Daily Ooos: Monday, February 15

[faerywings]

Have you looked at a Weather Advisory map of the US today? The whole darn thing is lit up! Slight exaggeration, I think it is closer to 90% colored in but yikes. I am seeing some scary headlines from TX and OK with the electric grids being overwhelmed and intentional brown/blackouts. Please stay safe and warm. When I woke Cait up just now, I told her that I know it really stinks that she is all remote, but I am breathing a big sigh of relief that she doesn't have to be on the roads. We are under a snow advisory today an then ice warning tonight into tomorrow, with up to .20" of ice accumulation. I am going to have to try to get the rest of the snow off of the hedges and maybe off of the roof of the porch overhang if I can reach it. Please let the power stay on here and for all of you too. I miss my wood stove. If we had that at least we would have some heat of the power goes out.

I am so bored with winter and can't wait until it is warm and everything is not snow-covered. (although the lawn is gonna be dis-GUST-ing when the snow melts and the dog poop is revealed. Blech!) I scrapped a cute page of Christopher cooking chili for the Theme Challenge which means I have 9/20 LOs completed. No pressure on someone who is a very slow scrapper and loses her mojo on a regular basis.
Not much happening today again. I might make some banana bread. Seems like it is a good day for that. And I should do what I can to make sure that if we lose power I am caught up on everything and that all devices are charged. I have to run the dishwasher and wash the dishes from dinner last night. Gary made his caramelized onion and garlic pasta (yum!) but left the dishes for me.

Have a wonderful day and be warm!

 

[faerywings]

@LSlycord - I am packing my bags and out the door! Plants and nurseries and listening to birds. That is *heaven* to me.

@BrightEyes I hope the snow didn't pile up too much and that your pipes didn't freeze. We might be getting the snow and ice but at least our temps are **huge air quotes** "warmer." Yup, that is what the parking lots are looking like now- piles and piles of snow. My friend was saying that you cannot even see across the street the piles are so high where she works.

@nancyr Your b-day dinner sounds delicious and fun! The kids are delightful! Love how your DH was playing with them and the nerf rockets. How old are they again? Upper elementary ages, IIRC? That is great that C and J got their vaccines too. We lucked out yesterday too but it doesn't look like that is going to hold out for us today.

@felis you make me laugh, so excited about the snow. Glad that you got some! You must have been so happy to be out in it! Eeeew! Good for you blocking that man so quickly. I am sorry that you don't have a nice Valentine yet, but know that we love you! (I know it isn't the same. Cait tells me that all of the time )
Some sites I use:
The Spruce
Crocheting for Dummies
Malloo Knits
Joy of Motion
Have fun!!!

@Cherylndesigns All of my fingers and toes are crossed that the switch for the water does the trick! I hope that your Day 3 was before that got fixed and that you are good to go.

@bcgal00 I saw the pic of Bella and Taz in the snow on FB and W does the same thing with her front legs that he was doing. The little pounce/flop. Too cute! When Jen moves out, will she be close enough for lots of puppy playdates?

xoxo

 

[nancyr]

good morning - well today should be interesting as the forecast is for ice and rain by morning. I think we are in the path of just a coating of ice but that is scary when it cant be seen. So far no problem. Luther is outside as I think he get hot in the house while I cant seem to get warm enough. I love hot showers. Scrapped some more pages in fact only 3 pages to go for my book so I am happy about that. My birding friend from California sent daffodils in bloom photos. Boy what a difference. I sent him back snow photos! I love the TV show Outlander and two of the stars Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish have put out a new show called Men in Kilts. If you like Outlander this show is pretty funny. The first episode was on food and drink. Today is a holiday for most but my DH is working. But luckily I have hockey at starting at 4pm. Lots of hockey in fact. A good day.

@faerywings Chris the kids are 5 and 4. I got to be tooth fairy as Livie has just lost her first two bottom front teeth. Love those smiles with missing teeth. I bet Cait is glad also that she is not driving to school. The weather this year is not nice. I am still blaming that ground hog in PA. Stay warm.

@BrightEyes Kay I am seeing your weather and the temps are lower than here. I am sure that we will get it soon. How much snow did you get? How did the pipes survive? Stay warm.

@Cherylndesigns how are those pipes doing? I could not believe the news about the crash outside of OK City. Our snow removal have been putting down a brine before the snow falls but we still had a lot of crashes too. This weather sucks!

Have a great day all!

 

[felis]

@faerywings thank you Chris, I'll check them! Actually I use exactly the Crocheting for Dummies book.

Regular post later.

 

[Cherylndesigns]

Good morning from The Polar Vortex!! Yes, we're smack dab in the middle of it! Horribly cold weather and still no water!

@Nancy, @faerywings we're on day 4. The guys just get it running and something else goes out. They know it's the switch now. Today, the new switch will go in. We're also losing heat - @faerywings I think your post explains that - they must have our area on forced brown outs. It was only 67 when we got up this morning, but now it's back up over 70. Our bedrooms have stayed nice and warm though. We're keeping all of the blinds pulled and our bedroom doors closed to retain heat.

