Snow Day, pt. 4

Look! A road! We haven't seen one of those in a long time!

We just received word that tomorrow is a liberal leave/2 hour delay day for the Federal government. However, this means nothing for us since we usually have class on Fridays. We are still waiting to hear on whether or not our flight is canceled. BWI initially canceled all incoming and outgoing Southwest flights for Thursday, but later PM flights ended up getting through. Cross your fingers for us; we really don't want to miss a chance to see the Frosts.
We woke this morning to the sounds of a bobcat (I think this is a bobcat?) moving snow from the road. While I am not accustomed or inclined to be awakened in this fashion, I was nonetheless delighted to see that the road was being cleared. Only problem: now the sidewalks are covered/impassable.

I think it's interesting that they haul the snow away in big trucks; the Utahns I know would laugh at that prospect.

Chess update:

Jason 6

Amanda 3

Quick plane update: As of 9:19 p.m., our plane is scheduled to depart on time!!!

Snow Day, pt. 3

Look at the tiny person trudging through the snow in this photograph. He looks so small and alone in the abandoned city and treacherous weather.

Oh look! Upon closer inspection, it would appear that the shadowy figure is none other than Jason Frost, carrying pizza home to his loving (and hungry) wife. How heroic he must be to brave the elements--throwing caution to the wind--in the pursuit of nourishment!

In case you are wondering, we are having another snow day!

It began snowing again last night and is still at it this morning. According to the National Weather Service, we are experiencing blizzard conditions, with winds up to 50 mph and an additional 10-16" of snow. The postal service is now officially closed, but we're pretty sure we have not received new mail since last Saturday. We were really hoping to get our taxes done in CT, but unless my forms come tomorrow, we may not be able to.

This is the view out our window as of 10:00 a.m. The snow is higher now and more is stuck to the screen.

This is the view out the front door of the Barlow Center. The little corner you can see on the left side of the picture is the big granite "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" sign in front. As you can see, it has been completely covered by drifting snow. The street you are looking at here is Pennsylvania Avenue (also home to the Obama family).

Interesting tidbit of information: B on the following picture is where we live. A is where the Obamas live. It's about 1 mile from our house to their house. The east-west street at B and Pennsylvania is L street. The tiny M beneath Washington Circle is the Foggy Bottom Metro Station where we catch the subway.

This is L street. Just past the bus stop is Pennsylvania Avenue. As you can see, neither street has been plowed.
Here is the view from our front window.

Last night we watched Doubt on my parents' NetFlix. Perhaps my favorite part of browsing their account is seeing the genre recommendations based on films they have seen/enjoyed: witty British satire, French cerebral comedies of the 1960s...what a funny bunch.

I think probably be playing some more chess today...and tomorrow.

QUICK UPDATE:

Work has officially been cancelled tomorrow. Temperatures should be in the high thirties, though, so hopefully some of this white stuff will melt and let us get out of town!

Click here to read some of the Washington Post info on the storm.

Snow Day, pt. 2

So, we had another snow day today AND will be having another one tomorrow. Everything is still closed, so we've been pretty cloistered today. Since tomorrow is supposed to be even more grim outside than today, it will be interesting to see what we come up with to retain our sanity. Don't get me wrong; staying home from work is a blast. However, it would be more fun if we could actually go somewhere/do something.

We bought a chess set today from Barnes and Noble, so that kept us busy for a couple of hours. Current score: Jason 1, Amanda 2. We're going to be Grand Masters by the end of this week.

Jason took a video of the snow falling outside our window. It's short, but cool.

We are supposed to have another 10-16" between tonight and tomorrow. We'll see if the snow lives up to the hype.

Here is a video I recorded. I like to call it "Jason Vacuuming the Apartment Very Fast."

Happy Birthday Jason!

We decided to start Jason's birthday off right by going to Dunkin' Donuts. We have been pretty surprised by the lack of Dunkin' Donuts locations in the Washington D.C. area; they are everywhere in Connecticut! On our way out of town on Friday, though, we noticed a franchise near the GW gym. Thanks to the closure of the Federal Government, we finally had enough time in the morning to run over for a tasty breakfast.

The walk over was fraught with peril. Many of the side streets have still not been plowed and the sidewalks are either covered with snow/ice or four inches of slush. Jason took the above picture on our walk; I guess the newspaper holders weren't made for snow.

This is in Georgetown. After breakfast, we grabbed some stuff at CVS and bought some thank you cards from Barnes and Noble. Look how deep the snow is!

This is about a block from our house. On the way back from breakfast, Jason helped some guys who had gotten their car stuck in the middle of the road right here. The picture is kind of tiny, but the snow in the road is still pretty deep.

We bought our airline tickets to return to Utah today. We'll fly in on April 17th in the evening. Graduation is the next week on Thursday and Friday. It seems crazy that we are almost halfway through our DC adventure.

We purchased some groceries today, but didn't want to venture out too much in the snow. Crossing the street is especially difficult, and people drive pretty badly.

This is the little tiny cake I made for Jason's birthday. I was excited to discover cake mixes at Trader Joe's last week, but realized today that the mix made an 8"x8" cake. It's a good thing, because we would never be able to eat an entire normal-sized cake. I thought about trying to decorate the cake like an overhead map of the District of Columbia (turned diagonally, of course, like a diamond), but didn't have any decorating stuff, so I stuck with the always-versatile semi-sweet chocolate chips.

What the cake may have lacked in size, it surely made up for in taste. I thought it was very tasty.
Jason with his presents. (The things in his left hand are cuff links, not earrings). The birthday man enjoying his cake.

Hooray for self-timers on cameras. This took two tries.

Happy birthday Jason! You're quite wonderful.

Today was a great day, made even more great by the fact that the Federal government is closed tomorrow too! I think we're going to run to the gym and maybe try to hit some national monuments; all the museums are closed and the metro is unreliable in this weather, so getting out to see things is a bit difficult. Work may be cancelled on Wednesday as well; we're supposed to get 10-16" of snow on Tuesday night. I love the east coast attitude toward snow!