No Ghosts, past, present or otherwise but Merry Christmas regardless

Nice picture eh? It would have made a great Christmas card, until we decided this year we were not going to send out Christmas cards.  I’d like to say the reason we did not send out cards is because we wanted to save a tree.  However, that would not be true.  We started to design a card, ran into technical difficulties and decided, ENOUGH!  A break was needed. So cards lost out in our game of Holiday Roulette. 

Every year we vow to be organized, enthusiastic, full of good cheer and whatnot, and every year we are on line with Amazon two days before Christmas ordering stuff (and spending LOADS on non-free shipping) because OHMYGODISITALREADYDEC22?!?!!? .  

  Every year it takes three days to decorate our Christmas tree.  For context our tree:

National Christmas Tree with approximately 4 million more lights and a good deal of extra height.  Also they probably had a fair amount of park service employees with a decent ladder doing the decorating.  We had one adult, a 5 year old and a kitchen chair.

Ho ho ho. 

(At the National Christmas Tree)

So if you were hoping for a blog full of some grand epiphany of moral rectitude, good cheer, and something profound to say, well, you are definitely reading the wrong blog.  But for your time and effort here are some simple Christmas how-to tips:

 

HOW TO BUY A CHRISTMAS TREE

• Run up to the first tree you see and say, "THIS ONE!!"
• Have mom and dad check out the price and say, "Um, no"
• Have mom and dad pick out a different one
• Play in the christmas tree netting do hickie
• Amuse the man who runs the Christmas tree lot who kindly opened up for us at 8:45 am on a Sunday morning even tho' he likely had just woken up himself and was hoping to have another cup of coffee (or shot) before he has to deal with a three year old child who has a chain saw fetish
• Buy tree
• Tie small children to top of the car and stuff tree inside
• Drive home

HOW TO FROST COOKIES

• Crank Elvis Christmas CD
• Feel bad that Elvis is "blue" (and also dead)
• Tell mom "WHEN" with the food coloring as she stirs it into the frosting
• Ask for sprinkles and chocolate chips
• Frost everything, including your clothes, face, feet, the wall, floor, table and the dog
• Dump about an inch of sprinkles on whatever has frosting on it, including your clothes, face, feet, the wall, floor, table and the dog
• Have mom dig cookies out of piles of sprinkles (the dog eats his way out of his sprinkles)
• Declare them perfect then eat the newly decorated cookies as you go

HOW TO SHAKE YOUR BOOTY AT A VERY LOUD

NON-ALCOHOLIC CHRISTMAS PARTY
 (live video performance starring Alexander)

• Go to daycare Christmas party
• Load the kids up on sugar but nary a single item that offers any nutritional benefit at all even tho' those were available but no one but the parents ate them in their continuing effort to be a "good role model" 
• Have the three year olds get on a stage
• Have children get in a line
• Watch as they strike the "deer in a headlights" pose once they realize ALL THESE PEOPLE ARE WATCHING US
• Turn on festive Christmas song
• Loud stage whisper instructions
• Swing the hips! Wave the arms! Shake those money makers kids!

And there you go!  Cookies, music, dance and a tree with lots of ornaments and lights Voila! May your day be shiny and bright and if nothing else, frosted with loads of sprinkles.

Embrace the Suck (OR “It’s not the heat, it’s the Stupidity”)

The trail somewhere on Catherine's Fat Ass' course

An Air Force Colonel I knew used this expression once (crediting the Army for it) and I think it’s an apt one for a run like Catherine’s Fat Ass 50K - You can fight the suck, or you can embrace the suck..but either way, it’s gonna suck.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a “Fat Ass” is not just that thing we all sit on all day. In the world of Ultra Running, it’s a trail race that has no entry fee, no give aways, no awards, and usually no aid stations. Thankfully, Catherine’s does have aid stations. This year, it had two full aid stations (this is food and drink) and one water stop which was a naturally occurring spring.

CFA is run out in the beautiful Massanutten Mountains, which is part of the Shenandoah’s. It’s always in July and it’s always HOT. This year it had the dubious distinction of being scheduled for what weather forecasters were predicting to be the HOTTEST day of the year yet! JOY! (or as my friend Tamara said, in her voicemail to me wishing me luck “good job picking the hottest day of the year to do your come back 50k hahahahaha”. It’s good to have friends like this.) The temp supposedly got to 101 that day. But whatever. At some point hot is hot and really, once you start sweating it just doesn’t matter.

