Snow, snow and....more snow

Microclimate (n); The climate of a small, specific place within an area as contrasted with the climate of the entire area.

I have learned two things in regards to the recent accumulation of snow here in Layton.

First. Don't try shoveling the snow off a huge driveway unless you want to employ a chiropractor and a massage therapist. Whoever said 'lift with your legs, not with your back' has obviously never shoveled a driveway 15" deep in snow. Because I DID lift with my legs... and my back... and my arms and every other muscle in the human body. In fact my jaw is sore from clenching my teeth while lifting. Crazy.

Second. Before you buy your next house check out the neighbors and make sure you have some good ones. Our neighbor Dusty gets the award for best neighbor this year. Although we do have a snow blower, it's a hand-me-down and doesn't work. Dusty, however, has one of those industrial snow blowers that can suck up small cars and turn them into rubix cubes or something like that. He generally beats us to our driveway and saves me from any shoveling at all. I must admit that last Monday when we also got dumped on he didn't come and snow blow our driveway. I was kind of irritated that he would leave me to do it myself...heaven forbid. Well, yesterday when I was out there shoveling again he came over when I was half done and helped finish it. We got to conversing and he told me how sorry he was that he didn't help on Monday. He wanted to but couldn't because he dislocated his shoulder! Wow, I'm a jerk!

AND THE WINNER IS...

As many of you know Jeremy is in his last semester in the MBA program at Westminster. One of the requirements for the Masters program is that he take a trip to study business internationally. He was given a list four locations and had to pick which place he wanted to go. Choice #1 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; could be interesting but there's no real desire to go there. #2 Mexico City, Mexico; might be fun but guaranteed to be very dirty and hot. #3 Ireland; you might think this is a no-brainer and the obvious choice. However, that is one place we will probably visit someday due to it's close proximity to Scotland. You all know Jeremy's Scottish right? That leaves us with #4 Poland & the Czech Republic. It may not be an obvious first choice, however, the likely hood that we would choose to go there on our own is pretty slim. So that's where we're going. Yep...WE! It just so happens that there was extra space in the group so spouses can go if they want to. Thus, April 29,2009 we will be flying to Warsaw, Poland where we'll start our stoic journey. Next on the itinerary is Krakow, Poland. Last but certainly not least (I'm very excited to go there) is Prague, Czech Republic. In the coming months we have lots to do to prepare and to be honest I'm a little bit anxious about it! So if any of you have any information about any of the places we're going we'd love to hear about it!