It started snowing this morning around 9 am and hasn't stopped since. I pulled the car into the garage and filled the bird feeders. Now it's pelting the windows, so temps must have risen a notch. They're calling for about 7 or 9 inches.

I had my Toro snow thrower delivered from Amazon just the other day. So today I assembled it (just the handle) and tried it out. It really works very nicely, hurling that snow a good 30 feet! Only problem is, my 25 foot long extension cord isn't long enough for the driveway. I paced the length of the driveway and counted about 70 steps, so just to be sure i've got it covered I ordered a 100 foot long extension cord for $10 online at Sears, and will pick it up maybe tomorrow.

It DOES pay to shop around if you have time. The 100 foot ext cord at Walmart cost $44, and online there seemed to be a great variation in price. Home Depot did not have the best price, and neither did Amazon. I knew i wanted/needed 16 gauge, 3 pronged version, and that's what i got for just $10 at Sears.

I used the Site to Store feature they offer, which is nice, cus I wouldn't count on finding this exact cord in the store with all the holiday madness, so i used the ship to store to ensure it would be set aside for me. They indicated online that it was "now available,' so about a half hour after i ordered it online, i got the email saying it was ready for pickup. Cool how that works. This way i save $9 in shipping cost, yet i can assure myself i won't be looking at an empty shelf when i get there.

Anyway, like i said, the snow thrower worked great, but then it stopped throwing snow. i suspect it got clogged, but i got they ext. cord wet when i unplugged it to clean the snow out of the rotary thing, so I didn't try it again.(Snow still coming down hard anyway.)

I also called an electrician who will show up here on Monday to install a ground fault interrupter on the garage outlet i'll be using with the snow thrower. I'm all for addressing safety issues, and i should have probably installed a GFI years ago since the hose/faucet is also in the garage. While he's here, i'll have the electrician fix a closet light that's not working. Maybe a mouse chewed the wire.

Yesterday H. and I caught a matinee and saw No Country for Old Men. It was EXCELLENT. The only caveat i would give is if you dislike anything gory; this has a fair amount of blood, but the movie was outstanding. Tommy Lee Jones. Woody Harrelson. It's about a simple guy who lives in the southwest in a trailer home with his wife and while out illegaly hunting he comes upon the remains of a shootout that involved drug smugglers from Mexico. A few dead Mexicans, a dead dog, a cache of drugs and then he discovers a suitcase filled with hundred dollar bills amounting to $2 million.

The rest of the movie is about his attempt to elude a really bad guy who's out to get the money and kill him. Tommy Lee Jones plays a sheriff trying to find this guy before the mexican mob does, and Woody Harrelson plays another bad guy attempting to get the money before the #1 bad guy does. I won't tell you the ending!

I got all the $ owed me from my old employer, save for the IRA rollover, which i'm assuming will occur soon. I was trying to make sure they paid me the right amount of severance, and it appears i got about $700 more than i could account for. I think it must be the xmas bonus i would otherwise have been receiving around this time. I hadn't thought to ask for this, and thought it was pretty nice they gave it to me even tho i was laid off a few weeks ago.

I recieved my double-wide insulated drapes 4 or 5 days ago but was really perturbed that they weren't the right color. So will have to wait some more, another week, to get what i should have gotten, which was "Linen." I can figure out what happened. Whoever filled the order grabbed what looked to their eye like "Linen," which is more or less an off-white, when in fact the "Linen" that i wanted and ordered is a definite tan color. They should have checked the color as written on the label. Oh well.

It's a balmy 57 degrees in here and so far this season, it hasn't gone above 60 degrees. I'm so impressed with myself, especially since i'm home during the day all this month.