Deja Vu

Well?...
I'm not sure what's going on with the weather. We have a snow day, and it's been snowing ALL day but not a drop of it is sticking. Feels a little guilty to be at home. I'd rather be at work doing things.
Crazy right?
To update you all on my first floor ceiling - the plumber came on Monday and figured out that the trap from the drain had fallen out. Great. So he's supposed to come back tomorrow and put a strap on it, and then someone is supposed to come and fix the ceiling. Of course, all of this depends on whether we get the storm of the century or not.

The Fates

Apparently the fates don't think I have enough to deal with.

I just discovered the bathroom ceiling on my first floor:
and the stuff that landed in the tub:
Oh yay.

OMG

I think we just had an earthquake in Philadelphia. Not joking. It was a little lurch, my seat moved and then the bookshelves or the door shook gently. Nothing strong enough to worry about. Either than or my house settled a bit strongly. Well, Lois Johnson, one of my profs at UArts always told a story about feeling an earthquake in 1968 (or something like that).
I really hope we don't start having earthquakes on the east coast of the US. Everything is comin' down if we do. Nothing has rebar in it. Okay - I'm going to stop now.

Because we didn't get enough snow

There are huge snowflakes falling outside. Have been for the last five hours. It's not sticking too much though. This is a good thing. We can't too much more of this. I thought I'd show my icicles from the other direction. They are pretty nice. Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's day - I did my taxes. :)

Snow, snow, and more snow

I had to run errands in center city today. What a nightmare. The sidewalks are still full of snow, crossing any street is an obstacle course of ice, slush, puddles, and other pedestrians. I got what I needed and got the heck out of dodge.
Jacques was glad I was home. He's tired of the snow, he can't run around and check all of his stations. He came outside for the photo shoot, but was very glad when we headed back in.
I have the most amazing icicles all around the house. They are really beautiful, but a bit ominous.
And it seems like it's not over yet. There is a prediction of snow on Monday. We could get another 6inches. ! This is not helping the "global warming" argument. But switch that to Global Climate Change - yeah, that works. We have not had this much snow once in my 6.5 years of living here. In fact two of the years, there was no snow. Not a snowflake.
I am using the time to get through a list of things to do that is 15 inches long. Not joking. I just measured it. That doesn't count the notes of other stuff to do on the side. So far I've got six things crossed off. Up next, boring stuff I don't want to do. But if I can get these things crossed off tonight, maybe I can make some art tomorrow!

Snow Day Thursday

Good Morning!A couple of pictures of the view outside my bedroom window. Above, the beautiful snow on all the bare branches.
Icicles hanging from the ledge. They are about three feet long.
And my poor pine tree is so heavy with snow, the top part has split in two.
We have clear blue sky today. A record of all time, 71 inches of snow has fallen on the city of Philadelphia. I've got to do my part today to dig ourselves out. Rumor has it, the city doesn't have any more money in the budget for snow removal. The only things running are the ambulances. The mayor has called for a "transition day", whatever that means. But there are still some bosses making people go to work! It's treacherous out there! One of my poor friends has to go to work, and a lot of the public transportation isn't running. I say she should protest formally, tell her boss is a crazy old git, and call it a day. But then, she might not have her job on Monday morning. (sigh). Thank goodness my boss is reasonable and has said when the Phila. Public schools are closed, so are we.
So, for the agenda today is:
1. dig out sidewalks. While this isn't exactly fun, it's not that bad either. It's definitely great for the abs. And Jacques will get to go out which he is desperate to do.
2. I have a lot of business type stuff to do. Including getting going on my taxes.
3. The saga of the silver sweater:
(ugh)
I've been working on this thing for over a year now. I thought I'd move along while I was in California and make the second sleeve. Well, I did, and I did it wrong. There is one too many rows of twists! How did I do that?
Last night, with Jacques help, I layed everything out, and looked at it. The thinner sleeve is much nicer and so I decided to knit - yes - a third sleeve for this sweater.
It looks better already. Maybe I'll get to wear it next year.
Jacques, is still the king of finding the warm spots. Here he has found the sunbeam du jour. He sat here for a while as I worked on my photos. But really he's going a bit stir-crazy. Poor guy. He wants to be outside so badly, but he does not like the snow. We'll see what he does today when I go out to dig up the side walk.

