A Win less Season


The Jr. Terps played really hard and had a lot of fun but they did not have anyone on the team that could really score on a consistent basis. They have one more game but the season ending party was yesterday and of course another loss right before that. It's a good lesson in life and probably better than dominating every game, thus feeling really deflated when that first loss came. Back in my day, my 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade football team was undefeated mostly because me and my good friend Anthony Burke grew quickly and dominated the other teams with our giant size (I don't think I've grow an inch "up" since 8th grade) All of the sudden all the kids starting springing up in 9th grade and we lost a bunch of games and it was just shocking and bewildering at the time. Our high school team was just mediocre as well and I think all that early success contributed to a sense of complacency. These kids will be hungry for a win soon.

Tough Guys


Sam, Dylan and Nicole won the twist contest because Sam was twirling his shirt above his head like a Chippendale dancer. Two last basketball games this weekend, the end of year team party, a birthday party and some Olympics. The blizzard that hit New York, totally missed us except for the wind but we have no shoveling to do this this time around.

Sock Hop

Sock Hop
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Fonzi one and two are ready to bust a move. I taught them the twist.

Jr. Terps

Jr. Terps
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The team getting ready for another game.

Peking Opera

Peking Opera
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Dylan posing with his Peking Opera mask at school. They are learning
Chinese.

Snow Fort

Snow Fort
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

While our local street is pretty rough, you can see the big piles of
snow starting to shrink and settle as the days provide plenty of sun
and mid thirties temps. The boys are off again tomorrow as am I for
Presidents Day. We are hoping to get them back into class on Tuesday
for the first time in 11 days (7 missed school days). We've had a lot
of good family time but it's time to get back to work and school.

Sam on ice cream

Sam on ice cream
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Dylan on ice cream

Dylan on ice cream
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Momma and Dylan enjoying some post dinner ice cream in old town.

Out of the house

Out of the house
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

After another 36 hours of snow, shoveling and hunkering, we have
ventured out over horid nieghborhood streets to grab some dinner in
kingstowne. It was almost 40 today and the melting has begun but its
a lot of snow that needs to disappear. Cabin fever was setting in and
our food choices were getting limited. The boys and I are taking
Nicole out in old town for Valentines day in Saturday night as well
and they want to help pay for it as well. That's nice of them.

A New Record!


Well, if nothing else, we officially beat the long standing seasonal record for snow in the DC area. This is the official measurement from DCA but I'm sure that we have had about 5 more inches than that and I'm sure some spots in the northern suburbs are 10 or 15 inches higher. We are just getting hammered.

We just got in from another round of shoveling but the wind was kind of high so we cut it a little short. It is all very beautiful and feel of the fire on your face after being outside for an hour is quite fantastic. It's going to be another night of movies and wine as long as the power hangs on, then back outside in the morning to shovel some more snow. I really hope we see a plow this time around. I don't believe one has been down our road since this whole thing started last Friday.

Oh yeah, it's only early February. We could get hit a few more times.

Blizzard 2010

Now we have snow and 45 miles gusts of wind for the rest of today. I think the snow totals in Alexandria will be in the 8-10 range but the wind is whipping all 30 inches of the stuff around out there. We haven't even been out to shovel in fear of being blown away or hit by a tree. We have power at this point but I'm keeping all my electronics plugged in as a hedge against the high possibility of an outage. Good thing we got out yesterday because it's going to be a long day inside today.

It starts again

It starts again
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

We got out today on very dicey streets to spend some time at the mount
Vernon rec center pool. It felt good to do a little swimming while the
snow started again outside. No work again today, fed was closed for
the second day in a row and by the looks of the weather report, will
be for a third day in a row tomorrow. I'm having some minor vein
surgery on Friday so this week may be a wash if we don't get to work
on Thursday. Let's hope the snow totals stay down around here this
time. My trees need a break.

It just keeps coming

At least we are in the 5 to 10 range. School has been canceled for Tuesday and Wednesday now so we will have to figure out how to keep the kids busy and hope we don't have any more trees come crashing down.

