Category Archives: snow

Let it snow!

The first major snowfall of the season. I hate to say first, because I know it won’t be the last. It’s not even winter yet, but it sure looks like it! The snow started later yesterday and continued overnight. I took a peek outside in the morning and saw this:

Yes, we do have a garage, but it is only a 1 car garage, so the car we don’t use much (the Saturn) went in there. Our driveway is only 1 car width wide, which makes it a pain to try to swap cars around. So, poor Prius got the snow cover!

After breakfast, it was time to shovel.

Our little snowblower had issues (John thinks it is a belt problem), so we had to do it by hand. I got a stern warning from John about my back as we got started. I had no desire to make it worse, so I created my own method of shoveling. The no bend, no twist shoveling method. It worked pretty well, although my arms did most of the work and they were tired. I got out the measuring tape to check depth:

That’s ridiculous for this early in the season. I am in trouble with my boots here:

That’s a lot of snow, but we can handle it around here in the ADK. We live on the main road in town and they do a great job at clearing the main roads around here. Side streets are a problem, but the main roads were just wet by late morning.

My winter flag fits right in now:

The bobsled chute for 2013/14 is off to a good start!

After doing our driveway and having lunch, we went over to my parents’ house. They were stuck down in Saratoga at my sister’s house, so we went over and used their snowblower to clear the driveway for them. It was nice have a snowblower and not having to do it by hand 😀 Two driveways is enough for one day. I will confess that we stopped at Dunkins on the way home and got a donut.

So, how about some table progress? It’s getting close! I brought the panel pieces in to stain:

We spent time deciding on the layout of the panels and which boards would be which colors. That was the hardest part about the whole thing LOL! We are using 3 colors on the panel, which would be cherry, golden oak and unstained (guess that counts as a color).

The frame is a dark walnut color. This came inside and we will assemble that in here:

I love how the grain comes out with the walnut stain.

Here is the final layout we decided on. There is one piece missing because we actually had to cut a new one as a piece got really warped for whatever reason. All those scraps of paper are notes to myself about which panels went with which square and what order to put them in.

Now I have to stain another piece, so we can’t assemble it until at least tomorrow, which may not happen because Mondays are really hectic around here.

After we put it together, then 4 coats of semi-gloss poly and then a few days of cure time before Christmas Eve dinner! 😀

Yet more snow.

I woke up this morning to extreme quiet. You know that quiet when snow has blanketed outside and it muffles all the sound? Yep – more snow. That meant shoveling.

But first, breakfast! I made up some pumpkin oat bran to get started with the day. Doesn’t this look like a winter scene?

Shoveling would be a 2-parter today since we had to clear the 6 inches or so that fell overnight before any deliveries/pickups come to the house.

These boots not retired for spring yet.

Yuck. This was all bare ground yesterday.

I was hungry when I got inside.

Have to eat them in 3s for whatever reason. It feels weird when I don’t.

Work was busy today, thank goodness. Gotta start thinking about a car payment now. I’ll take all the work I can get.

Quick break for lunch. This is greek yogurt, blueberry sauce and Kashi cinnamon hearts.

Yesterday I ate grain free. Today, obviously not

Then it was out to shovel more. I measured the snow that fell on the porch.

A prediction that actually came true. They said 8 to 12 inches and there we ended up between (and not done yet).

How is a girl supposed to bike with this stuff???

It was a good day for being inside and working. John brewed up the lattes.

I feel like my life is overrun with technology cords. Does anyone else feel this way? You can’t see it, but there are also 3 cords coming out of my laptop. one for power, one for the foot pedal and one for my headset. It’s like a deathtrap extricating myself from my chair.

We didn’t do so well with meal planning this week, so that meant falling back on old staples:

There is some laughing cow underneath the BBQ turkey. I bet this would be good to do as chili, although that would mean making a batch of chili…

I can’t believe it is spring in a day.

This is all the snow piled up. In the background, the snow goes half way up the side of the garage. The neighbor over there has his driveway plowed straight back, which is perpendicular with our garage. That area is on the north side and doesn’t get much sun, so it take forever to melt.

