Snow!

After I saw the weather predictions yesterday, I decided today would be a vacation day. Good call. We have about 8" so far, and it's still coming down. Could wind up with 10-12" by the time it ends this afternoon. Not going to try to shovel before then.

King performed his sworn duty of getting me out of bed before 7:30am. I let him outside, then stood at the door with a towel in hand to wipe him off as he barreled back inside. He and the Mickster are dozing now. I've just made coffee, and am waiting for the water to boil so I can add the steel-cut oats. Probably have them with sliced banana and maple syrup. A little milk.

Then I'm going to write a little.

Snow!

After I saw the weather predictions yesterday, I decided today would be a vacation day. Good call. We have about 8" so far, and it's still coming down. Could wind up with 10-12" by the time it ends this afternoon. Not going to try to shovel before then.

King performed his sworn duty of getting me out of bed before 7:30am. I let him outside, then stood at the door with a towel in hand to wipe him off as he barreled back inside. He and the Mickster are dozing now. I've just made coffee, and am waiting for the water to boil so I can add the steel-cut oats. Probably have them with sliced banana and maple syrup. A little milk.

Then I'm going to write a little.

Snow day

Went out at about 11:30a to shovel. About a half hour in, I dug out the electric snowblower. No one has to tell me--I should never have gone with an electric snowblower in the 'burbs. Tiny city driveway, fine. 85' driveway that widens at the top to the width of a 2.5 car garage? No.

But this wasn't nice snow. It was great snowball/snowman snow--wet powder that packed. It stuck to the shovel, and weighed quite a bit. So. Snowblower.

It actually worked pretty well for about 2/3 of the driveway, at which point I ran out of cord. There wasn't much breeze, so the fact that the angle set thingie on the exit chute doesn't work for beans didn't matter--snow occasionally blew back in my face, but I just kept telling myself that it was only water. Probably cut my shoveling time in half, if not more. Overall, it wouldn't have been too bad if not for the snowplow hell at the end of the drive, a nice, packed dam that was about 6 feet wide and almost two feet high in places. I think it took me as long to shovel that as it did for me to do the rest of the driveway and both sidewalks. I mentally wrote letters to City Hall. Called the plow driver many, many anatomically improbable names. I mean, what is the point? If the purpose of plowing the streets is to make things easier on the residents, well, no. If the purpose is to clear the path for emergency vehicles, I doubt that any vehicle except for a snowplow truck could have punched through that stuff without getting stuck. A pick-up? Maybe, but I wasn't going to experiment.

I didn't even bother with the mess in front of the mailbox, just finished the driveway and went inside. I was snowcovered, damp, and starving.

pbray's post about the difference between her and her sister's approaches to cooking made me laugh. I fall somewhere in between. When I'm really, really hungry, I want Italian food, so. Opened a jar of fancy marinara sauce with five cheeses. Dumped contents into saucepan. Rinsed out jar with a couple fingers of red wine, and added that to the sauce. Opened a can of sliced mushrooms, drained them, and added them to the sauce. Set that on the stove to warm as I boiled water for spaghetti, the whole wheat kind. While pasta cooked, made a fast salad of greens and sliced tomato--dressing of choice, creamy Italian. Finally, dug a stale ciabatta roll out of the depths of the fridge. Sawed it in half. Stored one half for later, sawed the other half in half and wedged slices into toaster. When they were done, schmeared them with the garlic-sun-dried tomato mashup that comes in a jar. OMG--that and the salad would've been enough, it was so good.

Drained pasta. Spooned over sauce. Sprinkled shredded Parmesan cheese on top. Ate and ate and ate.

I am *stuffed*. But boy, it was good.

While I was prepping late lunch, the snowplow driver came through again. Kinda took care of the five feet of mess in front of the mailboxes, cutting it down to two feet or so. Left a nifty speedbump at the end of my driveway that should harden nicely when the temps drop. Hell with it. 40s Monday, and it's supposed to rain.

Snow day

Went out at about 11:30a to shovel. About a half hour in, I dug out the electric snowblower. No one has to tell me--I should never have gone with an electric snowblower in the 'burbs. Tiny city driveway, fine. 85' driveway that widens at the top to the width of a 2.5 car garage? No.

But this wasn't nice snow. It was great snowball/snowman snow--wet powder that packed. It stuck to the shovel, and weighed quite a bit. So. Snowblower.

It actually worked pretty well for about 2/3 of the driveway, at which point I ran out of cord. There wasn't much breeze, so the fact that the angle set thingie on the exit chute doesn't work for beans didn't matter--snow occasionally blew back in my face, but I just kept telling myself that it was only water. Probably cut my shoveling time in half, if not more. Overall, it wouldn't have been too bad if not for the snowplow hell at the end of the drive, a nice, packed dam that was about 6 feet wide and almost two feet high in places. I think it took me as long to shovel that as it did for me to do the rest of the driveway and both sidewalks. I mentally wrote letters to City Hall. Called the plow driver many, many anatomically improbable names. I mean, what is the point? If the purpose of plowing the streets is to make things easier on the residents, well, no. If the purpose is to clear the path for emergency vehicles, I doubt that any vehicle except for a snowplow truck could have punched through that stuff without getting stuck. A pick-up? Maybe, but I wasn't going to experiment.

I didn't even bother with the mess in front of the mailbox, just finished the driveway and went inside. I was snowcovered, damp, and starving.

pbray's post about the difference between her and her sister's approaches to cooking made me laugh. I fall somewhere in between. When I'm really, really hungry, I want Italian food, so. Opened a jar of fancy marinara sauce with five cheeses. Dumped contents into saucepan. Rinsed out jar with a couple fingers of red wine, and added that to the sauce. Opened a can of sliced mushrooms, drained them, and added them to the sauce. Set that on the stove to warm as I boiled water for spaghetti, the whole wheat kind. While pasta cooked, made a fast salad of greens and sliced tomato--dressing of choice, creamy Italian. Finally, dug a stale ciabatta roll out of the depths of the fridge. Sawed it in half. Stored one half for later, sawed the other half in half and wedged slices into toaster. When they were done, schmeared them with the garlic-sun-dried tomato mashup that comes in a jar. OMG--that and the salad would've been enough, it was so good.

Drained pasta. Spooned over sauce. Sprinkled shredded Parmesan cheese on top. Ate and ate and ate.

I am *stuffed*. But boy, it was good.

While I was prepping late lunch, the snowplow driver came through again. Kinda took care of the five feet of mess in front of the mailboxes, cutting it down to two feet or so. Left a nifty speedbump at the end of my driveway that should harden nicely when the temps drop. Hell with it. 40s Monday, and it's supposed to rain.