This weather just sucks - that's all I can say about it! They haven't had this for years and it would happen the first winter we're here. Good news, it's supposed to be in the 50's next week. We've used up nearly all of our water stash. Ava's going to take all of our empty jugs to her house, today, and fill them up. Of course, everybody within a 50 mile radius is out of water. All we could get a couple of days ago was Dasani and "Life Water". LOL Water IS life - right?

LOL @faerywings about the dog poop when the snow melts. I loved that! They DID find bales of hay yesterday - 10 of them - and they're piled in the well house. Now, they discovered that it's a switch. Our son-in-law, his brother and the kids all worked so hard this weekend - out in that frigid weather! Bless their hearts! Braden and Ava were coming back up the hill, with all the hay bales in B's truck and couldn't make it. The truck slid off the road, but no damage. They just had to leave it down there. They took a heftier truck down and transferred the hay into it. SO much work - we were happy to feed everybody last night.

In spite of all, the "family spirit" is still strong and we had a great evening together!

 

[taxed4ever]

Morning sweet O-family !! Happy Family Day for all of us here in Canada! I was MIA yesterday and did not even get to my computer except to print off a recipe I needed for the Instapot. We (I should say my Gary) has been busy around here, helping all of the neighbours clear their driveways. I have been shoveling the snow off of our stairs and front porch. Still snowing again today, but they say it will turn to rain at some point this evening. So we will be dealing with more snowblowing today. I made a roast beef in the instapot last night , it was pretty darn good! DH got the oven to work again and so I told him I would make yorkshire pudding for him and hooray it actually stayed on for the whole process. We talked with the fellow who is going to do the repair for the oven and he is still waiting for one part to arrive, its taking forever!!! So I have all of my cleaning and laundry done, did all of that yesterday and so today I can play around with some scrapping and commenting here at the O. DH is heading out soon to get his toy out to play with again LOL. I think that maybe the thrill is starting to wear off now though.

@faerywings - Chris yes we are done with this winter weather already and we haven't really had a lot of it like you have! Looks like where Heather lives it will be crappy snow for the next few days too! She doesn't mind it too much, but then she is not the one who does the shovelling LOL , but I bet she wishes could help out! Jonah sent us a video yesterday of Heather driving the car , it was on the back roads and she did pretty good, but really she does not have a drivers licence nor should she be driving as she just does not have good reaction time for breaking etc. But Jonah said it made her feel free and she was thrilled to be able to do it. Yes I bet you are not looking forward to scooping up all that poop in your yard after the snow is gone!! Spring can't come soon enough!

@nancyr - Sounds like your birthday was lovely! Sorry you are having to deal with more snow and ice! Ugh! Yes that darn Groundhog, we will all blame him! I will have to check out that "Men in Kilts" show, sounds fun! Enjoy your hockey today! We will be watching also!

@felis - You handled the rescue of that poor dog, so well! You must be so good with animals! How wonderful! Bet you were scared when you thought it was your dog though! Hope you are getting better with crocheting, something I have never tried to do.
@Cherylndesigns - You are so right , this weathers sucks!!! Hope you are able to get the water back soon! Glad that they have figured out what the problem is! Hooray for warmer weather for you next week! It is supposed to be back to normal for us also by the end of the week.

Ok off to the gallery I go and then I will see what I can get inspired by to make a page of my own today! Have a great Monday everyone!

 

[scrap-genie]

We've just had a little snow but lots more coming later today. We're going to pop out to stock up on Diet Coke so we don't need to go out for some days. Yesterday was nice, DH liked the card, dinner was super (if I do say so myself) and we had some sports to watch in the afternoon despite football being over so had our Sunday popcorn.

@Cherylndesigns sure hope the problem with the water is fixed for real this time! Sorry you've got this intro to OK winter, really not normal. Our TV weather last night not only had photos from OK City, but even Tulsa. BiL there says his cat had decided to hibernate.

@faerywings Chris, glad you can see that not having to drive is a good side effect with this weather. But it is only the middle of Feb! Winter isn't going away anytime soon. Last winter we were spoiled by sort of not having any. So now we've gone the other direction.

@nancyr Nancy, sounds like a very nice & fun birthday. Enjoy the hockey!

@taxed4ever Trudy, hope your MG doesn't tire of his new toy before the snow ends! The roast sound wonderful and nice that the oven worked for the Yorkshire pudding. Also nice Canada and USA both have today as a holiday.

Everyone, hope you're warm and have water!!!

