The Great Blizzard of 2015

We had our first blizzard this weekend.  What is crazy about it, is that I knew we were in for 6-10 inches of snow, but I kinda shrugged it off, thinking it wasn't a big deal, since New York and the East Coast were supposed to get a blizzard last week and the actual amount of snow fall was in, many places, underwhelming.  So, when we got 10" of snow on Saturday night, I thought, "oh, well, that is nice."  But then Sunday, the snow kept falling.  And I made the classic new parent mistake of agreeing to take Nico to Target to spend some $$ that Aunt Rosie sent him for Christmas.  

Well, let's just say that there is a funny thing that happens to side streets in Chicago when there is a lot of snow.  If it is still snowing, they often don't get plowed.  So, that is what was happening Sunday afternoon when we were trying to make it back to the house.  Spaulding Ave. was a parking lot.  

At one point, I got out of my car to help dig out a car a couple of cars in front of us.  I was gone for a while, but by the time I got back, Nico was in tears.  Apparently, he couldnt see me, so he had gotten upset.  Man oh man.  Both of us were pretty upset at that point.  In any case, my car ended up getting stuck.  Around that time Dave had just gotten home with groceries and he suggested just parking it near where we were (side note: Dave had gotten stuck trying to leave to get groceries).  We ended up parking by a fire hydrant, and let me just say, I would have raised quite the commotion had I gotten a ticket.  Quite the commotion.  

All told, we ended up with 19" of snow-which isn't going anywhere anytime soon.  Nico had a snow day on Monday,which was great. It gave us a chance to do a little shoveling and time to get caught up on homework and reading and snuggles.  I even got a nap in. 

The good news is that, which this much snow, you know sledding is going to be off the hook.  Except that the last sledding outing resulted in Nico and Dave breaking the old sled.  So, now we gotta get a new one.  Imma try to get one of those big ones with a strap on it, so Dave and Nico can tote me around in the snow.  

Dave got a proof of the second edition of his book in the mail last week.  It's pretty cool- except that now he has written two books and me none (unless you'd count my dissertation- which I wouldn't- since I didnt get it bound up).   

Ringing in the New Year

After the holidays are always kind of a bummer... it's a bit of a let down, right?

Winter Storm Hercules made us a visit over New Years.  We got a bunch of snow.  Which was cool.  Like enough to render cars buried in snow.  Dave is still working on his deadline, so Nico and I hung out most of New Year's Day.  We played Royseball and I taught him Slap Jack and Old Maid. Coincidentally, when you are only playing with two players, most (and in our experience all) games of Old Maid end in a tie.  The good news is, that I love this age with Nico because we can start playing board games and card games.  Although, something tells me this kid is going to kick my ass at Boggle. Still, I am looking forward to him being a scotch older, mostly because he needs to be introduced to the Bishop method... which is running all your errands and doing all your chores on Saturday morning and spending Saturday afternoon, evening, and Sunday lazing around the house and reading the 9314129347 books you got from the library.  

We also did a fair bit of shoveling on Jan 1.   I wonder what I have to do in order to keep the novelty of shoveling snow for him. Because it would be great to have a 12 year old that shovels all the snow.  Don't tell Dave I said that... I'm not allowed to talk about difficulties of winter weather.  For ever.

I also did a fair bit of knitting.  My mom taught me to knit in the round, which is just like regular knitting, only easier. The socks I am wearing in the picture below were knit by her... in peacock colors... I am halfway though a hat for Le Boy... If Dave doesn't watch it, he's going to end up with a hat too!!  Although he probably wouldnt wear it, because he likes the Stoner hat that Aunt Judy got him last year (he wears it pretty much everyday).  

I'd been procrastinating on some errands that needed to happen.  So Wednesday afternoon, I sent Dave to Panera so he could work.  When Nico woke up from nap, we shoveled the car out and set about our errands.  Mind you, I had never driven in snow, but I figured a good way to start would be on a holiday with few people on the road.  I did a pretty good job shoveling the car out- it was surprisingly easy to navigate our road.  Most of the main roads were pretty well shoveled and salted.  

Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist with me using my phone while driving, know that we were at a stop light stopped when the light turned.  

Parking the Kia was a different story- because when I got home, I almost got stuck trying to park.  I finally ditched the parallel parking idea and chose to bury my car in 10" of unshoveled snow in the next block.  

Apparently a 10" snow is business as usual, because Thursday DePaul was open and Nico's school was open.  So I was back at work.  I got a lot going on and am trying to get my feet under me.  I know that my job isn't like being President of the US or even being an Assistant Professor, but damn it's hard to take almost three weeks off.  In any case, I am back on the grind.