Snowcation Day 6, a.k.a. I Think Your Cookies May Have Just Saved The World From Nuclear Catastrophe

Thursday was a whole different day - sunshine, bright skies, no wind...oh, and that pesky snow. So, not a completely different day. I was greeted by a text message from my mother, showing the snow accumulation on their back deck.

And the snow that had been blown by the wind to totally obliterate the shoveling I'd done the other day.

The wind had blown it pretty high out in the courtyard, too.

The light hit the snowdrifts very prettily, though. Kind of like sand, but freezing cold and more sparkly.

The sun was out in full force, creating and subsequently melting giant icicles of doom.

Even larger icicles formed on the house across the courtyard.

I spent the majority of the day again watching movies and working on my thesis. I learned that Musical Day does not work so well when you pick awesome movies like Singin' In the Rain. I can't not watch that movie, so it was quite the challenge to work at the same time. Come on, you can't watch these songs and not be amazed by their awesome.

So yeah. But somehow, I managed to get close enough to the end of the thesis tunnel that I allowed myself to take a break. And watch, among others, another cinematic masterpiece:

By Thursday night, this was the stack of viewed DVDs. DVDs and sweatpants, that's what Snowcation does!

Oh, and one more thing - when one has been trapped inside one's house for very close to a week, minus the occasional trip to Target and to Kathy's apartment for dinner? One does foolish things:

An addendum - Friday morning, the sun came out again, both literally and figuratively, as the closed roads nearby reopened, people were rescued from snowdrifts, and most importantly, Ken and McKenna came to visit, ogle snow mountains on Friday, help Tricia move on Saturday, go see Barack Stars on Sunday and laugh at couples out celebrating VD Day, and go Pathetic Loser Day shopping on Mondays. A lovely end to my Snowcation, despite the fact that I had to go to work the next day!

(Oh, and that nail polish came off before I went out in public, don't worry!)

Snowcation Day 5, a.k.a. Snowpocalypse Part II

Wednesday started bright and early with monstrous winds and a ton more snow. As of 8 a.m. when I got up, there were 8 additional inches on the sidewalk I'd shoveled, and snow was blowing everywhere.

I tried to take another measurement after the first movie of the morning (Clueless, in case you were wondering. "You see how picky I am about my shoes, and they only go on my feet!" Heh.), but when I opened the door, I was greeted with this:

Against my better judgment, I tried to open the door. It didn't go so well.

Luckily, when I shut the door, it knocked enough of the blown snow off the window, so I was able to get a decent picture through the door. Which is just as well, because a measurement probably wouldn't have been accurate because of the wind anyway.

I got another shot later in the day, after a bit of crazy wind that blew the snow around even more.

I spent the majority of the day working on my thesis. Unfortunately, that topic that Sarah had proposed didn't get approved, so I've been working on a new one. Actually, a series of new ones...a long story that usually involves me swearing about unclear expectations. But I decided that, in order to entertain but not distract myself, I'd put musicals on in the background. I have a few on DVD, after all ;-). I started with my movie theater record holder, Chicago. You all may remember January of 2003, when I dragged every single person I could get my hands on to the theater to see it.

Next was Moulin Rouge!, starring Ewan McGregor and his pretty pretty hair. I swear, I could listen to him sing this song all day long and it would never not be awesome.

Next, based upon a Facebook friend's recommendation, I watched Rent. As you may well know, I often want to smack the characters in this movie. Except Benny. I love Benny, and he's the only one of the group with any sense. I don't know why they won't just listen to him. And while the play is great, the movie is cringe-worthy in parts. And despite all of that, I can't not love this song. Maybe it's because it starts with Benny making sense (even if the rest of them are too stupid to see it).

Next was Dreamgirls, or as I call it, the movie Eddie Murphy should've won an Oscar for but didn't because Alan Arkin doesn't have a career full of crap and therefore won even though Eddie Murphy's nominated performance was better than his. Although this song of his reminds me of Jimmy on Seinfeld.

After Dreamgirls, it was almost time for primetime TV to start, so I put a Seinfeld disc on so I could easily stop it when American Idol and Modern Family started. It was quite a good disc, too, including "The Bubble Boy" and "The Opera," with Crazy Joe Davola, who amuses me endlessly. It was around this time that I got fed up with my thesis and stopped working on it. Instead, I made the cookies I talked about the other day. Martha Stewart is a genius, and this recipe is heaven. Especially when it's made to look like dinosaurs:

And so endeth the day of musicals, thesis-writing, and Jurassic baked goods. Stay tuned for the aftermath of Snowpocalyse Part II!

Snowcation Day 4, a.k.a. Like A Whirlpool It Never Ends

So, Tuesday morning was like the calm before the storm. Kathy and I started the day with another trip to Target, as she needed laundry detergent and I needed a present for my cousin, which I had forgotten to get on Monday. I also had to stop at my office to get some things that I'd left there and needed to work on my thesis, as never in my wildest dreams did I think we'd get Tuesday off of work too. (Little did I know I'd be sitting here writing this on the eve of my fourth bonus snowcation day!). I also went to the Post Office to mail said present to my cousin, and learned that Route 85 outside of the Buckeystown Post Office were the cleanest I'd seen in all of Frederick.