 

[BrightEyes]

Frigid again this AM! 9* according to the weather report but it was all the way up to 14* when I checked my weather monitor @ 7:30 AM. BRRRRR!!!!! Suppose to get to 29* for a high. We got about 2" of snow last night. Today is our 'in between storms' day. Another one is suppose to hit late tonight. We have been lucky... keep power. No rolling black-outs for our area so far. Need to mail some bills but not going anywhere until the roads are better.
I spent yesterday afternoon sorting paperwork and gathering up taxes info. I have all but one of the reports I need. So will getting everything to my tax gal later on this week. Hope the weather/roads are better then. Also worked on a couple of LOs. Ended up spending lots of time playing around with doing sketches on some photos and next thing I knew I had been at for a few hours... but learned a lot about how to clean-up the sketch before saving them. Well worth the time spent.

Chris, you made my mouth water when you mentions making banana bread. I have some frozen bananas (I freeze them if they are getting too ripe) so may have to break down and bake some soon. Will have to wait until this cold snap is over as they are asking people to conserve gas and electricity by keeping their heat turned down and not doing unnecessary things like laundry, baking, etc. Glad that none of your family has to be going out right now.

Trudy, glad your DH managed to get your oven working temporality and you got the yorkshire pudding made for your Gary. Sure hope the part for it comes in soon and that resolves the issues with it. Still LOL over Gary being so happy over using the snowblower some more.

Cheryl, sure hope that the new switch will resolve the issue with the well. Yikes... sorry about the truck sliding off the road. But glad that no one was hurt and they managed to use the larger one to transport the haybales up to the well house. I am keeping my blinds and insulated drapes closed to help keep the family room warm. Have the temp set at 65* and dressed in layers... plus I have my fluffy fleece throws.

Nancy, glad you had a nice birthday dinner and enjoyed your day. Yes, a good book is a fine way to spend some time.

Time to get some lunch before the afternoon slips away. CYL

 

[felis]

Hello ladies!
Happy Family Day for Canada!
It was beautiful winter day, and I enjoyed the view and took few pics for one of the challenges. But nothing else didn't live up to expectations. I started a few tasks, but nothing come to the end. Can we call that work in progress instead laziness?

Chris, my cats have wood stove and we fireplace, as right now it's too cold for air conditioners (this is one of the shots I took today, for this page I was talking above). I hope power to stay for all of you! Do you have back up plan as Propane Heater? Please be careful cleaning the snow from high!
Yes I was on walk today again! It's a little bit strange, before I was able to pretend that I'm out to the store, or for coffee with some friend, now I have no excuse. Today one neighbor mentioned that he wasn't see me without the dog from months, and I was just "ummm , I'm running tasks". Nope, sorry, friend's love and self love not count on V day, but at least it's only once at year! Thanks again for the links! Will check it soon!

Cheryl, but now you will have this lovely story: " the first winter here was one of the coldest from years", "oh, yes do you remember when we was out of water, noo, without connection was worse", and then all laugh and compare which hands was freeze most. Ah, memories always looks better from the distance of the time.

Nancy, you mean outside daffodils not from greenhouse?! How weird. But why not, it's different everywhere. Nope, I'm not hurry for that! LOL!

Trudy, scraping time for you and snow blowing for Gary, sounds as a funny day for both of you! Is it there something special that you usually do on Family Day or it's just a free day?

Jean, of course that you can praise your own dinner, as usual we are most critical to ourselves! It's wonderful that you had such a nice V day! I hope you was able to stock up everything that you'll need for few days! Stay warm and I hope forecast to not happens in full! Oh, yes, my cats are also too lazy and sleepy now at the cold.

Kay, hope you'll be able to send the bills on time, just be very careful with the roads!

Linda, today I'm posting early than it's usual for me, so if you come after that: wave!

 

[Cherylndesigns]

@taxed4ever @scrap-genie @BrightEyes @felis We're hanging in there! Still no water, but the guys are working on it. We go through gallon jugs of water like crazy! Sure makes us appreciate the parts of the world who don't have access to water! Did you know it takes 1 gallon of water to flush the toilet????? That's crazy! We have 12 empty gallon jugs for the kids to refill tonight and get us through tomorrow. @faerywings I DO keep going over to the water and turning it on. I yi yi Habits are hard to break.
Now, I guess that they're "rationing" the heat so the main grids don't blow completely! @faerywings I think you mentioned this in an earlier post. When we went to bed last night, it was getting cold in here (no matter what we had our thermostat set on. About 5 this morning, the temperature in the house was 65 degrees. Not very warm when it's zero outside. It's kind of bizarre that the "man" can control the heat distribution.

Many years ago, we went to Florida for two weeks between Christmas and New Year (like we did for years) and they had a similar thing to this - REALLY cold unusual weather. We had pre-paid a BUNCH for our condo and they "rationed" the heat and the pool wasn't heated. Hey, when you pay THAT much for a beach front condo, you expect that, at least, the pool will be heated. I'll never forget that experience!! SO similar to what we're going through now. BTW: it's supposed to be near 60 here in a week.

 

[felis]

@faerywings Hey Chris, what you think, it looks like I'm not completely hopeless!
I know I know it's not a right circle, but I almost figure it out.