Lovely snowy weekend!
Okay, I admit it: this weekend was gorgeous and lovely. The snow was a delight.
Friday night, after work I went to Wegmans to grab some dinner, some needed groceries for the weekend, and a snack to take to our monthly story-sharing night at church. It was ridiculously cold so I knew all my groceries would be fine in the car for an hour or so. The sharing/discussion went fairly well, and we were wrapped up by 9:30. I stopped for gas on the way home, even though it was super cold, because it was supposed to snow on Saturday.
And snow it did! I didn't have much planned, but even that one lone thing - lunch with a friend (in Bowie! of all places!) - didn't happen. The NWS had a hell of a time pegging the amounts with this storm. In Silver Spring, it started right around when I got up - about 10:30 a.m. And it snowed solidly all day, sometimes quite heavily, until about 6 p.m. when it changed over to ice, and eventually rain. Since I didn't have to drive anywhere, it was absolutely lovely. I had the laziest morning possible, essentially. Then I heard from Amber that the spa was closing early, and she came home. I'd just showered and was going to walk to the liquor store and grocery store, but I waited until she got home safely, then headed out.
So nice! The roads were awful but that wasn't my concern. One guy out in a sports car just had everyone shaking their heads and pointing and laughing, basically. Like dude? Just no. I got my booze and I got food for steak fajitas that night. I invited Rodger who was stuck in his place mere blocks away, and he and Amber and I hung out and had whiskey and cider and fajitas and it was good. Another friend wanted to come - he lives like 20 minutes away and was ready to try to make the drive until the snow changed to ice. It's for the best. I'm all for the more the merrier but if something had happened I'd have felt awful!
I also baked my birthday cake Saturday night. The family was doing a low-key birthday lunch thing Sunday (provided the roads were okay, obviously) and I wanted my great-nan's German chocolate cake. (Really it's my dad's Great-Nan's chocolate cake - that's where the recipe/title came from.) We only really do it once a year anymore, and since Dad's not around to bake it that task usually falls to me. I don't mind baking my own cake because that way I don't have to trust it to anyone else. ;) I baked the cake before the fajitas, then took a fajita-pause while the cakes cooled, then made the frosting and put the whole thing together.
Eventually Rodger went home and Amber crashed out and I finished cleaning up the kitchen and went to bed.
I got up at 8:30 on Sunday, the evening before UUCC had already made the decision not to hold the 9 a.m. service, and sure enough on Sunday morning they checked out the roads and parking lot and made the decision to cancel the 11 a.m. service as well. It sucked, because it's our head minister's last week before her 5-month sabbatical, but it was the safest bet. Howard County sounds like they got more than we did, and the roads were still dicey.
By the time I got out to go to my brother and sister-in-law's though, the sun was high in the sky (it was about 12:30) and the temps were near 50 and the snow was melting like crazy. The pile of snow/slush my car was on, though? Would NOT let my wheels move. I cleared the car quickly with no problem, but the wheels would only spin. Some neighbors came by in a car and they stopped to ask if I needed help. They'd had the same issue and had needed to melt all the area around their tires with hot water to get rid of the slush. The guy got out to try to help push my car out of the space, though - and it WORKED! I thanked them profusely, wished them a good day, and drove off.
It was a gorgeous drive over to Davidsonville and then a lovely relaxing afternoon. The cake was really good if I do say so myself. =) Eventually I packed up and headed home, after seeing that the Youth Group meeting was also canceled. We'd already made the decision to postpone Book Club so my Terrifically Over-Scheduled Sunday turned into another more or less lazy day. I got home and did laundry, including a weird confrontation with a guy who was livid with me for taking his stuff out of the washer. Like, dude? When you have two washers and two dryers and both washers are full of someone's stuff but the loads are done? You move the stuff. I would expect anyone else to move mine in the same situation. But no, this guy had to mouth off at me a while. I nodded and said neutral things and eventually he left. It wasn't particularly frightening, exactly, but it was awfully weird. Fortunately I didn't see the guy again and did the rest of my laundering without incident. And I stayed up and watched the Oscars which was really, really dumb because they take way too long and I'd only seen a few of the nominated movies. Ah well! I'll go to bed really, really early tonight.
