More snow

Twice in one week, it snows in Texas. In March. Crazy.

A little bit of snow

It's not much, but it's more than we've had all year! The snow has been falling steadily since about 7:30 p.m. I think that the temperature outside is fluctuating because our deck will accumulate a thin layer of snow like in the photo here, and then 10 minutes later it will have mostly melted. Then the snow comes down a little harder and it stays cold enough to accumulate again.

Two days ago, it was 80 degrees. Ah, the "joys" of living in Texas.

Long catch-up post

December has been an eventful month but I haven't been posting much. I extend my apologies to my two readers (who perhaps didn't even notice that I've been MIA, or perhaps were waiting with baited breath for my next genius missive).

In early December Doc and I went to Boston so I could go to the Web Design World conference (which turned out to be about 70% fantastic, which is a great ratio for a conference) and spend a couple of days with my brother Bob. We had a great time, in part because it was so cold and snowy. The city was decked out in twinkly colored Christmas lights that looked so pretty with the snowy scenery.

The first day that we spent with Bob, we'd planned to go to the science museum and aquarium but they both closed early because it was snowing. I thought that northerners could still function in the snow, but apparently not! We spent a long afternoon riding the subway around to our various destinations only to find out that they'd already closed down. Then when we got back to the car at the train stop a mile from Bob's apartment in Somerville, it took us about 90 minutes to get home due to incredible non-moving traffic. We ate pizza for dinner and Bob and Doc played Rock Band for a while.

Luckily Boston has a great snowplow system, so by the next morning the streets were clear enough that we were able to get ourselves down to the aquarium.

I wish we'd had more time to spend with Bob, but we had to leave the next morning. It was a lot of fun, though.

Over Christmas, we visited Doc's mom and grandmother and great-aunt and brother and sisters and their families in Derby (near Wichita), Kansas. That was a heck of a lot more people than I'm used to being around, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. Doc's grandma Rose and great-aunt Pat are in their late 80s but sharp as tacks and very up-to-date on what's going on in the world. It was great seeing them again, and we plan to come visit more often now that they're closer to us than they were in Idaho for all those years. All our nieces and nephews (most of whom are in their teens, and there's about ten or so of them) got into a snowball fight on Christmas day with some of the moms and dads in the backyard. Doc got some great photography of people in mid-throw or mid-being-hit. He avoided getting into the fight until the very end by claiming "hey, don't hit the guy with the camera, please"... but then threw a snowball at his sister on the way in. Sigh... brothers!

It snowed throughout the midwest the night before we drove to Kansas so by the time we reached the Kansas border everything was pretty well blanketed with snow. The residential streets in Derby hadn't been cleared and so the driving was a bit iffy. On the way home on the 26th it had started snowing again but we didn't have any trouble driving this time. We stopped at a restaurant in Arcadia, Oklahoma, called Pops 66. It has really interesting future-modern architecture and 500+ different types of bottled soda. Neato.

For Christmas Doc and I went a little lighter than normal with the gifts, by choice. He gave me some really nice things though, including some balsamic vinegar, bamboo cooking spoons, and this gorgeous Le Creuset cast-iron skillet. I adore it. I can barely lift it, it's so heavy!! And the enamel is droolworthy bright beautiful red.

I've had the whole week of Christmas off, and I don't go back to work until January 3. This week I'm taking it easy, trying to get a little exercise in, watching movies, hanging out with Doc. Saturday we went to Six Flags with Brittney and Chris. I could only go on two rollercoasters this year; I just didn't feel up to going on some of the bigger rides. It was really crowded at the park, much moreso than in previous years. Wait times in line for the rides seemed about as long as they are in the summer. We had a nasty dinner experience too: we waited in line at a little kiosk with the "Papa John's Pizza" label on it, but I can tell you definitively that the pizza was NOT Papa John's quality. It was some of the nastiest pizza I have had in recent memory. For $7 per slice I would at least expect the cheese to be completely melted, but it wasn't. I could only eat half of it. I complained at the guest services desk that they were misleading people by putting a brand name label on disgusting sub-par crappy foodservice pizza.

But, that icky food experience got made up for a little while later. We ran across a kiosk run by some grandmotherly type ladies with crockpots who sold baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, roasted corn, cocoa, hot cider, and OMIGOD cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven with frosting ladled on out of a crockpot. I loves me a grandma with a crockpot of warm icing!!

Tonight is New Year's Eve and I am perfectly content that we are staying in tonight and maybe watching some movies and ordering pizza. I'm not sure that any of our friends are having parties this year, and we're not either. We've hosted NYE parties in the past, but after hosting Halloween and Thanksgiving and then being out of town so much in December, we just didn't feel up to it this year.

Happy 2008 to everyone! It's going to be an exciting year!

More Boston... Snowstorm and Aquarium

Bob digs out his car from underneath 8 inches of fresh powdery snow.


The parking lot behind Bob's building.


The blue sky against the snow was gorgeous.


A view looking out over the snowy rooftops of Somerville.


