99 Things I Ought to Have Done...

...at least accordng to some internet meme creator...

Copy the list, bold the ones you've done (with explanations), share with friends. OK, Wende and scb- here goes:

1. Started your own blog (ummm...obviously!)
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower (miles out in the desert in Kuwait- one of the coolest sights ever!)
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (I'm counting Walt Disney World in Orlando where I spent my birthday last year)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (multiple times, always magical)
13. Watched a thunder and lightning storm (nothing beats a summer storm in DC)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (icky)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (not sure if this is possible any more?)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (multiple times)
20. Slept on an overnight train (from Vienna to Paris and from Sarajevo to Budapest)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping (in Barbados and St. Lucia)
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice (several trips to Venice but no gondola)
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (in Barbados and St. Lucia)
31. Hit a home run (if you count an inside the park home run)
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person (I was 13- it was magnificent)
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (lots of trips to Ireland)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person (Thanksgiving 2004 trip with my sister)
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David (Thanksgiving 2004 trip with my sister)
41. Sung karaoke (with more enthusiam than talent)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight (in Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada & Trinidad)
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (when I was 7-now that is a story...)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (I do not do heights, but my husband proposed in the park at the base!)
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (snorkling)
52. Kissed in the rain (one of my best kisses ever...and with the aforementioned husband)
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater (several times with my husband)
55. Been in a movie (I've been on TV)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (a tiny internet business)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (even those I was not a Girl Scout)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason (I've gotten flowers "just because")
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp (Dachau. It was the coldest, eeriest place I've even been.)
67. Bounced a check (I do blame the bank.)
68. Flown in a helicopter (I was 5 or 6 years old and thought it was cool. In Kuwait I was offered multiple ride on Blackhawks but refrained- that whole hatred of heights thing.)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (many many in fact)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial (I am a native Washingtonian after all!)
71. Eaten caviar (first time I was 14- loved it then, still do now.)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square (most recently the week between Christmas and New Year's with Mom)
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London (Mom, devoted as she is to the cause of a united Ireland, nevertheless indulged my love of all things Tudor and took me to London for a week when I was 12.)
77. Broken a bone (growth plate in my ankle, rollerskating in 4th grade)
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle (husband owns a Harley, I've been on it once- cooler than I ever imagined but still scary)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person (if you could peering out of a plane flying over)
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (in Kuwait of all places)
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House (again I'm a native Washingtonian)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (I've been crabbing and lobstering)
88. Had chickenpox (in 1st grade- we all stil blame Brody Mullins who started the epidemic)
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (again I fall back on the native Washingtonian)
92. Joined a book club (I'm even still in it)
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone (many at this point)
99. Been stung by a bee

46 of 99- not too shabby...

OK, the weather is just absurd at this point

The Federal Government is closed again tomorrow because people are still stuck in their homes (many without power) because there are whole sections of the city an suburbs that have yet to see a plow. 24 inches of snow fell in my neighborhood which made digging my car out a joy this afternoon. The whole region is a mess of snow and ice and jackknifed trucks and abandoned cars, and now we have another storm set to start tomorrow afternoon that could dump another 8-12 inches of snow.

I have to say, Pensacola is looking pretty good right now...

Snowpocalypse II: I mean, really?!?!?!

so just to be clear folks, DC is being hammered by snow right now with possible accumulations of 20-36 inches. In DC. A swampy Southern city that generally averages 15 inches per season. We've already had a 22" storm in Dec and a 5" storm last week, so we are on track for a record winter. Oh and yeah, it might snow again later next week.

I mean, I like snow. I would certainly prefer snow on a Monday night rather than a Friday night, but I lived in Bosnia for two years and so I know from snow. But the reality is folks here are freaking out, the grocery stores are stripped, the Metro and buses aren't running, and no one is capable of navigating the roads in these conditions. Plus, DC is about out of snow removal money because of that absurd Dec storm. The 5" earlier this week? They just let that melt because the temperature was on the rise. Since we still have piles of unmelted snow from the Dec storm (those piles from the plows are dense it seems), I for one am not sanguine about the efficacy of the melting plan this time around.

Worst thing of all from my perspective? All this excellent cuddle up weather is being wasted because Brad is on FL packing up the house, so I'm sitting alone on my couch staring at the raging blizzard outside. I need a drink!