I returned home to battle the ice on the porch roof again. This time, I went at it with hot water, thinking I could get the heavy ice to melt faster. This seemed to help, but I think I'm still going to have to have someone look at it when this is all over (if this all ever ends). Grr.


After Roof Fight: Round Two, I sat down to grade more of my thesis documents and watch one of my favorite movies, Garden State. I can't find either of my favorite scenes on YouTube (when they're in the quarry and Large tells Sam not to mention knights around Mark, and when they're leaving the quarry and they play Only Living Boy In New York), but I did find this one, which is the reason that scene is so funny. And also, Jim Parsons is awesome. So there's that.




I had to pause Garden State to go over to Kathy's for dinner. Tricia had gotten her a cast iron pan for her birthday, and she invited people over for the unveiling and first use. She made paella, which was delightful (and I'm not just saying that because it had chorizo in it and I love chorizo).
We all stayed far later than we should have, given that about two more inches of snow had accumulated in the time we were there. That's right, folks - another snowstorm was coming! The two inches of snow, combined with the big, fluffy flakes that were falling, made it quite a scenic walk home.

However, it was more ominous than anything., given the condition of the roads before this snow started, and the fact that the forecast predicted another 10-15 inches of snow and wind and blizzardiness. A thought - is it bad when you hear that there's 10-15 inches of snow coming, and all you can think is "eh...that's not too bad." Stay tuned tomorrow to see if that forecast came true!

Snowcation Day 3, a.k.a. My Snow-Called Life

So, work was closed Monday because of the Snowpocalypse. The lovely snow people decided this Saturday night, so I had plenty of time to plan how to continue the movie- and thesis-writing marathon. Sadly, neither of those things got much action on Monday, but I did get quite a few other things done. But first, a brief vignette from Sunday...kids, if you have an air-supported structure, it can only hold so much snow before it collapses. Case in point - the Hood College Outdoor Pool Bubble. Such a phenomenon has only happened two or three other times in my memory, and sadly, never in my presence. I am forever grateful to Danielle for capturing this phenomenon on camera:

You'll all be happy to hear that it is back up and in working order now. Not that it matters to me, because swim lessons have been cancelled all week because of the weather. Anyway...back to your regularly scheduled programming:

Monday began with my first excursion out into the world since Friday. I was really glad that I went and fetched my car from the car-fixing place in Mt. Airy on Friday, because the roads were awful, and I would not want to be the one responsible for driving my mother's car (which I had borrowed) into a snowbank. Tricia and I went to Home Depot, where I bought one of the last snow shovels they had (I had been borrowing Kathy's tiny car shovel, so I bought her a nice new one too); Target, where I replenished my baking supply and bought more hot tea (because that's what I am, a hotty); and then drove back by way of my office, the parking lot and surrounding areas of which were slushy death traps of doom. And every shopping place we went to was mobbed with people with cabin fever.

When I got back, I finally dug out my car. You'll note the giant pile of snow next to it. It took me like 2 hours.

The plows had come through to take care of the sidewalks, but they could only do so much. On the one sidewalk by my mailbox, they had just pushed it all into a giant pile, so if you wanted to get your mail, you had to either walk two thirds of the way there on the sidewalk and then go around into the street, or penguin yourself over the snow pile that is taller than I am.
I also spent a good hour and a half leaning out of my second floor windows with a shovel, smacking at the snow and trying to get it to fall off so it would stop making my gutter hang precariously off of the edge of the roof because of the weight of the ice. It was lovely. But sometime in that timeframe, I learned that work was to be closed on Tuesday as well. Yay!

That night, Kathy and I went to Tricia's to eat awesome cream of crab soup. Before it got dark and the roads started to freeze again, we went to the grocery store, which was rapidly running out of cheese,meat,

and more meat.

Also, Super Bowl cakes were on sale, since no one had made it to the grocery store the day before to buy them. I think there should've been a bigger discount on the losing team's cake, but there wasn't.

After that treacherous excursion, we returned home for the evening. Before and in between my regularly scheduled Monday night programming, I finished the last disc of My So-Called Life so I could mail it back to Netflix the next day. I maintain that Jordan Catalano is an idiot and I can't imagine what Angela saw in him, and I also have a crush on Brian Krakow. If that makes me a loser, then so be it. But I do like Ricky too, does that make me cool?! And then I went to bed, to rest up for another day of Snowcation.

