Sandy Monday afternoon update

More of the same this afternoon.  The rain has slowed down but the winds have picked up.  The lights have flickered two separate times but thankfully we still have power.  We're off to go do p90x and try and get through our showers before our luck runs out!

This was the rain total at 8am this morning: 1.6"

This was the rain total at 11am this morning: 2.2" (I emptied the rain catcher at this point).

I then stopped working since our servers were shut down at the office which meant I couldn't work remotely anymore.  So I started baking to take advantage of the power we still had!

This was the rain total at 2pm: .8"

This was the rain total at 4:30pm: 1.3" So we now have totaled 3.5" of rain since last night.

Dad went out this morning three times and filled up the cars with gas and bought ice which was awesome.  I also took all the water bottles I bought last Thursday and stuck them in the freezer.  They can last as ice until we need them to thaw.

Dad turned on the fireplace which I must say just makes me feel better.  Instead of cold and dark and depressing the fire makes me feel comfy and just like I'm bundled up for a winter snow storm. 

So far my zinnias are the only things that have been a casualty in the yard, as well as lots of leaves.

My baking efforts of today finished!  Two loaves of banana bread, two loaves of pumpkin bread, one batch of sugar cookies, one batch of gingerbread cookies, and one batch of frosting.  I baked the breads (mom baked the banana bread) because they don't need to be refrigerated, I baked the cookies because Dad needs food for a Halloween party on Wednesday but if we have no power tomorrow today was the only time to make them.  This is also why I made the frosting because it needed power to whip and I didn't feel like lugging the mixer to a Panera just to use their power to whip some frosting ;)  And I baked the gingerbread just because everything was already dirty and we like gingerbread cookies!

The only casualty of my baking spree, a small burn.

They say that the 12 hr window of the strongest winds and wind gusts is going to start in the next few hours.  We're just holding our breath every time the wind blows.  I think we've done as much as we can and now we just have to wait!

Sandy Monday Morning

So far so good. We're pretty calm here with just a steady rain. I got up at 7:30am to try and get some work in before my office shuts down the computer servers at noon. About 1.6 inches of rain overnight into this more and not much wind so far. Baltimore is getting torrential rain right now though (2" per hr) so we'll see if that rain band moves its way to us. Again the storm isn't supposed to get to us until this afternoon so I'm gonna be baking as much as possible between now and then! Pumpkin bread here I come!

Preparing For Sandy

*Update Monday 12:00am:  As of right now Becca has off of school Monday and Tuesday, Mom, Dad, and I all have work canceled for tomorrow so we're going to be sitting tight inside and trying to not drive each other crazy!  The weather forecast has been updated to say the winds will be worse and the rain totals will be higher than previously stated.  So we're all staying inside and just waiting for the power to go out.  We're pretty sure that it's imminent and since the power companies are not going to be working during the storm so, if the power goes out, we'll probably be out of power till Wednesday or Thursday.  We'll see. We're all just hoping for the best.  I'll keep updating as long as we have power! 

So Sandy is supposed to hit the east coast tomorrow, but I've been warily watching for it since last week Monday.

I admit I'm a bit of a weather junky. There is a blog, the capital weather gang, that's part of the Washington Post that talks about weather. Now this isn't just ordinary 'oh the highs are going to be in the mid -fifties' kind of blog. No this blog details everything. They stay stuff like this 'the North Atlantic oscillation interacts with the jet stream creating an area of high pressure that is intensified due to the occurs nice of El Niño this year.' Yeah stuff like that, it's all very meteorological.

Anyway, this blog has been tracking Sandy since last week Monday before it was even a tropical storm. If the then unnamed storm did turn into a hurricane there was a chance that it might hit the east coast. Most if the weather models had the possible hurricane turning out to sea (or ocean in this case) but the capital weather gang felt that there was enough of a chance that it would come towards the coast that they kept tracking it. Sure enough, as the week went on more and more models showed the hurricane hitting the US. It became not 'if' the hurricane will hit but 'when.'

Now capital weather gang reached the conclusion that an almost direct hit was a sure thing Wednesday night, so on Thursday after work I decided to hit the grocery store to pick up some essentials in case we lost power. I also knew that people would go into crazy freak out mode on the weekend and parking lots would be the stuff of nightmares. So I went to the store and loaded up on a few things, feeling a bit sheepish the whole time. I lived in DC for two years before going off to college and every year since I've been in KS during hurricane season so I felt like the typical Midwestern girl freaking out about a little ol' hurricane, but after seeing the tweets if empty shelves yesterday I feel vindicated!