Lovely lovely Snow day, again and again

Snow day today! Good thing too. We got about 6 inches last night. It let up a bit this morning. Then around noon, just as I had finished my sidewalk, it started up again and hasn't stopped yet.
So guess what? Snow day tomorrow too!!! Lovely lovely....
Here's my car this morning: And here it is just now: Didn't do anything really today. I did weave in the ends of my gloves. They are ready to wear. But I tell ya, never again. Gloves are a major pain in the neck. I think I'm a mitten person. I'm actually thinking I should knit myself a pair of mittens in the same pattern. It sure would go a lot faster and I wouldn't have to worry about the color changes.

No Snow day today

Snow day yesterday!
I got lots done. Ran errands, prepped for class tonight, took care of some business, and finished my gloves!!!I still need to weave ends in, and I'm probably going to re-address the fingertips. I don't like how they've been finished. And this was a good lesson about thinking through what you are doing with which yarn. What a pain in the tuchus to get the gradation to work on the fingers. Look at the state of my yarn. What a mess! Will have to deal with that as well.
I was hoping for another snow day today, but no dice. That's okay, it's looking like we'll have another one tomorrow, maybe Thursday as well. As always, we live in hope.

Snowy Weekend

Lookit how much snow fell! The reports this morning were 27 inches. And it's beautiful beautiful beautiful! Big powdery drifts in my yard. Jacques braved the outdoors for a few hours today. I think he must have stayed under the porch the entire time because there were no kitty footprints in the yard. And actually with the 2 and half feet we got it would have been a sinking kitty, no footprints.
I spent yesterday on the couch (except for the hour I was out shoveling the sidewalk) knitting: I only have two fingers to go! The right glove looks so much better than the left. Probably because I didn't try it on 19 million times, and I did a much better job of making the gradated color even. I'm really happy with them despite the unevenness. I just looked on KYW our news station for school closures. It says schools are closed on Monday. I hope it still says that tomorrow morning. Then I can do all the stuff I should have been doing Saturday.
The storm stopped yesterday around 2pm, and started to clear up. We had an absolutely beautiful sunset:
view out the front window.
View out of my bedroom window.
We are supposed to get another storm on Tuesday, which according to NPR is supposed to dump even more snow than this last one. Positive thinking people! Snow day snow day snowday!

Lovely Weather

Well, we got a little snow last night.
17 inches by 10am with another 3-5 predicted by this afternoon. I'm leaning towards the five the way this stuff is coming down. And there are people out there! Unbelievable. But mostly is just quiet. So quiet. Every once in a while I can hear a snow plow or some knucklehead who wants to drive somewhere go by, but mostly its so quiet.
Jacques wanted out badly this morning. We went to the front door and he bounded out. Without a change in rhythm on the third bound he did an about face and hopped right back in the door. This was followed by some severe complaining as he stalked around the hallway.
As I went to shut the door he came running back. Possibly hoping that it was all a big joke and that this time when I opened it, everything would be gone. I let him out again and you could see him trying to figure out how to be out without sinking into the snow. He knows to step in previous tracks, but when the tracks don't go where you want to go, what then? Do you walk closer to the wall? does the step help? Nothing really helps. I think what he doesn't like is the surprise of sinking. If he could walk on top of the snow that would be fine. He quickly gave up and came back in to whine some more. I'm not complaining, this means I am now his favorite sleeping spot. He sleeps on my legs and is nice and toasty warm. Mary texted a bit ago - let's go play in the snow in the park. Not me. I'm staying in my flannel jammies, cow-girl slippers, day glow fleece with the cat and coffee. I will have enough fun in the snow tomorrow clearing my sidewalk, thank you very much.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the library and checked out some dvds. I tried going to the store but it was total madness. There was no way I was going to wait an hour in line to buy one bunch of scallions. Wontons will have to wait until I can get back to the store. Instead, I came home last night and baked an Apfel Torte. I love this cake. It's just a thin layer of dough and cut up apples, a little sugar and Cinnamon. High fiber, low calories.
I'm working on my gloves today. Here's where I am, so close and yet so far. I've got a lot of other projects I'd also like to do and I have some business type stuff to do as well. But it feels like nothing else is functioning so why should I? I'm desperately hoping that the city of Philadelphia will not get it's act together enough tomorrow (Sunday) to have things clear by Monday morning. Snow day! Snow day! Snow day!