I don't mind the rat race but I could do with a little more cheese.

We had a beautiful Christmas. Christmas Eve gave us a dusting of snow, half of a workday, and a viewing of "The Hobbit". Scott and I even drove around looking at Christmas lights for a bit.

I woke early, for me, on Christmas morning and we set to discovering what fun and unexpected gifts lay wrapped under the tree. Scott and I gave each other Lego sets: he received Lord of the Rings and I received The Hobbit. I also gave him the Lego Lord of the Rings video game. He spoiled me with a gift card to my favorite make-up store and a maid service. I love the former and am SO EXCITED about the latter. I think it was back in October that I told him the only thing I wanted for Christmas was a cleaning service because I HATE cleaning the bathroom and dusting. He really came through.

I baked our usual Christmas breakfast of gooey and drippy cinnamon rolls and we then Skyped with my family as they opened their gifts. It was complete pandemonium in Mom and Pete's living room and it was gorgeous. We then drove up to Annapolis for Christmas dinner with Scott's family. Sometimes that feels like an obligation, but yesterday's visit was a LOT of fun. Our nephew is seven and the twin nieces are five which, I think, are fun ages. I played with giant pipe cleaners and dolls with the girls and Scott geeked Star Wars with the nephew. Conversations with the adults were enjoyable as well and the time flew by.

This morning, I awoke to a snow-covered world. The weather guessers forecast freezing rain and sleet which meant I'd planned on working from home yet again. Now I get to enjoy the white death from the safety and comfort of my own sofa with two kitties for warmth. Plus, Scott just got home because it was a quiet day at work and the roads were getting dicey.

SCA: I received the final Virginia Doomsday report last night. Of course, this was after finally making that group's third quarter report balance after month's of banging my head against it and then walking the branch treasurer through the fourth quarter report and the year-end report. WHOO HOO! Now I get to consolidate all the branch reports into a Virginia spreadsheet and send that up to Kingdom.

Phone: Still in love, or at least like like. I've got my apps where I want them and, before working with the above exchequer, I got the personalized ringtones attached to contacts. Call sound quality is good and the microphone is, according to the recipient of my call, excellent. Not bad considering the phone was a couple of feet away from me on the sofa during the call. The only downside -- you knew there had to be a downside, didn't you? -- is that DecalGirl.com doesn't currently support the Rezound. Poop. I wanted to get a phone skin to match my iPod and Kindle. Oh well, I found a cute case that will do the trick and follow a similar color scheme as the skins on my other devices.

Bike: There are several bikey events coming up.

Stop, Swap, & Save on Sunday, February 12, 9a-2p. It is an indoor bike swap and consumer expo in Westminster, MD.

WABA 2012 Vasa Ride on Sunday, March 4, 7:30a-1p. Per the site, "four hundred riders of all ages and experience levels will gather at the House of Sweden on the morning of Sunday, March 4th for a noncompetitive ride to brave the coldness of winter and traverse DC and Maryland's terrain." There are 59-, 31-, and 15-mile routes for this event. Scott and I are signed up for the 31-miler.

Plus, the Bike Me DC Meetup group has several events scheduled such as a maintenance course this coming Saturday, a "Lost Blossom" tour of lesser known cherry trees at the end of March, and a tour along Skyline Drive, as well as spur of the moment bike tours of the C&O, MVT, and other scenic areas around the DC area. I'm looking forward to the maintenance class. Hopefully, it'll make me less of a bike hypochondriac and more empowered when I know how to fix the squeaks and squawks coming from my beloved velo.

And last, but certainly not least, Snow: Wombat is back in town and has brought inclement weather with him. His snow voodoo has faced a terrible-to-some jet stream but it may get the upper hand this afternoon. I think The Powers That Be don't want to potentially strand him so that he misses Mardi Gras as one of the Sirens of New Orleans' sailors as that troupe dances in parades for the Mystic Krewe of Nyx and the Krewe of Orpheus.

I love owning snow pants that fit. Okay, they're actually ski pants, but the only skiing I've every done was behind a boat. Anyway, they were snug last year and now they fit perfectly. I happily donned them, a long sleeved t-shirt, wool socks, puffy down jacket, kitty hat, stripey scarf, thick gloves, and snow boots to brave the blizzard and shovel the walk. I also knocked heavy, wet snow off the tender branches of our shrubs and tree and the bird feeder as well as the truck. It felt so good to be outside that I decided to walk around the neighborhood after switching out my gloves for a dry pair.

I tromped through shin-high drifts and stopped periodically to listen to tree branches creak and break under the weight of the snow. I spotted the vulture colony weathering the storm up in the branches of a sheltering evergreen. Many cars were stuck and/or spinning out on Greenthorn. I spotted kids and dogs frolicking in the twilight. It was quite magical out there, really, and I look forward to tromping through the snow again tomorrow.

The best part? I was warm and comfortable the entire time I was outdoors. I stayed warm and dry even while flopping around making snow angels. Hee!

As seen on News Channel 8:

Reagan National: 55" (4'7")
Dulles (just down the road from me): 75" (6'3")
Baltimore: 79.9" (6'8")

Good gravy.

National Weather Service has upped the snow accumulation amount for tomorrow and replaced the Winter Storm Watch with a Winter Storm Warning.

( Details below the fold. )

Whoo boy, it's really blowing out there now. The winds were pretty much non-existant when I left the house at 7:15. This made cleaning the snow off the Jeepfink a fairly easy job. Wait. It snowed and I didn't stay home to telecommute? Of course not! Today was the machine circuit in the gym! I can't do the machine circuit at home, silly reader.

(Yeah, I'm afflicted. This getting up at 7am thing is getting easier, too. I practically bounced out of bed this morning. It appears your regular melaniesuzanne has been replaced with Folger's Crystals.)

And? If I have the choice between two inches of snow and two feet of snow, I'm going to pick two inches. I would happily forego that layer of ice lurking under the snow, however. Getting out of reverse and into drive in the parking lot was an embarrassing challenge.

Ah well. Grindstone time. Happy Friday!

I was sooooo excited about the prospect of a snow day that I woke up before 6am and couldn't go back to sleep. I was up and on my work laptop before Hubbyfink got out of bed. My boss was pretty shocked to find me online so early, too. Hee!

Poor Hubbyfink has a doctor's appointment this morning and is currently clearing snow off the Jeep. I haven't heard or seen a plow come down our street yet, but Hubbyfink's sure he'll make it out. We've got about three inches of snow on the ground and it's still coming down hard.

Whoo hoo!

The neighborkid is shovelling the ice-packed snow off the sidewalk in front of Sam's house, his house, my house, and the other neighbor's house. What a good egg.

Yes, I'm working from home again. Because I can. Ha ha!

Jeepfink is encased in a shell of ice from last night's sleet storm. I'm glad I cleared the snow off it before the crusting. You can't even tell that I shovelled the walk three times yesterday.

It's snowing in Sterling. Yay!!!

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In other news... danabren says I need to learn to knit so I can make this Rat Race scarf. Hee!