Ever sleep in an igloo?

Last night, we watched a special on the Icehotel in Sweden. I'd heard of the Icehotel before but the show we watched was fascinating! Everything in this hotel is sculpted of ice. In your hotel room, you're sleeping on some animal skin on a bed made of ice and snow. The hotel bar, a happening place, is made of ice. Instead of having some ice in your drink, your drink goes in a glass made of ice. Amazing! In the morning, you're awakened with a glass of hot lingonberry juice. According to the website, they suggest you spend one night in the icehotel and all remaining nights in a heated chalet type hotel.

Activities include ice sculpting, dog sledding, car racing on an ice track, snowmobiling, and northern lights excursion tour.

They even have an icechurch for people who would like to get married here.

Every year, they must rebuild the hotel. Of course, it melts when the weather warms up!

I clicked on the availability on their website just out of curiosity. I tried a couple random dates--for the year 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. And they were all booked up! This place isn't cheap but isn't as expensive as you'd perhaps think. After you convert to the US dollar, the iceroom runs about 300 per person, per night.

I think I might add staying at the icehotel to my lifelong list of places to see.

You'll never guess what I'm so excited about?

I've really been wanting a Dyson. I guess it began when I noticed that bright purple vacuum at Target one day. So bright and colorful and cool-looking. Ooh...and the purple model is for animals specifically! And you, my readers, know about my pets!

So Eric has a five year old Hoover Windtunnel that we've been using. He bought it because it was rated highly at the time. Maybe so but its not a vacuum that's designed for the amount of pet hair that we have! So a couple months ago I had to get a new belt for the Hoover. Its an ok vacuum but I've been secretly hoping it would break again so I could justify purchasing my Dyson.

The Hoover hasn't been working right lately...so guess who's getting a Dyson???

After doing much research on Epinions and other sites, I decided on the DC15. Not only is a powerful vacuum but it's really cool too! Nicknamed The Ball, it steers with the turn of a wrist. Also, its bagless AND beltless!

I ordered it online for an awesome discount plus no shipping, no tax!

Looks can be deceiving...

We were "blessed" with a couple storms over a period of a couple days. Thursday, we got four inches of snow. Saturday night into Sunday, we got another couple of inches of snow. No big deal, right? Sunday afternoon we got a bit of rain.

We decided to brave the hour ride to my parents' house for Ashley's 20th birthday. Eric was a little worried about the rain freezing over but it wasn't bad enough to keep us home.

Here's a picture of our house before everything became coated with ice. Looks pretty, right? But a few hours later, that pretty snow became treacherous!



Now that pretty scene is downright dangerous. I am praying for the warmer temperatures this week to melt that damn ice. Even poor Nort can't seem to get on good footing.

Read Eric's blog to see what happened when he decided to chase after our garbage pails...important lesson I learned--never put out garbage when 50 mile winds are anticipated and 6 inches of snow and ice lay on the ground!

Happy Friday

My dear Eric is putting me to shame. Eight blog posts in a week! Wow! I wish I had the time and the energy and the motivation to post as often as I did this summer. Things have been so hectic. Work. The holidays. The new house. The crazy dog.

Eric and I, along with Norton and Pumpkin, live in the Northwestern part of NJ. We live in the mountains. You actually have to drive up this huge hill to get to our house. It's usually about eight degrees cooler where we live than other sections of NJ. It was great this summer. It was usually a bit cooler here and less humid too!

However, now that winter is upon us, we really get the brunt of it up here! We've already had about 4 occasions of snowfall. The first I posted about--the Monday before Thanksgiving. We had four inches of snow yesterday and are expecting a Nor'Easter this weekend! Four to six more inches of snow! Now, I know thats not a tremendous amount of snow...but considering its only December. I do like snow but I like it more when I don't have to drive in it or shovel!!!

If we get snowed in this weekend, we'll miss my sister's birthday celebration. Sorry, Ash. Happy 20th birthday!

But on a more positive note, maybe we'll get a start on holiday cards and wrapping...and relaxing by the fire...maybe even a home cooked meal!

A Snow Day before Thanksgiving???

Note: I began this post almost two weeks ago. Finally, here it is.

Okay, well, sort of. I DIDN'T have a snow day. In fact, the town that I teach in had no snow accumulation on the ground. But Eric and I live in the mountains. We had a little snowfall on the ground Sunday morning. Norton and I were delighted--but it didn't stick to the actual pavement. I was glad because we had to drive to New Rochelle, NY for a wedding later that day.

But we got more snow Sunday night and it was still snowing Monday morning. We had about four inches on the grassy areas. It was accumulating on the roads but the plows were out and about so I figured the ride wouldn't be bad.

Boy, was I wrong. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get to work driving on snowy, icy hills. Even with my All Wheel Drive, I was terrified driving. I realized a block from my house that driving conditions might not be ideal but I wanted to make it to work.

Living in the mountains where we get far more snow than other regions of NJ, I decided its important to make sure to have emergency sub plans ready at school at all times. Just in case!

Happy ValentineSnow Day!!!

Happy Valentines Day, Readers! Today I'm savoring every lovey-dovey Valentine-y moment possible with my cute and cuddly Norton and Pumpkin! Outside, its icing buckets and I'd like to say my house is toasty and warm but alas, we're having heating issues here. Hopefully, it will be resolved soon! Well, its nice to spend a Valentines Snow Day home in my sweats!

On a side note, my 4th generation iPod doesn't like me too much anymore. It hardly holds any battery charge; I think its just about time to upgrade to one of those nifty 30 gig color/video iPods.