Rainy Saturday

 Hopefully it will wash away the last of the snow! It's going to go up to 54 degrees today!

I put up my new St Patrick's Day shower curtain! I love it! The main bathroom got a new one, plain shamrock's. I gave Ralph his choice, since he mainly uses the hall bathroom.

More good library books! Both the first of series, totally different genres. The door knocker is more of a cozy mystery, Omens is a creepy paranormal-ish. I loved both, and will be requesting the next in each series.

The latest page is moving along! I've revised my estimate of a year to finish, more like 18 months. It's the biggest counted cross project I've done yet. 

Two days til we get our first Covid immunization! I'm hoping for no effects from it, but we have no plans for the rest of the day we get the shot, or the next day. 

A break from winter!

 It's going to be 54 and sunny today! The snow has been slowly melting, maybe this will give it a push!

I finished another page last night! It's coming along.

I just finished this book last night also. What a horrible person! He deserved the jail time he got, and more. He describes himself as under Trump's spell, and as a power seeker, and knows all the dirt, which he is sharing with the FBI. The book reinforced what we all knew.

Shopping Monday

 Since the forecast only called for rain, and we needed a bunch of things, we decided to go to Sam's Club this morning. Of course it started snowing right before we left! It changed to rain before we got there, and is still raining. 

Saturday I made Stromboli with the pizza crust in the tube. I used marinara, which the recipe called for, but I put pizza sauce on my shopping list for Shop Rite. It was really good, and easy, my two favorite things. Tonight will be tacos, since I'm not feeling inspired. 

I just finished this last night, after staying up way too late to do so. It's the first of a series about a CSI, and I'll put the next one on my request list.

We took a trial run yesterday to the doc office where we're getting our Covid shot next Monday. It was easy to find. I'll be so relieved once we've had the shots.

And now I'm going to go work on the cross stitch.

Ice

 We had another winter storm. One of those with a widely varying forecast. We ended up with freezing rain, then snow, then rain, and ice. 

This was from yesterday morning, or maybe Wednesday night. I worked on it a lot yesterday.

Both are from the library, and both are told, at least somewhat, in the present tense. Strange, but both a good stories.

When we were at the Amish market I got a half pound of turkey lunchmeat. We hadn't eaten any, so I heated it in turkey gravy, made stovetop stuffing, Brussels sprouts, and cranberry sauce. Quick, easy, and delicious! And enough left for another meal! Ralph always thanks me for cooking, and he helps with cleanup!

I have to belatedly thank President Obama for defunding the space program! Manda and Ben hated Houston, and had applied for every transfer they could find, and were on the brink ($100 deposit) of buying a house in Houston. Then Ben got a transfer to WA, and they left Texas for good. Manda always described Texas, and Florida, as not being real states. Good call on her part! If Obama hadn't put the kibosh on the space program, they'd probably still be in Texas and my grandchildren would have accents!

Leftovers for dinner tonight!

Tuesday

 It rained most of the night, and melted some of the snow. When we got up and looked out this morning, it felt like we were in a cloud! Seems like we're between storms, with more snow to come on Thursday. 

I got Happy Birthday and Valentine's Day wishes from these wonderful people!

I started out the day yesterday making 2 pounds of meatballs! 30 meatballs for the freezer, though a bowlful made a detour to Ralph's stomach! His Nanny Rose used to fry the meatballs, but I bake them. I use the same ingredients that she used to use. Yum!

My Hersshner's order came! A huge box of yarn!

Softer shades of the colors I've been using to make the temperature blankets and snakes. I have a couple of patterns I want to try.

I got to work last night and brought the snakes up to date. Blue is the high temps in VA for Ben, orange is the high temps at my brother's house for Joey. Baby snakes!

Two weeks til we get our first Covid vaccination! I feel like once we've had both shots, and a couple weeks pass, then we can have a life again! Imagine that! 

Valentine's Day

 The ultimate Hallmark holiday! And the day after my birthday! 68 trips around the sun! My brother asked how I got so old so fast, and I have no answer for him.

Me and a couple of my favorite people, taken before masks. They are both now taller than I am!

Scrambled eggs and sausage for breakfast, mini meatloaves, mashed, and corn for dinner. We never get take out, or go out, for my birthday- every where has "special" menus with ridiculous prices for V Day.

Almost too pretty to eat!

My current read.

Friday we went to the Amish Market for the first time this year. I was getting low on meat. So yesterday I browned 4 pounds of ground beef and froze them in one pound bags. We quick froze 5 pounds of chicken breasts and Ralph put them in sealer bags separately. I made two pounds of mini meatloaves. Today I have to make two pounds of meatballs. We also got 3 half quiches of various flavors, rolls, and lunch meat and cheese, and a half a pie. So we won't have to go again until after we've had our Covid immunizations. 

It's Manda's and Steph's turns to get the snow this weekend! Manda got 8 inches, Steph only got an inch or so with some ice. 

For Valentine's Day, Ralph and I gave each other a big hug. It's our 50th V Day! Being together and reasonably healthy is the best gift.

Winter Weather Advisory

 We're under one starting tonight, we could get a few more inches. We've already had more this winter than the whole of last winter, or at least it seems like it. 

We started out the day with cinnamon rolls two days ago. 

We moved on to stuffed shells and meatballs for dinner, with enough for the next day.

Part of my library haul, I picked up 12 books. LOL, my friend Carol said she hasn't taken out a total of 12 books from her library in her life.

Manda sent us this picture of the little fashionista! 

Ralph got me this little free standing plaque. He's so sweet!

Little Comfort was a bust, I read several chapters then skipped to the end. I just started Burn for Me, the first I've read of hers.

I stole another idea from a Facebook group. I'm going to do a temp afghan in my usually colors, but soft shades. These are the ones that I had in my stash, I put in a big order to Hersshners for the others. Amazon has us all spoiled with its two day shipping!

Yesterday we went to Shop Rite, it had been 3 weeks and I was low on a lot of things. We still have to do a Sam's Club run and go to the Amish Market, but when we go will depend on the weather. I haven't decided what's for dinner yet, I have to think about it. 

We're on a mission to get the feral cats inside. Ralph has opened the slider and Lucy and Friday will put their heads in, but no further. Daisy and Bob, the floozies, have semi left us to live at the cat guy's house two doors down. They show up periodically to visit and eat. Donald, the oldest of all, is still really skittish and I have my doubts of ever getting him in. They all have their shots, are fixed, and have heated kitty condos on the deck, so they are warm and safe.

Sunday snow!

 Yes, more snow! We could get several more inches, just after we had some melting and the roads were good. 

It's hard to tell, but it's coming down really hard. 

We got the daily special takeout from Scotland Run last night. Garden salad, broccoli cheese soup, turkey in gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and sweet potatoes pie! Actually enough for two meals for us!

We got a phone call with fabulous news yesterday! Eddie has a great scholarship to Stockton University, so good that it's cheaper than county college would be! He wants to go for a BSN, then he's considering nurse anesthetist! We're so proud of him!

And our little guy- Manda made him zombie pj's! We love the sunglasses and the pose!

I finished another page! I've been working on it since July, and I'm not even 25% done! And I miss very few days working on it.

I finished this last night, second in a series. The female lead is a CSI, the male is a detective who is a vigilante on the side. Good stuff!

I just put a big yarn order into Hersschner's. I needed refills of a few colors that I use for temp snakes, and I stole the idea of using softer shades of my colors to make temp afghans for the girls. I want to start one for Eddie, of the school days of his senior year, in the same colors as his snake. 

Plan for today- watch the snow, read, cross stitch while watching shows on the DVR, turkey dinner leftovers for dinner. The super bowl is not included in the plan, because I've always been indifferent to sports. Ralph hasn't forgiven football for Michael Vick, so he has no plans to watch it either. He's sitting reading his library book.

Aftermath

 We ended up with maybe 8 inches of snow over 2 days. It was so pretty!

The boro has done a good job of plowing our little hill, and the mail truck didn't have any problems. 

This beautiful girl looks like she's deciding who to throw the snowball at!

I just finished this book. Not my usual type of book, but she's such a good writer! It's about vampires, werewolves, fat, and Mercy is a shapeshifter. This was the second in a series, and I'll request the rest.

In January I read 14 books! 13 from the library, one on the kindle. I've been keeping notebooks for years of what I've read.

A new recipe, sausage bread. Basically Stromboli, but with pizza dough from a can and breakfast sausage and shredded mozzarella. Ralph gave it thumbs up.

More progress! It's going to be so beautiful.

Pandemic hair! It's almost a year since he had a haircut, and he's decided to let it grow til it's long enough to donate, probably another year.