It is snowing as I speak right now. Our winter storm warning ends at 8 pm and I bet we will have close to a foot when it is all said and done. Close enough anyway.

I’ll be staying in with some tea and a square of this stuff.

I have found these squares are perfect when I want something sweet and fruit isn’t cutting it. It’s not like the chocolate chips that John likes to have (and I get in trouble with) because I have much more control over the portion.

Come on Spring!! Behave!

After the snow

One nice thing about big storms, whether they be snow or rain, is how clear and clean the sky is the next day.

Perfect morning for banana breakfast bread pudding, too, don’t you think?

Today felt like a relaxing day. Normally I really struggle to work on Fridays for whatever reason. Maybe because it is Friday, but also the doctors that usually dictate on Fridays are the more difficult ones and makes production hard. However, today was not the case there.

Work was a bit slow in the early afternoon and I visited Billy for a while. He loves the lap. He jumps into my lap and bites my chin (not hard) before settling down. Not sure what the heck is up with that.

There were some people interested in adopting Billy, but then they decided that they weren’t ready for adoption right now, so Billy is back on the wagon. Better that these people figured this out ahead of time than after they got a cat, right? There is another adoption event at the mall in a couple weeks, so he will go to that if no one calls in the meantime.

While the workshop is not as nice as being in our house, at least Billy is safe and warm out there (it’s heated). Beats living on the streets. I think he likes it:

John was pulling snow off the workshop roof when I was out there. The snow slides off our house roof because it is slate, but the shop is asphalt and we bought a snow rake to keep from getting a heavy pile up on it.

The snow melts and forms an ice dam right over this door, which is really annoying. Hence we are removing as much snow as we can.

I feel better that the garden is now tucked away under an insulating blanket of snow. Hopefully I won’t lose so many bulbs this year.

John and I then did what has become our Friday afternoon tradition of playing hooky for a while and going out for coffee!

It was nice to get out of the house after being cooped up since Wednesday.

Eats have been good again today. I will have a small piece of The Cake tonight – the last piece, actually. It’s in my calorie budget for the day.

I was out taking out the garbage and saw the beautiful moon with a hazy ring around it.

So pretty.

This will be a laid back weekend. I need to do a 2012 round up post as well. It’s always good to reminisce.

Hello Euclid!

How did they come up with these storm names, anyway? I am not sure the winter storm naming is really going to catch on, though, as only the Weather Channel seems to be calling it by name.

We woke up to snow, but not as much as we thought we might, although it was still snowing. There was maybe 6 inches by morning.

I made up breakfast to warm up before shoveling.

Yum!

We had a delivery coming for John’s business today, so we had to get the driveway cleared out, even though it was still snowing. It wasn’t so bad shoveling with our new driveway. The snow came off easily without the shovel getting stuck in the pits and cracks and tearing up chunks like our old driveway did the past few years. Have I ever mentioned how much I love our new driveway?? 😛

I got really hungry after that workout, so I had the pear that was scheduled for lunch when I got back in.

Work was busy, but only because it was leftover stuff from yesterday. I am sure there were a lot of cancelled appointments from the weather. Lunch break. 1-minute muffin topped with peanut flour and jam.

Then it just kept snowing, and snowing and snowing. All day long!

I had to fortify myself with latte before thinking of doing more shoveling.

We finally went back out to shovel near 4:00 even though it was still snowing because we didn’t want to shovel after dark.

Our bobsled chute is in its infancy, but a good start for the year 😀

My garden is all nestled in now. The garden path is now closed, although the mail carrier often tromps through it anyway.

I took a tape measure out to the middle of the front yard to measure the snow.

11 inches! I bet we will have a full foot by the time it is done. Welcome to the North Country.

That was some good exercise for the day, I tell you. Then inside and finished up work. This is one of those times when I am extra, extra, extra glad I work from home.

My eating has been back on track after Christmas. I had cookie overload and have not eaten one since Christmas. We bundled them up into the freezer except for the ones John wanted to nibble on. So, don’t be surprised if you see a Christmas cookie from time to time in January! They are relegated back to treat status and not stuff-my-face status.

