Back to Crankyville, population me.

As you may know, I do not tolerate cold weather well and last week Seattle had a cold snap.  I managed to push through it by focusing on the good things in my life, trying to be a bit of a Pollyanna but that's just not me.  It was really miserable in my house.  You think I'm exaggerating?  Trust me, I'm not.  Having the basement open makes things cold in the uninsulated and unheated parts of the house.  During the peak of the cold, before we headed off to grandma and grandpa's warm house, Little Dog came running out of the bathroom filled with excitement.  "Mama!  This is awesome!  There's an ice sculpture in the bath tub!" And he showed me a sheet of ice he'd lifted off the bathtub.

Luckily we had a safe escape to Portland for Thanksgiving.  I got to surround myself with the love of my family in an environment that is both heated and insulated and offers running water hot enough to scald you.  Heavenly.


Poor Mr. Dog headed back early to work on the house.  The extreme cold made his to do list a bit longer than he'd originally planned.  While he didn't get to form the last part of the foundation wall as planned, he got the special joy of repairing no less than seven leaks in the pipes where they'd frozen and cracked.  Unfortunately even with his heroic efforts to fix the plumbing problems, the water in the bathtub cannot be fully turned off so we still have to shut the water off at the source after showering in the morning and again when we go to bed.  It'll get fixed.  We may even bring in a plumber to lighten Mr. Dog's load, but the fun never seems to end in our house.