The Longest Season

We have officially entered "The Worst Time of The Year"...the dreadful, drawn-out end of winter. February is almost over, which should mean that the worst of winter is behind us and that spring is right around the corner. That, of course, is not applicable to this lovely little corner of the country up here...

At least the first half of March is very much still deep winter. The days are longer, which is nice, but it isn't any warmer, and we can still get heavy snowfall at any moment. By the second half of March, we are pretty much past the bitter, bitter cold weather, but snow is still possible/likely, and we are still MONTH away from flip-flops.

Frankly, April is usually a miserable month, broken up by just a couple of splendid days. We always get a little tease of spring, but basically it is cold and rainy and not terribly pleasant. May is better, but it is still likely to be rainy, and often very cold. And you want the real truth? The first half of June is no real prize, either...I have never, ever, been to a June wedding when it didn't rain (that is probably not true...I'm sure I've been to at least one).

So here we are, at a time of year when things should be looking up, and when our Southern neighbors are very, very much at the end of Winter...and we are looking at a minimum of two more months of really crappy weather before we start to see anything approximating consistent improvement.

Let's count the damage. First, everyone's skin is a mess. It is too cold and dry for too long to manage good skin. There is only so much lotion that one people can apply to their collective skin:-). And since we are all terribly pale, and a little heavier from hiding under winter clothes for four months, everyone is pasty and a little doughy. It's a good look.

Second, the roads are appalling...the snow, temperature change, salt and plows really do a number on them, and they won't get fixed until April or May. Third, everything is dirty. EVERYTHING. Shoes, coats, pants, windows, cars, sidewalks, carpets, floors...so much snow and salt and sand gets tracked around that everything gets a horrible coat of dull grey/brown on it. This will all wash off when it rains in April. ALL of April. And May. And half of June.

There is good news, though...our summers are lovely, and not as oppressively hot as many places, and fall is truly spectacular. So, it's not a total loss.

But, at times like this, I am reminded that the Pilgrims were aiming for Virginia.

So, that was fun...

Tuesday, I didn't feel great all day. Not really bad, just kinda funny...my stomach was a little upset and I had a bit of a headache. Enough so that I didn't really eat much all day, save for a cup of soup at lunch time. So, around about 3:00, I really started to feel worse, and by 5:00, it was clear that I was going to be sick.

I did manage to get the girls home, but then things proceeded to get really out of hand. I will save you the details, but I can promise you that it was absolutely horrifying...I have never been sick like that before. I spent the evening curled up in bed, with a bucket nearby, and slept for an hour at a time until the next wave of nausea came over me.

It was basically gone by yesterday morning, although I still didn't feel great and was absolutely exhausted all day...

So, yea...my 12 hour flu was really a great time.

I'm not really sure if this is funny or not...

I have a couple of updates on Valentine's Day...

First, I conveniently woke up at about 6:15 yesterday morning, which is at least half an hour before the girls wake up, and was plenty of time to engage in some Valentine's morning mischief...an awfully good way to start the day;-)

Second, the boys in the office are up to something, and I am not sure what. Two days ago, they brought me lunch, unsolicited (the truth is that they bring me lunch all the time, usually because I ask them to). Then yesterday, they generously brought flowers and candy for all the girls in the office, just because they were being nice. I may have eaten candy and enjoyed the flowers all day, but I am absolutely positive that they want something...I just don't know what yet!

Third, I had a Valentine's Day date with Munchkin (it was Thursday after all). We don't get out every Thursday like we used to, but we are still pretty good about it, and I would say we probably have dinner more than every other week. She was gone for five days last weekend, is gone again this weekend for three, and was on her way to stay at a friend's house last night...so I really wanted to spend some time with her. And if you are keeping track, Thursday dinners are still almost always chicken fingers...

So, we chatted about school and her friends' boy troubles and various other nonsense. It wasn't very crowded, and we were in no kind of a rush, so we sat for a bit before we ordered dinner. After maybe half an hour, the server brought us two martinis, put them on the table and told us that they were from three gentlemen sitting at the end of the bar, who politely waived at us.

