So, it snowed again this weekend. Started Friday afternoon, sleet and rain overnight, more snow Saturday until about 6PM. Last night the temperatures dropped to way below freezing, but today it's warmer, the sun is out, and things are melting.

(Aside: According to this blog post, Richmond has had 400% of our average snowfall this winter. And that was before this storm.)

Except for a brief trip to Kroger this afternoon, I've been stuck in the house with the cats since Thursday night. Anyone want a cat? Especially a white cat?

Tonight PB and I are supposed to go to a superbowl party. Not sure if that's going to happen. I can get there. He? Not so much. They haven't plowed out his neighborhood yet. (And let's not talk about how I'd be refusing to pay my homeowner's association dues, as this has happened each time there was snow.) I'm hopeful that we'll figure something out, because I am going a bit stir crazy.

Also, I don't want to yell at Peyton Manning by myself.

So, I’m thinking of moving. Again. It may pass, but it may not. Either way, it won’t happen for a while.

Oh, I mean moving away from Richmond. I may move within Richmond; I don’t like where I live. It is way too suburban. You can walk exactly nowhere. The one thing I do like about it is that it has a great layout for entertaining. It is also a bit of a trek for most of my friends.

Now, I love Richmond as a City. There is a lot to do; they have great festivals, a good variety of restaurants, and there is a lot of history here. (Note: a lot of Richmond natives do not know this.) You can go up to DC for the day if you are craving a bigger city; you can go to the beach for the day; you can go hike in the mountains if you wake up on a Saturday morning and that’s what you want to do.

But, several things have happened recently. My job? I’ve literally got nothing going on. My friends? Suddenly all paired up. Which, I can’t seem to manage. (I’m also feeling a bit ego-y, thinking that they are not, in fact, better than me, which leads to me thinking that it’s because I’m bigger than all of them. This? Can be helped a little, but even at my lowest weight I will be huge compared to them. HUGE! I have pocket-sized friends.) (Also lonely, which will pass. Probably the minute I start dating someone and remember that the big problem I have with dating someone in the same town is lack of alone time.) Family? Either I never see them, or I’m babysitting*, or there are huge, family-based weekends at which I’m supposed to be present at all times. Which? Way more than I can handle. I mean, when I lived in NC I once went a year without seeing family except for Peg, Bobby, and Stephanie.**

I realize that moving is likely not to change any of this, but I like having the hope, the possibility that re-inventing my life will work.

*I adore my nephew, and I don’t mind babysitting, but I don’t see him otherwise. Partially my fault, but partially not.
**Who I see a lot less now that it’s not a four-hour trip.

• Last Friday I threw an Opening Ceremonies Party. It was my first official party in Richmond. I ‘ve been here 4 months and have enough friends to throw a party. That was so not the case in Raleigh.
• This Friday I’m going to a housewarming party for a guy I don’t know. A friend of mine is throwing the party, and he wouldn’t give her a guest list, so she just invited all of her friends.
• (I’m very excited about having friends. Not that I don’t have friends, or that I am some sort of unfriendworthy person, but it took me a lot longer to make friends in Raleigh. I learned from that experience and immediately joined a Jaycee chapter up here and said yes to every invitation I got.)
• On Saturday I have a cookout and then I’m going to the Richmond Braves game. (Tickets are a spendy $7.) It’s also bring your dog night.
• I’ve now relaxed the “every invitation” rule. I turned down playing for a football team this fall because the games are Sunday mornings. I cherish my Sunday mornings of drinking coffee and reading the paper.
• Thanks to some very lovely photos a friend posted on Facebook, I am recommitting myself to working out and eating semi-healthily. Ugh.
• Started out yesterday with a bike ride. Through the woods along the river. I love my bike. Really good purchase on my part. I’m heading out again today.

Stacy and Sara came up this weekend, and we had a blast. We headed out west to do a little wine tasting/touring. We started at Wintergreen Winery on Friday. We also hit Hilltop (Fruit wines and meadery! I’m not usually a fan of the fruit wines, but I do love a good pear wine.), Cardinal Point, Afton Mountain and Veritas, where everyone was quite dressed up, it seemed. Also where one of the people tasting wines asked, “What’s a vintner?” (Answer: Something you should know before you go wine tasting.) We stayed in Charlottesville that night and watched 5 firework displays from the top of a parking deck near UVA.

Saturday, we started at Oakencroft Winery. (These wineries are all on the Monticello Wine Trail). We headed north towards Culpeper to visit two more, Sharp Rock and Old House. (I’m certain I’ve mentioned those before, which should be proof enough that I’ll go back to wineries, so if anyone wants to do a wine tour…)

We finished off the wine tour by hitting IKEA. As you do.

