One of my most favorite poems

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening , by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

BRRRRR!

Today when I woke up in my nice warm bed, I rolled over to kiss my husband good morning. His couter action was to show me that it was negative 22 degrees outside from the weather page on his iPhone. Dude, that is not a way to help me get out of bed. All I wanted to do was throw my nice warm covers over my head and stay in bed for the rest of the day. Alas, work beckoned.

While I was getting ready this morning, listening to the radio announce all the school delays or cancellations I wondered, "what would it take for a work place to cancel work? would would or could an office actually close because of the cold?" I mean think about it. They cancel school because it is dangerous for the kids to be outside even a short period waiting for the bus. Well, I know plenty of grown-ups that have to sit outside and wait for the bus to take them to work. I think that it should be a consideration to cancel work when it is this flippin' cold outside. Who's with me?
Even though I know cancelling work because of the cold will never happen (especially in my line of work. if the market is open - we are open), I still yearn for the good old days of 2 hours late and snow days.
I hope everyone stays bundled - Snuggle a little closer, and an extra blanket (in Kendra's case, make it electric!) and have a warm cup of cocoa. Its winter in Minnesota people!

MMIX

Welcome to 2009 one and all. We are full steam ahead into the new year and so far its been.....COLD! Freezing cold, with an occasional ice storm and lots of snow. I do love the snow; however, that is one thing I will not complain about!

I had the pleasure of spending the weekend after New Year's at my family's cabin. When we got there, no less than 18 inches of snow blanketed the forest floor - and I had the great pleasure to be there and watch 5 more inches of snow fall ever so daintily down from the sky to make it ~2 feet of SNOW! I loved it.

We went sledding and played with Tubby, my family's black lab. Poor Tubby didn't really understand the whole sledding thing because as soon and one of us would go down the hill, he would barrel down it and meet us at the bottom with a thud. He would not move out of the way, and its kind of hard to stop the sled - near the bottom of the hill - so we would actually run in to him. The dog thought it was a game or something. Whatever, he didn't get hurt and looked awful cute running down the hill to beat us to the bottom.

ANYWAY,

I hope the beginning of 2009 is off to a good start for all of you. I know some ended the year on a rough note (minor surgery, car accidents, illness). So, lets put the past behind us and forge ahead into what has the potential to be a wonderful year (except for the economy, the continuing fight over who is our MN state senator, corruption on Wall Street, failing housing markets and rising food prices). But seriously, 2009 is a clean slate. New goals have been and can STILL be set and old problems are gone, never to resurface...hopefully.

I will keep you up to speed on how MMIX is going for me, and look forward to hearing/reading how it goes for you. My best wishes to all of you for health and happiness in the new year.

XOXO