We finally made it to the New England Aquarium; we tried to go the day before but it closed early due to snowstorm.

Scenes from Boston

Doc and I went to Boston for a conference (Web Design World, which was really a fantastic conference) and to visit Bob for a few days. Boston is a beautiful city, especially in winter. It's been really cold and wet and snowy here, and I love it.

The churches in Boston are so beautiful that they almost make me want to actually GO to church!


We took a self portrait on the street.


This is the Christian Science Church.


The Boston Public Library is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. This is part of the main entrance hall and stairs.


The library had an exhibit of intricately detailed dioramas.








I love Johnny Cupcakes!! Especially the cupcake-and-crossbones logo.


Me and Doc next to a subway station.


I love wearing my scarf and coat.


Not the Old North Church, but the Old South Church.


A big pile of icy snow.


Today we ate breakfast at a place down the street from Bob, then hopped on the subway to go to the Aquarium and the Science Museum. By the time we started off to the train station, the snow was coming down pretty heavily.



Bob and I at the Aquarium. It had closed 2 hours before we got there, due to heavy snow.


This is the snowstorm that seemed to be shutting down the whole city.

november snowstorm

The unseasonable warmth of the past week collapsed under the weight of a wintry storm. Snow fell for hours. Tiny ice pellets coated my car.

The chill of the north wind cut through my light jacket, through all the layers of my skin, muscle, fat, and all the way to the bone.

Bodies unprepared for the sudden arrival of the twenties scurried from building to building, seeking escape from uncontrollable shivering.

christmas in seattle

we spent a week in seattle over christmas, visiting mike and vanessa, and arushi and shyamal. the family didn't do too many presents this year, which was great (from both a we-don't-want-material-things-to-clutter-up-our-lives standpoint, as well as a travelling-on-a-plane-with-gifts-sucks standpoint). before we left, though, doc and i exchanged gifts. he gave me some more beautiful glass tree ornaments, a panini maker (which we've used almost every single day), the book "wicked," some kitchen implements, balsamic vinegar, some invader zim toys featuring gir (including tacos, pig, and squeezy moose). i gave him some fancy mustards and chocolates, a leather jacket to replace his worn out one, and some MOMA italian leather shoes to replace his worn out pair.

christmas day was really fantastic. mom and vanessa and i spent most of the day cooking in her beautiful kitchen, complete with granite countertops, deep stainless sink, and 6-burner double-oven viking range. we made turkey breast, ham, 2 kinds of mashed potatoes (smoked gouda and chive, and horseradish), green beans with tomatoes, lemon, and balsamic vinegar, green salad, spicy cornbread dressing, tomato and kalamata olive tarts, wild mushroom tarts, cinnamon ice cream, apple cheesecake torte... and probably some other stuff that i'm forgetting.

we didn't have much of an agenda while we were there, so we had a lot of time to sleep and relax, which is really a lot of the point of vacation. we saw a movie ("narnia"), hung out with arushi and shyamal and had dinner at their place one night, saw john and sue as well as reed, lisa, and their little boy (whom i have never met; in fact i have not seen reed since he got married in... 1997 maybe?) (and let me just say that the richardsons seem to have gotten all the energy in the family... they were only over for like an hour and i was exhausted by the end of it!).

we also went skiing one day, where i concluded that i am just not cut out for winter sports. the forward-leaning position that you have to have while on skis made my calf muscles tighten and burn so badly that i only lasted about an hour and 15 minutes of my 2 hour group skiing lesson (taught by a 14 year old... sigh) before i had to sneak away and sit down. i couldn't stand it any more. it wasn't as bad while i was moving, but much of the lesson consisted of standing there listening or practicing leaning this way or that, which made the pain unbearable. doc had much the same problem with leg cramps during his snowboarding lesson, but we seemed to be the only ones at the entire place having these problems. of course, we appeared to be older than most people there and possibly not in shape... or at least not in the right kind of shape for this type of sport.

so skiing is not my thing, and as we learned in 2004, neither is snowboarding. snow tubing is much more my style -- especially the face-forward kind.

i had a lot better time sitting in the lodge with doc and my mom, drinking hot irish cocoa. (when i say "lodge" you probably get a mental image of a wood paneled room with a roaring fire and comfy chairs... ha! try instead a college bar atmosphere with wet beer stained carpets and prepackaged nachos and other "snacks" at a cafeteria style counter).

poor shyamal hurt his arm pretty badly on his last run down the mountain (he and arushi went a couple of weeks ago and had fun, so they came with us this time too and apparently are much better at it than us). he somehow yanked his arm backwards in its socket while holding on to a stuck ski pole. he didn't think it was broken or torn, just badly pulled. i need to call and see if he's ok now, actually.

just a few days before we came home, an alaska airlines plane leaving seattle (much like the one we flew) tore a hole in its fuselage shortly after takeoff, apparently because a baggage handler ran a cart into the side of the plane and didn't report it. i am glad that i did not hear about that until after i got home. i'm a nervous flyer anyway and that would not have helped.