It's still snowing...

I kinda can't believe this snow. Seven inches on the deck railing this morning, and it's still snowing.


Teo had fun playing in the snow with our neighbor Milo. They tried sledding down Milo's driveway but he kept bailing out before it really got steep. Later they came inside and worked on the gingerbread house.






Yesterday we went on a tour of Theo Chocolates in Fremont. Pretty interesting factory tour, and LOTS of samples, mmmm! I actually reached the point of chocolate saturation. Didn't think it was possible. If any out-of-towners want to go on a tour the next time they visit, I recommend Theo Chocolates. My favorites were the Madagascar dark choc, the vanilla infusion chocolate (just means it's got stuff mixed in with the chocolate), the hazelnut infusion and the lemon truffle, or confection as they call it. Evidently it's only a truffle if it has the characteristic round truffle shape.

That afternoon we made our way down to Burien for a tasty prime rib dinner (thanks to John and Mary!) but stopped first at Ballard Market (Joe likes to remind me that there are only two grocery stores for all of Ballard now that they replaced QFC with condos, and what a hair-brained idea that was) for a baguette and cheese to take with us. There was a good old fashioned bank run at the store. The parking lot was packed, the checkout lines ran the length of each aisle, the shelves were bare - specifically the bread shelf. There was one focaccia and one bag of rolls. Guess people decided they should stock up before getting trapped in their houses.

Made our way back from Burien - without chains - and got a call that church was canceled. Woo hoo! Not that I don't enjoy going to church, but come on, how often does that happen? It's better than a snow day! uh, I guess it is a snow day, a snow day from church. nevermind. Drove around picking up/dropping off food for a lady in the ward, then planned the flattest route back to Phinney Ridge. Stopped at Whole Foods (closed) then PCC and hung out for a while and did some stocking up of our own. Got back to our house around 11 and nearly ran through a huge group of people sledding down 65th. For those of you not familiar with the Phinney/Ballard area, 65th is normally a very busy though narrow and steep arterial (howdya like that Amy?) It's been closed to through traffic for the last couple days, but you can still drive across it to get through the neighborhood. We're making our way down 2nd and see a group of people waving their arms. The chains are still off at this point so stopping on a dime is not an option. We stop just in time to see a sledder shooting in front of the car. Joe said, that looks like fun! So after we got home and dropped the groceries we walked back to the intersection and watched people sledding on all types of homemade sleds - toilet seats, political signs, air mattresses, and even actual sleds. The snow was amazingly powdery and still falling.

This morning there was a bit of freezing rain that made a thin crust over everything.


Not quite as fun as pure powder, but even as I type there is another couple inches of powder building up again.

I walked to our friends Shane and Rita's apartment for some brunch and Joe skiied. It's not everyday that you can ski to someone's house in Seattle.




In this one Joe is doing the familiar wedge to avoid going to quickly downhill. The lady with the dog in front told him "you go first, you're freaking my dog out" Ha ha! It's true, dogs don't like the skis. They were all barking at him.


Here are some more wintry pictures












We were listening to Christmas music at dinner and Teo just couldn't contain herself anymore - GOTTA DANCE!



Humongo rolls from Thanksgiving


With a shot of Joe in the downstairs kitchen, to give some scale to the rolls, along with a stalk of brussel sprouts


I'm keeping my fingers crossed for work closure tomorrow. Of course, Joe has to go to work whatever the conditions are. But I don't want to have to put chains on the Hyundai.