More Snow

The weather people were right. I woke up Tuesday to this and it didn't stop there and kept snowing all day.

Work closed on Tuesday but the snow had lightened to flurries by Wednesday so it was back to work.

Between the two storms I made a bitter bitter effort to find a snow shovel. I was irritated to be looking for something I didn't want that I knew didn't exists. I have nothing against snow shovels but my apartment has two closets. The coat closet and the clothes closet. So I could store it in with my dress coats or tucked in with my everyday clothes. I was pouty and bitter about either option. Well it was no surprise I didn't find a shovel and I stopped driving around looking once I felt that my duty as a work going adult was satisfied.

So Wednesday I need to dig my car out with no shovel. It wasn't nearly as buried as last time and this time it was only a 2 foot ridge blocking me from backing up. I can do this. I start in the smartest way possible. I start making a snowman.

It wasn't long until a little boy offered to loan me his toy snow shovel. Personally, I thought my snowman was doing a nice job of using up the snow but he is sweet so I accept. The toy shovel is brilliant. The scoop was a foot across and it held enough heavy wet snow I didn't want to lift more. It's small enough I can tuck it away in the truck of my car or under my bed. The label looked like it came from the dollar store so I could have one in the trunk of my car and under my bed. I'm going to have to remember to find one next fall.

 

 Joey's planning on not getting up until the snow goes away. yucky yucky snow gets between his toes.

Snow Days

Snow was forecasted and everyone was getting worked up about it. I had thought in passing about buying groceries before the snow hit but I always stretch it as far as I can at the end of the month. I really don't want to go before the first.

I checked and I had a dozen eggs

and icecream so I would be able to live for 3 days in a pinch if it really snowed enough I couldn't get out and I called it good. After all, it never snows enough that I can't get out.

And then it did. Eleven inches that closed work and clogged my parking lot burying my car. I couldn't get out for two and a half days.

About four hours in the first day I was bored and decided to play my version of the tv show where the chef knocks on random peoples doors and cooks dinner with what they have. I miss that show.

That is all I had in my dry goods cabinet.

Ok, time to get creative. The brown rice and broccoli is a given. The large plastic container is sushi rice and very creamy so a Tex Mex Pilaf with that. Finally, an onion pork stew with the rest. 

All was going as planned until I tried to open the little cans of tomato sauce. The can actually exploded.  Botulism?  Botulism! My whole kitchen is covered in botulism spores and I'm going to die and I'll have to throw everything away even the pans and everything!!! The splatter is on my spice basket there. It's also on the walls and the ceiling.

Ok, ok. Good thing I have the Internet. I just need to wash my kitchen like normal. It doesn't look like any got near the food I was already cooking in a covered pan but if it did 10 minutes of boiling will kill it. whew. I throw away the second can of tomato sauce without trying to open it and move on.

Tex Mex Pilaf made with the canned jalapenos, frozen bell peppers, and Velveeta. Then topped with roasted chipotle. This is so good. Like creamy sophisticated nacho sauce that is ok to eat with a spoon.

The onion pork stew made with diced tomatoes rather than tomato sauce. The onions caramelized just right. This is what a snow day should be.

I didn't take photos of brown rice and broccoli since everyone knows what that looks like. I cooked the brown rice in bouillon. Half I left plain and the other half I made cheesy. 

Finally with nothing left but the Half and Half and the last two pound bag of broccoli I decided to make curry.  Yummm I do love curry and it turns out broccoli curry is just as good as any other kind.

My car is now freed from the snow and I can get out again and the weather people say 10 more inches will be falling tomorrow.  I could go grocery shopping but I now have 14 meals in the freezer with the icecream and I still have the eggs. The eggs are just begging to be made into cornbread, chocolate cupcakes, and waffles. I think I'll just wait until the first.

2007

Look what came in the mail.

It's a gift from work for being performer of the month back in December. I've officially joined 2007.

Now I just have to learn about this thing called wifi. Is it ironic that I will have to drive to the Library to make my eReader work?

Running Behind

I'm knitting Magical right now. It's a brilliant sweater design but it has a flaw so common in kid sweater patterns today. Too many sizes.

Not that many years ago knitters whined and moaned about no patterns for big kids. They pretty much stopped at a 4T or maybe a 6. Never mind that an adult small is only 32 inches around the the  sweaters I knit for the 5 year olds are pretty trim fitting at 26 inches.They reach an adult small in a blink of an eye. Just knit the sleeves shorter.

Well times have changed. We are now flooded with patterns that start a 6 months at 17 inches and give every size up to kids 12 at 30 inches. I hate it. I have 14 pages of paper and I need to read 5 lines off of each page for the size I need.

Most knitters knit a pattern only once. I do like to knit patterns over but after knitting it one time I don't much need the pattern anymore. If the designers would sell 3 separate patterns baby, little kid, and big kid, they would have the same work in designing and formatting. Just place it in 3 files, not one. They would have to upload 3 PDF but I don't think that would be hard. Then the knitter could buy the size they needed. The designer would make the same number of sales.

The only person this would affect is the knitter that wanted to knit the same sweater for a baby and a preteen. And really, in that case they probably deserve to have to buy two patterns. It would give them the chance to think through that decision.

I need to get this sweater in the mail today. I'm working on it now but soon I leave for work and 4 hours of overtime. The only way I'm getting it in the mail today is if I use the 24 hour kiosk and call the early hours of the morning today "because I haven't gone to bed yet". I also want to have some cool labels and nice wrapping. Right now it looks like the cool labels will be a hand written card and the wrapping the shipper envelope. Maybe Monday morning will be soon enough.

Freedom

This ABC meme originally came form an online writing class. I didn't know anything about the class but other blogs I read were doing it. One and all they didn't make it past ABC. I watched them start strong with very interesting posts, then fading out for a week or so, then coming back like it never happened. I was intrigued. I plotted out some post ideas. It didn't look hard and if I started I could be well sure I finished it.

Well, I finished it. Since this was a writing assignment let me list the things I learned.

1. Yes. I finished but it's a rather hollow victory. Everyone that stopped got to go out an play. The only thing that kept me going is I knew I would suffer never ending disappointment going back and reading the posts if I didn't finish. This is my diary and how I remember things. I didn't want 2012 to be a never ending disappointment. It is a little bit cool now that it's done.

2. No. It wasn't hard. It just wasn't fun. Pay attention and if I see everyone else bail after a few posts, just like a pattern on Ravelry that has been knitted only 5 times and nobody posted a photo it's because the pattern sucks. Don't buy into it.

3. Plotting a post out in advance makes it feel like it's already written.Then I feel no need to write it. I'm going to keep on composing on the fly, bad spelling and grammar mistakes and all.

4. Gratuitous yarn photo just because I can.