the cable guy: after ten years, i finally busted down and called them to "hook us up!" we waited away an entire saturday morning  for the cable guy. then someone from the cable company called and said, "our man is knocking on your door, and you won't let him in." i told the lady no one was knocking, and there were in fact no fresh tracks in our snow-covered driveway. she said, "oops, he must be at the wrong house!" when he did get here, i felt like the jolly green giant lady who ordered cable because he was comparitively shorter than i am. at 5 ft, 11, everyone is comparitively shorter than i am, but if you come in at 5 foot or under, i notice it more, and i feel way up in the clouds. i felt like cupping my hands over my mouth and yelling down to where he was. it ended up he spent most of the time outside in the snow, and i finally had to leave, and then it was up to the cable guy and paul to finish it off, which included post-tonsillectomy-paul climbing into the attic to pull on wires while the little guy yelled up prompts from our bedroom. way weird, but when i came home we had 99 channels of nothing, and paul was putting the finishing touches on a cable-induced coma. for this you pay 40 bucks a month. i mostly wanted it for treadmilling, but i don't know how inspiring it is to treadmill while watching the osbornes swear at each other or suzanne sommers selling fondu pots. and i'm hell with a remote, so i shouldn't have cable, because what i try to do is watch every channel at once, which you can do if you flip fast and just right. you can in fact catch the scores of all the sport's events (whether you care or not); glean all the recipes, exercise and decorating tips; watch 7 different movies, 5 interviews, 3 news channels, 4 cartoon stations, see 1 or 2 surgeries (human and/or pet), travel vicariously and watch the home shopping networks all at once. i manage to get every word i need from the millisecond on each channel. you can even quiz me on it later, to see if i did in fact watch all 99 channels at once. anyways, that was yesterday, and i'm done with cable already ... except for when i'm on the treadmill.

lucky, i can still treadmill: went to visit my eldest daughter and the grandbabies today. they have these treacherous smooth-painted stairs on their front porch ...very, very slippery. so being good parent/guardian as we left their house today, we sent ali down the neighboring duplex side because they had those "no slip" thingies on each step, then paul and i, with carole behind us, headed down the slippery side. grownups being so much more graceful can handle slippery stairs of course. well, i lost my footing and fell from the very top step. i think there are six. i don't want to do the math on this because my head is 5 feet, 11 inches up (see above) and then i was standing probably 6 feet up when i went flying, landing on my hand and shoulder, but keeping my noggin off the cement. and i didn't pull paul off the porch with me, or he probably would have had exploding tonsillar pillars and we'd be making yet another trip to the er to see why he's not healing properly. i get a 10 out of 10, because i jumped right back up, brushed off the snow and proceeded on to motor a vehicle down the freeway. probably, i'll be stiff tomorrow in about a billion places, but hey ... at least i know i have strong bones! i should have realy busted some shit.

busting some real shit: we are going sledding tomorrow afternoon. i'm a no holds barred sledder (is sledder a word!?!??!), so i'll be typing my next blog with a chopstick in my mouth, or maybe i'll have a little trained monkey who will do the typing for me while i recover. i dunno, but we scoped out hills on our way home today. we meant to go yesterday but got waylaid in plans, so tomorrow is the day. all the other kids and bigger kids (grownups) have packed down most of the really good hills in the area, so we should be flying pretty freely. we are due to get a slight dusting of powder tonight so we'll have a little "snowplowing" effect. should be pretty decent. can't wait to count the bruises.

the den: tends to freeze up lately, so i have tons of reading to do. so if you are normally used to seeing my comments, there will be fewer than usual as i try to catch up on things, reading more than commenting. it's been a busy two weeks. i appreciate the comments i've received of late, the messages, etc. nice to feel in the loop. i'm glad things are settling down a bit this week, so i can be a more active member again (barring any sledding mishaps of course).

paul's feelings about cable:  "cable means never having to say i love you."  he said this right before he lapsed into a coma. 

p.s ... i do like "nigella bites."  i love how messy and hands on she is in the kitchen! real, live life!  this afternoon i watched her pour cola over a ham and i felt i'd met a kindred spirit.