Spring Weirdness

Spring is time for weird weather here, and the past week has been no exception. Mopeds left out in the snow are a sure sign - this is what we woke up to this morning.

I would like to note that although I have been whining all winter that we haven't had enough snow, I am currently feeling unenthusiastic about it all.

Today's weather is in stark contrast to the previous weekend which was 70 degrees, albeit with ice still on the lakes and the warming house still up at Lake of the Isles.

And apropos of nothing, while Pandora was playing recently on my genius TV, an album cover with a detail from a Manet painting was showing beside the poster I have with the same detail (from a show I saw with my mother at the Grand Palais in 1983).

Happy spring!

Marshmallow World

Last night:

This afternoon:

I still love the cold, clear days after a storm :-)

Food and Snow

I just want to say that, for the first time in my life, someone brushed the snow off my car for me. Ok, sure, people have done it for me while I warmed up the car, but that was because they wanted to go somewhere. Auntie's neighbor brushed off my car just to be nice.

It was actually frozen shut; took a lot to get one of the doors open (passenger side).  I gave him cookies anyway.

Sure am glad I have that underground parking spot.

I went to The Kitchen Window and Lund's yesterday (guess where my mind is?).

Kitchen Window has monster paella pans.

The smallest of them can be rented - when filled with paella it feeds 60.

I told Auntie about the fantastic bell pepper display at Lund's.  When I said I took pictures, she looked at me kinda funny.

I told her, "I guess I don't get out enough."

Also in cooking, I tried a new recipe - beef cooked with kosher salt, olive oil, orange zest, nutmeg and cracked pepper.  It was delicious.

On Destruction and Construction

Regarding the frozen bunny in the snowbank - forensic evidence suggests that the bunny was the victim of a cat and that the blizzard buried what said cat was saving for later. We did not find an entire bunny, but then there is still a lot of snow back there. Who knows what the spring thaw may uncover?

And speaking of destruction, I've never seen a building demolition take as long as this one. I mean, let's get it over with, shall we? This has been left half-done for months. Or maybe it just feels like months. I don't know, but it bugs me that the demo team has left it like this. It's really ugly.
Conversely, in the creative construction arena I discovered this snow fort recently.

I have lived in Minnesota most of my life and I can honestly say that I have never seen anything even close to this. Ever. Ok, maybe Winter Carnival but those people are professionals.
This is somebody's yard.

It was kind of funny because when I turned around, going out of my way to show Boy-child, he was starting to scoff in anticipation when I told him I'd found an awesome snow fort. He says a lot of my observations/comments are scoffable. When the snow-fort came into view he was staring with his mouth hanging open, not scoffing. :-P

And here's a pretty, random, kind of old and possibly recycled moon shot from the backyard. Just for funsies.

An Angel on the Block

I didn't take many pictures, given the fact that I spent a lot of time driving through the blizzard instead of walking, but here are a few shots from yesterday and today:
The Jag across the street. No room in the garage because of the boat and other toys.

The picnic table on our deck, which is pretty protected in spite of being on the north side of the house.

The neighbor's house. They are in Japan. Whoever was contracted to shovel didn't show up.

Last night after Boy-child finished the shoveling out front.

This morning out back. That's going to be one narrow path by March. Pato got a real workout.

It was, of course, a beautiful morning.

There were drifts in weird places, though.

Our street, which still hasn't been plowed.

The angel mentioned in the title is the guy in the duplex across the street. I went over to shovel the front for the neighbors who are in Japan since by 8pm no one had showed up (still). The guy next door brought over his snowblower WHICH WAS THE MOST AWESOME SNOWBLOWER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE! He is my new best friend. The neighbors' house no longer looks uninhabited.

Snowy Adventures Continued

Well, whatever you do, don't go out there. At least, not in a car.

Boy-child and I hopped in the car and set out to Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis to get him to work. He learned how to push a car up an alley to get to the street today. Good lesson, I say. It was treacherous but passable until we got to the Riverside Ave exit on the interstate. There was a wall of snow blocking the exit ramp. Did they forget to plow it or could they not see it? What could we do but continue to Cedar, get back on the interstate going east and exit Riverside from the other direction. Success!

I did not rent any movies as I was unwilling to stop, making Boy-child hop out of the car in the middle of Franklin Avenue.

Then there was the question of how to get home. Franklin was pretty clear, so I continued to River Road, which is a snow emergency route. Unfortunately, it was only plowed to the border. St Paul hasn't gotten to it yet. Surprised? No, I'm not either. I made it back to Highland and decided to go to Lund's parking lot since I was obviously never going to make it back down the alley.

Lund's parking lot is not clear. Oops. I think this is a first. I know I've done that trick at least twice before.