Dinner was ham on top of a potato with laughing cow cheese. We have a lot of ham leftover and are going to have to freeze some of that before I get too tired of it. Right now it still tastes yummy.

We are settled in for the night. I have a new heated throw blanket that John got me because of my complaining about how cold I have been. Pixie has decided that she really likes it as well.

I thought it was hard to keep her off my lap before when I am working and this just make it 10 times worse LOL.

I am off to get my snack and get back under this blanket. I am having these nuts.

They have a very subtle flavor, but tasty.

Hope you all aren’t having to dig out too much from any snow!

A real use for Pinterest!

Are you glad it is Friday? I am glad it is Friday! We had snow last night, but the sun came out. As it peeked over the horizon this morning, it caught the tops of the trees in a beautiful way.

I wish I could edit out those wires. This lasted about 10 or 15 minutes and it was gone.

I settled in for work and breakfast this morning. Banana Bread Pudding.

I put almond butter and peach jam on this. Tasty!

It was hard working today. Fridayitis big time. I was glad for lunch

This was BBQ chicken on a baked potato. Plus a kiwi. Kiwis were on sale, so I picked up a couple. I forgot how much I like them.

Work slowed down in the afternoon, so I grabbed a piece of dried pineapple and headed out to shop before my haircut appointment.

It was dark when I left the mall. I went with a much shorter style. I found a real use for Pinterest! I had pinned a bunch of short hair cuts that I liked and brought my netbook to my appointment. I showed my stylist the board so she had a good idea of what I was going for. She loved the idea of doing this. Who knew Pinterest could be useful instead of just a time suck?

My new fun cut! (I took my glasses off for the pic).

Now we shall see if I can style it right or just look goofy. Or style it right and still look goofy.

I was hangry for dinner, so I just whipped up a 1-minute muffin with some peanut flour and lemon curd on top. No meat thawed out and I didn’t feel like eggs. John had already eaten his dinner.

Taking off in the afternoon means working tonight. Booo. I do get to have a latte at home, though, since I missed out this afternoon.

My sister and I have a little road trip planned to Trader Joe’s for Saturday! The nearest one is 2.5 hours away, and we decided to go there just for fun. Hope the weather holds.

May I rant for a minute?

I woke up today convinced it was Friday. Don’t you hate that? It was sprinkling a bit this morning and I was going to go to the gym and walk, but then I figured I wouldn’t melt and decided to walk around town. It was 35 degrees out, so I dressed for 55 and headed out listening to the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Initial plan was for 2 miles, but it had stopped sprinking and I was in the zone, so I did the whole 5K loop before breakfast! Go me 😀

I got home and made up some coconut flour waffles, which I enjoyed mightily with some coffee!

I read the news while eating, and a couple stories kind of annoyed me. The first one was about broccoli. Now scientists have fiddled around with broccoli to make it more nutririous. As if it really needed any help. Come on! Stop trying to turn real food into complete multivitamins. There is no one single super food out there and we need to stop expecting to eat 1 food item to get all our nutrition. Let’s not even mention the fact that this broccoli costs 1/3 more than regular broccoli – cause it has a health claim, you know.

Speaking of broccoli, I had some unadulterated broccoli with lunch today –

That flower-looking thing is an egg puff (cooked in the microwave) on top of a tortilla with laughing cow and hot sauce. Good stuff.

So on to the next rant today (I am on a roll, I tell you!). There was another article about how weight maintenance is hard (duh) and it is because of hormone changes from weight loss. I agree with that. The body wants to gain weight, not lose it biologically speaking.

Well, in looking closer at the study, the participants were put on a 500-550 calorie per day diet to lose weight (Optifast).

The scientists checked the blood levels of nine hormones that influence appetite. The key finding came from comparing the hormone levels from before the weight-loss program to one year after it was over. Six hormones were still out of whack in a direction that would boost hunger.

