It's 10:30 p.m. in Japan, so the USS Blue Ridge - the ship Alex will be on for the next couple of months - should be underway.
Turns out he doesn't hit Australia this trip....they'll make a separate trip Down Under in April.
Told him to be sure to take lots of pictures of the keen places he'll visit, and to search for internet cafés when in port. 
Who knew there WAS a Milan's Menswear Fashion Show?
Well, there is. Think leggings for guys will be the next "must-have" fashion statement?
Bud, you'd better be packin' heat in that satchel if you try to walk around in Fort Worth dressed like that. 
Yesterday was National Penguin Awareness Day and danged if I didn't let it slide right on by, mostly because I'd never heard of it till just now.
Okay, I missed the penguins but by golly, I just made this one: today, January 21st, is Squirrel Appreciation Day. 
Show 'em your appreciation by trying not to squash 'em with your car. Be a pal. 
Last night was Matt's official birthday party, celebrating his 40th natal day. It had an 80's theme, which I fear I forgot about and wouldn't have had anything particular to wear for it in any case.
Actually, trying to think of dress that epitomized the 80's was rather a trick, but some discussion led to remembrances of that being the era of the Linda Evans' look, with heavily padded shoulders, Anne Klein chunky, clunky goldtone jewelry, especially the "doorknocker" type earrings, with informal attire including leggings, á la "Flashdance".
Above is, of course, Kirstin, looking very fetching in her outfit, and there's Matt in the white t-shirt with a gimme cap.
The food was brought by Jessica from Chili's....wings, fajitas, tortilla chips with a variety of dips. Yum!
And I'll tell you what....I do like parties at Kirstin's house. As we were leaving, Jessica told us that she is expecting a baby, too! 
(BTW, that's not a photo of her giving the news, but I didn't take a lot of photos last night and this was the only one with a reasonably good shot of her.)
She thinks baby's due in August, as is Alex and Beth's newbie. Won't that be cool? To have them born in the same month? Heaven knows our Jonathan and Jeanne's Justin used to have a good time together, and they were born just three weeks apart.
Eight grandchildren! What riches! 
I see the sun! For the first time in, I dunno, a week?
Sunlight. Gotta love it.
Addendum: It was nice the short while it lasted.
Been raining all afternoon. Not a pouring rain....just a "drippy" rain, if you know what I mean.
Looks like it'll be Tuesday before the precipitation and clouds clear out. 
For days we were warned of winter weather by agitated weathercasters, and finally received a bit.
Last night we were lightly advised of the possibility of a few flurries this morning, but nothing of significance.
Ha.
Schools were canceled for the day (with the sole exception of the Dallas ISD, which just shows), so I let Dmitry sleep in. About 8:30 he came reeling out of his room, dressed in his school clothes and squawking about how late it is and what's going on? Pointed him toward the window, and after a brief retreat to his room to change clothes:
Of course, that was this morning. Now it's the afternoon and he has dramatically announced he is "officially bored." When I suggested he work on one or two of his packs for school, however, he suddenly thought of something he needed to do and scurried back to the safety of his room. 
Kirstin was supposed to be going out to lunch with her grandfather today and I was going to keep Bryson. Naturally the snow and ice put paid to those plans, and while on the phone she told me of waking up at the usual time - shortly after 6 a.m. - and proceeding to get the day started. Matt headed to the computer, where for some reason I don't recall he had cause to visit their children's school's website.
He called out to her, "What day is this?" "Wednesday!" she called back.
"What's the date?" he inquired.
"The seventeenth. Why?"
"January seventeenth?" he persisted, wanting to make very sure. Kirstin assured him this was indeed that date, so he told her of a large notice on the website announcing "SCHOOL CANCELED."
Alarmed, fearing there had been a tragedy, Kirstin rushed to call her neighbor across the street, whose child also attends that school, asking if she knew what was going on....why was school canceled.
After a brief, startled pause, her friend gently advised, "Kirstin, go look out the window."
Oh. 
Took 5-6 weeks to get there, whereas the time before it arrived in two weeks. Russian mail service! Whatcha gonna do?
However, she loved the outfit I sent her and the photo of Dmitry, and included some photos of herself in it; we're also able to get a glimpse of her room at the "hostel" in which she lives:
That was the box I'd sent the stuff in; I thought it was festive. Isn't this a beautiful picture of her?
I was about to write the package off as lost or stolen; what a relief to hear from her that it was delivered at last! 
She's closing in on finally graduating from the university, and it dawned on me THAT would be a terrific time to try to visit her. Wouldn't it be stellar to be present for her graduation? You just know she'd adore to have Dmitry there.
Gonna pray about that. ;^)
He's bought a plane ticket home, arriving on January 30th at 5:30 pm! 
He'll be here until the afternoon of February 11th. That final weekend we'll have him, Beth and Hannah home with us.
Never has so much icy weather been forecast for so long with so little actual showing up.
The weathercasts over the past two days have been shrilly warning us to expect upwards of an inch of ice by now. Bundle up! Stock up! Board up! Circle the wagons! Don't go out unless absolutely necessary!
Well, at least we got a bit of rain this afternoon.
By now it was supposed to be well down into the 20's. In fact, it was supposed to have reached the 20's during the day yesterday and stayed down there. Instead it has hovered right around 32-34 degrees, so there's ice on the branches, but none on the ordinary city streets, and even the grass is simply wet. Late this afternoon the Doppler radar showed a large area of icy stuff heading right for us. Warily I monitored it as it bore down on Fort Worth. Here it comes! My goodness, we'll have the Waybourn boys as guests until Wednesday due to the ice about to hit. Headed to the grocery store to stock up on food for Don, me, and four teenage boys.
One, precipitation has yet to begin to fall; two, as it gets to Fort Worth it turns to rain from ice; and three, instead of the freeze line spreading to east Texas (which a weatherperson assured us just this afternoon would take place by tonight), the temperatures are moderating up toward the northwest. IOW, the freeze line isn't moving east any longer, and the temperature map shows the area of Really Cold air (teens) shrinking to just the panhandle.
This long-forecast "ice storm" has made an absolute monkey of every weathercaster in the DFW area, so far's I can tell. Missed it by a mile, they did.
Which, mind, is just as well. I'm hardly anxious for some tiresome ice storm! But when I think of all the stuff I've bought, preparing for The Winter Siege that never materialized, I'm a little vexed. Do you know Christ Chapel, based on the ominous forecast yesterday and mindful of the death of David Phillips last February as he drove to church from Aledo, canceled SS classes for today and had some pastoral staff spend the night at the church so they wouldn't have to travel to hold services?
Honestly, I do realize trying to forecast winter weather in north central Texas is dicey at best and impossible at worst, but even so, this was ludicrously off the mark.
(Sure hope I haven't jinxed us now!)
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