Here's some of the stuff I bought:

Tomato soup and butternut squash soup that just need to be heated.  No water added!

Peanut butter!  It needs no cooking at all and is really nutritious.  You can put this stuff on bread and crackers and eat for a week.  I got the big jar ;)

More water bottles!  This is a pack of 35 and it's added to some of the ones we already have.

Boil in the bag rice.  Normally we buy the microwave kind but that probably won't be possible.  Again, just add water.

Stuffing!  I was trying to think of what to get to fill out a dinner.  This would add bulk and make you feel like you've eaten a meal.

I read on Pinterest that you can make oil candles using olive oil and t-shirts for wicks.  It's also non-combustible so I was a lot more comfortable buying this than I was buying lamp oil.

Now I didn't think of these at first, but I saw a woman with them in her cart so I made a detour and got some for myself.  Nothing is worse than dirty dishes piling up in a sink and no way to wash them.  Best to just use recyclable ones you can just get rid of.

Chicken in a can.  Less smelly than tuna!

Instead of water to add to stuffings or rice or pasta, you can add chicken stock for more flavor!

I've never eaten chili out of a can but I'm sure it wouldn't be too bad and hey it needs no added water.

I've only used this to eat s'mores at a restaurant.  They bring out a tray with chocolate, graham crackers, and
marshmallows.  They'd light the small can of sterno and you'd roast the marshmallows right there are your table!  Kinda cool.  But I was thinking that in a pinch you could maybe boil/heat soup over this in a pinch.  We also have a fireplace if all else fails and we can live like pioneers!

All I can say is that I've gone for more than 24 hrs without power, I will be eating this by the spoonful.  No-touchy, it's mine!

Apparently in a power outage you need toilet paper.  Don't know why but I got some anyway.

This is dry soup mix that just needs water.  (sensing a theme? lol)

And last but not least, my favorite, tomato soup.  Just add water.

I wanted to stick with food that can be prepared with only water and boiling using no electricity (gas stove). See our biggest threat for this storm is a power outage and downed trees. We're not boarding up our windows or anything! The problem lies in the rain. If we get soaked with rain before the storm reached land the ground will be saturated making it a lot easier for trees to fall over when the wind gust do come, and when trees fall over they fall into power lines and cause massive power outages. Lets just say that VA has millions of trees and just as many above ground power lines. If this doesn't say 'stupidity' to anyone I don't know what does! We'll get a thunderstorm and power will go out because the stupid utility providers don't underground the lines and the stupid government officials don't force them to! Ugh! Politics make me angry. Breathe, Happy place, happy place, breathe. So yes I'm preparing for a power outage using some insightful tips found in Pinterest and just waiting to see what happens. Right now even the weather forecasters don't know what's going to happen or how intense it will be because they've never seen a storm like this that meshes with a cold front. It's turned into a hybrid which is why you'll hear everyone saying 'I've never seen anything like this before!' No worries it's not going to be a huge disaster (fingers crossed). We'll prob get about 5 or so inches of rain and some wind gusts of 70 mph at the most but I'm worried as long as we can stay in our house. I am interested in how this will all play out though this whole week. I'll keep you posted!

Colors of Fall

Last weekend Loudoun County was having a farms tour.  Which is essentially just a chance for all the historic properties to be open to the public and for us to ooooh and aaahhh over how extraordinarily wealthy these families are (did I mention that the Kennedy's had a summer vacation home near Loudoun?  Yeah those kind of people).  The house we went to see has been donated as a museum with the National Historic Trust etc or something like that.  Anyway, Loudoun is only about an hour away and I was VERY persistent about seeing the Autumn leaves so I cooerced the family into going.  We spent a good three hours walking the grounds, taking pictures, taking a tour of the house, having an alfresco lunch, and touring the gardens before we were kicked out by an impending Scottish wedding that was going to happen on the property.  We weren't told to leave in so many words but the intent was clear once the caterer and the DJ and the wedding party and the guests and the party planners all descended on the main house with nary a thought to the insignificant tourists just wandering around.  We didn't mind too much though, honestly there are only so many pictures of trees that you can take.

Speaking of massive amounts of pictures, Dad had one camera and since I think I can do everything to perfection I had another camera.  Between the two of us we took a lot of pictures of foliage.  Which means I have at least a few hours to spend on Lightroom getting the best pictures ready to show, but in the mean time I wanted to share a few of the finished ones.