Well, duh – DUH!!! After 10 weeks of eating so little, why on earth wouldn’t your hormones be out of whack? No wonder they put weight back on. Starvation does not make a good weight loss program! It’s just starvation… period. (Heck, I eat 500 calories just for breakfast after a workout. ) This is one reason people fail at dieting. They completely restrict calories and types of food and expect that once the weight is gone, they can transition back to regular food and be okay. It just doesn’t work, people. If it did, these programs like Optifast would have cured obesity by now and we would all be singing its praises – and the company would be out of business.

Bodies adapt. They adapt to lower calories, to new foods, to exercise, whatever it is you throw at the body, it will become efficient in how it deals with it. That is survival. You have to work *with* your body and properly nourish it. You can’t beat it into submission without consequences. Weight loss maintenance is a lot easier if you respect the mechanism instead of mucking it up.

Whew…. I need something to calm me down. Good thing John brought me this:

He said there was a ‘secret ingredient’ in there as well. 😉

A little after lunch, that cold drizzle turned to snow. Upstate NY isn’t like Colorado where snow can happen in September and then it will be 70 degrees again the next day. It just feels like winter here. By the time dinner time rolled around, it started to stick:

Normally I love the first snow of the year, but last winter was so bad I guess I didn’t quite get over it LOL! The snow didn’t stop me from making John take me out for my football dinner, though 😈

We went to O’Tooles, where this weather was perfect for a hot turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes and stuffing!

It hit the spot. O’Tooles had their fireplace going and we could look outside and see the snow falling. It feels more like Thanksgiving than Halloween right now.

Here is the happy man shelling out bucks for dinner!

Heeheeheehee!

We stopped and got a sweet for dessert, too. I plated it up to show. A Reeses Pieces cookie. Yum!

Settling in for the night. I am not shoveling tomorrow. No matter how much snow – I refuse to shovel. Not to mention that the shovels are in storage…

Pink item of the day – gumball in a candy machine!

Brand new day and Happy Mardi Gras!

It’s Mardi Gras! Normally we do our dinner on the day, but had it on Sunday to make it easier, but with all that snow, probably tonight would have been better LOL! I was whupped after yesterday and I slept for 8 hours. I conked out at 10 pm last night (which is pretty early for me).

The difference a day makes. One nice thing about big storms is that the sun always shines bright the next day. It is very pretty and the temps are going to climb into the 30s!

Here is someone who could care less how much snow we get:

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………

I made up a 1-minute muffin for breakfast (applesauce version), then topped the muffin with the rest of the applesauce cup! I also grilled this muffin, too. Makes it taste even better.

This was good enough to get me out the door and shoveling. We spent about another hour and 15 minutes finishing up the driveway. Now the garage is free and we aren’t cooped up! Not that I couldn’t have called my parents if need be, but nice to be able to get our own car out.

Our driveway is officially full for the year. We cannot take another flake of snow as there is nowhere for it to go. The banks are too high to throw snow on. I was getting a great workout with having to squat and toss with the snow to get it high enough and to protect my back. Kind of like doing a push/press, so guess I did get a strength training workout. I burned approximately 520 calories shoveling today, which I will take, thank you.

John is leaving the house now. See how the snow banks reach the top of the car?

Crazy stuff (and hooray for sun!).

Lunch time! I baked up some chicken this morning and had my salad.

I put the can next to this so you could see how big my salads are. I use half a bag of the Fresh Express salad mix for each of my salads 😳

Work was slow today, so I did manage to get a good chunk of household chores done. Raise your hands for being productive! John then made lattes, which I put on the sunny table to take a picture of.

Unpictured are the peanuts I snacked on with it.

Dinner tonight was stereotypical Finding Radiance:

With some laughing cow tucked in there. Who says real food has to taste like cardboard? Such a simple meal and yet so delicious.

To celebrate freeing of the car from the garage, we are out at Starbucks right now. I haven’t left the house since Sunday morning, so it feels great to get out!

Decaf coffee. They have new mugs, too. Must be for the 40th anniversary. Beads were courtesy of me. I am wearing them for Mardi Gras!

Going snowblind

It was snowing last night when the Mardi Gras party ended and it kept up with blowing wind all night. We couldn’t get out of our back door this morning because the wind had blown the snow up against the door. No gym today as I couldn’t get the car out.

