More on the way!

I wouldn't mind all this snow if MD had the manpower to keep up with it! Here are two pix from this morning. First the front porch (with is covered) after I shoveled 12 - 18 inches of snow off of it:

The snow on the ground is level with the porch which is 3 large steps up! It has melted a couple of inches because the snow stick is snowing a couple of inches!

Next is Big Green--our huge 1978 Mercury Marquis which sits at the back of the driveway. The raised deck is even with the snow.


One of my work colleagues posted this photo of our school:

The area to the left of the building is our parking lot--only you can't see it! Another storm is in the forecast starting tomorrow which is supposed to bring us 10 - 20 inches! Apparently it will bring blizzard conditions as well! Honestly I don't know why my school system doesn't just say that school will be closed the rest of the week. The neighborhoods aren't plowed yet! It's insane!

Meanwhile, I made it out to Trader Joe's to get more soy milk and cold cuts. I also picked up stuff to make broccoli cheese soup and managed to get another pound of espresso at Starbucks where the manager spotted me my venti latte for free!

We've held off on building fires during all this bad weather because we don't have a lot of wood left. There were a lot of power outages during the last storm on the weekend, many of which are still not fixed. We've been lucky but we figured we'd save the wood in case we lose power and need to heat our home with it. The wood burning stove insert in our fireplace puts out a lot of heat!

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Kitty Cam: Samantha discovered my duffle bag before I could put it away.

The things we Caps fans will do to get to a game!

DH spent about 10 hours shoveling. Our driveway is 140 feet long and he shoveled a crapload of snow! There is no place to put it. Since the Caps-Pens game was the NBC game of the week, they weren't going to change it and it went on at noon as originally scheduled. We carefully went through the neighborhood, to Rt. 32, Rt. 95 and the Capital beltway to Bethesda. I was amazed at how bad Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda was! The metro was swamped and I think everyone on there was going to the game. It was quite a party atmosphere. We were packed on like Sardines and we got to Verizon Center a few minutes after the puck drop. I was bummed during the game because the Caps were down 2 - 0 then Ovie scored 1. Then were were down 3 - 1. They must have decided that they weren't ready to break their winning streak and they came back third period to tie it up 4 - 4. So on to sudden death overtime and we won! It would've sucked royally to go to such effort to get there only to lose! We now have a 14 game winning streak. If we can win the next three games (right up to the Olympic break) we will tie the NHL record of a 17 game winning streak--held by (who else) the Pens!

Here's what the wall of snow looks like in our driveway:



Dug out just in time for the next storm coming on Tuesday! They are now saying 6 - 12 inches! I'm so glad that I have a sense of humor!

Kitty cam: Meanwhile, the boys enjoyed a spot of sun while hinting for a fire!

Snowcopalypse 2010

Remind me to stop wishing for snow. My wish was granted. In fact it was granted retroactively for the last 10 years or so. We got about 4 inches last weekend which was pretty. They've been calling for a big storm and in anticipation of that the area schools closed 2 1/2 hours early yesterday to make sure everyone got home safely. The snow was expected to start late morning. It actually began around noon but the temp was above freezing so the roads were just wet. Here's what things looked like Friday afternoon:


I put a snow stick out to measure the coming snow. The marks only went up to 12 inches so I put marks up to 25 inches on the back. The whole stick is about 28 inches tall.


Last night around 6 pm it looked like this:

I got up in the middle of the night and looked out but the screens in the windows were covered. It had gotten really windy and I just couldn't see anything!
Got up

At 10 am Saturday morning we had this:






The last photos were at 11 am. Note that a meter stick shows 27 inches at that time. We will probably end up with about 36 inches!






>

We stayed in Friday night and rocked the red! That means we watched the Caps game. I decided to rock the red and knit a red hat. I needed a break from my Brigitte sweater which happens also to be red. I had bought this Teva Durham pattern and the yarn for her assymetrical hat about 3 years ago. The yarn was all wrong though. I knew when I took it out. The pattern calls for bulky yarn with a gauge of 12 st. /4 in. on size 11 needles. I got gauge but the pattern really needed a thick single ply yarn like Rowan Biggie. My hat is too lacy--the stitches are too open. I haven't decided if I will wear it or not. I don't think it will be that warm. The yarn was really nice though. It was Tahki Torino Bulky. It's a lot like Berroco Pure Merino. It has a lovely twist!


