Guess what?

We’re getting pretty fluffy snow.  This is the scene from my kitchen just after we got the phone call that, due to poor road conditions, school is closed today. Yay!  I get to stay home cuz of bootiful floofy snow rather than icky ice.  It’s light out now, and more of the really fluffy stuff is coming down.  Yay!  (This uses up our last Snow Day, so hopefully we won’t get much more bad weather this season!)

Storm Warning, eh?

This morning we were merely under a Storm Watch starting tomorrow morning until Sunday. Now it’s a Storm Warning. What was predicted at 4-8″ has been upped to 6-8″. I ain’t going anywhere this weekend!

Alas, mom works. I hope she remembers to take her PJs and some playing cards with her! She should get to work just fine before the snow begins – getting home from it will be another issue. (She’s actually been trapped in Troy before due to bad weather. She works in a hospital, so she has to go in regardless.) Isn’t it nice of the weather to remind her just why it’s nice she’s retiring this 31st? 🙂

Anyhoo, I shall endeavor to take photos tomorrow. I like snow (it’s the freezing rain in the forecast I can do without!) And I intend to work on my Sooper Seekrit Project while watching the snow fall. 🙂 Will probably wrap presents too. And grade papers. (Well, it has to be done sometime!)

(I just realized, despite my icon, it’s not actually Winter yet. Heh.)

Snow & Shrek & Decorations

To my major surprise, school was closed again today. Although we didn’t get as much snow as Wednesday, the roads were awfully bad and weren’t going to clear up soon enough to have school. Once again, I’m not complaining!

So I called the parental units and wondered if they wanted me to bring some ravioli for lunch and Shrek 3 for watching. They agreed. They provided the sauce and salad, I provided very yummy frozen ravioli from Market Day. It was an excellent lunch (and easy to prepare). Then we watched Shrek 3, the first time for all of us. (I somehow managed to miss it in the theaters, but I know I’d enjoy it since I loved the first two films.) For my second surprise of the day, I discovered that Eric Idle is in it. I used to be a much better fan and knew when, where, how, to what extent, etc for any of Eric’s film & TV roles. And as I suspected, I enjoyed the movie. We all got a good chuckle out of it.

The rest of my day has been finishing up the decorating and getting my pool table down in the basement until after the holidays (it was either it or the piano, and the pool table is a mini one with easily removable legs). BTW, does anyone want a piano? It’s free – all you have to do is come and get it! (It might smell of cat pee – that would be from Leo.)

The place isn’t overly decorated (heck, there’s only one thing I’ve added in the library – well, two if you include the balsam candle I’m burning) but I think it looks nice. I think I need a nice holiday rug for the spot where my pool table was. Even the blasted piano is decorated.

The kitties think it’s great that I put this huge Tree O’ Toys up for them. Once again, I’ve decided to go with home-made ornaments (from my purchase last year from Oriental Trading Co.) and that was a good idea. The bottom of the tree looks like a war zone. But I don’t mind – it’s fun to see ’em play.

Yay! Lucy’s decided to join us. Linus and I are sitting here & cramming for the Critical Thinking final exam. We have until next Thursday to get it done, but I’m going to cram tonight and maybe do it tomorrow morning. And then I can be done with college until mid-January. Yay!

Snow!

Although we’ve had a couple of light snowfalls this season already (by light I mean “gone in sixty seconds), but today we’re getting a decent snow. I’d hazard a guess that we have 3 inches thus far and may get a 4th before the snow stops.

So what’s that mean for the schoolteacher in a state whose population is getting worse & worse at driving in the snow? NO SCHOOL! I know that judiang‘s probably rolling her eyes at our closure, but I ain’t complaining!

The one sad thing was that I had intended to go to the SOITA Technology Conference this afternoon (no sub, just going after I’m done with kids). But now I’m not sure I want to drive in this weather. Looking at the newscasts this morning – sheesh, people just seem to forget how to drive in bad weather. Wreck after wreck on the interstates. No mention of the surface streets (which is what I’d be driving to get to SOITA).

