Miscellaneous oddments

Great headline from Fark today : "Britain's five most-watched movies of all time. Frankly, my dear, the hills are alive with the sound of midgets using the force at Park Lake."

I got the house lights up this weekend for Christmas. We chose LED lights this year from ForeverBright. They're more expensive to buy, but cost 1/10th as much to run as bulbs, are virtually indestructible and a lot brighter too. We've got an inflatable santa in the front yard and five illuminated snowflakes. Looks quite festive.

Actually, on friday. One of the neighbours sneered at me as I was putting them up, but our friend next door said he was trying to get his yardwork out of the way so he could do the same. On saturday it drizzled all day and on sunday morning there were 4 inches of snow on the ground. The sneering neighbour wasn't sneering any more, and the chap next door was wishing he really had got his lights up on friday.

I shovelled some snow but then thought "bugger it - we've got a snowblower - I'm going to damn well use it." So I did. It was a bit smokey at first but after the engine had run for a few minutes it settled down.
And today we're in the freezer. The temperature this morning was a chilly -9°C and right now it's climbed to a toasty -3°C.

My miracle new snow shovel - the Sno-Easy - with two handles designed to make lifting snow easier on the back, broke at the first shovel-full. Kudos to Home Depot for allowing me to swap it for an Avalanche shovel without a receipt.

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