Hope it makes you feel like Fall in New England (which is what I was going for ;) )

<3 B

Thermos

Mom got a thermos for Christmas last year.  She used to walk to the bus and take the bus when we lived close to public transportation.  We had a few thermos mugs but their problem was that they would spill while she was walking to catch the bus or when she was on the bus or when she was walking from the bus to her office.  So she got on the internet and researched this new Thermos King mug and tasked Sarah and I with getting it for her for Christmas.  Now keep in mind, this was Christmas at Target and this was a relatively new product that doesn't come in a box.  Sarah and I had some interesting times trying to match the misplaced lids on the Target shelves with their respective bases when we didn't even know what to look for . . . good times.  But all that searching was worth it, this thermos no kidding does not leak.  You can hold this puppy upside down and not a drop will leak!  It works as well as childrens' sippy cups! 

Well she recently got me one since I drink tea and had been coming home and complaining that I have to chug the tea because it was so cold in my office that in half an hour it would be iced tea.  No joke. 

Problem is this mug has about a bajillion pieces!  And if you miss just one piece it's all lost!  This is why Daddy is the only one who can put the lids together after washing them.  But I was at the office the other day and needed to put it together myself and through some trial and error I figured it out.  And then the next time I had to put it together I took pictures (covertly so my boss wouldn't think I was certifiably insane for taking pictures of my coffee mug during work . . . ).  Here's what I mean:

Here is the deconstructed Thermos mug in all it's glory:

First take the lid and the big plastic ring and put the big plastic ring on the lid.

It takes a bit of stretching but it does fit once you beg and plead with it and promise it your first born (again, all of this is done covertly).

Next, take the flat, black, plastic disk and put it on top.

Now take the little plastic ring and the little black disk and put them together.

Then put the small disks on top of the flat plastic disk.

And twist so it clicks and is tight.

Now all is left is to put the lid on!  But make sure you take the spoon you used to stir in your sugar out before you try to tighten the lid.  Trust me, it won't work if you don't and you'll think you failed again and your day will spiral down into anger and you will yell at cars as you drive home and might even honk at them.

C'est Fini! (just need to tighten the lid all the way)

It's a pretty good thing I have pictures right?  You'd have no idea what I was talking about without them!  

New Year's Resolutions: The Race

On New Year's Eve for the last four years, we have run the Fairfax Four Miler.

We were part of the inaugural race:  great sweatshirts but we had to run in a circle for four miles since a storm blew down trees on the race course earlier in the day.

In year two, we ran the course backwards since the race supervisors didn't realize that St. Leo's Catholic Church had a Mass on New Year's Eve.  Given the timing, the runners would have been prime targets for the faithful who were leaving Mass *cough, cough* just a wee bit early.   Reversing the course meant we ran past the church long after the parking lot was empty.  Still, we felt somewhat non-religious that year as we ran by the silent church. 

By years three and four, the race had moved to the George Mason University Campus where trees behave themselves, the Catholic Church is closed when the students are on Winter Break, and the skies are not cloudy all day .... We still loved the race, but began to look for a little more undefinable something ....

 

For me, that something took the form of a New Year's Resolution of astonishing scope and power:  I would run ONE other race sometime before the next Fairfax Four.

Beth and I ran the Clarendon Day 10K on September 22nd.  In order to make it through the 6.2 miles on an uncharacteristically warm September day, we had heart monitors and Ipods and Nike+ mileage counters -- straps and wires and watches galore.  I notice a few more things when I look at this picture:  (1) After 25 years in the AF, I evidently feel the need to stand at attention at random times (2) Beth positively glows at 9:00AM.  I do not.  (3) This is one of the few times I've seen Beth workout in something other than a Kansas State T-shirt. 

It wasn't a large race, but there were still plenty of people.  See the man with the baby stroller in the back on the left?  He beat us by quite a bit.

The race began with an incredible downhill that went on for more than a mile.  See how happy we are early in the race during that downhill?

 

6.01356 miles later...yes, I was counting!

By this point in the race, I had managed to be running in a 10K at the exact time my second baby girl turned 21.  By exact, I mean not counting leap years, time zones, corrections to atomic clocks, and whatever might have happened to our conception of time during Y2K.  Happy 21st Birthday, Sarah! 

Beth stayed with me the entire race.  We had 'fun' trying to figure out why there were no water stations in the middle of the race (perhaps none could be located on Pentagon property?); what that person with the beeping heart rate monitor was trying to do (interval training during the race?); why anyone would run the 5K and then go back up that hill to run the 10K (evidently a popular option at this race); how many toes does a fish have (don't ask).  