The other part of this was the fact its highly possible I was not quite yet in 50k shape. But like the 2nd title indicates intelligence has nothing to do with ultra-running. Besides my friend Charlie and I had a plan. Plan A was to finish the whole course. Plan B was to NOT finish the whole course. Most ultra-runners typically employ those two plans at the start of every race. The day before the race Charlie was already discussing ways to short cut, you know, if medically necessary.

This is really me, really running at Catherine's

A Map of the course as drawn by me:

Highlight of this “run” are as follows:

1. At the start of the race, the Race Director offered maps due to the course change. I took one, looked it over and realized, it’s a topographical map. After all these years of trail running, I’ve never learned how to read a topo map. So, I took my chances that there would be trail markings (there were) and I would be with someone who had a clue (I was) I handed it back.

2. During the first part of a climb a line of us are hiking along and the conversation behind me goes like this:

Guy1: Boy do I hate snakes. I hope we don’t see any (editor’s note: we have rattlers and copperheads in these here parts)

Guy2: [launches into monologue about poisonous snakes the do's and don'ts etc.]

Guy1: [whimpers]

Guy2: [proceeds to launch into a monologue about poisonous spiders]

3. The trail starts out up [and uphill] the Orange trial, but then veers off into a SERIOUS UP (Pink trail). At several points we wondered where are the ropes to help us along, because seriously, we have to climb THAT? It’s the kind of up, when you are coming back, is definitely a down, but not the kind of down mere mortals like us could actually RUN down.

4. Hit the dreaded Purple trail,which due to course directional changes this year we get to go DOWNHILL on. YAY! Do some actual running. Feels kind of good!

5. An aid station! Yea! That took how long? Yikes.

6. Now a gravel road to get to the next trail. Years past, we ran down this road from the opposite direction, which is why I never recalled the road as being so STEEP. Yes, another UP. But at least it was not as UP as the trail we just came off of. I think.

7. Stopping to take a dip in the creek that ran alongside the road because dang, it was hot and now sunny due to less shade.

8. Pitt Spring; greeted by two volunteers with pitchers of spring water which they would pour over your head, or use to fill your water bottle or camelbak, or in our case, BOTH. AHHH sweet relief.

9. Volunteer telling us the trail “trends” up before the climb (Orange trail). Yea. Right. Not our definition of “trend”. This was definitely another climb.

10. Munching on my Tostitos as Charlie says, “Hey! What was that black thing?” Me: “HUH?” (I was busy digging them out of the camelback) Seconds later a runner comes from the opposite direction (yes, this person is heading BACK – we are still heading OUT) and says, “Didja see the black bear cub?” Ugh. I missed it ‘cause I was eating. Although my plan, if we saw the mother, was to toss my PB&J at it as a distraction so we could waddle away.

11. Bear scat

12. Running with the retired Army guy who hangs with us for a while and entertains us with stories of his two deployments to Iraq. I learned a lot about explosions and Army issued sunglasses.

13. YAY! A downhill. Unfortunately it’s a stream bed with moss covered rocks, big honking rocks. It is not the type of terrain most folks would call, “runnable”. Unless you are a mountain goat.

Yellow trail photo taken off the web. There was not this much water on it the day we ran

14. Aid station! Double YAY! The turnaround aid station has awesome ginger cookies, Pringle like chips and PB&Js and icy cold water and Gatorade. Sort of like Nirvana in the middle of nowhere.

15. Back UP the rocks.

16. Back to Pitt Spring and deciding that the Purple trail aid station is a nice place to drop out of the race.


17. Receive an air conditioned lift by a wonderful race volunteer back to the start/finish. I did not want to get out of his car. Did I mention it was air conditioned?

I wish I had more pictures of this course as it was beautiful and challenging. I did not bring my camera as I was worried the heat would damage it, or if not that, the copious amounts of sweat coming off my person would short out the electronics in it.

I am not in the least bit disappointed that I went to Plan B for this race. I was pleased with how I well I did. I think I had some left in me to finish the course if I HAD to (like if it was the only option for getting back to the car), but really. There was no need to kill myself. The glory would have all been minimized by my imminent death at the end, so. Really. We enjoyed the after party in the parking lot where I consumed the best tasting veggie burger I have ever eaten in my life and an icy cold beer. Made the whole thing worthwhile.