Beginner Braces

Beginner Braces
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

We braved the snow to get Sam some braces on his front teeth this
morning. No bagels for three weeks. Not sure what he's going to eat.
No work today. Dc is still shut down and the roads, quite frankly suck.

It's a snowy, snowy world

I pulled together a bunch of pictures from the last few days and put them on flickr. We did some more digging this morning and I hacked up the tree that fell on the driveway. Some of the tree is still standing but will not make it without the significant part that fell. We have another huge part of a tree next to it on the ground but it's not in the driveway and I will get to that when the snow goes away. Actually, that's bigger and will be a job for Mr. Woo.

I have the fireplace up and running again since we have not seen a plow down the street yet and it may be well into this evening or tomorrow before one gets to us. We never seem to be on the first to plow list. Anyway, the fireplace is roaring, the electricity is one, the Internet is available and the fios tv is working so bring on the Super Bowl even if the right NFC team isn't there. Go Colts....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72157623248167671/

Break of Day


Getting electricity and heat back last night at around 11pm made yesterday a little better and the sun being out and bright this morning is helping with the whole snowboundness feeling. We still need to get out and do some more shoveling and sawing up of the half tree that feel in the driveway but based on the road in front of our house, we aren't going anywhere for a while anyway. Our annual Superbowl get together is going to be the four of us this year. No one will be able to get here for Nicole's roasted pepper lasagna. It's all mine.

Snowmageddon

I miss spoke in my last post. The official name of this storm is Snowmageddon. And it is one. We have 24 inches on the ground and not a plow in sight. The power is still out and I'm going thru wood like a lumberjack. The good news is, we didn't get the 32 inches Dulles airport got or the 29 inches Modean got in Catonsville. We took a walk before sunset and there are ton of trees down and the roads to get to either Telegraph or Franconia are basically impassable, even by 4 wheel drive vehicles. It's nasty out there and the temp is going down to 9 tonight. The four of us will be in one bed this evening. Lots of body heat.

Snowpocalypse

It's getting a little crazy out there. Tree limbs are cracking, we lost power. We must have 20 inches of snow and have more on the way. Snow days with power is much better but we have full batteries on the laptops and DSi's as well as both fireplaces blazing away. The boys are all covered up watching a movie on one of the laptops and when that one goes bad, we'll go to the next one. I have internet access thru a tethered blackberry at the moment and if the power thing goes on for a while, I'll fire up the generator to get us all charged up again.

The temperature is starting to drop now and it's suppose to be 17 for a low tonight. That could get a little chilly but if we all get in one bed we should be fine. Radar looks promising with the low pushing out to sea and the trailing bands of snow looking less intense. This is the worst snow event I can remember around here anyway. We will be digging out for days.

Ouch


We've seen about 17 inches of snow so far and have another few to come. Last nights snow was particularly heavy and caused at least one tree to topple right behind the cars. I've also seen some good size branches laying around the house but haven't really do a full damage assessment. The good news is that the temps are going down and the snow is getting lighter. I'm not sure how much more weight some of the big trees out front can take. It's going to be a couple days before we are able to leave the homestead. It's just nasty out there.

This one looks pretty good



If you don't here from us for a while, it's because we are digging out from under a carp load of snow. I will be surprised if we actually get anywhere near 26 inches but I do know that school has been canceled already and the federal government has told it's employees to stay out of DC if they can help it. I've got a ton of firewood and I'm thinking I need to get the generator out, fired up and read for this one.

Ready for some Football?



I don't typically watch football with Green Bay fans. Maybe I'm afraid this will happen. Hey, it's Minnesota and Wisconsin. We are like brothers or kissing cousins.

Even More Snow

We are now expected to get 3 to 6 more tonight with another storm possible this weekend. Now typically, DC gets a total of 15 inches over the course of a winter and the last few winters we've seen barely 6 inches. We are currently at a whopping total of 24 for the season with some good weeks of winter left. I like it.

I posted a bunch of pictures of the hike last weekend on flickr. It was great to get outdoors and do a couple miles on completely fresh trails. We were the first people on most of the trails that morning. It was very cool to see miles of untouched snow in front of us as we hiked. We may be able to repeat it this Sunday.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72157623322624084/