Glad we work from home.

I had some peanut flour waffles while avoiding going out to clear the driveway and walks.

The snow was 16 inches and really heavy, so we got out the shovels.

I managed to do something to our snowblower last week. Normally I don’t use it, but the last time I did and now it won’t start. John says I didn’t break it, but I seem to have a track record with doing things like that. So, that means shoveling heavy wet snow. It is going to take all day to do this. So glad I don’t weigh 250 pounds trying to do this!

I cannot remember a winter like this. I am usually the upbeat person, but this winter has really worn me out.

Not to mention that someone plowing our neighbor’s driveway hit the shop on the back of the house, which now needs repair.

He hit it really hard. We heard and felt a big bang. Good thing he missed that corner support and just hit the siding.

Not going to eat out of stress, though. And also back to regularly scheduled eating after yesterday.

We took a break from some shoveling for lunch. I had a lean sausage patty on a magic roll with some laughing cow. This was really tasty!

Working on the last pound of the K-Mart strawberry special. I should see what other specials they have. We hardly ever get groceries at K-Mart, but $1 a pound is too good to pass up!

Then did more shoveling. It is so hard to move all of this snow and taking forever. We only got about half the driveway done, but all of the sidewalk. We have a path shoveled the rest of the way to the porch:

Ready for that latte:

Debby – recognize what’s on the chair?

I also had peanuts. Several of these portions:

I did manage to finish up the large soap order today, so that was something good that happened. Yay!

Dinner time and I used up the last of our ground pork that was thawed out. Turns out it wasn’t much and made a dinky burger!

I made noises about going back out and shoveling tonight, but John did not want either of us to do any more tonight and risk injury. He asked me not to go to the gym tomorrow and we would just finish the driveway then. So, I guess I will not lift iron tomorrow, but heavy snow 😀

I have to work tonight and find a snack. I am hungry already after dinner. I know spring is coming, but it sure seems a long, long way away. I would settle for just seeing the ground.

All buttoned up with Chicken Corn Chili

This is one of those days when I am so, so glad to work from home. We are lucky to be above the sleet line and have all snow up here. Of course it is a lot of snow!

John went out twice with the snow blower to keep it under control while I worked. He is gunning for his 15 straight win of Husband of the Year.

I made a warm and comforting breakfast to start the day. I did cream of wheat (with egg whites whisked in) topped with the apple/cranberry topping, which I made with raisins instead.

This is in lieu of Bagel Wednesday as we just couldn’t get out. Hopefully Thursday!

I had some munching problems early in the day. I was very hungry for some reason. I tried to get extra protein with lunch with a double dose of tuna:

Kiwis are back! Yippee! I also actually had probably another entire serving of these pretzel thins while making lunch. Just to be honest here. 😳

Then I went out during the afternoon break in the snow to skim off the driveway and sidewalks. This is our front walk.

I think there is a yard under here somewhere:

There really is nowhere to put the snow!

Bobsled chute:

Yay – I am so happy to be shoveling 😀

I look irritated, but I actually am not. My eyes are sensitive to brightness. Even on a cloudy day, the snow is bright enough to make me squint, which produces what we have affectionately named “the divot” between my eyebrows that is permanent.

I was ready for this when I came in!

Weather like this calls for some warm and tummy filling chili. In my effort to do more recipe cooking this month, I decided to make the Chili with Corn, chicken, and chipoltes from Sunday Soupby Betsy Rosbottom. I made some modifications to this,including using already cooked chicken, not adding beans, and reducing the recipe size. Changes I made are marked with an asterisk.

1-1/2 tbsp of oil (I used coconut) *
1/2 cup of chopped onions (which I pureed) *
1/8 cup of flour
1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups of vegetable broth *
One 15 oz can of chopped tomatoes, drained
2 chipotles in adobo sauce, chopped (I divided a can of these up and froze portions for convenience).
2 cups of frozen corn kernels
6 oz of cooked chicken breast, chopped *

Heat the oil in a soup pot and saute the onions until lightly browned (several minutes). In a small bowl, mix the flour and spices together and sprinkle over top the onions. Stir and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Then add the broth slowly, whisking to make sure you don’t get clumps. Then add tomatoes and chipotles. Bring to a simmer,cover, and cook until the mixture has thickened – about 15 minutes. Then add the corn and chicken. Cook for 10 more minutes until everything is heated through. It helps if the corn kernels are thawed. Makes 4 servings. Season to taste with salt and pepper if desired. This is more like soup than chili, so if you cut down to 2 cups of broth, it would probably be thicker. Each serving is about 2 cups!