Just wait til next time!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

The summer of change has begun

Pre-school/daycare graduation was a big event. The teachers had the kids practicing dance moves, reciting poems, the pledge, etc for weeks! A room with a stage was booked, caps and gowns were ordered; specific clothing items were suggested for wearing the day of; seriously. It reminded me of, well, graduation. Except when i was in college I sat waaay in the back of the basketball stadium, with the other journalism students and someone passed a bottle of champagne up and down the aisle. Also, it was really really warm that day. And we did not get to recite poems, sing or dance. Which colleges should totally reconsider. Graduation would be fun, rather than mind numbingly boring. Which Ian's was NOT. His was fun.. and cute even..

Trying to get his award ribbon on- note its backwards. He's CEO material for sure

Yes, it appears to be his first kiss, but they are dancing; I forget what song, but I think its Mambo #5.

He was jonesin' for the balloon you can't see in this picture..that is what the red line is. He wanted me to SIT by myself, away from the other parents, so no one else got the balloon. This is why I have no friends.

Ian had to memorize a poem; it was a very existential poem, about a hot dog. Unfortunately Blogger is not allowing me to upload. Well, its uploading then NOT working and its making me nuts. So, if you want to see the video go to my Facebook page. If you are not my friend, oh, please, be my friend!!! Also, the video of the kids doing, only what I can describe as, the "white kid hip shake"

"Summer sun, somethings begun, but uh-oh those summer..days"

At a birthday barbeque... The boys insisted on wearing our running shirts (newly bought, and not stinky) They thought they were hot little stud muffins. And they were hot, because it was approx. 500 million degrees out.


A nature hike at Potomac Overlook Park in Arlington. We are hanging out on some rocks, moments before we decided to just walk around in the water.

The Udvar-Hazy Air and Space museum out near Dulles Airport. If you come to the DC Metro area you should see this the new Smithsonian Museum (its perhaps, 4-5 years old now). Its WAAAY cool. It has the Space Shuttle Enterprise AND the Enola Gay, plus just lots of really, really cool planes, heliocopters, gyroscopes and whatnots. And also, its totally fun to say, UDVAR-HAZY. We should have named the boys Udvar and Hazy..also, on a 100 degree day, it is air conditioned and HUGE and a great place to run around and not bug anyone.





More Udvar-Hazying

And, that's it for this post. i gots nuthin' to say (which is really unusual)

Un-Sane

You've likely heard the expression, that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? This is how I sum up parenthood.

Again, as we have done over the last couple of years, we went out for dinner on Mother’s Day (http://smytacchiworld.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html) – sigh.

I’m not sure WHY we keep taking the boys out to restaurants, other than I have this crazy notion that for children to act well in public, you have to actually take them OUT in public to practice all the stuff you attempt to teach them in private (except for the running around the house butt naked before bathtime screaming hysterical laughter. That should probably stay, you know, private- unless it ends up on YouTube and we can make TONS of money then we should exploit the heck out of our kids, because it would be for their own good.)

Here are the things we teach our children at home when eating a meal- also known as TOTAL ADULT FANTASY VERSION (this phrase alone is going draw a number of Google hits methinks):

1. Sit in your chair nicely (meaning ON YOUR BUTT)
2. Eat your food with your utensils
3. Have pleasant conversation with your parents and sibling
4. Use “please”, “thank you”, “may I be excused” and take your own dishes to the kitchen when you are done

Here is what happens in reality- or also known as, well REALITY:

1. Stand on chair, kneel on knees and shake table so all the liquid in glasses go all over the place. If you are Alexander include a few dance moves in there while standing on chair. If you are Ian, this means, slumping down in your chair like a sullen teenager until all you can see is the very tip top of his head. ( Yes! Sullen teenager! Ian is experiencing an early on-set of Teen Angst at the ripe ol’age of 4!! Joy!)

2. Use fingers to eat everything, including ketchup, because Ronald Reagan was right, ketchup is indeed a vegetable. If you are Alexander include attempting to climb onto table to grab a napkin even though you already have like three of them plastered to various body parts.

