Just what we needed... more snow. Justin and I are starting to feel a bit caged in. Neither of our offices have been open yet this week, and it's blizzard conditions today, with another 5-10 inches accumulation expected.

On the plus side, I have been rather productive at home. We made chicken stock and turkey stock yesterday, buns, and an apple tart.

I have started watching a show on A&E called Hoarders, which is about people who are compulsive hoarders. It is very interesting, and it makes me want to compulsively clean my house and give away anything I have that I don't use... Is that a normal reaction to seeing a house so full of stuff that there is no where to sit down?

Back to trying to work from home. Wish us luck re-digging out our car tomorrow.

The digging out begins.

Before: (technically not our car, but you get the idea)



After (a good 3 hours work. The snow here is HEAVY (plus we got ploughed in).

Here are a few more pictures of the snow this morning.

We've had about 20-24" of snow since noon yesterday. The back door is basically snowed in.

Everything is closed (stores, schools, metro, everything). Good thing it's Saturday and there's nowhere to go.

Still snowing. 13" and counting. Ellis did not enjoy his morning walk...

Yes, we are still alive, but I guess you wouldn't know it by reading our blog. Today the University of Maryland was closed due to a prediction of snow, and the NIH was open with a 4 hour early dismissal, so I stayed home instead of working for 4 hours and then fighting my way home with crazy drivers who don't know how to handle the weather. The snow really started coming down just before noon. It's now falling at a rate of about 1-2" per hour. We are expecting 20-30 inches by the end of the night on Saturday. Here are a couple of pictures taken around 4pm Friday. How many of you have seen a mangrove covered in snow? For that matter, how many of you have ever seen a mangrove at all?

So, it looks like it's going to be a White Christmas in the DC area.

We've had about 4 inches or so overnight, with upwards of 2 feet forecast in the next 24 hours.

Could be fun!

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!


OK, most of you probably won't get that, but some of you will and find it hilarious.

In any case, we're going to be visiting Regina from August 29-Sept 6, so if you're going to be in town then, please give us a shout and we'll arrange something.

Addendum from Lindsay: For those of you who knew about it, my contract issues with the NIH have been resolved. Yay!! As far as they are concerned, everything is a go, I just need to get a new TN visa, as per usual.

We had a lovely visit with Justin's parents this past week and a bit. It started out with a trip to Virginia Beach, Ellis included. One of the highlights of the week, though, was Canada Day. We have thrown a Canada Day BBQ every summer that we have been here, usually the weekend before Canada Day. This year, with Canada Day on a Wednesday, and us in Virginia Beach the weekend before, and the weekend after being the 4th of July, we decided to not bother with a big BBQ this year. We would just try to BBQ with Don and Shirley on Canada Day itself, and not make a big deal about it.

This year, like every other year, Justin posted a little thing about our BBQ on the Connect2Canada (http://www.connect2canada.com/) website. We get a little gift bag from them with Canada goodies for the party. We have also always listed that this is an open BBQ, so people are welcome to come join us. No one ever did... until this year!



First, a man and his daughter arrived. He is from the Guelph area, and has lived in Baltimore for about 7 years. His daughter is a dual citizen. And they just wanted to come out and celebrate Canada Day! Well, we thought this was really neat. Then, a few minutes later, a gentleman from New Jersey arrived. His mother is Canadian and he just wanted to celebrate, also! In fact, this was his third Canada Day party of the day!

After a quick scramble for more food, we had a very lovely time. The young girl kept Ellis very busy eating carrots and chasing his ball. Then, the skies opened up and we all fled from the rain, and that was the end of Canada Day 2009 in Greenbelt, MD. All in all a very enjoyable day.

That's all for now. I have other things to post, but all in good time.

Happy Belated Canada Day, and Happy Belated 4th everyone.