A New Year

So, 2008 was a sucky year, huh? But for me it was pretty good. I finished school and got a job. I passed my national exams. I had enough money to pay high gas and food prices. The guy I voted for was actually elected president. My house is clean, my freezer is full. Not too bad. (ok, I have tried five times now to separate these paragraphs and I am not sure what the hell is going on with the code...so sorry to the format police).

Nancy and I stepped out of the comfort zone and joined the throng at First Night Spokane. It was wonderful. Tons of stuff to do, see, and hear. Nancy caught one of her favorite local folk singers, Ruby Divine. We watched the Harran Irish Dancers kick it up with the Celtic Nots. We rode the beautiful Loof Carousel with its wonderful wooden horses. We watched glass and ice sculpters. We even sat in on a really bad bluegrass band for about five minutes. All that and we were home by 11:15pm!!!!

We have continued to have unreal weather. Another storm is supposed to be blowing in tonight with 7 more inches of snow. Walter and I are going somewhere on my next days off if the weather is not too horrid (it is supposed to start raining...I wonder what that will look like on top of 30 inches of snow). I just have to get out with my doggie. I will of course post about it. Here are some of the pictures from First Night...

Ruby Divine..a great folk singer

Nancy hitting it off with the glass bead maker

A downtown street. There were fires burning on each block with a really big bonfire in Riverfront Park. Just really cool

Nancy in wool...with poodle pin

The beautifully restored Loof Carousel

Harran Irish Dancers at the Opera House

The dragon that totally cracked me up

Ok, this is funny. The Arena parking lot was total ice. This truck parked on the hill and must have slid back wards. Someone put ice chunks under the wheels to keep it from sliding any farther but it was in the middle of the roadway blocking in other cars. Can you imagine the faces of the owners when they got back to their truck?