3. Use the words pee-pee and poo-poo repeatedly until your parents send you to your room to have “a time out and you can learn to speak nicely so help me young man…” and/or repeat the one knock knock joke your mother misguidedly told you one day at dinner, over and over again, breaking up into squeals of raucous laughter even though you are not really telling the knock knock joke correctly and seriously, dude, its not that funny. (“Knock kock”, “Whose there?” “Banana”, “Banana who?”…”Knock knock”…) or if you are Alexander you tell it like this, “Knocknockwhosetherebanana….”

4. Well. Ok. We actually DO do this..So YAY us!

I guess one out of 4 ain’t bad…

CHEERS!

For whatever reason, bringing (our) small children out into public is the equivalent of feeding them pure white sugar straight out of the sugar bowl. Whatever impulsive ideas they may normally be able to contain (mostly) suddenly are uncontainable. Any social filters they may have developed are left on the floor of the car in the parking lot.

So to the list of things we should not do while in a restaurant we add:

1.Climb under the table repeatedly to fetch dropped crayons and or toys (this is both parents and kids) and if you are the kids pick up random pieces of dried, unidentifiable bits of old food and consume. God forbid the kids eat the identifiable food that is being paid for to eat.

2. Break your crayons into hundreds of bits

3. Wander about the booth seat like Jews in the Diaspora

4. INSIST on drinking out of mommy’s water glass and then stand up in your chair to reach something on the other side of the table knocking over mommy’s water glass and getting water all over yourself and crying hysterically that you are wet.

5. Have a meltdown, crying tantrum approximately every 5 minutes because: Alex took the crayon I wanted! My car fell under the table! Ian’s not sharing the crayons! I want to sit next to mommy/daddy! I want some more bread! The air is full of molecules!!!

6. Lots of heavy sighs and eye rolling by the parents, who wonder, for the 900th million time, WHAT WERE WE THINKING? And also, WAITER, PLEASE!! MORE WINE!

I swear its like eating dinner with the Three Stooges, you know the episode where they are carrying ladders and stuff and constantly knock stuff over in various chain reactions and hit each other (Oh. Wait. That is every episode. Well, that is also, “Our life with small children”)

This year, tho’ the boys actually ate the dinner we purchased for them and the boys’ bogarted some of Andy’s appetizer. So, in that respect, things are looking up!

Ian got his picture taking abilities from his father: a) do NOT look at camera, ever b) make sure your eyes are closed c) try not to smile..although Andy is smiling here, and so is Ian even if it only LOOKs like he is constipated

Since the last pictures anyone has seen of us is when we all were dressed as Nanook of the North during the Snowstorm of the Century posts, here are more recent pictures. These are in no particular order, but were taken this year!

Sir Elton John and his loyal entourage

Relaxing after a morning at Sesame Place

Momma singing AND rockin' out to the "Mana Manana" song on the carousel at Sesame Place. I am, I should point out, the only adult on the ride doing this. Andy and I were amused that we recognized many of the songs being played over the loud speakers. I of course was singing all the ones I knew, out loud. People tend to steer clear of us most of the time.

This appears to be a hostage situation, but its only Elmo stopping for a photo op. The kids in line were insane. It was as if a major rock star had just shown up (girls! stop flinging your diapers at Elmo! please!)

Contemplating his perch. Ian in Elmo's tree house. What you can't see, is this netting stretches out OVER part of the park. He's a least a story or two up there!

Ian and Alex picking up a chick at a bar. No. Wait. That is Grandma Mimi.

Alex on a ride, looking as if he has something up his sleeve (more likely he has something in his diaper)

Not at Sesame Place, but at Frying Pan Park, a working farm in Fairfax County, owned by the county. It was Farm day and every child in the county came out to torture, I mean, pet the baby animals.

Ian and Alex waiting for a bus. They spend a lot of time at the bus station. We like using the lockers for babysitting service. In reality, they are sitting on a bench at a vineyard while mom and dad are getting snogged on vino. It was a lovely day...notice the Shenandoah's in the background.

Ian hanging around and Alex trying to be like him. This was also at the vineyard.

A tricycle built for 2

This it what your face would look like too if you fell out of the back of your mother's CRV in a gravel parking lot. Note to self, check back hatch door to ensure small child is not pressed up to the window before flinging it wide open. Before anyone contacts social services, I was backing the car up into a parking space and let the boys ride in the way back for the whole 5 foot maneuver. The car was stopped, when I flung open the hatch. Alex, however kept moving until his face reached the ground. Poor little bugger.

