Preparing for our first big NE Snowstorm

People are absolutely freaking out about the snowstorm that is anticipated to hit us this afternoon/evening. The Governor even ordered all non-essential government employees stay home from work today. Here is how my snowstorm day went:

8:30 am
Dropped off Rick at the T station.

8:45 am
Went to Roche Brothers grocery store to pick up cardamom for a recipe. The parking lot was packed. People were circling the parking lot in their cars waiting for a parking space to open up like buzzards circling an almost dead animal. No cardamom but did get some asparagus for a salad.

9:15 am
Stopped at Bay Sweets Middle Eastern Grocery on my quest for cardamom. People were also stocking up there. Pita, olives, and yogurt were bought in mass quantities. One gentleman bought three quarts of olives. Really? This storm is only supposed to last the weekend. How many olives can you eat in one weekend.

9:30 am
A. C. Moore craft store. I had to return some yarn that I did not use on a project. Total old lady thing to do, but I wanted my two bucks back.

10:00 am
Costco. I was there yesterday and it had been nuts. Today was even worse. At least 75 people were lined up outside the store waiting for it to open at 10 am. All I wanted to do was an exchange on some sheets. Boy I picked the wrong day to do that. Lines were long but I made it out of there in a half hour.

11:30 am
Watched The View and had a little lunch. Also ate a couple Christmas cookies. No snow yet to report. Noon news was doing it's best to get everyone nervous about the storm.

1:45 pm
Just finished knitting a winter hat...not for the storm, for a Christmas gift. First tiny snowflakes begin to come down.

2:30 pm
Light dusting of snow on the ground. I'm off to pick up Rick from the T station. Although we have a driveway, we usually park on the street. Our driveway is very narrow and has huge cement walls on both sides (remember, the house is built into the side of a hill). I'm thinking that back in 1925 they were only concerned about fitting their Model T in the driveway hence it being so narrow. Everyone who lives on our street has there "spot" where they park everyday. Today when people left for work they put parking place holders in their spots. Most have orange road work cones marking their parking spaces. This city must be missing an awful lot of orange road cones. One person marked their spot with their trash can. I was told by a neighbor that you can pretty much put anything out in the street to hold your parking space. Since I haven't "borrowed" an orange cone from a city crew yet, I will be placing a large Lowe's leaf bag full of leaves in our spot. The Boston Globe put together a nice slide show of parking-spot savers here: http://www.boston.com/realestate/gallery/parking_space_savers?pg=7

3:15 pm

Traffic wasn't bad on my way to get Rick and back. Once we arrived home we decided to walk down to the village for a few ingredients needed in our dinner. The snow was pretty wet and the wind strong. The snow was like little needles on our faces. After our supplies were bought, the trek back home wasn't too bad. It was uphill but the snowflakes were bigger and softer.

5:00 pm
Just in from shoveling. For once in our lives we have to shovel our own stairs and sidewalk. Every other place we've lived was rented and we had landlords and snow removal services to take care of these tasks. As I am typing this, the news just reported that it's snowing one inch per hour. The problem with living on a hill is where to put snow! I ended up shoveling the snow up against the stone wall. There was no way I was going to haul it up onto the hill. Plus, I think that snow melts here within a week. It's not like Minnesota where once you've shoveled snow in one spot it doesn't leave till March.

5:05 pm
Rick fixed us a little snack and a drink to warm us up from the inside out. Then we began to make dinner...Mughlai Chicken. Recipe can be found here http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/mughlai-chicken-recipe/index.html . It was delicious.

7:00 pm
Rick took the next round of shoveling while I took a soak in the tub.

9:00 pm
The winter wonderland outside continues. Rick and I hunker down for a few games of Cribbage.

10:30 pm
Rick doesn't want to play Cribbage anymore. Probably because I beat him 3 times. Yep, that's right 3 times.

Here is a pick of our street:

12:00 pm
Bedtime.