what a difference a day makes

welcome back snow

... And it's going to just keep coming down.

choral arts – sunday may 23rd

Waaaay back in December, we had tickets to see my friend Liz Romig Marcellino perform Christmas music in the Choral Arts Society.  But as Mother Nature would have it, we had Snopocolypse instead and the show got snowed out. 

We were able to replace our tickets and our choices were:

1. the next performance of the Christmas show which would have been great except that it was on Christmas Eve and we were already going to be in Hampton.
2. a performance in January honoring Martin Luther King which I passed on because I was afraid of more snow and while it didn’t get snowed out, there was a lot of snow around then too.
3. “Enchanted Evening with Richard Rogers” in May which I figured was safe from the effects of weather so that’s what I chose.

We’d also had reservations at Vidalia – a nice restaurant in DC – on that fateful evening.  Will had several calls from the manager first inquiring as to whether we were going to make our reservation and then later in the day, telling us that Vidalia was not going to be opening for the evening and offering us reservations at their sister restaurant Bistro Bis which we didn’t take.

Fast forward to several weeks ago… Choral Arts Redux.

We had reservations for 5:30 which is a normal dinner hour for us but is early for restaurant standards so when we arrived, there was only one other couple in the restaurant.

Will got a drink in the bar while we waited.  Actually, I had to retire to the ladies to remedy a situation involving blue ink on the backs of my legs – we did figure out that it was likely from that Sunday’s Parade Magazine that I’d had my legs propped up on most of the afternoon without thinking about it.

First course:  Lobster ravioli with foam for me and a Bacon Voluté … we think, basically bacon soup. 

Second course: Lamb Sous Vide for me and Shrimp and Grits

   

Final course: Dessert!  Georgia Pecan pie for me and Lemon Chess pie for Will.

Everything was super tasty.  We both decided that we’re not fans of foam but these were certainly the most “Top Chef-y” meals we’ve probably ever had – well, except for Restaurant Eve and their tasting menu.  They have an interesting way of figuring out the bill – they have a prix fixe menu in which you either pay the prix fixe price or the actual menu price depending on which is lower.  It’s odd but you end up spending a little bit less either way.  Being a Sunday, it was quiet and the waitress was probably even more attentive than she normally would have been but you could tell that it was it was their normal MO.

Afterward we caught a cab outside (after the waitress and the GM commented on my dress – a little odd but still flattering) and went off to the Kennedy Center for “Enchanted Evening with Richard Rogers.”

Ok… you can kind of ignore this picture because when it’s small, it looks a lot clearer than it is.  Liz is in the top row under the break in the chorus next to the bright spot in that row – which is, in fact, a lovely, slightly older lady with gorgeous, long, nearly white hair.

If I could find the play bill (I swear I lose things when I clean because I just put them places), I would tell you all about the show in greater detail than I’m about to.  Oh well…

The first act was a series of pieces that I was unfamiliar with that were very beautiful though apparently very boring to the two people sitting to either side of us who both appeared to be asleep.  In the second act, the chorus delved into the works of Rogers and Hammerstein.  The conductor made a special request that even though the works would be very familiar, to please refrain from singing, humming or otherwise making noise along with the music.  It was a lot of fun and they did a fantastic job.  They even came back out and let the audience get in on the fun with an encore of “Oklahoma!” 

It was a very fun evening.

what i did over my snow-cation

We had a great plan in place to balance doing productive things and fun stuff. We actually made two lists - productive activities so that we wouldn't forget the various things that we hoped to accomplish and the fun stuff just so that we knew what all the possibilities were so that we didn't just sit around on the couch like when it snowed in December.

That lasted about 2 days, 3 days max. After that, it was straight up laziness.

But what did we do:

I organized photos. I got through 1992 and most of 1993 is done.
Will organized the recipes to a point. He got them all sorted into basic broad categories. Now I just have to decide if that's good enough or if I want to go further. They should probably at least make it back into their binders before the chair they currently occupy eats them.
	I cooked. A LOT. I tried a few new recipes and at least one old stand by. We finally both played Beatles Rock Band. The singing is really easy because I know all the songs for the most part. Will's pretty good at most of the parts but I'm really bad at bass, pretty bad at drums and I didn't even try guitar.
We got almost all the way through 2 levels of Super Mario Galaxy that I got for my birthday. It's basically single player but a second player can help you out which makes it the perfect game for me. I suck at video games. We shoveled a ton - except for Saturday and Wednesday. We probably shoveled about 2 hours a day at the very least.
	We wrote blog posts. I wrote thank you notes and cards. Will re-alphabetized all our DVDs and resorted most of his CDs. We spent a lot of time on Facebook. I don't know what we would have done without it or if the power or internet had gone out. Some days that was how we found out that we didn't have to work the next day.
On Tuesday, we trekked out to the grocery store to restock before it began again. I conducted a Heritage vs "regular" Dr. Pepper taste test for Will. He has no problems telling the difference between the two.

After awhile we just watched a lot of movies - we took turns who got to pick (the movies are listed in the order in which I remembered them and the color code should be obvious):

• 13 Going on 30
  
• The Iron Giant
  
• The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (director's cut - all 3+ hours of it)
  
• Wallace and Gromit in "A Matter of Loaf and Death"
  
• My Best Friend's Wedding
  
• Men in Black
  
• Up
  
• 10 Things I Hate About You
  
• Hot Fuzz
  
• Bottle Rocket
• Netflix: Bones Season 3 Disc 3 and Dr. No

It was during all the movies that I was able to finish my cross stitch project.

snow specific peeves

I love winter. I love snow. But the combination of people and snow annoys me. People just do reeeeally dumb, inconsiderate and even dangerous things in the snow. Like driving in a blizzard. But here's a few things that specifically drive me nuts....

• People who don't completely clear the snow off their cars. That's just dangerous, people. If it's just the roof snow, there's a good chance that it will just fly off car onto the windshield of other cars. But I've even witnessed people who didn't clear the snow off the hoods of their cars. That's dangerous for the driver - that snow can fly up in the windshield and there's a good chance that these same people haven't dug out their windshield wipers - so how can they see to drive?!
  
• If they're going to plow the roads and shovel the sidewalks, why can't there be a path from one to the other? I get that the roads are cleared by the city/county/state and the sidewalks are the property owner's responsibility but it's hard to navigate when there's no transition from sidewalk to road and back again. I've seen so many nicely cleared sidewalks that just end in a huge pile of snow. WHY??
  
• People who walk in the road with traffic. Is it not still the rule that when walking - no matter the conditions - you're supposed to walk against traffic so that you can see the cars coming and they can see you (and know that you've seen them)? This is especially true when people are having to walk in the road because there are no sidewalks. I swear someone is going to get killed.
  
• People who decide that traffic rules no longer apply because there's snow. Last I checked it didn't matter if there was snow or not; if an intersection says no U-turns, they mean no U-turns. We definitely saw people pulling that maneuver in the middle of Washington Street in Old Town in the slushy snow on my birthday.
  
• and last but certainly not least, if someone has gone to the trouble to dig out a parking spot and mark it with something - do not steal it! Seriously, digging cars and parking spots out from 3 feet of snow was a pain in the butt so we tried to move our cars as little as possible and left a cooler in our spot when we did move (a lot of people are using chairs but we were afraid of it blowing away in the wind). We were nice and didn't even try to save our spot when we went out of town for 3 days. But when we finally moved my car for the first time in nearly a week, we came home at 11:30pm only to find that someone had nicely put our cooler off to the side and took my spot! It can be hard enough to find a parking spot around us at 11:30 at night regardless of weather conditions but this was probably the most annoying thing I've experienced in a LONG time.

son of snowmageddon

With barely a chance to dig out after nearly 2 feet of snow on Saturday, it began again Tuesday night (the 9th). What had originally begun as a 3-6" forecast continually rose until we were expected to get 10-15".

And come Wednesday morning, we did. With blizzard conditions included. Real blizzard conditions this time. Every news channel and all area authorities were essentially begging people to stay inside.

The drifting was pretty crazy.

Wednesday was the day that I gave in completely to the lazy and we didn't even shower or get out of our pjs. We watched movies, ate, and watched other people shovel.

A few shots from the front door.

maybe this will give some idea of the winds and the white out conditions that we had

snowmageddon: cooking & foraging

I had been in NJ before the initial storm hit and I remembered what the produce department looked like after the 18" we got back in December - empty. So I planned a few meals and went to the store on Wednesday before anyone could get crazy buying milk, eggs, bread and TP. From what I gather - it was probably the best decision I've made in a while.

Soup is fantastic cold weather food in my opinion so I made 2. The first is a recipe that Mom got from someone and is one of the few recipes that I know by heart.

Taco Soup
1 can each black, red, and white beans and corn (15oz cans)
1 can Rotel
1 large can diced tomatoes (28oz can)
1lb ground meat - I usually use beef but you can probably use whatever you like
1 package Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix - not the dip mix
all or as much of a package of taco seasoning mix - I only use about a spoonful. It just depends on how much heat you want
oh - and 1 medium onion chopped - I always leave it out because I'm not fond of onions.

This can all be made in a large pot. Cook onions. Brown meat. Drain off the excess fat and water. Open all the cans and pour in their contents in their entirety - do not drain. Mix in the ranch dressing mix and the taco seasoning. Heat through and serve with tortilla chips and shredded cheese. I've thought that sour cream and avocado would probably go well with it if you like them.

The second one I made came from a Real Simple recipe that Will picked out: Cheddar and Beer Soup. Except for the dicing (my knife skills could definitely stand to be improved), it was really easy and super tasty. The only thing I did was to be sure that I bought good cheddar cheese - Cabot's Seriously Sharp to be exact.