I am concerned though. We have tickets for the Caps - Pens game Sunday at noon. There is no word as to whether or not the game is still on. The Pens are playing in Montreal as I type this and I wonder if they can even fly into the city! I hope they will do a ticket exchange if the game is still on because I really don't know if we can make it. We had figured we'd drive the highways into Bethesda and take the red line, which is underground, down to the Verizon Center. I hope I didn't throw away $250!

I'll keep you posted!

Kitty Cam: Meanwhile, Greg has the right idea of how to spend a snowy day!

The Aftermath . . .

Looks like about 2 feet of snow! If we don't get at least 2 snow days out of this, I'll be most disappointed!

Kitty Cam: Bar has taken to the new Christmas Sweater Tree Skirt!

Be careful what you wish for!

So I've been wishing for a nice snow since Thanksgiving. However this is not quite what I had in mind. I woke up to this:
About 10 inches or so. By 6 pm we had about 20 inches or more: The snow covers the first rail on the split rail fence and the cars are completely covered. I hope we can get it pretty well shoveled tomorrow. Unfortunately it is too deep for the snow blower.

I'm hoping that our school system has the courtesy to tell us Sunday night whether or not we will be closed on Monday. I suspect we may be closed all three days next week. Montgomery County is the worst about clearing local roads and the school system is the worst about being considerate of their employees. That's the way it goes! I planned ahead however and I packed my book bag with everything I would need to plan for Monday Jan. 4 just in case. I hate going in to school not being prepared it makes for bad lessons and bad student behavior. So I am always over prepared! I bugged out in a hurry on Friday because I needed to go to BJ's before my 5 pm massage appointment. We were out of kitty litter! I got the litter and some over the counter meds and I stumbled across this on one of the aisles:This will come in handy now! I had been looking at full length down coats last year when a friend of mine got a Michael Kors one at Filenes. Hers is a little more stylish but this one is by Anne Klein and it was only $59! I like that it has a 2 way zipper and has side zippers so I can loosen it up at the bottom. I typically don't wear down coats unless I 'm going to be outside for an extended time because I get too hot in them. I have outside bus duty and it gets pretty cold so this will come in really handy!

I've been a lazy slob today--staying in my pj's until dinner time. We had our traditional snow day dinner of Pasta e Fagiole with Parmesan Pepper Baguettes. Good stuff! Nothing like homemade soup on the stove on a cold day. I finally watched the 4 hours of "Sing Off." I'm typically not into the talent shows on TV but I couldn't resist one with a cappella groups! They've all been really impressive!

Gonna watch the Caps game and do a little Christmas knitting. Tomorrow we hope to decorate the tree!

Kitty Cam: Greg finally cooperated for his Christmas portrait!

Finally!

Snow! Real snow! Typical snow average in this area is about 12 inches over the winter. So far we had gotten 2 inches. That was it! I guess Mother Nature figured that she better get on the stick before winter ended. It looks like we've gotten about 6 inches. I'm happy to report that school was cancelled today. I'm also happy that the snow held off until last night as DH and I went downtown to the Caps game at 3:00 yesterday. We typically drive into DC on the weekends, but we were afraid that they would call a snow emergency which means that you cannot park on main roads. If you are parked on one and don't move your car, you get towed and a hefty fine. We drove to Greenbelt and took the metro in. Everyone on the train had Caps jerseys on which was nice. Unfortunately the game totally blew. The Caps are #2 in the Eastern Conference and #4 in the league. They got spanked royally, losing to Florida 6 - 2. Ouch! How can an ice hockey team from the deep south do that!!!

