Digging Out

After the storm, the sun was bright.

My two furs (the dog and the human); looking very stoic.

We shoveled...by hand. Snow blowers be damned! And YES, I did help.

The reason I do what I do..... (not really).

The downed large branch, in the glistening light of day. Suddenly, it's not so irksome.

Matt, at the end of the drive, conquering the dreaded mound the snow plow leaves behind. (Would you believe I did the rest? No? Well, I did.)

She's usually not so stern in real life. She doesn't like her photo taken.

Yep; she's a bit irked.

Whiteout

Look, it's hard to get a clear shot in blizzard conditions. Plus, my dog model wasn't cooperating at all.

This is the shot I used for my updated winter banner, above. This is our backyard, with a tree about to come down. I heard some creaking, so I made like a bandit and got the heck outta there. Note: It's hard to run in two-plus feet of snow.

Oh, lookie here. This is a 40-foot "branch" that came down in the back. This is when I started shrieking and told Matt and Penny to get out of our rinky dink sun room for protection: it was like a blitzkrieg of falling trees!

View from my bedroom window. It looks more elegant from above. (When you go to street level you see all the branches are drooping haphazardly to the ground. It's all very disconcerting and pathetic.)

These are the first branches that fell. They fell on our roof, but that's okay. "You can take our shingles, but you can't take our freedom!"

I thought I'd leave you with this glamorous self-portrait. I need some mascara and a shower, but gosh darnit, I was going to brave this storm and take ridiculous, unflattering photos! You can thank me later.

A wintery mix

On Friday night when Matt was going out to pick up our Chinese take-out, he mentioned he was also going to get "some necessities" for the storm. The Chinese place is right next to a grocery store, so I just assumed....I dunno....chocolate milk, or something. Or his favorite cereal. But no. He drove another couple miles to the beer distributor. Here's his "necessity". But of course...

Philadelphia got 28.5 inches. We live in the suburbs and got perhaps 20. You say potato, I say pa-taut-o...tomato, ta-maut-o.

When I was shoveling, Matt was doing this.

And a bit of that. (He has big nostrils.)

Here's Penny the dog, supervising the shoveling effort (without much success)...but doesn't she look so stern?

YAAAWWNNN

No one really talks about the general fatigue that accompanies Crohn’s. Now, granted, I am lazy (incredibly so, at times, as my laundry has sat on my floor for 2.5 weeks now), but ever since college I’ve felt more tired than usual. This was before I was diagnosed with Crohn’s and simply thought I have a very sensitive stomach. In the following years my symptoms worsened and could no longer be ignored, and I was diagnosed about a year after I graduated from college. But in school I recall going to my mother’s doctor – who I never had a particular fondness for (okay, my sister and I think she’s a witch) – and explaining I’d been feeling terribly sluggish and she essentially said it was in my head and to lose some weight. Lovely.

And it’s difficult to understand a disease that isn’t visible, and may even be controlled and in remission. I look fine, and recently I feel fine, but I’m often just, simply put, very tired. And I’m not talking about the exhaustion that comes along during a flare and you’re flat wiped out (but that too). I’m talking every day, excuse-me-while-I-yawn, a-good-3.5 hour-nap-in-bed-would-be-nice, how-am-I-going-to-get-through-the-workday tired.

This past week I’ve been wiped out. I come home, put on pajamas, and lay (lie? I never got that one right). I’m stressed, and thus, utterly exhausted. This blog post is not well-written: I cannot even muster the energy to pop in a witty quip! So it goes without saying I am completely excited that we’re having a big snow storm tonight. My bed is fitted with flannel sheets, I have silly glossy magazines galore, bad t.v. to catch up on, and I have all the fixin’s for potato and leek soup and homemade bread. I also just enrolled in a course to prep me for a professional certification and have 200 pages to read on labor laws and risk management this weekend. Sigh. I’m hoping the warm bread and the flannel sheets make up for it.

Have a terrific weekend, all. Snuggle with someone you love and have a cup of hot tea. Also, some delicious recipes are coming.

Snow day!

Today it snowed more than a foot (18 inches in Philadelphia so far) on the Eastern seaboard (and it's still snowing into the night)! Matt and I spent 6 hours (6!) watching The Tudors, and thought we should finally venture outside to stage a doggie photo shoot (well, the photo shoot was my idea, he was all about "shoveling" or some such hogwash). After some homemade hot chocolate with no less than 36 mini marshmallows apiece, we took to the driveway. Here is Penny, not very happy in the storm. But we thought it was sort of magical.

I said to Matt, "Let me take your picture!" I thought he was just posing.


Until he hit me in the face. Here is the gruesome after shot. My winter wonderland suddenly turned very dark. Vengeance was mine. (Coincidentally, this photo is entitled "Sexy Face, Number Two")

Matt thought this was all very funny. Even when I held a pile of snow he mocked me and called me a "sissy".

Until I hit him with the snowball. Then everything felt a little better...for me.

Back inside, I made some impromptu "Christmas Pizzas" with a toasted Italian loaf of bread, pasta sauce, pesto, bell peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, and of course, cheese.

Continuing the Christmas spirit we're watching Elf and wrapping gifts.
I hope your snow day was just as jolly.

Snow Dog

Winter Wonderland

Matt shovels as I take out-of-focus, silly pictures.

Our backyard.

Front yard and street.

Penny enjoying the snow.

Penny VERY angry at me for:
1) throwing snow on her face, and
2) making her sit on the cold snow as I snap annoying photos.
(This is the angriest I've ever seen her!)