As you can see by our stellar parenting skills, we are probably insane. I guess the question is, what comes first? The insanity or the children? Discuss.

Snoverkill- or what I discovered by spending (forced) quality time with my family

So, its now day 500 of our Winter Wonderland Blizzard Snowfilled Extraordinaire Experience..and OMG. To all you stay at home parents, I salute you. You have fortitude. You have guts. You obviously are more creative and have a better arsenal of arts and crafts than we do (you probably also have some substance abuse problems too)...and you probably haven't tried to "Work from-home-so-as-to-not-burn-through-all-your-saved-vacation-time-so-you-might-possibly- be-able-to-take-one-dang-gone-freakin'-vacation" this year AND try to keep two small children hellbent on destruction from, well, destroying things.

Philosphical question: which came first, the alcoholic beverage? or the snowstorm? Did one begat the other? Discuss.

So here it is, day, um..hmmmmm..5? I think, of SnowmageddonSnowpacolypseSnoverkillSnoMG 2010. Tuesday afternoon we saw the start of another storm; this time gale force winds were predicted. Gusts of up to 30-60 miles per hour were recorded around the area. I have no idea what the winds were at our house, but let's just say, no trees fell over, no power lines went down, our roof did not cave in due to the weight of the snow, and we had stocked up on beer and wine the day before (at a Whole Foods! I feel like such a yuppie, if that term even applies anymore!!). For all this I am thankful.

I have no new pictures as they'd be pretty much a repeat of previous: us in winter gear, us on sleds, us in snow Instead I have my pithy thoughts to share.

1. I do not have the patience, the supplies or the creativity to do origami animals, or any other such art project. If coloring with crayons and markers (all washable) on colored paper does not met your artistic expectations, stay away from our house.

2. (Andy is giving the boys a bath as I type this, and just discovered a pooh in the bath water. Alex is obviously guilty based on his laughter, although he is trying hard to pin this on his brother) which brings us to point #3..

3. Alexander is the reincarnation of John Belushi. We expect to spend a great deal of time being called into Dean Wormer's office when he is in college (for 8 years!)*
3.a. Exhibit A of the Alex/Belushi connection: While napping on the sofa Wed. late morning, I was awoken by Alexander, DIVING ON ME from the arm of the sofa, mosh-pit style. He had a wild gleam in his eye and was cackling like a madman (think: bwaaa haaa haa haaaaa).

4. The best thigh workout in the world is carrying a 30+ lb 2.5 year old up the sledding hill, over and over and over..and ohmygod my legs are killing me..

5. Knowing you are getting old when the moguls on the sledding hill, send you airborne and landing on your tailbone, repeatedly, REALLY hurts the next day -especially...

6. Learning how to nod pleasantly as you pass by the three hispanic gentlemen, arguing in the middle of the street. Possibly over the best way to get their plow unstuck from the snow.

7. Realizing those three men were likely out plowing your neighborhood and yes, you and your neighbors are doomed to shoveling out your street yourself.

8. TV is not bad. TV is good. TV keeps your children entertained during a blizzard.

9. Knowing that somewhere, somehow, someone knows you are letting your kids watch WAAAY too much TV because you are exhausted and have run out of ideas to keep them entertained so you can work from home...because the Feds pay their employees if the Federal goverment is closed, BUT NO ONE ELSE DOES..

10. Its impossible to really really get anything done, work related (as in office work) when your children are at home.

11. Amazed at how your husband can sort of tune out the whining/crying/fighting/destruction so he can do work at home.

12. Knowing your children are fully capable of entertaining themselves, but its MORE FUN to bother the parents who are trying to work from home.

13. Thinking, gee I have all this time at home I really ought to vacuum and dust (which are chores that rarely happen here- unless we have company- so come visit! the house is a mess!) and wondering at 8 pm at night what I did all day and how come neither of those two things ever were accomplished, especially on galeforcewindblizzard day?

14. Ian is Calvin (from Calvin and Hobbes)- We have one existential philospher and one frat boy on our hands..

15. Woody is looking forward to us ALL going back to whatever it is we do all day and giving him some peace and quiet.

16. Realizing that I really enjoy the cartoon "Martha Speaks" (its about a dog, that speaks! She developed language skills when, after eating a bowl of alphabet soup, all the alpabets went to her brain! Martha digs learning new words!)