I haven't been up to too much these days. I have been working on my two projects a lot. My Chunky Cabled Tam is going to hibernate until I figure out what to do with it. Here it is in it's current state:


I love this hat on the cover of Knit 1. Mine looks a lot bigger. It is very bulky--two strands of Manos held together on size 11 needles. The pattern called for 3 skeins of Manos and I have run out of yarn! 4 skeins will amount to one expensive hat! When I try this on, the slouchy part of the hat literally hangs down to my shoulders. I think it is just too big. I'll have to take it to my stitch 'n bitch group on Wednesday to ask for advice. I don't know whether I should get another skein and finish it, or to frog back and do one less repeat of the cable to make the top smaller. That would also keep me from having to get another skein. So I've put the tam aside to finish the Opulent Raglan. I am now on the hip increases below the waist.

I love this sweater! It fits like a charm and the yarn is like butter on the skin! It is Bristol Yarn Gallery King George which is 45% merino, 45% alpaca, 10% cashmere. My row gauge is off though. I'm getting more rows per inch. I'm a little worried that this sweater will grown in length when it is blocked. Alpaca has a tendency to do that. Merino has good memory so I'm hoing it will balance out the alpaca. At any rate, I ended up ordering two more skeins of this yarn. I am on the 5th now and only have 3 left. I can see using at least one more on the body so the 8 I bought won't be enough. I hope to get this finished by the middle of March.

I ordered the yarn for Sylvi. According to the yardage, I will need 10 skeins of the yarn I chose. I ordered 11 but Webs only had 10 so I got what they had. I'll have to make sure that my swatch is accurate. I want to do some modifications which might require more yarn. The color I got is called Valentine and they have another red, so I may get some of that and do a dye job.

Cold weather makes me pull out the crock pot. We've had some good stuff from the slow cooker in the last few weeks. Our favorite so far has been Pepperoncini Beef.

Here's the recipe:

1 - boneless chuck roast (mine was 3.5 lbs.)
2 - 14 oz.cans low sodium beef broth
1 - 16 oz, jar pepperoncini
3 or 4 peeled garlic cloves

Make some cuts into the surface of the roast. Slice the garlic cloves and put the slices into the cuts in the beef. Place the beef in the crock pot and pour in the broth and the pepperoncini with the juice. Cook 6 - 8 hours on low. After cooking, pull out the beef and shred with 2 forks. I also pulled out the pepperoncini and removed the stems. Return the pepperoncini and beef to the crock. Serve on crusty rolls. Top with Provolone cheese and put under the broiler for a couple of minutes.

Here is the finished sandwich, served with Provolone and broiled on a Chiabatta roll with some spicy Chipotle mustard!

Good stuff!

Samantha has found her old toys! There is this particular toy that she loves and I can't find them any more. I've bought her a bunch of them over the years and they eventually get destroyed. We found 2 of them in the house. She is like a kid with a security blanket with these things.


She carries it around the house. I'll hear her meowing repeatedly and there she will be with the toy in her mouth. The other day, I noticed this:

Her toy was on the piano stool! Of course the next morning I saw this:

She basks in the sun every morning on the piano stool so I guess she needed her toy to keep her company!

I will leave you with photos of the snow, taken from inside the house!




Kitty Cam: Greg is a little more greedy with his toys. He collects a number of them and puts them in his favorite box.

No beans!

Here I am at home for my second snow day and I have no beans! Actually today was more of a "wintery mix" day. The wonderful snowy winters of my childhood are long past. Global warming has seen to that. Now for the beans--whenever I have a snow day, I make one of two things--either chili or Pasta e Fagiole. Typically the pasta soup is the choice because it uses things I typically have on hand and it requires no meat. As luck would have it, I didn't have beans! The soup requires dried beans and the chili requires canned. I had neither! Bummer. Even worse--I had the worst craving for a grilled cheese sandwich at lunch and I didn't have pepper jack! I'm just a big fat failure today! I had to use swiss cheese with red pepper flakes. It just wasn't the same!

So I've had two days off and I have not accomplished one single thing. I figure that snow days are freebies so I'm not "required" to get stuff done per se. I certainly could've sewn or done some knitting but I did neither. I managed to watch "24" which I had recorded and "No Country for Old Men." That is one strange movie!

So that's it! I have my winter concert tomorrow though if school is delayed we will miss our dress rehearsal. Oh well! We roll with the punches around here!

Kitty Cam:
This one is from Ems--Chelsea insists on following Mokey everywhere--even to the bathroom sink!