Snow Days

We had a very fun and exciting weekend. Although we didn't get the 6"-12" of snow that was forecast, we did get a few inches followed by the right conditions to turn that snow into a hard shell on everything that wasn't immediately cleared off.

Church was canceled on Sunday and driving was discouraged (because a lot of the people here apparently are idiots when it comes to snow driving). We made lemons into lemonade and had a wonderful friends-, food- and fun-filled weekend.

We ate at Panda Express on Friday night and then played fun games at R&L's.

I didn't realize just how comprehensively I missed the snow until we were driving and fishtailed on a turn and the only thought I had was a wonderfully nostalgic thought along the lines of "Now this REALLY feels like home!"

Saturday morning, Jeran shoveled our sidewalk and then tackled our friends driveway and sidewalk with a square-mouth shovel. We had sausage egg sandwiches and muffins for breakfast at A&M's and then relaxed and played games.

We also got to play with the cutest baby ever (R&L's). She has learned lots of new things recently like crawling and grabbing anything that looks interesting. She had a hard time moving around on the hard floor though.

We also managed to fit in some homework, apparently unnecessary Sunday lesson planning, and a few other things around the house.

Saturday night we went to R&L's and ate delicious Hawaiian haystacks. We played Bananagrams, Pears in Pairs, Call of Duty (blagh), CatchPhrase, and Rock Band.

In CatchPhrase, the girls stomped the boys by being quick-witted and using ESP:

"Uh, This is something Michael Jordan did."

"Moonwalk!"

"Yes!"

"It's a baseball team."

"Orioles!"

"Yes!"

The boys lost. Example:

After having separately guessing the words "laser" and "beam",

"Now put the two words together!"

"Tractor beam!"

"No"

"Tractor light?"

"No no no! The other word!"

"Tractor beam?"

"NO! The word from before!"

"Uh.............."

BUZZ!

Sunday morning, I slept in since our 9:00 church was canceled. At 11:00, R&L and A&M came to our house for Sunday brunch (Biscuit cinnamon rolls, hash brown and sausage breakfast bake, and muffins). Then we relaxed, watched Johnny Lingo (two people had never seen it!) and one or two of the New Testament lesson supplement videos and played Risk. It was my first time playing Risk the real way and apparently it was a non-typical game, since it only took about an hour (with 6 players) with Mary dominating the world in a very small number of turns. I think I still prefer my made-up way.

Then A&M taught me and Jeran how to play Agricola. It was pretty awesome. And not just because I won. :) After wrapping your head around the complexities of the game and it's strategy, it is very fun and interesting and we had been wanting to learn how to play it for some time now.

So all in all, it was a very fabulous weekend. And the snow is still here on Monday - schools are canceled, garbage collection is delayed, etc. but it will probably almost all be melted after today. I can hear it drip, drip, dripping away outside right now...

Delightful weather and other stuff

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful;
but the fire is so delightful.
Since we've no place to go,
let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

Today in Durham we received about 3 inches of snow between late last night and about noon today. After not yet seeing any snow at all this winter, this is a very welcome sight. I love when it snows here because it is such a big deal. In fact, the new governor declared a State of Emergency because some areas that normally get no snow all year received almost 6 inches in one night.

Jeran is at home today (doing some data analysis work stuff) because despite our best efforts, we could not find a bus to take him to Chapel Hill. We drove down to the nearest bus stop about a mile away and I dropped him off there. About 30-40 minutes later, he calls and says he is still waiting there and no bus has come. I went back and picked him up and we went to the mall bus stop, with the hope that that one would actually make it since a lot of it's route is on the interstate and not residential roads. After waiting there for about 30-40 minutes (in the warm car this time - I'm so nice), he gave up and decided to just work from home. At that rate he probably wouldn't have made it in time for his only class of the day anyways. It has been fun having him home even though we are mostly just sitting in separate rooms doing our separate work.

Also noteworthy today was the inauguration of President Obama. I know, I know, these stories should really be in the opposite order with the inauguration being the headliner. It's just that my day was more defined by the snow than the politics. Oh well.

I watched the swearing in and the inaugural speech and I have to say it was pretty good. I enjoyed Obama's speech but I could have done without seeing the touching shots of the crowd, or whatever those were supposed to be. Maybe they show people crying or nodding at every inauguration. I can't remember. Anyways, good luck Obama. I hope you can do all those things you aimed us toward.