Again in pictures…
Cecilia guards the boots while I host breakfast
The detritus from breakfast
We had to eat standing up because the puzzle isn't finished
That's my red car. I have a lot of digging to do.
Neighbors M and L hosted an impromptu Superbowl party last night. I forgot my camera.
Today (Monday) I think it’s safe to say we are all snow weary. I’m staying home from work today. The roads are awful and the radio is encouraging us to dig ourselves out because there’s no way the plows can get to everyone before we get another 5+ inches tomorrow.
C’mon Spring!
This is the scene that greets me through the transom.
That's snow stuck against the window
This is the side of my house
What the heck?
The snow was this deep!
This morning took a little longer than last night
Um, yikes
We dug a trench across the street
On our way to Neighbor G's for brunch.
Then football. Just in case you can't tell, it's still snowing.
Afternoon entertainment
See this couple? This is Mr. and Mrs. Baby. She's 8+ months preggo and was told she might deliver any day.
So we dug the street out for her just in case.
I forgot to take pictures at dinner but Neighbors K and C hosted. Thus ended Snowpocalypse Day 2.
As I’m sure you are aware, we are experiencing the Snowpocalypse. Fortunately I have thoroughly documented it for you. Without further ado, Day 1 (Friday):
8:00am My street is suspiciously empty. I think everyone and their brother went in to work early today so they can justify leaving work before the wrath of the Snopocalypse hits. Rush hour is supposed to be right in the belly of the storm.
9:00am No work is getting done at the office. We’re flipping between reading the local weather websites, weather.com and the Yorecast. Which is the weather forecast done by a teacher (Mr. Yore) at Bosslady’s kid’s school who apparently is a frustrated meteorologist. Of all of them, the Yorecast is clearly the most entertaining.
10:00am It has started to snow. The flakes are so fine you can barely see them. Nothing is sticking.
Noon I leave work. Embarrassingly, there is nothing on the roads.
1:00pm Still no accumulation. I decide to run an errand across town.
4:00pm The snow finally begins to stick, after falling steadily for the last 6 hours.
6:00pm In time honored Baltimore snow day tradition, the neighbors and I go out for dinner and drinks. The snow is still falling.
10:30pm I decide to come home. Fueled by burgers and bourbon, I tackle shoveling the sidewalk for the first time. When I finish I look like this:
Remember when you were a kid and you'd jump in the pool but not get your head wet, so that the bottom half of your hair is soaked and the top half is dry? It was like that.
Here's the sidewalk. Note the snow is still falling.
Cecilia helped out
After a little bit Cecilia got cold.
Feeder, my frozen paws require your attention.
11:00 I climb in bed and curl up with The Help, which Bosslady was kind enough to loan to me on account of I Am Charlotte Simmons being such a terrible book. The snow is still falling.
Thus ends Snowpocalypse Day 1.
Once again, we are under a Winter Storm Warning. Snow is expected to start tomorrow morning and continue through Saturday night, with accumulations of 16 – 24 inches.
I thought I lived in Baltimore, but apparently I am in Buffalo. Maybe there was some kind of LOST time / space shift that I missed. If Cecilia starts acting strangely, I’ll know it’s because her body was taken over by some evil dog with dubious motives.
Speaking of which, I still haven’t made it through the LOST season premier. Apparently I’ll have lots of time to watch it this weekend. Along with Season 5, Disc 2 which my neighbor got via Netflix today.
Do you know who’s going to be all kinds of excited about the snow?
Cecilia the gourmet
Yep, that’s a picture of Cecilia eating snow. She’s obsessed with it. Yesterday morning I woke up to about 3 inches of snow. I took Cecilia out for her morning walk figuring that I’d shovel the sidewalk while she did her business. That crazy dog stood on the steps eating snow the entire time I shoveled! I had to physically carry her to the pee area. Even then, she was trying to eat snow instead of doing her business. Today I had to bribe her back inside the house with a handful of snow.
So I may run to the store today with the rest of Maryland to get the fixings for Baltimore Casserole. Ever heard of it? It’s super easy, just three ingredients:
Milk
plus
Bread
plus
Toilet Paper
No joke. A snow storm comes and the stores sell out of those items. One year at a Christmas party a coworker brought Baltimore Casserole for the present swap!
Personally I can think of a few other items I’d like to have in the event of a snowstorm. Where is the chocolate? Or the DVDs? How about some soup or tea? Salt for the sidewalk? Extra Pam for the snow shovel?