If I wind up going, it won’t be until 11:30am. I’ll see how the roads are later. (And I’d have to dig a passage for my car – the snow plow has blocked my driveway in.)

Until then, I’m goofing off and working on Christmas decorations. And watching the kitties try to kill each other. Playfully. (Well, they tell me it’s all in fun – sounds painful sometimes!)

Winter Storm

Like others in my friend’s list, we were part of the Winter Storm that swept quite an area of the US. Thankfully, since I’m a school teacher, I had yesterday and today off. And I had fun documenting the storm with photos. 🙂

Oh, if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my Valentine’s Day card. Linus and Lucy posed especially for it.

So, yesterday we had lots of snowing going on. I made chicken & rice soup for lunch, but since I put far too much rice in it, I wound up with very nice chicken & rice porridge. Yum! I spent the entire day indoors, except for a couple of minutes when I took some photos from my front porch. In the process of doing that, the kitties got out and Lucy hopped off the porch to investigate this “snow” thing better. I stepped down to coax her back up. And then proceeded to slip and fall onto the porch (into the thin layer of snow which had blown up that far). I now know why they call those things “slippers.” Heh. I’m pretty sure that Lucy was laughing as she hopped back inside the house.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I finished watching season 3 of Open All Hours (and now must order season 4…) I played some City of Heroes. I had leftovers for supper (from Dinner & a Movie). It was a very nice day.

Today I’ve been watching Columbo and trying to get caught up with grading. I’m nearly done with the physics tests, but then I’ve got chemistry tests and physics quizzes to grade. (The lab reports are stacking up too, but they’re on the server at work, so I’ll do them when I’m back in the building.) The folks and I walked up to the Post Office today, so I took some photos along the way. I took a cute photo of them outside their house so dad could send to one of his friend’s in California who’s been complaining about the 60­°F temperatures they’ve been having. Heh. Also took a photo of a neighbor’s house who’s off in Florida for the winter. That way they can remember why they go to Florida every winter. 🙂

Anyhoo, here are some of the photos from Winter Storm 2007:


Here is a shot off the porch during the storm. It’s all misty looking due to all of the snowflakes falling.


This is a similar view after the storm was over.


Lucy went out again some this morning and plopped into the same spot as yesterday. A little more snow in that space than yesterday. Silly kitty.


Getting from my doorway to the street was something. Some of those footprints are DEEP. (Up to my knees in one of ’em!)


My house in all of its glory!


Awwwww, aren’t they cute?


The mound of snow after they plowed out the Post Office parking lot makes for a fun snow mountain for kids!


My street on the walk back.


Dad shoveling the walk… Actually, a neighbor had just plowed through with her snow blower (and it was a chore for her!) and dad’s just following up.


This is a neat icicle that always gets formed in that tree each year. Some years it’s been much bigger. But it’s always pretty.

I know some of you are probably tired of snow and/or photos of snow, but for those of you who aren’t, I hope you enjoyed my pictorial journal. 🙂

A bad time to get insomnia…

… as if there’s ever a good time to get insomnia.

After a late night (for a week night) I finally did fall asleep last night. Only to wake up at 4am. And I can’t sleep. The annoying this is that we’re in the middle of a winter storm (9-12″ of snow predicted for my area) and school is closed – SO I COULD HAVE SLEPT IN!

Gah! Insomnia, you do me wrong!

I’ve already read more from American Gods, watched the early morning news (they ONLY thing they’re talking about is the weather), and responded to some e-mails. I’m a little worried about my mom (who has to go to work in this proto-blizzard – the joys of working for a hospital) so until I find out if she got to work OK, then I probably won’t be able to sleep anyhoo. She’s driven in some of the worst weather Ohio’s had, so if anyone can get her safely to Troy, she can. Dad and I, being teachers, are not good “bad weather” drivers.

