For Valentine’s Day, we got the boys some lollipops. (Of course, by “we”, I mean B. She’s the one who found and purchased them.) Of course, these weren’t ordinary lollipops, but heart shaped ones on ring “sticks.” I took the opportunity to whip out my DSLR and get a few photos. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)
I love how blue JSL’s eyes are in this shot. The DSLR picks that up so nicely.
NHL is always looking away from the camera for some reason. I think the TV might have been on. Also, he seems to have inherited my hair in at least one respect. When I need a haircut, my hair refuses to obey any commands of mine and simply does whatever it wants to do.
I love the depth of field in this shot. That and the wonderful smile hiding behind that lollipop.
It’s times like this that I love that we live in the age of digital photography. These moments are now captured and stored for years to come. When our boys are grown, we can go back and relive these moments over and over again.
Wednesday was the Snowpocalypse. After a decent snowfall on Tuesday, and a ton of snow still on the ground from previous snowfalls, we were scheduled to get about 15 inches of snow. Needless to say, schools were closed and everyone hunkered down. I wound up working from home since the commute into work would have been hazardous to say the least.
B shoveled our walkway, sidewalk, cars and driveway out while I worked. She came back in, sore from the shoveling and I made sure that a cup of hot chocolate from our new Keurig was waiting for her. Sadly, I didn’t get to play with the boys as much as I’d have liked to. After all, I was “at work” even if I was technically in my bed. Before it got dark out, though, I decided to take a break from working, bundle up and head outside. You see, we have a problem with ice dams and so the snow on the roof needed to be removed.
For those of you who don’t know what ice dams are, picture a roof covered in snow. The heat from the house warms the roof which melts the snow. The melted snow runs down the roof to the portion of roof that isn’t over a heated room. Since that portion of roof is colder, the snow re-freezes into ice. As more and more water runs over the ice, the ice gets bigger and bigger. When the ice dam gets big enough, the water can’t get over the ice and pools up. When this happens, the water can back up under the shingles and into the house. Needless to say, this is a bad thing.
So out I went with my roof rake, a very long handled implement used to pull snow off from the roof. I did all around the house, but the best part was when I did the front of the house. JSL was able to see me from his bedroom window. Since I had little room to work in, the snow kept coming down on my head. JSL thought this was the funniest thing he had ever seen! Don’t take my word for it, though, B shot a video. See if you can tell where my pockets filled with snow. I didn’t realize this until much later.
After I was done with this, I headed for the side of our house where I had to step in snow drifts that were, if you’ll excuse the expression, crotch-high. Nothing like being half-covered in snow to make you cold! I had heard that snow was insulating and that tunneling in snow should keep you warm. Apparently, my toes didn’t get the memo though because they were going numb. Granted, that might have been because the snow went into my boot, melted and soaked my socks with cold water.
After finishing the roof on the side, came another fun
part: walking in the backyard. As you might expect, we don’t shovel our backyard. So this would show me just how deep the snow really was. So, how high was it?
Knee-high, which for me is about 22 inches deep. Yes, we have a video of this too!
I cleared our roof as much as I could before noticing that the roof rake had broken. Nothing major, just a nut that had come loose somewhere. (You think a needle in a haystack’s hard to find? Try finding a nut in a yard full of snow!) A quick trip to Home Depot today and the roof rake’s all fixed. Of course, after I was done roof raking, I had to go back and shovel up all the snow I had dumped off our roof.
With snow you basically have two kinds. Heavy, wet snow is good for snowballs/snowmen but is a pain to shovel. Light, powdery snow is easy to shovel but doesn’t stick together enough for snowballs/snowmen. This snow was heavy. Very, very
heavy. Somehow, though, it was powdery also. Yes, this snow was a pain to shovel and also wasn’t good for snowballs/snowmen. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: TOO MUCH SNOW! In fact, here is a little message for Old Man Winter:
My Aloha Friday question for today is: Did you get any snow by you? If so, how much? Also, are you sick of the white stuff yet?
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.
On Friday night, B’s parents took the boys and we got to have an all-too-rare date night. We’ve been on a weight loss plan, so eating out is tricky. You don’t want to blow your progress by eating at some high-fat, high-calorie, stuff-your-face-until-you-hurl restaurant. On the other hand, what’s the purpose of going out if you don’t indulge a little?
We went to Blue Spice, a new (to us at least) Thai restaurant near us, and I was drooling from the start. It all looked so good. And best of all, there was a whole group of dishes that were vegetarian! You could add chicken or beef, but adding veggies or fried tofu kept them vegetarian-friendly.
We started with the fresh basil rolls.
This was zucchini, vegetables, rice noodles and, of course, fresh basil all wrapped up in rice paper and served with a honey tamarind sauce that brought back memories of ordering duck in New York City’s Chinatown. Delicious!
Next, we shared two entrees. First was a ginger mushroom dish with onion, carrot, zucchini, scallions, green peas and shiitake mushrooms with our fried tofu. All of this was served in a ginger mushroom sauce.
We also got the sweet and sour dish which consisted of onions, red pepper, fresh pineapple, carrot, tomato, zucchini and fried tofu. This was finished with, as the menu put it, the chef’s “mother’s recipe sauce.”
I loved that the veggies were all fresh. They seemed like they had just been sliced for our dish (and very well might have been). The serving portions seemed small at first, but it was quite deceptive. When we finished our dishes, we were quite full. We declined dessert, but there were some interesting options that might tempt us when we go back. And we will go back. There are too many dishes I didn’t get to try that are making my mouth water.
The freezing temperatures and repeated snowfalls have turned the landscape near us pure white. On one hand, this is very pretty. I loved taking snow/ice photos before and my new DSLR is giving me some great ones (click to enlarge):
On the other hand, ice in the wrong place can be very bad news. As snow melts from our roof (thanks to escaping heat), it runs down and freezes at the colder roof edge. Then, this can drip to the ground, making our driveway an ice skating rink. There are times that I think I’d traverse it easier with ice skates than boots. A thin layer of snow just makes it more treacherous as it fools you into thinking the path ahead is ice-free.
Putting ice melt down doesn’t help as the melted ice just refreezes. We have an ice chopper (long handled instrument of ice doom with a blade at the end), but the ice is so thick that it just laughs as we tire ourselves out. Even if we manage to remove some chunks, more water drips from above slicking the driveway back up. It’s a losing battle.
Still, this battle is nothing compared to the Battle for the Roof. When that ice freezes on the roof, before it drips to the ground, it can form an ice dam. If you’re unfamiliar with this concept (lucky you), ice dams are ice formations on your roof that block water (from more melting snow or from rain) from running off the roof. The water backs up, goes under the roof’s shingles and, before you know it, there’s a drip-drip-drip in the house that isn’t coming from a leaky faucet.
In our case, we have a very bad ice dam on our upstairs roof. Two water leak incidents (one before we moved in and one due to a leaky seal) necessitated the removal of some ceiling tiles. That, plus poor insulation and their location directly above radiators, means that heat flows out of the rooms and to the roof. There, snow is melted and it drips onto the roof below where it refreezes. The piles and piles of ice threaten to back water up or simply damage our roof/gutters from their weight. I chopped one ice dam back with a hammer and screwdriver (all the while fearing doing roof damage myself), but it reformed.
So, you’ll excuse me for both hoping that the warm weather arrives (so that the ice will melt) and dreading the arrival (as it will mean greater chance of ice dam-induced roof leaks).
