Snowmageddon- Part 4 (The Dinner Party)

I'm sure you have all heard enough about all this by now, but I'm still snowed in, so it's gonna continue!

Hope and Billy ventured out to help Hope's single co-worker dig out and then came to see us! Yay for other humans! Just kidding. We actually had our neighbors over the first time last night for chocolate cake. We talked the weather, remodeling, jobs, and our neighborhood for hours.

If you're wondering if our half bath project is finished yet, the answer is a big FAT no. Joe has had to spend hours and hours shoveling, bless his heart, and hasn't gotten to the plumbing. Pictures of the shoveling tomorrow.

I wanted to have one fancy meal while we were all snowed in, and with Hope and Billy here, the time was perfect!

Introducing: Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic by the Barefoot Contessa. Click here for the recipe.

OH. MY. HEAVENLY. STARS. That is all I have to say about this recipe.

Well, not really. I'm going to keep talking about it. It was really fun to have Hope in the kitchen with me because she is just getting her (cooking) feet wet, so to speak. (Yes, I know I am too) Hope was my Sous Chef and also prepared a side dish of potatoes for the meal.

The recipe has a few steps, but trust me, if I made it and it was THAT dang good, as it was, you can easily make it too. Honestly, regardless that I made it, (it wouldn't have mattered who made it), tonight's dinner was in the TOP 10 of the best meals of MY LIFE. (I know I tend to be a little dramatic sometimes, but this is serious!)




It was one of those times that once the food hit the table, there was silence for about 10 minutes while everyone GOBBLED up the goodness, not even able to take time and savor it.

And then after dinner, great news- Joe's work is shut down tomorrow. Yippee!!!

Joe and Billy ran up to Home Depot (only a mile away) this afternoon for plumbing supplies and had the store to themselves. There were literally 3 workers hovering around them giving advice. Obviously that never happens on a normal weekend. The roads were still covered even though the plows had come through several times.



Happy Super Bowl Watching!!!

Snowmageddon- Part 3

Our foray into the snow mid-afternoon yesterday-

In front of the townhouse, standing in the road/parking lot


At this point the plow had made 2 runs -



Hard.

Work.
Of course the plow came by again right after this and pushed it all back....

The final total for our town was 32.4 inches. If Hank ran out our back gate right now...well, he couldn't. It is much taller than him. Joe walked (barely) back there- it came up to his waist.

More later.

Snowmageddon- The Outrage

Look who stole our name for the storm!

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0210/703617.html

Snowmageddon- The Prequel

I never thought I'd see:

-Costco run out of parking spaces. They have the biggest parking lot.
-All of the grocery carts in use simultaneously, while newcomers wait to poach a free one out in the parking lot as someone leaves.
-A grown woman scream for someone to bring her a cart inside the store.
-Grown men come to blows over a snow shovel at Home Depot (I didn't actually witness this, it was on the news)
-Grown men come to blows over a bag of salt at Home Depot (Really? You think salt is going to help with 2 feet of snow?)

All of the above happen two days before one flake fell...

The official tally in Reston is now 28 inches. Still falling...

Snowmageddon- Part 2

We have just been informed that the postal system has "waved the white flag" and will not make it through today. Our last storm they did make it through. As Sara just pointed out to me (via telephone), this must be a major blow to their pride.

It always amazes me that when everything is covered with snow it's like you have 24 hours of daylight. It's stays so bright with all the whiteness!

This is what we woke up to-


As I said yesterday, the snow even looks different this time because it really sticks to everything.
In this picture below, you can really see how the branches are now bent at 90 degree angles. The evergreens we showed yesterday are also at 90 degrees, like they are bowing towards us. Wow.

We have about 26 inches right now and are supposed to get about 5 more. And when I said yesterday it was supposed to snow for 18 hours, I was mistaken in my math. I meant to say 36 hours. Whew.

No thunder-snow as of yet....

Oh, and Lorie, it is amazingly quiet!

Hank Returns to the Scene of the Crime (Snowmageddon Part 1)

And so it begins.


I took this, the before picture, at noon right after the snow started. You can see there are already a few inches on the ground from Tuesday's snow.

I will go into the craziness that Metro DC has been in the last few days in a subsequent post. (We will be here all weekend, as they are begging, begging people to stay of the road on all news stations). So hopefully that means lots of blogging!

Anyhow, now to the point of this post. Joe got home early for work, as things are going to be so bad, his job let everyone off 4 hours early. (!) That NEVER happens. We decided to take a winter wonderland walk while we could.

The view out our sliding glass door-

These were taken 3 hours into the snowfall...it is supposed to snow for 18 hours...


This snow is different from our December blizzard in that it is very wet, which means heavy. The worry is that there will be lots of down trees, which leads to downed power lines, and you can see where this is going...If that happens, we have friends a mile down the road with a big house, fireplace, and open invitation.

But back to the walk, we took Hank back to the crime scene, um, I mean Christmas Miracle. Because of the nature of said miracle we did not take any pictures last time. This is the pond-




You can see a few cracks in the ice here and there. Hopefully not from other puppies.

And definitely NOT Hank. He was safe on his leash.

I tell you what, though, that dog was sniffing all around that place like crazy. Maybe his brain somehow remembers that danger is near!

Ok, this is an aside, but they just predicted a possible Thunder-snow. WHAT! I didn't know that was a meteorological option!

For now we are having a great time playing games and watching movies. We'll check back in later...

The Plan

In the last month our plan has been to finish remodeling projects inside the house during the winter, so that when it warms up in the Spring we can head outside to play! It has snowed so much this season that the kids are no longer really playing in it. It has become commonplace. I asked Joe earlier this evening how many days this winter have we NOT had snow on the ground. Not many. It snowed Saturday. It's snowing right now. It is going to snow this weekend. I'm not complaining. It's gorgeous. BUT, we are getting a little stir crazy. Especially me. In previous winters I at least went to work everyday and stood outside for 30 minutes during recess. Not so much this year.

Anyhow, back to the remodeling. This weekend we painted the upstairs hallway.


It had been pretty ugly- when painting the whole house this summer I gave up before I got to the hallway. Probably wasn't bothering anyone else, but I feel much better now. I forgot how miserable it is to paint door frames and trim. There are just so many parts. And there are like 17 doors in the hallway. Ok, maybe just 5, but a lot.

We have been working on the downstairs half bath for a few weeks now. It's one of those things that you think will take no time at all and ends up taking the longest. So far we have taken down wallpaper (really wish I took a before pic of that. Just imagine a pastel stripe pattern circa 1989), repaired the atrocious walls, removed the countertop, sink, and faucet, painted, and changed out light switches and plates (as we do in every room we redo).



I cannot tell you how many times we have discussed what to do with the vanity itself. The vanity doors were laminate, and so we assumed that the entire vanity was. SO after realizing we could not get the vanity out (Joe swears it must be an integral part of the structure of the house!), we decided to re-face the cabinets. Ordered custom doors (that only take 25 working days to arrive) and got veneer to add to the front of the vanity. But oh wait, the vanity itself isn't actually laminate. It is wood. All those weeks wasted deciding what to do with the vanity. Awesome. So tonight Joe sanded it down and I stained it walnut. Beautiful.

While we wait for the doors to come in, we will install a granite countertop with new sink, new faucet, lighting fixtures, towel ring, mirror, etc. So stay tuned!

And a picture of Grayson so Mom doesn't complain: