February 9, 2010
Here We Snow Again
Guess what? It’s snowing. Again. Another storm is hitting us this evening. They are calling for “up to 20″.
Needless to say, the dialysis center won’t be open tomorrow so we spent the day attempting to reach tomorrow’s patients to bring them in at the end of the work day today. If you’ve ever been in, or worked in a dialysis center, you know that it is normally a pretty routine place. So and so comes in at such and such time, runs for so long and then leaves. On days when there is a snow emergency and the center will be closed the following day there is the challenge of getting all of the current days patients treated in addition to the patients who would be treated the following day.
Did I mention that many of the patients who come to treatment come by some sort of scheduled transportation…meaning transportation arranged by the state or county? That’s right….when there is a snow emergency many of these transportation services are shut down, meaning many of these patients can’t get to the center to get their life sustaining treatment. Many of them are able to get friends, family or neighbors to bring them. Others can’t. It’s a literal nightmare.
Thankfully, the years I spent in the hospital staffing industry paid off today. I was able to actually be of some assistance. The Social Worker and I made a great team…handling the scheduling so the nurses could do what they do best….take care of patients.
So the work day is over. I’m watching LOST. I honestly don’t know why I continue to watch this show. I’ve watched EVERY episode and I have NOT A CLUE what is going on. I’m hoping that I can figure it out soon…you know….before the end of the season. Given that it is the end of the show I think that would be a good idea.
Scott got his orders yesterday. We’ll be stateside for the next 3 years. Stay tuned for more on that tomorrow…LOST just came back on.
February 7, 2010
Snowmageddon
Well today was the day. No putting if off til tomorrow. It had to be done. I got out of bed, bundled up and got ready to shovel….let the pain begin.
It was bad, but not as bad as it could have been I suppose. Last night we were lucky enough to be visited by a kind man in a front loader. He dug out our street…..our street that usually doesn’t get plowed. There were 4 of us out there moving snow today so it only took a few hours to clean off the driveway, and space for the mail truck to get near the box.
Here’s a few pics of the snow
Max was bored by the whole thing.
So the driveway got finished and Dad ran out to do a few errands, you know….BEER RUN! He also stopped by the hardware store to pick up a few things for Heather to stain her new spinning wheel. She bought an Ashford Traveller, unfinished and is now staining it a pretty honey oak color.
She started dying fiber yesterday and that process carried over to this afternoon. Here’s a pic of what she did yesterday.
Of course I can’t resist dyeing fiber so I got in on the act…..here’s a few pics of the process
It was a very productive day. I even managed to whip up my borscht. Here’s a picture of the finished product. It tasted as good as it looks. I’m pretty impressed with myself. Those cooking lessons from Olga paid off!
Now I’m sitting here watching the halftime show and getting ready to do a little bit of knitting. Back to work tomorrow. Hopefully the nice front loader man will come and do the rest of the neighborhood tonight. Dad said 301 was a mess so it should be a fun commute! Note to self, remember to take some Aleve.
February 6, 2010
Snowed In
For the last 36 hours it’s been snowing in the Washington Metro Area. We’ve accumulated somewhere between 20-30 inches depending on where you live. It’s probably around 20-24 here in Upper Marlboro.
The city has come to a virtual stand still, much like it did in 2003. That’s the last big snow I remember in this area, other than what hit us last month. I’m beginning to take this personally. I heard on the news tonight that we’ve gotten more snow so far this winter than in the last 5 winters combined. That’s funny. I think this is my first winter here in just about that long. Scott and I moved to NC just before the end of 2004. Hmmm.
Max has had a wonderful time. He loves the snow. I’m not even bothering to put his coat on. It’s more trouble than it’s worth and he doesn’t have his boots. His fur is short enough right now that the snow really isn’t balling up so why bother. Here’s a few pictures of him, Molly and Zachary out in the snow around noon today.
So what do you do when the snow is coming down outside and you’re trapped inside? A lot of nothing that’s what. I did manage to get my homework for the week finished. I knit several rows on my new sweater project and I’ve been tinkering with the blog. I’m trying to decide on renaming and redesigning. I have several ideas for the new design, but I’m really torn on renaming.
I’m also drinking some wine and watching Harry Potter. White this evening. Riesling from Cousino-Macul. This is a Chilean Vineyard that Scott has visited. He brought several bottles of red home in December. They were yummy. The Riesling is a little dryer than I’m used to, but it’s good. I bought 3 bottles on Thursday. Bottle 2 is well on it’s way to being history.
February 5, 2010
Bread, Milk and….BACON?
It’s snowing in Maryland. The storm of the century perhaps. It started this morning around 10:35 am in Largo. At least that’s when I saw the first flurry from my office window. It really didn’t start coming down steady until about noon. We were prepared to treat all 130 something patients at the facility today. Needless to say it was a busy day.
We’d been expecting the snow all week, so today was no surprise. Last night on the way home from worked I stopped by the local Amish market in Upper Marlboro. I wanted to pick up beets, cabbage, ground pork and boneless chops to make cabbage rolls and borsch this weekend. The market is usually pretty busy on the weekends so I wasn’t surprised when I pulled in last night and the parking lot was packed. Everyone was getting their weekend shopping done early since we were expecting this snow. I went to the meat counter and saw that they were “now serving”# 01. There were lots of people standing around, waiting patiently. I pulled my number…. 46. WOW. Well, I decided to get my veggies and then look around for a bit. Certainly they’d be near my number when I returned. WRONG. #12. I found a space next to two women and stood patiently…waiting….with the other 30 or so people. I was near the ticket machine so it was fun to watch people check the “now serving number” then draw their ticket. The look on their faces was priceless….they would ask the poor woman who chose to claim her “spot” next to the ticket machine….are they really on number 15? Yep, she’d reply. The women next to me were together and decided that they would place their orders together to save time. One gave me her number, 32. I was grateful. She probably cut my wait by 30 minutes. Now, normally I would have walked out. No way I would wait in line for this long for ground pork and chops, but I knew the grocery stores would be packed and the lines would be long too….so I continued to wait.
As I was waiting, I was being nosey of course and watching what people were purchasing. BACON. The poor Amish guy behind the counter went to the back no less than 4 times while I was there to replenish the stock. I’ve never seen so much bacon being purchased. Maple bacon, Canadian bacon, beef bacon, cured bacon, thick cut, thin cut, turkey bacon, pork bacon, you name it. There were people waiting in this godforsaken line JUST TO BUY BACON! It became a game to me and I would try to guess how much bacon and what kind the person was going to choose. I never got the answer right, but I did pass the time. Pretty soon they were calling my number and I was out the door with my pork chops, ground pork, beets and cabbage. Oh, and no bacon. Though I admit I was tempted. I wonder how much longer the man next to me had to wait. He was number 85, in line for Maple Turkey Bacon. I kid you not.
December 18, 2008
Smarter than the Average Bear
I finally gave up on trying to get my pictures to load to my computer the usual way and found another way to get them where I wanted them.
SO FINALLY, here are some pictures that I’ve taken over the past few days.
Cookie Exchange – sorry to disappoint, but the pictures I took of the cookie exchange are after the actual event. I get so wrapped up in the people that I forget about the pictures. It’s different here than at home. At home if someone wanted something they would just get up and get it themselves. Here it is really like having company! One poor woman asked me for tea and I went in the kitchen, turned the water boiler on and then totally forgot about her til I saw her about an hour later, drinking punch! I apologized and she said not to worry about it, but still….WOW, I screwed that one up.
This is a picture of the boxes that I gave my cookies away in. They were too big, but they were festive!
This picture is what was LEFT OVER after the exchange. I had everyone bring one dozen cookies to the party and people were splitting cookies (from an RD perspective – YAY!) and skipping cookies so there were many more leftover than I thought there would be. Of course I didn’t think they would ALL be gone, that’s for sure. I wound up packing most of these cookies up and giving them to the Marines. Of course most of the party participants baked cookies for the Marines too so they have a LOT of cookies to get them through the next few days at least.
This picture shows how some of the cookies were packaged for distribution! Very festive.
Knitting News - I started the Palindrome scarf a few days ago. I decided it was time to give these cables a try once and for all.
I’m knitting this with the yarn I received in the HSKS6 swap. It’s Patons Soy Wool Stripes in the Natural Blue colorway. It’s really soft, I like it and cables aren’t that bad.
First snow - Here are a few pictures that will give you an idea of what the snow looked like around my apartment. Danny’s pictures were much better.
Our balcony…We are almost at the top of the building so I was surprised to see that much accumulation on our little balcony…I guess the wind must have really been blowing.
View from the balcony. It wasn’t a lot of snow, not even an inch, but it was enough to cover up the dust and some of the brown and make it look pretty for a while.
Airport Bazaar – This is for you Jen!
Outside it was a cold, yucky day. This area of the bazaar sold fabrics.
Inside, if you can call it that. It’s just kind of got a roof, not really a solid roof, just pieces with plastic tarps to cover holes. Anyway, here is a picture of just one of the many purse stalls. Notice a theme? Black…everything is black here…ok, well that isn’t true some things are lime green or REALLY bright red. LOL
This is the sweater/clothing section….for as far as you can see down the aisle…sweaters. Also notice the cart? This one is empty and there isn’t that much foot traffic, but in other areas there are a LOT of people and carts going in both directions. They drive the carts like they drive the cars, crazy fast with no regard to other people. One cart driver actually had the nerve to push me out of his way….I said in my best Russian “EXCUSE ME” and then in my best English, another word that I won’t write because I don’t want to have to label this post as “Adult Content” for holidailies.
Here you have more purses and some bed coverings. It’s so random. Really there is not any real rhyme or reason to why these bedspreads are by the purses and not by the other bedspreads a few aisles over. Who knows?
The (a) persimmon cart. These persimmon look like they’ve seen better days. They’ve probably been driven up and down the aisles of the airport bazaar for a few days now. I haven’t seen it, but I”m sure there’s got to be a fruit section here somewhere. Also, let me point out the seeds/nut shells, plastic bags and bottle caps. You can’t walk very far in Baku without encountering one of these items. I was lucky enough to capture a picture of them all together. One big “debris” family.
Shoes, many many stalls of shoes….notice the rack of stiletto boots? The color? Black of course, to match all of those black bags two aisles over. I wish I would have focused more on that. I have YET to photograph any really good stiletto pictures for you.
This is not “the pashmina” stall, but just one of the many pashmina stalls scattered throughout the bazaar. Pashminas while popular, do not rate a full aisle.
And last, but not least, while I was photographing shoes these two jokers approached me. I thought they were offering to take a picture of me, I politely declined. Instead they wanted me to take a picture of them…with my camera…a picture they would never see. Okay. Here’s your picture fellas!
So there you have it, the Airport Bazaar.
December 17, 2008
It’s COLD Outside
Today a bunch of us loaded in to a van and headed out to the airport bazaar…in the snow. I was able to find the pashminas that I was looking for and I even purchased a turtleneck sweater. Today was NOT the best day for airport bazaar shopping however. It was cold and muddy and miserable. I’m still not able to get the pictures from my camera to my computer so that will be a post for another day.
I am still trying to thaw out and I have a headache from being outside in the pollution all day today so I’m hitting the sack…goodnight.