Each serving has 216 calories, 6.5 grams of fat, 28 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, 13 grams of protein.

This was really good. It is quite spicy, so you may want to either leave out the adobo chipotles or reduce the chili powder a bit. I like it hot. John was getting sweaty, though! 😈

My work slowed down some as the clinic lost a lot of patients from the snow storm. I now have time to do my 15 minutes of cleaning and some bike trainer riding.

Question: What’s your spice level?

Lifting and more snow fun

It was all the way up to 0 degrees when I got up. It’s a heat wave! Funny how much warmer that felt than -27. It’s all relative. I headed out to the gym for some walking and full body lifting.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Cable Squat-to-Row	3 set of 10 at 60#	Full Body
Barbell Split Squat	3 sets of 10 (each leg) at 65#	Lower body
Close Grip Lat Pulldown	3 sets of 12 at 50#	Back
Pushups	3 sets of 10	Chest
Plank	3 sets of 60 second holds	Core
Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 140#	Calves
Face Pull	3 set of 12 at 30#	Shoulders
Good Mornings	3 sets of 10 at 55#	Low back and hammies

The gym was so cold today. Apparently the furnace conked out again yesterday (of all days!!) and no fixing it this time. They need to get a replacement. I couldn’t even touch the dumbbells because they were so cold. I will run tomorrow, which should keep me warm.

I was ready for breakfast today! I planned out all my foods in livestrong.com for today last night. Then I forgot after I made breakfast that I was going to do a different topping for my waffles, but ended up with blueberries. The idea of writing down is so that you follow the plan, right? 🙄

Still tasty, though. Playing in the light box again. I have a daylight bulb, but I am thinking I need something a little warmer.

A box arrived for me today. I finally upgraded my phone. I had one of those old ones with only numbers, so texting was a real PITA. Plus it randomly called John out of the blue, so who knows if it did it to anyone else. 😳 When I went to upgrade I could do a nice phone because it was 4 years since my last one! Ooops. I am not a big phone user, it’s the computer for me.

I got an LG Cosmos with a keyboard. Cool. Yeah, I know everyone else has an iPhone, but it just doesn’t fit in the budget. Not with a new half bath to be put in!

Lunch time! Amping up the protein today for the lifting. I had some cat food… errr I mean tuna. Lemon pepper, to be exact.

Need to make some different seasonings. Time to get more hummus! Suzi has a challenge this week to get in more fruits and veggies, so I joined in. Fruit is never a problem, but veggies can be.

Doing work for the orthopedic clinic and there are so many ski related injuries as of late! I tried down hill once and didn’t enjoy it very much. I did like cross country, though. Without insurance, I am not likely to try downhill again, though. Broken clavicle is the most common injury so far this season. Then torn meniscus.

I’ll stick with sledding, like we did last weekend:

That’s kind of how I stop when skiing, too.

It’s time:

Latte with 1/2 scoop of whey isolate in there. I loves me some protein!

I had set out some clementines to eat with the latte, but I wasn’t that hungry. My appetite has been low today. What a relief! Usually I could pretty much eat all the time (and sometimes do). Not sure what is suppressing it today, but I will take it.

More light box playing for dinner! I definitely need another light on the other side.

This pita had scrambled eggs, laughing cow and the requisite hot sauce. I almost burned my brussel sprouts, too, but they came out quite good. I think that pan sauteing them in coconut oil is my favorite cooking method.

I have a bit of work to finish up tonight and then I will have a snack later of a couple mint cups.

Don’t they look giant? I’ll post about the light box tomorrow. I’m likin’ it.

Question: Do you ski?