Saturday, December 19, 2009

Snow! Blizzard! Apocalypse Nigh!

Ah, the Blizzard of '09. Not kidding - we're under a blizzard warning until 6 pm tonight. DC does not deal with snow very well. The city grinds to a halt; people panic. They (local government and people alike) just do not act sensibly. Luckily, the snow started on a Friday night after rush hour. Saturday snow means that all the panic about school closings and work closings don't apply. We are supposed to get up to 2 feet of snow, which will definitely impact Monday activities.

Here's what we had as of this morning before the bulk of the storm even arrived:


Here's the blowing snow:


Mr. T was away all week, so he was determined to get a bike ride in while he could.


He made it around the block before giving up.

Yesterday morning I went for my usual Friday morning shopping run. We're pretty well set on food, between the freezer and the pantry stock. I made chili Thursday night, so we have a bunch of that in the fridge. I bought a bunch of chicken to use for Jr. Jr.'s recipe project for school (he inexplicably decided that we should make chicken pot pie. We've never eaten chicken pot pie before. He doesn't like the majority of the ingredients in chicken pot pie. Oh, well.) All I needed, really, was lunch meats and yogurt.

I decided to wait until after 9 to go, figuring that those who were freaking out about the snow would try to go before they left for work. Nuh uh. I've never seen the market that busy. The parking lot was full. The register lines extended down the aisles. I was the odd person out with my little basket of yogurt, bread, lunch meat and chips. People had piled the big carts with provisions for weeks. Cracks me up.

After so long with no knitting time, I finally had a bit of time on Thursday to knit, so I whipped myself up a much-needed hat:


The pattern is Star-Crossed Slouchy. I used less than one skein of Malabrigo Worsted. Size 11 needles. It only took a few hours of off and on knitting to finish it up. It's nice and warm, but most importantly for me, it doesn't ruin my curly hair and give me hat head. This is a critical component of any hat design for me. I do NOT have the kind of hair that deals well with hats.

I've been working on Pas de Valse occasionally, too. I have about 8 inches of it done, but since Mr. T has taken the camera with him at the moment, I can't show you a picture.

Chanukah went well (except that Mr. T was gone all week). Sr. Jr. loved his Dalek bank, Call of Duty Wii game, and new book. Jr. Jr. loved his Mario Wii game, 39 clues card packs, and his bottle of apple juice :)


(please ignore the mess)

The boys got me a faux shearling throw which the cat promptly adopted:


Sometimes I wish I were a cat - look how perfectly content and comfortable she looks! This morning I opened the front door to let her go outside and experience snow. She leapt out there, stopped, took a few awkward steps, looked back at me like "WTF?" and ran back inside. Now she's as above, warm and comfy.

Currently reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and really enjoying it. It reminds me of a less arrogant and didactic Quicksilver (Neal Stephenson).

Ah, well. I was hoping to get some knitting in this week on those last few school days before break, but it's looking like I'll lose some of that time to snow days/delays.

Stay tuned for more snow pics in coming days :)

1 comment:

Sharon said...

By the way, I'm reading Wolf Hall too. I like it.