Assuming I survive the snowpocalypse, I’ll try to post this weekend with pictures. In the meantime you can imagine me, Cecilia and my sock monkey slippers cozy on the sofa watching LOST. Unless Cecilia starts attacking the slippers. Then I’ll know she’s joined the Others.
If you don’t hear from me, you can assume I’ve time / space shifted again. To Siberia.
Send soup and chocolate. And toilet paper.
Remember how I was anticipating snow? By the time Friday rolled around, we were all pretty sure it would just be a light dusting.
We were wrong.
I could tell you about snow day. But I’ve already done that here. Second verse, same as the first.
So guess what I did during snow day?
First I took Cecilia to the vet. Thank goodness he is just a couple blocks away. Cecilia’s leg kicks are either spinal or neurological. It’s not a patella issue, which is what my online sleuthing was indicating. Nothing can be done to treat it, but he doesn’t think it will get much worse. And in fact it seems much better today (Sunday).
Then I made a gift for Cricket. How cute are these barrettes?
I hope Cricket likes them
Ok, she really doesn’t have enough hair for them yet, but she’ll grow into the gift.
See?
Did you want to see what they look like on a model? Because Cecilia volunteered.
You're pushing it, Feeder
The rest of the day was spent with a comfy sofa, the afghan my mom made for me, my favorite sock monkey slippers
Feeder, put the camera away.
and a book.
But not this one:
Hmmmm
I’m 25 pages in and I can already tell this poor girl is about to get her world rocked. I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but I can sense jaded bitterness by page 115. I’m not sure if I can motivate myself to read all the gory details.
So I read this book instead:
The series came highly recommended by a coworker. I’m on Book Four. My friend’s eleven year old son tells me that I’m “in for a real treat” in Book 5.
I can’t wait. Maybe I’ll get another snow day next weekend.
Today I am…
Praying: DMW’s daughter is in surgery today. She is such a neat kid – the kind that lights up a room. Plus she enjoys reading and dogs which immediately gives her bonus points in my book. And she’s written an original song for our band. Please pray with me that the surgery will be successful and the recovery swift.
Laughing: My New York friend (ok, technically Brooklyn, whatever) writes emails so funny I laugh out loud*. I keep encouraging her to start a blog, but she’s very private. That doesn’t stop me from totally stealing her ideas for my own blog. In fact, the very format of this post is ripped off from her last email. Honestly, you haven’t laughed until you’ve heard Brooklyn describing a very very very cheap friend who is trying to salvage breadcrumbs from weevils! Yuck!
Once this shows up in your food it's time to admit defeat
Searching: I’ve been on a quest for new mugs. Coffee mugs, not facial expressions. I’m very picky. They need to be blue and white. Large enough for a generous slug of coffe, tea or soup. Classic, not trendy. So far nothing has jumped out at me. Let me know if you have any suggestions!
Close, but not quite. That's ok, though, the search is half the fun.
Anticipating: We have a possibility of SNOW this weekend. It might miss us completely, or we may get up to a foot! All the more reason to curl up with our new book club selection.
Has anyone read this?
Monitoring: Cecilia’s right rear leg has been slipping out from under her. It’s like she can’t get traction with that foot. I put one of her rubber booties on that paw to try and help. Because not only does Cecilia need to emulate Elvis, apparently she also needs to emulate the King of Pop.
Three of these are superfluous
Only one is needed.
*Gratuitous Curmudgeon Commment: Is anyone else bugged by LOL? For some reason that acronym grates on my nerves. And it’s totally overused, because I do NOT hear people laughing out loud all the time, but everyone seems to use it. LOL = Just say no.
You know, if I were a more “professional” blogger I might have recurring themes. You know, like Wordless Wednesdays where you just show a picture, or Teach Me Tuesdays where I share something educational (like the proper ratio of chocolate to marshmallow in a s’more, or something equally life changing).
One post that I’d definitely make semi-regular would be Good Stuff. Just things that make me happy that I want to share with you.
However, hi. Do you know me? Consistency and regular posting: not so much my strong suit. So let’s pretend instead that you all embrace the randomness as much as I do. Let’s face it, this may be the closest I get to spontaneity.
Without further ado, good stuff.
1. Trader Joe’s Gingerbread Coffee: Debby turned me on to this stuff. Not only am I saving money by not frequenting Starbucks, I get to feel “all growns up”* by actually using my coffee maker!
