Snow Day!

The view from my back door at dawn

In a very rare moment, our schools decided last night to call a snow day today. We don't usually know the night before. In fact, we usually find out after we're up showered, dressed, and halfway out the door. I was able to stay up late to watch Top Chef guilt-free.

We probably have close to two feet of snow on the ground. We had about a foot from last week, and we've been getting inches of snow every day. We're in the middle of a lake-effect snow warning with the possibility of up to 6 more inches. I don't think we're going to hit that since it hasn't snowed since I woke up at 6 am. Someone forgot to tell Sera she could sleep in. The main weather issue right now is the cold. We're expecting a high today of 4 with a windchill of -15 to -20. Tonight, we're expected to go down to -10 with a windchill of as low as -30. One report stated that if the clouds clear tonight, we could beat the record -22 temperature. That's temperature, not wind chill. If it gets that cold, I don't think we'll have school tomorrow either. You can't have kids waiting in that kind of cold for a bus. That's water pipe bursting cold.

We're not planning to go anywhere today. We're going to stay home where it's nice and warm. I am thinking about a cookie baking session after naptime. Sera's been wanting to make cookies again, and this would be the perfect day.

I wanted to get a picture of Shadow in the snow to give you some idea of the amount, but he didn't want to stay outside long enough. Can't imagine why not. Anyway, this is Sera's water/sand table on our backporch. We probably should have put it in the garage for the winter, but that would have meant we needed to clean out the garage. And then I wouldn't have had this lovely photo to show to you. I think Jim got a shot of Shadow later this morning. I'm sure he'll post it if he did.

SEND HOT CHOCOLATE!

Starry Starry Night

This is what I saw outside my front door when I headed up to bed last night.

No, those aren't stars.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We're all bundled up at home again. We got about a foot of snow yesterday, so school is closed once again. Of course, that means we were actually out and about all day during the actual storm. On our way home from work, we stopped at the grocery story. The place was packed. It reminded me of going to the grocery store in Florida. Whenever there was a hurricane in the vicinity, the store would be packed, and everyone would buy batteries, candles, and water. Yesterday, I saw a lot of deli meat and bread being sold. It looked like they were planning on sandwich night.

Today, the sky is blue, and we're digging out. Not a bad way to spend Valentine's Day.

I hope you get lots of flowers, chocolates, and kisses today! To get your very own personalized heart, visit here.

And Another Wow

This wow is minor though. I'm counting down the minutes until 4:00 pm Monday when my agency is going to email us the photos and translated information. I have a gazillion and one things to do, but can't get motivated to do anything but Google Chongqing and read old posts in the Liangping Yahoo Group. I look lovely while doing this in case you're wondering. I'm wearing green sweatpants with a green nightshirt over them. Because I was still cold, I threw on the nearest sweater, a lovely blue sweater with Tinkerbelle embroidered on the left side. My hair is all pulled up in a scrunchy, except for the part that falls out. I'm sure you're getting the idea.

You see, it's cold here. How cold is it? It's so cold that when we turned on the morning news, we learned that the local churches were cancelling services. Okay, that's cold. I had no reason to leave home today, so haven't given it much thought.

About 10 minutes ago, we got a phone call from a teacher at Jim's school telling us school was cancelled? What? Last week they didn't even call a delay when we had white out conditions. I didn't believe it until I went and checked for myself. All local schools are closed tomorrow due to cold. I told you it was cold outside.



The windchill today was forecast to go to -30 degrees. I think I'll stay inside tomorrow, too.

Is it 4:00 pm Monday yet?