I swear there’s still snow on the ground. Where it’s been piled up. A guy told me the other day it’s actually synthetic snow.
Here are some pics I never posted. I just this minute decided that while Butler’s in Afghanistan, there’s no deadline for blogging. I’ve all along had this news thing that if it’s more than a day old it’s worthless. Which means, these days, that when I get a chance to blog I leave lots of stuff behind. So let’s see how I do with posting old stuff …
Filed under in the bubble
Day whatever. I’ve lost count. I haven’t seen a car slide back down the big hill here all day. Every now and again I’ll hear a big sheet of ice slide off the roof.
Thursday, 2 pm. It is melting.
Driveway, still treacherous. I suppose I should send one of these teens out with a shovel.
3:30 pm: Cobb schools closed again Friday. That makes a 10-day weekend for these kids. They’ve tired of roaming in big hordes, though, and have started keeping more limited company. The ones who don’t live in the ‘hood have actually gone home. And I had a productive day of work today.
Happy snowed-in 16!
This is your life, Warren Lawson. Either that, or a deranged cheerleader exploded in your kitchen.
Filed under in the bubble
Thoughts on Day 3 of Snomageddon ’11 …
The sun is shining. Surely it will melt today.
We have power. We have the Internets. Remember the ice storms of the ’70s?
Whatever happened to nothing stopping the mail? “Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night.” My mailbox has been empty since Saturday.
Facebook is an excellent source of information as well as entertainment when you’re snowbound. School closings, road conditions, photos of other people’s dogs …
Warren’s 16th (!) birthday tomorrow may be snowed out in part. Even Amazon isn’t making it here in this weather.
I keep seeing pictures of dogs who love this stuff — even one who makes snow angels. Our Cubbie? Notsomuch. It’s all I can do to get her to go make her yellow snow.
2 pm update: There are no kids in my house! Not 1! Gone elsewhere for the afternoon! Back to the real job…
Filed under Cubbie the wonder dog, in the bubble
On Monday night I looked around and realized I had used, in one day, the breadmaker, the KitchenAid (whipped cream for hot chocolate in a jiffy), the crock pot and even the food processor, which I never drag out.
Hey, if you’re stuck in the house slinging food at kids, you might as well make good use of that kitchen time.
With snow on the way, I decided Sunday night to fetch the New Year’s hambone out of the freezer and make stock for beans and soup. This was the biggest one I’ve ever had, and after 3 or 4 hours I had about 2 gallons of strong stock. Covered two bags of (already soaked) navy beans with some of it and turned on the crockpot before I went to bed.
Monday morning, while cooking grits for the Littles — or maybe it was while I was cooking eggs and sausage rolls for the Bigs– I got it in my head that I wanted to make a sort of bean-with-bacon soup. I whirred half of the navies in the food processor with broth, garlic, seasonings and, at the very end, some ham from around the bone. Finished with a touch of cream. Dee-lish. Somewhere in there, I tossed off a pound cake for a friend’s birthday and had the kids slide down the hill to deliver it. Wonder if it made it in one piece?
Tuesday morning I cooked bacon and sausage rolls and grits and oatmeal, and then Allison rescued me for second time this week, this time to go to the store for provisions. More juice, eggs, frozen pizzas, sandwich stuff, bacon, cheese, Ramen … they ate 6 packs of Ramen for lunch with their ham sandwiches.
At 5 pm I kicked out all but two of the ones who don’t belong to me. And made 3 chicken pot pies from a chicken and broth I had cooked and frozen a few weeks ago. It was sort of nice to serve a meal before there was horde of teens banging forks on the table for it.
Tomorrow I think I’ll make chicken soup.
Filed under Food, in the bubble
Has it only been 24 hours? Feels like a week.
Cook breakfast, feed kids, clean up. Kids go play in snow. Deep breath and go back to work. Look out the window. Here come The Bigs. Stuff dryer. Find lounge pants and Tshirts. Cook, feed clean up. Sort clothes out of dryer. Look for shoes that will fit Max (good luck with that). Heave a big sigh. Go back to work. Out the window: Here come The Littles. Activate dryer. Pop popcorn. More apple cider. Break up wrestling match. Find more gloves, hats, socks, shoes. Bigs come in and want tomato soup and grilled cheese. “I’m not cooking for you — eat what you can put in the microwave! And clean up after yourself!” Right. More iterations of same… it’s all a blur.
Next, as soon as I find my phone with the pictures: What I Cooked During the Snow-Induced Domestic Burst of Energy.
Filed under in the bubble
in BDay's bubble 