17. Appreciating, again, late in life, just how clever the writers, actors and producers of Sesame Street really are.

18. Making cupcakes with little boys is fun and messy..not to mention full of sprinkles (everything baked in this house gets a heavy coating of colorful sprinkles from the boys)

19. Appreciating all the shoveling Andy did.

20. Wondering how bored our one neighbor was that he spent a lot of time during both snowstorms running out to 7-11 for something (probably coffee, since I don't think he slept at all. He drives a Nissan Armada; Andy calls it the "school bus". He could fit an Armada in the darn thing; without him we'd never be able to get off the street since he smooshed all the snow down).

21. Thankful that we were NOT one of the thousands without electricity for days.

22. Going on early morning runs either while it was snowing or after the snow. No people, no cars, no nothing. Just you and your thoughts (and dodging the occassional snow plow too).

23. Alex, after two days of forcing him to go sledding, began to WANT to sled and ENJOY sledding. We plan to use that therapy money for more wine! WOOHOO!

I think that abouts sums it up. We got a lot of mileage literally and figuratively out of our sleds and snow pants - best money I ever spent. However, I think we need a new winter sport. My tailbone is killing me. By the way, snow totals are ranging from anywhere from 40-58 inches. This is an area that typically MAYBE Might POSSIBLY see 6-7 inches of snow, IF any in a winter.. So, laugh if you want. I think the municipalities (including the federal government) did the right thing by closing everything down.

______________________________________________________-
* If you have not seen the movie "Animal House" I suggest you do. Note to self, good movie to watch during next snowstorm.

SNOWMAGEDDON! Day two

The scene infront of our house on Day 1. That's Andy's car..



Lee Highway, on Day 1

"Holy Guacamole!" exclaimed the Governor of Virginia when shown pictures of the snowpocolypse that hit the region over the weekend. After stating, "glad I live in Richmond" he announced that the two available snowplows were scheduled to hit the residential streets sometime "next election year or possibly if my polls slip".

The Commonwealth of Virginia (see! we are not even a state! We are a Commonwealth- bonus points if you can name the other 3 commonwealths in the US) is oddly set up. Here we have counties and cities. Cities are separate entities from counties. They are not even PART of a county. They have their own forms of government and taxes, etc. The Cities in VA are responsible for plowing their own streets. The Cities streets' are pristine. The counties however, are at the mercy of the Commonwealth. VDOT plows us commoners out. I don't quite understand this arrangement but am going to blame the nation's founding fathers for this since frankly they are not here to rebut it.

As I write this, it's 7 am Monday morning, so technically, I am writing about Snowmageddon: day two, on day three. But then who's counting? Speaking of day three, the Federal Government is closed, as is daycare, and every school within spitting distance. The only thing not closed is my office, because THEY NEVER CLOSE. I think my company needs to take on the US Postal Service's motton ("Through rain, through snow, through dead of night..yadda yadda yadda.."), because the US Postal service is also closed.

Day two: Sometime during the evening of day one, I remembered that my two library books were due that day. Looking out the window, I calcualted my odds of walking the mile and a half in 20 feet of snow, to the library to avoid the late fines, but decided I could afford the 40 cents. Sunday was a beautiful, blue sky, sunny day, so we dragged out the sleds, bundled ourselves up and headed out to the library to return the books. This ended up being a great idea, as we not only got out of the house, but we played in the snow, had lunch and went home the really hilly way so we could sled down streets.

Alex and I sledding down one of our streets. It is a really steep hill, but unfortunately it is a cut through street as well (hence, sort of trafficky). The street was plowed to one lane. On our first attempt, a Jeep was struggling it's way up- and stopped when it saw us on the sled. We got out of the way, but the Jeep was now stuck halfway up the hill. He eventually backed-up and drove off the other direction. We decided if, with a Jeep, you could NOT get up this street, you should NOT be out driving.

Heading out to the library- note that yellow-ish light in the background. They call it "sun"

We either need new outdoor apparel or new scenery. These pictures are beginning to look all the same.

Andy and boys! Yes. There is still snow out there! New! Exciting!