Friday night, after work I went to Wegmans to grab some dinner, some needed groceries for the weekend, and a snack to take to our monthly story-sharing night at church. It was ridiculously cold so I knew all my groceries would be fine in the car for an hour or so. The sharing/discussion went fairly well, and we were wrapped up by 9:30. I stopped for gas on the way home, even though it was super cold, because it was supposed to snow on Saturday.
And snow it did! I didn't have much planned, but even that one lone thing - lunch with a friend (in Bowie! of all places!) - didn't happen. The NWS had a hell of a time pegging the amounts with this storm. In Silver Spring, it started right around when I got up - about 10:30 a.m. And it snowed solidly all day, sometimes quite heavily, until about 6 p.m. when it changed over to ice, and eventually rain. Since I didn't have to drive anywhere, it was absolutely lovely. I had the laziest morning possible, essentially. Then I heard from Amber that the spa was closing early, and she came home. I'd just showered and was going to walk to the liquor store and grocery store, but I waited until she got home safely, then headed out.
So nice! The roads were awful but that wasn't my concern. One guy out in a sports car just had everyone shaking their heads and pointing and laughing, basically. Like dude? Just no. I got my booze and I got food for steak fajitas that night. I invited Rodger who was stuck in his place mere blocks away, and he and Amber and I hung out and had whiskey and cider and fajitas and it was good. Another friend wanted to come - he lives like 20 minutes away and was ready to try to make the drive until the snow changed to ice. It's for the best. I'm all for the more the merrier but if something had happened I'd have felt awful!
I also baked my birthday cake Saturday night. The family was doing a low-key birthday lunch thing Sunday (provided the roads were okay, obviously) and I wanted my great-nan's German chocolate cake. (Really it's my dad's Great-Nan's chocolate cake - that's where the recipe/title came from.) We only really do it once a year anymore, and since Dad's not around to bake it that task usually falls to me. I don't mind baking my own cake because that way I don't have to trust it to anyone else. ;) I baked the cake before the fajitas, then took a fajita-pause while the cakes cooled, then made the frosting and put the whole thing together.
Eventually Rodger went home and Amber crashed out and I finished cleaning up the kitchen and went to bed.
I got up at 8:30 on Sunday, the evening before UUCC had already made the decision not to hold the 9 a.m. service, and sure enough on Sunday morning they checked out the roads and parking lot and made the decision to cancel the 11 a.m. service as well. It sucked, because it's our head minister's last week before her 5-month sabbatical, but it was the safest bet. Howard County sounds like they got more than we did, and the roads were still dicey.
By the time I got out to go to my brother and sister-in-law's though, the sun was high in the sky (it was about 12:30) and the temps were near 50 and the snow was melting like crazy. The pile of snow/slush my car was on, though? Would NOT let my wheels move. I cleared the car quickly with no problem, but the wheels would only spin. Some neighbors came by in a car and they stopped to ask if I needed help. They'd had the same issue and had needed to melt all the area around their tires with hot water to get rid of the slush. The guy got out to try to help push my car out of the space, though - and it WORKED! I thanked them profusely, wished them a good day, and drove off.
It was a gorgeous drive over to Davidsonville and then a lovely relaxing afternoon. The cake was really good if I do say so myself. =) Eventually I packed up and headed home, after seeing that the Youth Group meeting was also canceled. We'd already made the decision to postpone Book Club so my Terrifically Over-Scheduled Sunday turned into another more or less lazy day. I got home and did laundry, including a weird confrontation with a guy who was livid with me for taking his stuff out of the washer. Like, dude? When you have two washers and two dryers and both washers are full of someone's stuff but the loads are done? You move the stuff. I would expect anyone else to move mine in the same situation. But no, this guy had to mouth off at me a while. I nodded and said neutral things and eventually he left. It wasn't particularly frightening, exactly, but it was awfully weird. Fortunately I didn't see the guy again and did the rest of my laundering without incident. And I stayed up and watched the Oscars which was really, really dumb because they take way too long and I'd only seen a few of the nominated movies. Ah well! I'll go to bed really, really early tonight.