Dang procrastintation

I had high hopes of getting some quality posts in before we took off for Christmas but alas, it was not to be so here's some pics to let you know how December has treated the Paxmans.

If you haven't heard, Portland has been having crazy winter weather, the storms in the last week have brought more snow to Portland than has been seen here in 40 years. And it is quite the spectacle. "Arctic Blast 2008" has proved that Portland is not equipped to handle snow. At all. Not even a little bit. I think at one point we had around 12-18 inches. And then the freezing rain came, and then more snow. Good times. Don't even ask me about driving with all those yahoos on the road.

Here's a pic of our ice graveyard. All of the ice courtesy of our front lawn.

That may look like snow on the branches but it's actually ice. All of the trees ended up this way after the freezing rain. There are some ginormous (I realize that's not a word found in the dictionary. Or maybe it is now, they do update that thing from time to time. ) icicles all around as well.




Having fun in the snow.

This is the house after the first snowfall. Did I mention that church was canceled two weeks in a row. Yep, they cancel church here. Like I said, crazy.

Snow falling at night.

In the middle of all the snow Scotty had a birthday. Happy Birthday my love! And thanks to everyone who braved the weather to come over and celebrate.

Zoe wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas so here she is in her Santa Paws hat, Despite the look on her face, she is thoroughly amused and very excited to send you and yours a Merry Christmas.

So, there you have it. And now we're off to AZ, that is if our plane actually leaves.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Question

Why are the chips at Chipotle so freakin' salty?

I have some theories:
Chipotle is getting a kickback from the pharmaceuticals that make hypertension drugs.
The same guy that made the guacamole is making the chips.
Someone misunderstood the directions on the bag of chips that said serve covered in salsa, they read it as "serve covered in salt"
If Chipotle can't kill us with their calorie packed burritos they'll get us with the sodium.

Just a theory.

notes on driving

I've long said that Utah has the worst drivers I have ever encountered (no offense to my Utah peeps.) Their inability to merge is somewhat baffling, the rubbernecking is ridiculous and to top it all off they can be just plain rude.

That being said, I don't know if that is worse than the drivers in the good ol' state of Oregon. They are a different breed to be sure. To start with, the 55 mph speed limit on the freeway is usually strictly followed, in fact, most drivers feel safest when driving 5-10 miles below the speed limit. I am typically not a speed demon but have felt like one even when driving a mere 62. And while I appreciate the "no, really, after you" mentality, it can make one crazy when one driver decides to let everyone on the on-ramp nudge in before you. There is typically confusion as to which lane is the fast lane, it typically varies from the middle lane to the right lane. This is hard for me to get used to, I'm your regular, "left lane, fast lane" kinda gal. I'm sure most of you are aware that it rains in Oregon, a lot, which would make one think that driving in the rain would come as second nature. But you would be wrong my friend, it seems to throw the whole driving eco-system (is there such a thing?) into mayhem, pure mayhem. And then there are all of the bumper stickers. If you're not frustrated enough by the lack of driving aptitude you can spend your time reading the bumper stickers, every good Oregonian has one.

I will some day get used to the rain. I doubt I will ever get used to the driving.