Swinging in the snow

We also shoveled out the cars. A few neighbors at the bottom of our street spent a great deal of time shoveling that part of the street clean. One of the neighbor's has a wife who is 8 months pregnant. Some of you may think he did this "just incase". But having been 8 months pregnant myself (twice) he did this likely to get away from a crazed, couped-up pregnant woman (I'm speculating; I never saw her; but I bet I am right).

Speaking of couped up, that evening, Andy and the boys designed this hot wheels track layout. The cars really moved down the stairs. This was of course, after the boys spent a half an hour dragging up various toys to toss down the stairs (balls, foam blocks, each other)- It reminded me of the old David Letterman episodes, where Dave, would go to the roof of a three/four story building (I don't remember the exact height) and toss things like watermelons, or tv's or whatnots off. At one point, I think the boys used their pillows to "sled down". Yes, safety is OUR first concern at our house. Also, note the buckets they are wearing on their heads.

Meet Big Monkey. He was stopping the cars as they flew down the stairs, hit the ramp and went airborne. I envision it only being a matter of a few years, when Ian takes his bike down the stairs and uses his little brother much the say way..

Alex and little monkey.

More snow is predicted for tomorrow..wonder how much more hot wheel track we have?

SNOWMAGEDON!!

Yes, the end is definitely here. The Snow storm of the century, that they spent five days warning us about, actually has happened. Its STILL happening as I type. I'd make snarky Facebook comments about it (Facebook; its like Twitter but with pictures!) but I can't get to Facebook from this computer. It (my computer) has higher standards than I do. The Washington Post Weather blog had a storm naming contest. I believe Snowmagedon has won,but snoMG! was a seriously close second.

So, the day so far:

6:30 am- open door to walk Woody. Realize door won't open. All that pesky snow.

6:35 am- Woody DRAGS me down the street in a foot and a half of snow, because he HAS to pee three houses down. Yes folks. A foot and a half of snow, and it was only 6:35 am; it is now 3-ish pm and its STILL snowing. Virginia, which declared a state of emergency a day and a half ago has already announced that if you live anywhere other than on a snow emergency route you are screwed and good luck until spring! Of course, the Governor used different words. Its gonna be a long long long week. I think "lucky to see a plow by March" was another statement, but don't quote me.

Wood and I walked to check out the neighborhood and realize it all pretty much looks like this:

The street in front of our house at about 7:3o am. Andy's car is the one on the right. Currently (3:33 pm), you can no longer see any part of the car. It is merely a lump in the snow

Our house, side view. That's our neighbor's fence.



The street at the top of our street. The footprints on the left our mine and Woody's. Someone had managed to drive up our street and down this one at some point, but the tracks were quickly filling in. This photo was taken around 7:30 am as well




Here's a shot of the main street out of our neighborhood. The red light in the distance is Lee Highway, which is a major thoroughfare. Again the tracks you see are mine and Woody's. Not too many folks out this morning !



So if you were lucky enough to make it up the main street at of our neighborhood, good luck getting on to Lee Highway! You were met with this more than two foot high wall of snow (again, this is 7:30-ish). This was created by the snowplows. I'm afraid to see how high that wall is now at 3:30 pm.

After walking Woody, I shoveled the sidewalk, took the snow off my car and marveled at how lovely it all looked and resigned myself to the fact that we were stuck. Hopefully no one on the block has some sort of house fire or medical emergency, there ain't no way a fire truck or ambulance can make it here. I also took a page from my "Little House On the Prairie" books, when realizing I could not shovel a path to the backyard, I merely stamped the snow down until I had a path. Let's hope we don't end up burning the furniture in order to heat the home.

9 am; if felt like noon, we ate freshly baked cinnamon rolls, bundled up the boys and trudged outside. Alex cried because it was snowing on his face. Alex also refused to get in the sled, go down the hill, etc. etc. I sense we are not helping him develop a great love of outdoor winter sports at forcing him to "go outside and play dammit" in the snow.

Everything is pretty much shut down in the DC Metro area. Public transit, businesses, even the post office announced it "ain't delivering nothing no how". Andy is out walking Woody. I expect them home tomorrow and they are only going around the block. You may not hear from us again until spring.

Us heading outside to play. May as well enjoy the snow. Alex refuses to get into his sled. I have to carry him all the way to the park.

Me n'Alex

Sled boy...

The boys are dismantling the downstairs so I must go!!!