I'm thinking about buying a bike. It seems Richmond has quite a few trails, some of them near work. In theory, I could throw the bike and a change of clothes in the car and go from here.

Of course, I had a bike for 3 years. I never rode it because it needed work, and I just never got it fixed. (In fact, before I moved, I gave it to Stew.) But now I want one. So, I'm really thinking I should buy a used one, but for obvious reasons I don't want to get one needing work. I don't want a mountain bike- I'm thinking more road/touring. But, if I want to take it on some of the gravel trails, will that work?

I don't know. It's quite the conundrum.

Oh! And also, I now have a set of golf clubs. So, I need to learn how to golf. I'm thing the first step is lessons a a driving range. Thoughts?

• I was informed yesterday that Target can't "give out" quarters. I just wanted to get a roll. I would have give you $10 for it. (BTW, the cashier (who had had difficulty making change for the person ahead of me) told me that a roll of quarters was $25. Oh, sweetie, no.) I turns out that the bank in Ukrop's is open untl 7, and they were happy to give me a roll of quarters.
• The teller discussed the awfulness of laundromats with me. I was going to go and wash blankets and my mattress pad yesterday, but them I remembered that I had to lock the boys up in the guest room today (pest control. They'd take Orion.) so I wanted to wash the bedspread after that. So, I'll be going this afternoon. I am that lame.
• To get both boys into the guest room easily, chase Jasper up there. Orion will follow all, "What's he doing? I want to do it too! Hey, why are you closing the door?"
• This weekend I am planning on finally checking out the Farmer's Market. I love Farmer's Markets.
• I lost my address book in the move. I've got a new one ready to go, so please send your address. I've even got plans to send Christmas cards this year. E-mail, in case you haven't got it, is watergirl.micheleATgmail.com

Mom and Dad came up last weekend. Randy's parents were throwing a surprise birthday party for him (his actual birthday is today), and to really surprise him they stayed at my house. Which meant they had to wait nearly an entire day to see Monkey.

In order to get ready for their visit, TR girl came over on Thursday to help me set up the guest bed. She brought Monkey with her and put him in his jumper in the door. Every time Orion walked past him, he started crying. He was afraid of him. Orion was not doing anything- he didn't care about the baby being there at all. At one point, we picked them both up so that Monkey could see the cat, and Ri gave him a head butt.

Randy's party was Saturday night. Sunday morning TR girl, Randy, and Monkey came over for breakfast. This time, he was very interested in the cat. Orion put up with him, getting away when he'd had too much. He climbed up on the back of the couch and went to sleep. Later, Liam was up on the couch. He pulled Ri's tail, but all Ri did was turn around and hiss.

We all told him what a good boy he was. And also stopped Monkey from pulling his tail.

We made it up on Thursday with no problems. Jasper is apparently a huge fan of wall to wall carpeting. He is much happier here. We also had our first mass escape this afternoon, but all returned safely. I had dinner at TRgirl and Ryan's and confused my dad wickedly when I answered her cell phone. I cannot run the dryer with the closet door shut or it sets off the smoke alarm. My vanities do not have drawers or shelves, they are just big gaping maws. I miss my friends; I've sent them my address. I hope they come visit.

Thursday I planned to sign my lease. I was in meetings all day. I checked my phone at 3:30 PM to find a fairly frantic message from my leasing agent. When I called her back, I was told that my original apartment had been flooded (pipe burst, shot hole in wall) and they were moving me to a different one.

I checked the new one out; it was fine, so I signed my lease. Of course, I had already set up utilities and my renter’s insurance. The insurance and cable? No problem changing those. The electric? Whole other story. First, they were closed from Friday until today. Then, when I called, the person I spoke to wanted to transfer me to someone to talk about my flood damage. He said, “Will that be OK?” I answered, “No. I just want to switch my service address.”

We got that done, and he informed me that there was a $15 connection fee. I told him I’d already paid that. I was told that was for the previous apartment, and they had to charge me another $15, there was no way to waive it. I told him I wanted to speak to a supervisor, and suddenly he could waive it.

Also this weekend, Aquamama picked up my washer. (She needed one, and I had one to sell.) Orion is very upset that the washer is gone. He keeps going to where it was and crying. He has never done laundry, so I don’t understand the sudden need.

Last night was my last book club. I won't see those women again for a while; some I may never see again. (There is talk of a beach trip later this year, and I am so there, but not everyone will make it.)

Tonight is my going away party, and while I'm excited that people are coming, it's also a sad occasion. I probably won't see most of them before I leave.

This is the part that sucks.