Hmmm, and I’m hungry, too. Thankfully, it’s nearly my normal Wake Up time, so I think my stomach will be able to handle food. 🙂

Well, at least I’ll enjoy watching the snow when it gets light out. 🙂

ETA: Mom got to work just fine, according to dad. Apparently it’s not the worst she’s driven in. 🙂 (Here’s hoping she makes it home OK too!)

Short Work Week

Well, turns out Monday wasn’t our only day off of the week. Thanks to more cold weather and later snow (which came Tuesday afternoon and stayed around til late Tuesday night) we wound up with Tuesday and Wednesday off as well. And I really enjoyed the days off.

After playing some City of Heroes on Monday, I actually went to the basement and stained my boards for my future bookshelves. I was quite pleased to finish that job. So yay for day off Monday!

Tuesday, the folks and I went to the grocery in the morning. I picked up some Chinese when we finished (seems silly, I know, to get take away just after you’ve bought lots of lovely food, but I wanted to eat as soon as I got home, not prepare something!) And as we headed home, the snow began. My goal for the day, then, became sitting, watching the snow, and reading. Rather than read in the reading room (where I really can’t see out of the window) I opted to read in my living room, where I have lots of windows to look out. I wound up reading The Wisdom of Big Bird from cover to cover. Yay! Thank you day off #2!

Wednesday morning I decided to walk in the snow to work. I spent 3 hours at work mostly doing webpage work. I am so behind at work I could have spent a week there and still not get caught up, but it was pleasant working without interruption for 3 hours on some stuff that had been needing done. Wednesday afternoon was spent playing. Yay for Wednesday!

Thursday had a 2 hour delay (which I always treat as a 1 hour delay to get some work done before school) and Friday had a guest speaker from ITT and then the county tech meeting, so this was a very nice week for Trina!

Today, I spent most of the time shellacking my boards for the bookshelves. It turns out one quart container of shellac was all I needed. Now I just need to coax dad here to build my bookshelves. 🙂 (He is coming tomorrow, as is mother, for Dinner and a Movie. I’ll be making lasagna roll ups (from Market Day) and showing Zathura.)

If we get no other days off this year, I’ll be just fine. I got what I wanted – real snow (it’s still out there and still very pretty) and some time off work. I think this was just the break I needed to get me to Spring Break. Heh.

Styrofoam snow

Happy February!

Wow, I can’t believe February’s here. The first half of January rocketed by and the second half was nearly as fast. I’m drowning in work at work and spend my time at home doing escapist things. (Thank goodness for cats, video games, DVDs, and books!) And worst of all? We’re getting very little snow!

Today, in fact, when we left work, I noticed a bit of snow in the corner of the window of dad’s truck. Well, I say snow, but it looked more like Styrofoam beads! Yup, that’s what’s going on. They’re run out of snow up there, so they’re sending down Hollywood Styrofoam snow instead. Bleh!

I’m ready for Spring Break already. (Not that I’m ready for spring, I’m ready for the break part of things.) I’m so behind at work and at home (my poor bookshelves are still just a thought, not a reality) that I just need a break from work to get work done. Heh. And the weather isn’t cooperating by giving us Snow Days. Tsk!

Ah well, someday I’ll get caught up (or something) so I just need to keep on keeping on until then. And maybe, just maybe, the Weather Things will find some snow to send down here for a Snow Day or two.

Snow addendum

I took a photo of the snow! I went out to measure how much we’ve gotten so far (at least 3 1/2″ – probably nearer to 4″) and decided to take pictures.

Snow out the back door.
Here’s lovely snow out my back door. You get a good idea of how thick it is from the tops of the lounge chair & trash bin.

Well, Leo decided he wanted to go outside while I had the door open. I let him.

Leo goes out.
Leo steps out. Hesitantly.

And of course he has to give me this “Mom! If you’d just take this white stuff away, I could go outside!” look.

Mom! Take the white stuff away!
Silly kitty!