Snowcation Day 1, a.k.a. The Walk Has All Been Cleared By Now

So...it snowed a bit here this weekend. And by "a bit," I mean "multiple feet." If we lived somewhere like Michigan or Massachusetts or Alaska, this would not be an event. However, we don't. We live in DC, Land of the Snow Pansies. Although as snow freakouts go, this one was rather warranted. Roads covered with wet, heavy snow; 2-3 inches an hour during the worst part; and, apparently snow lightning. I was asleep when this happened, but people assure me that it was real. It started Friday afternoon around 11...this picture is from about 2 pm, after we had been released from work early, and I'd gone to pick my car up from the car-fixing people in Mt. Airy.
The snow still wasn't sticking too much - it was more like sleet. By about 4, it was starting to get a bit fluffier.
By the time it got dark around 7:30, there was enough snow to make good footprints (which I made going to the mailbox to send back a Netflix DVD. My So-Called Life, Disc 4, if anyone cares.)
Annnnd...then I woke up Saturday morning.
Yeah, there were like 20 inches by then. The trees were covered,and so was everything that was on my front porch, including the flip flops I leave out there for emergency purposes. I think this was the snow trying to be ironic...beach shoes covered in snow.

And the snow wasn't done yet - it kept snowing for the better part of the day.

It was up to 22 inches by lunchtime,and almost two feet at its lowest point by the time Kathy came over to retrieve her shovel that afternoon.

That afternoon, I shoveled the front walk, which took entirely too long. But luckily, the snow had pretty much stopped by then, so I only had to do it once. I am a firm believer in the "wait until it's done" school of snow shoveling. Sunday morning, the sun was out, glaring off of the snow, and the people were tunneling their way out as well.

So...now I'm holding out hope that the sun will melt everything off of my car and the surrounding area. This will likely not happen, but since I don't have to go to work tomorrow, I'm in no hurry to clean it off anway.

And now...time to make cookies like last time! I think I'm going to start calling these Snowstorm Cookies. Any votes on what shape to make them?

Snowcation Day 2, a.k.a. We're Not Gonna Protest!

So, everyone in the DC area is all frantic about the snow. I choose to accept it. Anything that gives me an excuse to stay inside and watch movies all day, and cancels swim lessons and might even cancel work on Monday, is super duper in my book. My stupid thesis and the fact that my house is a mess got a little bit in the way of my weekend of sloth, but I've managed to fit in quite a few movies too. And I'm sure you want to hear all about them!

I started Friday night with the esteemed PCU, as inspired by Erin quoting it on Facebook. This movie is awesome, and if you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it. David Spade's best work not accompanied by Chris Farley, and you can never have too much of The Piven unless you count how many seasons of Entourage there have been. It's highly quotable, as well - it's the origin of the quote that serves as the title of this blog. Here, the trailer, if you've never seen it:




Saturday afternoon brought Walk Hard, a spoof of Walk The Line, which I've been meaning to rewatch since Sarah visited a few weekends ago and we watched one of the greatest scenes I've ever seen - when Dewey Cox meets the Beatles:



That scene will never, ever not be funny. "I know a song about an octopus!" Heh.


After a brief intermission for thesis-writing and cupcake-making for Kathy's mini-birthday party, the movie shows resumed. Next up - The Hangover, also known as the reason I walk around singing about tigers.


Kathy came over for dinner, as we were supposed to go out for her birthday that evening. Clearly, that didn't happen, so instead, I put an umbrella in her glass and told her it was a party. And I let her pick the movie. Since she has excellent taste, she picked Mamma Mia! You know what I love about Meryl Streep? That she's such an acclaimed actress, and that she's reached a place in her career where she can basically pick whatever the hell she wants to do. And she picks things like this. She clearly has fabulous taste. And also, I want to be Christine Baranski when I grow up.


Next up was a disc of Seinfeld episodes, including my first favorite episode (as in, the first episode to be my favorite one, not my favorite episode ever), The Parking Garage. I think of this scene every time I'm in a parking garage...




Sunday morning started with another Facebook-inspired choice. More than one of my friends had posted that they were watching Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. This is my favorite Marilyn Monroe movie, so I decided it would be next. Although, to be honest, I prefer Jane Russell's character to Lorelei, if only for this scene:




I also enjoy the part where Lady Beekman says "You'll find that I mean business!" and Dorothy says, "Oh yeah? Then why are you wearing that hat?" I want to be her when I grow up too.

Next, I chose For Your Consideration, in honor of Oscar season. You all may or may not know that I have coerced the Party Planning Committee at my office into having an Oscar party. Apparently no one was surprised when I suggested this. Can't imagine why. By why wouldn't you want to honor such fine cinematic moments as this?



The movie fest was paused after that, though, for it was the day of one of the greatest moments of the year. Yes, it was Puppy Bowl Sunday! My personal favorite was Jersey Boy, although Jake and Fava were quite the competitors as well.

Next, there was this football game on too. Last year there was one, and it was super awesome and we had a party and the Steelers won their sixth ring, and did I mention it was super awesome? This year, it wasn't nearly as exciting. Let me just tell you, football is not nearly as fun when you like both teams but don't have a preference between them. If you love one, you want the other to lose and you can yell at them. And if you hate one, you want the other to win, and you can yell at the one you hate. There's no one to yell at when both teams are fine! That being said, whenever they'd show Peyton Manning, I'd think of this. And I would be happy.



And so goes the weekend's television watching...stay tuned, because my work is closed Monday and Tuesday, and there's supposed to be more snow Tuesday night, so there will likely be another whole list of entertainment coming soon!