So there I was, in my car, no streets plowed, nowhere to park .... what to do, what to do?

And then, an epiphany. The ramp! There's a ramp at Lifetime Fitness across the street from Lund's.

I don't care what it costs. I just hope I can get to the bookstore by 7:00 tomorrow morning.

Today's Snowy Adventures

Ha ha ha ha:

Ironically enough, a celebration in St. Paul of the 20th anniversary of Will Steger’s International Trans-Antarctica Expedition was cancelled because of the weather. His six-member team, from five other countries, endured bitterly cold temeratures and whiteout conditions on their way to the South Pole in 1990. Sound familiar? posted by: Bob von Sternberg blog post link here.

There's nothing I like better than a good snowstorm. This is no surprise to those of you who know me. Today we're having a whopper. Some are calling it "The storm of the century" but frankly, they say that so often that it doesn't mean anything any more. For previous snowy posts go here here here and here.

At any rate, I was scheduled to work in Brooklyn Center today, so off I went. Campus was open but not many folks showed up. An hour later it was decided we would close. I drove home. One co-worker emailed me, was shocked to find out I was on campus and asked, "Do you have four-wheel-drive?" to which I responded, "No, I'm from Minnesota." She's Australian born (we all have our cross to bear, don't we?).

So I came home, made a hearty breakfast and fed Boy-child and Pato. Now I have stuff to do before taking Boy-child to work, which means there are more snowy adventures to come.

I will say that I am ever so happy that Girl-child and I went to get a tree last night.

North Face

Last night we watched an incredibly intense, fascinating movie about mountain climbing Germans and Austrians in Switzerland in the 1930s called The North Face.

Which got me thinking about the company, North Face; very popular here in Minnesota since they have quality winter gear (and camping too, if you're into that).

And then we woke up to the first snow of the season.

I went downtown on the light rail to breakfast with a friend who's in town from Denver.

Found it kind of funny that they have snowflakes on the light posts downtown. Hardly necessary.
Also made me chuckle when my friend mentioned The Mary Tyler More show.

Don't think she would have been taking off her hat this morning.

Finally a Real Snowstorm

There was snow this morning - about ten inches, I believe, over the last 24 hours. It was too treacherous this morning to take photos along the way, but there was this scene out my office window:
The honey on my desk looked particularly warm and sunny today:
And some day I'm going to bowl at the Student Center just for the $#@! of it:

Cold Monday

It snowed the other day - I love snow and I feel that we've been short-changed this year.

I especially love it in the morning before there are any tracks:


The cat doesn't have a problem with the snow. He's king:
Girl-child brought this home from campus - the Republican student publication:
One of the articles was written by a person who doesn't have a problem giving up a few civil liberties to keep the country safe. Very scary.

Snow is the Best Insulation

Now, there are many people in the Northern latitudes who will tell others that snow is a good insulator. Many people (feckless people from the tropics, mostly) will laugh at this.

I beg to differ.

P's car has been huddled under a blanket of snow for five or six weeks now - I can't really remember. I should have been baby-ing it before I left and I should have paid it attention as soon as I got back, but I didn't. I had other things to do. I had important things to do, like knit and read and watch movies and hide in my warm house when the windchills dipped to dangerously low levels.

He's coming back this week.

This is what it looked like when I went out to the alley this afternoon:
Now many people may wonder, why dig out his car for him? Why not let him do it himself? I answer: What is he going to do if his car is not available? He'll be looking to drive mine. This is a bad week to loan out my car. I have Knitters' Guild and Book Club and Very Important Activities this week for which I will need my car.

I was more than a little worried that it wouldn't start. My first try, in fact, it made no noise at all. Nothing. Nada. Then I remembered a little quirky thing about this car: You have to have the clutch engaged for it to start. I put my foot on the clutch, turned the key, and voila! Car running.

Nice car. Sweet little Saturn. It now looks like this:

The whole scene reminded me of a phone call I had, many years ago, when I was working for the evil airline, and I had a Saturn executive on the line. He was very nice. I wish I knew his name, so that I could send him a note and tell him that our little '92 Saturn started up right away in Minnesota in January after a long period of neglect.

In the meantime, chili was cooking with peppers that were on special at the grocery store. They were so pretty in the pan, I just had to take their picture:

Boy-child and I dropped Girl-child off at the dorm today (wow - no wonder she wants to go back to school, it was a regular screaming love fest when the elevator door opened, her buddies were so glad to see her). After that, we went to the library to get some info on the fall of Carthage and the Punic Wars (no, I'm not kidding). He has a history project to do.

In the lobby there was an F-bomb:
This is the close up:

Art with a sense of humor.

How fantastic is that?