it.  Funny, the same folks who have screamed and ditched me over politics (or my lack of religion) are the ones who have no problem flooding everyone else's walls with their Rush Limbaugh quotes and their Bible stuff.

Typical, I guess.  Freedom's only freedom when it's THEIRS, it seems.

Snow seems to be picking up.  Maybe six inches now.  Loving it.  We'll want to break out the shovel and the ice melt, though.  As soon as it stops, of course.

Hubby's home today--OPM announced that the government offices in DC are shut down for a snow day.  I know that sounds great, but he's still working.  He had an hour-plus teleconference this morning, then another meeting, and now he's doing his usual work up in the office.  No, the Feds didn't provide that office.  They didn't provide that desk, that chair, that computer, that wide-screen monitor, or that internet connection.  No, they don't pay the electric, either.  That's all on us.  Thanks for asking.

Here's a cute picture of Charlie in the snow.  He's almost as cute as a Wombat, and certainly cuter than bad paneling:

Do not reprint without permission. © KAQ

Sequestration and Furloughs and Fajitas, Oh, MY!

As I've mentioned before, my husband is a Federal employee.  One of the millions of people held hostage by small, mean, stupid politicians looking to score points off our President, regardless of how badly it hurts individual families, no matter how big a ding it puts in our economic recovery.

In fact, I think these "people" WANT our economy to suffer, they want people to hurt, because then they can blink innocently and point the finger at our President.

I hate them.  Know that.  They string America along, never giving us anything long-term enough to really dare breathe, and leave us constantly trying to figure out how we'll survive.

Thankfully, hubby's department has been scrimping and saving, so they've got the money to keep everyone on, should sequestration hit.  But if there's no budget?

We're looking at a government shut down.

Let me tell you something about government shut downs--they don't SAVE money.  They COST money, because when the government starts up again, all that work is STILL there, piled up over the days or weeks.  And guess what?  All those federal employees left sitting at home, furloughed?  Now come back and pack in the overtime trying to get the work done.  And if they didn't?

Americans would scream.  They would shout and shake their fists.  They would squeal at having to wait weeks or months for something that would have only taken days.

Shutting down the government is far more expensive than keeping it running.

But, again, it's not about saving money any more than it was EVER about "jobs, jobs, jobs."  It's about poking our President and playing the game.

And I hate that, too.

Enough of that.

I cleaned the computer desk today.  Now everything, monitor included, sits a good six inches back. Yes, I had that much paper and the like stuffed back there.  We made some nice bergamot blend candles today, plus hubby MOPPED THE KITCHEN FLOOR!  Oh, joy!

Believe it or not, that's cleaner.  Much cleaner!

Dinner is Fajitas.  Boneless, skinless organic chicken, red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, spices, sliced onions, and a little fat-free sour cream on Kontos Lavash.  I like the lavash more, and it's got fewer calories and carbs than most tortillas.  Having it with low sodium black beans (with a little corn, peppers, and spices mixed in) and one serving of Uncle Ben's Spanish rice.

Dinner cooking

Wonder-smoothies for dessert.  No pics, though.  Maybe later!

Time for "The Following."  Maybe more later tonight!