Several things...first of all, we have been going there for years and are friendly with the staff (i.e., they are aware that my sister is substantially under the drinking age), but the waiter and bartender must be knew because I have never seen them before. But still, I question their diligence in enforcing liquor laws, as no one asked anyone for an ID...

By now, you probably know that I make friends easily. I talk to people, people talk to me, I'm a relatively social creature. Which meant that, OF COURSE, I had to quiz these guys on their entire thought process...turns out they were quite nice. They didn't see my wedding ring, so they assumed that we were two single girls out commiserating on Valentine's Day. Which is pretty stupid...it is basically a sports bar, and there has never, ever, been a pair of single women who went to such a place to commiserate on Valentine's Day.

Further, I discovered that they were all between 31 and 34, single, worked together and were here before going out for the night. I asked them to estimate my age, and they said 26. Then I asked them to guess Munchkin's age, and they said 28.

Oy.

Which at least had the benefit of leading to one of them asking his friend..."Wait, did we just commit a felony?"

Survival Guide

We survived the great storm unscathed...maybe a little bit stir crazy, but really no worse for wear. I think the final, official tally was something like 28 inches of snow, which is obviously a lot. It was a pretty heavy snow, too, and the addition of some really serious wind meant lots of downed power lines and a lot of people without electricity.

Thankfully, that didn't effect us at all. I got the girls home at about 1:00 on Friday, after it had begun snowing but long before the worst of it. I also stocked up on cookies, ice cream, Cheetos and other assorted goodies. Smoking Hot Roommate made it later in the afternoon with her overnight bag and likely the last pizza in Beacon Hill:-) (Just to be safe, I had stuff to make pizza, which we did on Saturday. Also ribs. And chili.)

Basically, we just watched a lot of TV (we watched Cars over and over again, along with a large quantity of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, and Jake and the Never Land Pirates), colored, played with trains and cars, did puzzles and made a never ending mess of stuffed animals, toys and clothes. Much fun was had by all!

On Saturday morning, the girls wanted to go outside to see the snow, so we bundled them up and went downstairs. They lasted roughly 7 minutes, at which point they decided that they no longer liked the snow (the real problem was that it was still really windy). They were pretty excited to discover hot cocoa, though.

By Sunday, the weather had cleared, even if the streets and sidewalks had not. We walked SHR back home, which involved quite a bit of trudging through snow, but by that point the girls were back to loving snow. Then we went back home, and by the time they woke up from their naps, The Boy was back.

Munchkin and her friends benefited from school being cancelled on both Monday and Tuesday, so what was originally a two day ski trip (Friday night to Sunday) turned into a five day mountain extravaganza (Thursday afternoon until Tuesday). There are worse things than being a second semester senior in high school:-)

And that's about it...my daring tale of snowstorm survival, 2013 edition!

Snowbound

We have a HUGE storm coming, apparently, with the possibility of multiple FEET of snow dropping on us tomorrow into Saturday. Conveniently, The Boy is headed to New York tonight to help his brother with some light construction all weekend, and Munchkin is leaving for a ski weekend with her friends. That leaves me with the kids, and with a high likelihood of being snowbound all weekend.

Day Care is closing at 1:00 tomorrow, which means that I will either take the whole day off, or half the day (probably the whole thing.) I have also recruited Smoking Hot Roommate to bunker down with me, and she is not going to work a whole day, either.

There shall be pizza. There shall be cookies and ice cream. There shall be Reese's Peanut Butter cups, and potentially other candy as well. There will likely be other bad food. There shall also be (likely) multiple viewings of Cars.

What do we think...best weekend ever? Universal hatred by Saturday afternoon?

Both?

Problems

I don't ask for much.

I just want a pair of boots. A pair of totally kick-ass, knee-high brown boots. With tall heels (like, really tall) and a couple of clunky buckles. That I can wear over tight jeans. That fit my very tiny feet.

And I would like them to not cost like $600...

That's not so hard, is it?

4:15 update: I was hoping for a little more in the way of embellishments, but these just may be a winner: http://www.zappos.com/kors-michael-kors-wystan-coffee-vintage-vachetta

Unless these wan to go on sale: http://www.zappos.com/frye-jane-strappy-charcoal-tumbled-full-grain?zlfid=111&recoName=zap_pdp_acc