JONAS HAS COME AND HE WON'T GO AWAY!

It's here!  The snow began falling last night around 7 p.m. and it is expected to stop somewhere around 7 a.m. tomorrow.  Yes, over 24 hours of snow.

I finally found my charger for my camera.  It's been missing for a week and I have missed taking pictures so badly.  So here are some pictures of the snow for you.

The snow is halfway up the tires of my neighbor's car.
 

My car is the third from the left.  I don't know how I'm going to get it off of the lot.  Fortunately I don't have to for a couple of days.
 

Another picture from in front of my house.
 

No one is going anywhere soon.
 

This is taken through the screen on the kitchen window.  you can see the table and the two trash cans.
 

Ice on the upper part of the window.
 

The snow looks so pretty on the holly tree.  But look how the snow has drifted up to the second story of the building in back.
 

It just goes on and on,
 

Just the tip of the two foot snowflake post is showing.  The solar one is almost covered too.
 

This is a four foot fence.  Uh.. yeah.
 
Church has been cancelled for tomorrow.  There is no public transportation running and it will take us hours to dig out our cars.  If you can't walk there, you're not getting there.  Even the airport and Amtrak are closed.

I am watching "Undercover Boss" and cleaning up the stuff on the living room floor.  I don't know how things pile up so quickly.  But I'm making great headway.  At least it's a productive day. 

A group of kids came and cleaned off the sidewalk for $10.  They are coming back tomorrow morning to do it again.  Later one of the neighbor guys came and did it again.  At least neither Joe nor I have to do it.

My fireplace is doing double duty these days.  It's chilly in the living room.

I have my crackling wood candle burning and it smells so good in here.

I'm making flounder fillets, honey biscuits and steamed mixed veggies for dinner.  And I'm hungry now so I'm looking forward to it.

Stay safe and warm, everyone.  Don't take any chances trying to go someplace.

Kathy

Snow Day

What a difference a day makes.  This is yesterday's sunrise.

And here is today's.

This is only the second snow of the season.  But it was not fun.

See my pretty car?  Just a little snow on it right?  Wrong.  It had a slick coating of solid ice also.  The mailman came knocking at the door early this morning and told me to be very careful outside.  He then proceeded to slide down the sidewalk and almost fell.  I put out some salt, waited awhile and then took the shovel to it.  Fortunately the salt had done its job and the ice came right up.

Here is the back yard.

Looks pretty, but also covered in ice.  I wanted to put out some food for the birds, but it was too icy to get to the bird feeder.

I made chicken noodle soup for dinner.  The other night I got a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket for dinner.  Yesterday I took some of the leftovers for lunch.  And today the rest of it went into soup.  Since I paid only $2.50 for the chicken (it was the end of the night and they wanted to get rid of their chickens), I think this was a really good deal.  I got the recipe from the City Tavern cookbook my brother gave me for Christmas.  It was a soup Thomas Jefferson enjoyed.  I understand why.  It was good!

Here's the recipe (very easy):

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP  (Serves 6-8)
1 tblsp. unsalted butter
1 medium onion, chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
3 quarts of chicken stock
1 sprig fresh thyme (I didn't have fresh so added dried)
1 lb. boneless chicken (white or dark meat), cooked and chopped
8 oz. egg noodles
salt and pepper
chopped parsley for garnish

Melt the butter in a medium-size saucepan (I used a stock pot) over medium heat, then add the onion and saute for 3 to 5 minutes, until softened and translucent.  Add the celery and carrots, and saute for 3 to 5 minutes more, until softened.

Stir in the stock and thyme, and bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the stock is reduced by one-third.

Remove and discard the thyme and add the chicken and egg noodles.  Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until heated.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the in a tureen or in individual bowls garnished with parsley.

Enjoy!

MORE SNOW

I have my doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon at 1:15 p.m.  The weather forecast is for more snow tonight and freezing rain starting at noon tomorrow.  I will try to get downtown early and hopefully will be taken in early.  I need a doctor's note to go back to work.

I am worried about driving in freezing rain.  Even though the hospital is in Philadelphia, it is about 15 miles from my house.  The trouble with living in a large city -- everything is spread out.  I would take public transportation down, but then I would need to walk about 1/2 mile in the freezing rain.  Not a good idea.

Oh well, I'm sure everything will work out.  It always does.

SNOW STORM OF 1/27/2011

We got 15 inches of snow here in Philly.  More snow is expected Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  I am so ready for summer!

 My car at 1 a.m. while it was still snowing.

 The building across the street from my house.  Notice the snow sticking to the bricks.

 You can see how deep the snow is from where Joe shoveled our front walk.

 My car after the snow stopped.

 My back yard with the trellis.

 Cookout anyone?

 Another picture of the yard.  Look at my gazing ball!

 My neighbor's trellis, our solar lights, flags and the fence.  This really shows how much we got.

 Joe was very busy today.

SNOW AND A HOSPITAL VISIT

Here is the reason for our 7 inches of snow. I decorated my window with white lights and snowflakes. Within 24 hours of doing this, the snow started. So for everyone who got our latest snowfall on the east coast, I'm sorry. It's all my fault. : (

On top of this, we got a phone call early yesterday afternoon from my step-mom-in-law that my dad-in-law is back in the hospital. He had been home for 4 days. When the visiting nurse came, she saw his oxygen level was down to 84, his skin was gray and he was not able to breathe well. So they called 911 and back into the hospital he went. Joe and I went to the Emergency Room to be with him and stayed when they moved him into a step-down room. Please continue to pray for him (Joe, Sr.). His oxygen level came up to 92, but he is not out of the woods yet.

SNOW DAY

We woke up this morning to a coating of snow. Fortunately it wasn't a lot like last time, but just an inch, most of which is already gone. One of our friends slid a shovel across the pavement and made a path. Thanks, Nate! By this afternoon all of the snow on our pavement was gone and the concrete was actually dry. This makes me very happy!

We went food shopping this afternoon. It is one of my least favorite things to do since it usually takes 2 hours to get through the supermarket. Today was no exception. But we ended up saving almost $25 in coupons, so that was good. Food was getting scarce in this house. Now we are stocked up for the rest of the month.

We got a rotisserie chicken for dinner. I was so tired when I got home, so was very thankful for this. I made some baked potatoes and peas to go with it. I was able to eat some of the chicken and (surprise!) the small potato I made for myself. A couple of weeks ago I couldn't swallow a baked potato so this was a very pleasant surprise. I am so sick of instant mashed potatoes which has become a staple of my diet. The peas, however, were not agreeing with my throat. Just couldn't get them down. So my wonderful husband Joe helped out by finishing up my peas. Well I am doing better in my eating and that is a good thing.

Tomorrow we go to the farm to get our co-op share. The theme this week is breakfast. I will show you what I get in my next post.

DECEMBER SNOW

We got hit hard with the snow storm on the day after Christmas.  It wasn't as bad as down the shore where they got over 2 feet of snow, but our 12 inches was quite enough for me.  I wasn't allowed to shovel, so all of it fell to Joe.  He did a really good job of it too.  Even got my car shoveled out.  As you can see from these pictures the high winds really did a number on our yard.