My only thing with the recipe was that it makes no mention of needing to blend or process it but to get it as smooth and creamy as it looks in the picture in the magazine, it had to have been.

By Tuesday, we needed some more supplies after eating 3 meals a day at home. Snow makes you want to eat, by the way. So we grabbed our bags and trekked out to the grocery store.

Will waiting patiently in line; all the other folks waiting too

headed home with our provisions

I really should have taken pictures of the pitifully empty milk and OJ cases. I was short actual lemons and heavy cream but I made do.

it's a snowmageddon miracle!

Backstory: when I was about 10, my cousin Eileen made me a gorgeous counted cross stitch Christmas stocking and a tradition was born. She continued the tradition and made stockings for Erin, Kevin and Greg. I got "stuck" with the task for my other nieces and nephews. I did fairly well for Eric - he was about 1 when I finished his.

Next up was Leia (born in 1998). I'm not actually sure when I started on hers. It was right around when she was born, I know that much.

Well.... 11+ years later - I'm finally finished.

Reasons why it's taken me so long to finish:

• it's on navy blue cloth which makes it hard to see the holes.
• as you might be able to see, it's a very intricate pattern.
• it's a smaller count (number of stitches per inch) than the "standard" 14 count which makes the pattern both more dense and more difficult.
• I got 3 degrees, a job, and married in those 11+ years ;-) which contributed to the fact that I would get tired of it and put it away for months at a time - the most recent break being 13+ months.

Now it's up to Mom to make it into a real Christmas stocking.

It was bound to happen...

We've been getting updates on the recent snowstorms from Snowpocalypse (a group on Facebook that somebody started during the 19 December snowstorm of the same name). The guy running that group gets a lot of his information from the Capital Weather Gang. One item that particularly caught my eye included this graph:

Update: the 9-10 February blizzard helped to break the 1898-99 record of 54.4 inches

I thought it seemed pretty telling. Pretty clear, in fact, that every 7 years the DC Metro area gets slammed with a lot of snow. So, maybe we'll all be better prepared for the great whiteout of '16-'17... It might look something like this:

why we can't go to work

The main reason is Metro.

We both work off the Navy Yard metro station so we're Metro dependent to get to work. When DC gets more than 8" of snow, Metro goes underground as in they don't service above ground stations.

This is what the service map looks like in that situation:

See how so much of the map has been greyed out?

Here's one that shows where we start and end our commute:

See how most of the yellow line is greyed out and doesn't connect to anything that isn't?
Yeah, that means we can't get to work.

And I haven't even mentioned that they haven't been running our buses to get to Metro in the first place. In the brief moments that the Fairfax County Connector buses have been running, they have only been running on limited Saturday or Sunday snow schedule. This means that they are hardly running and they don't come into the neighborhood - we'd have to walk out to the main road to catch the bus.

As for why they keep closing the Federal Government, we think it's somewhat dependent on Metro's status because so many federal workers use Metro to get to work. It becomes a safety concern because if people can't Metro that puts more people out on the roads which isn't a good idea.

We will begin Day 4 tomorrow.

Snowmageddon: Digging out

On Sunday, the sky cleared up and the sun was shining. Perfect day to dig the cars out from the recent snowfall.

The cars before clearing


A cross-section of what we were up against


I started digging out an igloo on top of my car until I found a problem with the igloo's roof.


Marcy took a different approach.


I think it took us the better part of an hour (I forgot to check when we started); the wall of ice and snow was a problem for another day.


This one's not car-related but it's a good shot of all the snow on the path to our door.

Snowmageddon: Into the Storm

It was Saturday and as the snow wouldn't stop until later that evening, we didn't see any point in clearing the cars. Marcy had some things to mail, though, and we were getting tired of the view from our windows so we ventured out to see something new.

a snowy view from one of our windows

Plows, cars, and pedestrians -- which actually belongs in this scene?

Marcy celebrates a direct snowball hit to the photographer

Even in my imagination, I missed this shot

This frozen little guy fell to a branch outside our window

"stealing"

I'm going to "steal" a few things from our favorite new facebook group - Snowpocalypse.

"The Snow Man" by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Washington, DC Snow Storm from Es Video! on Vimeo.

Snowpocalypse 2010 - Time Lapse - Extended Version from Peter Harsha on Vimeo.

Snowmageddon: Time Lapse

The snow started Friday and continued into Saturday. Marcy had made a grocery run on Wednesday so we were prepared to hunker down for awhile. (We just didn't know how long we'd need to remain in place...) Here's the view out our front door at various times. I should mention that we didn't get a picture before the snow started--the sidewalk on our side of the courtyard had no snow at the beginning of this storm.

Friday @5:21pm; Friday @9:04pm

Saturday @7:35am ; Saturday @9:37am

Saturday @3:24pm; Sunday @9:56am

An alternate view, looking to the left from our front door towards the street:

Friday @5:22pm; Saturday @7:36am

Saturday @ 3:25pm; Sunday @9:57am