- Yummy!
Side note: I only started drinking coffee in the last few years, and only foofy lattes from coffee houses or Starbucks. Bosslady gave me a spare 4-cup coffee maker years ago in case I ever had coffee-drinking houseguests, but it has gotten minimal use. Until now. Although I’m still being careful to make sure I don’t have coffee every day. I hate the thought of being addicted to caffeine.
2. A Friday Night Gig After a year+ of playing in our favorite bar on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we finally got invited to play on a Friday night! Dead Man Walking and I have been working towards this goal for a while now. It’s awesome to have achieved it. And if you’re near Baltimore on February 12th, leave a comment and I’ll get you the 411. Ooh, we also just created a page on Facebook, so comment if you’d like to be a fan. I’d post the info here, but it kind of takes away from the whole semi-anonymous blog thing I have going on…
3. Kid Weekend Remember J the aspiring chef? He’s coming back this weekend. We’ll be hiking Gambrill State Park tomorrow. And of course we’ll be cooking. On the menu is pasta carbonara. After all, he’s a growing boy!
4. New Music Earlier this year I reconnected with some old friends who had moved away from Baltimore quite suddenly. The husband (Mixmaster) used to be my new music hook up. He was always creating fun CDs – dance mixes, mellow grooves, etc. When we reconnected I mentioned how much I missed getting his CDs.
Fast forward to December when a stack like this arrived in the mail.
I'm not exaggerating!
Mixmaster is no joke. I’m halfway through the stack and loving it! What an awesome unexpected gift.
5. The Pay It Forward Challenge Remember? My gift for Pubsgal is almost done. Hey Sparky’s Mom, make sure you get back to me about the challenge when you have a chance. I can’t work on your project until I get your input!
Tell me what’s good about your day today.
*Does anyone else remember that quote from Swingers? Loved that movie.
Did you miss me?
More importantly, did you lose sleep over the mystery of the deskbell?
At last, an answer for you.
How cute is my mom?
See this dog with my mom? That’s Tucker.
Actually I believe his real name is Friar Tuck IV. My parents have this weird habit of calling every dog Tucker. Does anyone else do that? It makes telling stories a little difficult, because you have to qualify things.
Oh, well that was back when we had the silver Tucker.
So now you know that I come by my strangeness honestly.
And no, there will not be a Cecilia II. But how cute does she look in this old picture?
I know. I'm a terrible photographer. She's still cute, if a little spindly in this picture.
But I digress.
Back to the bell.
Tucker is a very smart dog. He is well trained. As you may be able to tell from the picture above, he is a certified therapy dog and has a very full social and professional calendar.
He is also pretty clear about expressing his likes and dislikes.
- He prefers to eat his dinner in front of the TV.
- He prefers riding in the golf cart with his paws on Dad’s shoulders.
I wasn't joking about that.
- He prefers his kibble mixed with chicken and cheerios.
- And he prefers to stay in the guest room with me, even when I want him out!
Hence, the bell.
Step 1: I tell Tucker to leave the room.
Step 2: Tucker crawls under the bed so I can’t get to him.
Step 3: I get the bell and ring it loudly until he leaves the room.
Juice 1, Tucker 0
Mystery solved.
I’m taking a bloggy break for a few days. Look for me later this month.
In the meantime, see this bell?
Remember these?
Guess what I used this bell for yesterday?
If you get it correct I’ll have to come up with some kind of prize to send you!
Annnnndddd, cue the comments.
Baltimore City recently changed our trash and recycling collection schedule. One of the largest changes is the requirement that all trash cans have lids. Otherwise, you can be fined!
It’s part of a campaign to reduce the rat population.
*I just spent a half hour looking for a picture of these really cute public service billboards that Baltimore has installed on the sides of garbage trucks. It would be a great visual, but it does not seem to exist on the internet. And I’m not about to motivate at o-dark:thirty to take a picture for you. Sorry.
Anyway. You can imagine my consternation when my trash can lid went missing. My happy trash can: ripped asunder by 50 mph gusts!
Have you seen me?
I had hoped that the lid might be returned. It was clearly marked with my address.
Days passed. No luck.
Then today, Cecilia and I were walking the alley when I spied a round item. My lid! Dented, tire-tracked and a block away, but clearly mine.
Welcome home Friend.
All is right in my little corner of Baltimore today.
