Weather

I'm appreciative of all that local newspapers do. Really. But let's have a look at the above.

1. Note that the total snow they call for is 3-5 inches. All day they forecast 1-3 inches. Total. All night. 
2. The 1-3 forecast sat there all day. Even after the snow started - hard - at about 4pm. 
3. It's 9:30. We already have 6 inches. 
4. Also, see how on the part for Monday it says "New snow..." and you can't read it? Yeah. You can't read it. No, there's no scrolling down. No, you can't enlarge or click on it. It's just a tease. I like an enigma as much as the next girl, but when it comes to the weather I'm less interested in James Bond and more interested in Bill Nye the Science Guy. I want my info, and I want it straight up.  

Also, the current conditions? "Light Snow Mist" says the Tribune.

?????

It's been snowing either hard or steadily for more than 5 hours. I just shoveled a ton of heavy, wet snow off the driveway and sidewalks. But I'm not worried about the morning. Because we're only going to get 1-3 inches. I mean 3-5 inches. All night. Right?

Lunch

Take child to dim sum. Offer him a baked, glazed, coconut-filled bun. Totally dessert for lunch.

He says, "There's not anything Chinese in it, is there?"

No, dude. Here at dim sum there's nothing Chinese. Not to worry.

ETA: 615pm, making Iain a banana as dessert after his carb-loading pre-ski dinner (spaghetti - with nothing Italian in it)

"Mom, why don't people like the bruised part?"

"I don't know. There's nothing wrong with it. But it's squishy and most people don't like squishy things."

PAUSE

"No one likes chaos, right Mom?"

Right, son.

Another holiday gift

A couple of years ago, I needed new pot holders. Charles gave me two new ones for Christmas that year. One was your basic potholder. The other had stripes made of silicon. In theory, it would protect my hands from heat even better than the padded material in a traditional pot holder.

It was a great success. The only problem was that I used the silicon pot holder all the time. To the exclusion of almost anything else, I reached for it.

As a result it wore out pretty quickly. You can see the burned spots and holes above. This year, Charles bought two new pot holders. Both have the stripes.

I've been baking like mad, of course. Gooey Cinnamon Cake yesterday, Blueberry Cornmeal Cake today. Who knows what tomorrow might bring?

Bullying

"Mommmmeee! Can you come snuggle me?"

"If you're quiet for 5 minutes I'll come snuggle you."

"Hey! That's called being a bully!"

At least he's listening at school.

Update!

More than a foot of snow in the driveway (maybe even a foot and a half), about 8 inches on the sidewalks, and a nice 2-foot crust of dirty, compacted snow in the street.

We had to shovel that, to get the cars out of the driveway. One solid hour of dedicated shoveling and we managed the job. Plus our neighbor's walkway, plus digging out another neighbor whose truck was stuck pretty tight.

Add that to last night's walk home (a little more than an hour uphill 2 miles through pretty heavy snow with fogged glasses and with a modest backpack) and what do you get? A big bowl of ice cream!

Some cocoa, too. With lots of marshmallows.

Morning Commute

Anyone who gets up at 6am to shovel their front walk: kiss kiss.

Whew!

Vindicated. Yes, I'm Bitter

In second grade my teacher whacked me on the leg with a ruler.

This happened because she said, "There are nine planets" and I said, "Silly! There are hundreds of planets, we just haven't found them all yet."

She said the smack was for calling her silly. She insisted there are nine planets. Ever. Anywhere. 

Obviously, she meant in the solar system (Poor Pluto). But she didn't say that. 

ANYway, check this out. Important bit:

"There's at least 100 billion planets in the galaxy—just our galaxy," says John Johnson, assistant professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech and coauthor of the study, which was recently accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. "That's mind-boggling."

HA! So there. Meanie.

Lego Christmas Lego Lego Lego

What could this be? It's so big. And...rattly. Could it be? Yay!

Iain loves any gift from his aunt and uncle. This is because they understand his profound addiction to Lego. Lego Star Wars is especially desirable. You can imagine his reaction to this box...

As soon as the rest of us opened our gifts: to the table!

The instructions were epic. In fact, I think it's fair to say that many epic poets would give up before completing this set. But not The Dad! He and Papa sat with Iain until the entire (enormous) (complex) (fantastic) thing was done.

Check it out. It flies! It holds mini-figs! It can be propped so that it stands on its own (you know, for when you land on that planet and have to go shoot some droids or something).

Iain loves it. He keeps asking us when Halloween and Christmas will be back. Oh, and spring. It was 10 degrees this morning. He wants spring, too.

BONUS! Video here. Iain excited about another present from North Carolina. This one's from June of 2010, so...the tradition of awesome gifts goes way back.