By the time it was over, with this resolution checked off my list, I told Beth my new resolution was to do my first blog post ever.  Exactly one month later, here it is!

An Apple A Day . . .

Reppin' K-State!  This was the weekend we beat KU!

We went apple picking the other week!

I'm a bit determined when it comes to apple picking, and by determined I mean that nothing will stop me.  Let's see, last year I even dragged my ex around an apple orchard for over an hour.  I picked a whole bag of apples, I think he picked 10 . . .

Anyway, we picked an entire bushel of apples and ever since them I've been trying to think of ways to use them up!  I've made apple pie, apple bread, and used them in salads.  My favorite way to use them is to juice them for fresh apple juice or apple and spinach juice or apple and beet greens juice, although I'm the only one who drinks that last one ;)

I'm also a bit picky when it comes to my apples.  They are ALWAYS on the "Dirty Dozen" list because of the pesticides that get on the skins.  I get it, trust me, it's hard to grow fruit and veggies!  Bugs eat them all the time and apples are some of the hardest so I understand the use of pesticides but that doesn't mean I want to eat the pesticides.  So I peel all the apples I use.

And when you're using a massive bowl of apples like this, peeling all of them takes a long, loooooong time.  So long in fact that by the time you're finished peeling the apples all you want to do is curl up on the couch and eat chocolate to celebrate the fact that you finished peeling the never ending bowl of apples.  Forget about the apple pie you were going to make, that can wait until you've recovered!

See the massive bowl of peeled apples and the massive pile of peels?  Took.  Me.  Forever!

This one took just as long.  Sheesh the things I do for people.

I was even using Sarah's super nifty peeler.

So I ordered this awesome contraption.  We used to have one and the design hasn't changed one bit.  They sell lots of these on Amazon from different sellers and every single one of them looks exactly the same.  Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Here's how you work it:

Use the lever on the bottom to suction cup it to the counter.

See how strong the seal is?  It's literally lifting the cutting board off the counter right now!  (Just make sure the bottom and the counter are completely dry or it won't suction cup itself)

Then press the lever back and pull the rod back.

Now you have room to stick an apple on the three tines.

Hey look, you can see into the living room in this picture!

This thing-a-mo-bobber is used to slice and core the apples as you peel them.  I didn't want sliced apples at this point.

So you turn the winged-nut thingy (I don't know what it's called but you turn it and it loosens things and I'm too lazy to look it up on the internet right now).

And just swing the thing-a-mo-bob down so it's out of the way.

This is the part of the contraption that peels the apples (or potatoes).  You can move it back and forward depending on how thick the skin is.

Alright, step one: impale the apple forcibly on the three tines.  Be VERY careful not to impale your hand on the tines instead!  This will only be a problem for you if you're like me and close your eyes during impact.  This is also why I never played softball . . .

Anywhoo

Turn the crank on the back until your apple reaches the front and just keep cranking!

The peel will start to come off in a long ribbon.

Pretty peeled apple in an inordinately short amount of time!  Boy and I a happy girl  right about now!  (lol I hope you liked that play on words, I did that just for you ;)  )

Big pile of apple peels and peeled apples in HALF THE TIME!

Did I mention that the apple peels come off in really long strips?  Because they do.  It makes no difference to anything in the world, I just thought I'd mention that the apples peel strip is super long.  It is the longest on large apples.  Bet you couldn't have figured that one out on your own!  Did you ever have contests with yourself and try to get the entire orange peel off in one piece?  I did and I never succeeded until I peeled a clementine.  Which isn't an orange.  So I guess I still lost.  To myself.

MOVING ON!

Sorry.

Btw, freshly picked peeled apples oxidize (turn brown) A LOT faster than store bought apples.  So don't freak out if your apples turn brown sooner rather than later, it's normal.

Once the apples are all peeled, slice them in half.  We now have to core them.  "We" meaning "I".

I used to core apples the Rachel Ray way.  She'd just take a knife and slice diagonally down through the apple 1/4 and get rid of the core.  It was fast, it was easy, and no core was left.  The problem with this method is that it also sliced off a bunch of good apple too.

 So I recently started using a melon baller (or grape fruit spoon) to scoop out only the core.

See the difference?  The melon baller only took out the yucky core and the knife cut away perfectly usable parts of the apple!

A nice, big bowl of apples all peeled and cored, just waiting for me to use them in lots of yummy ways :)

Go out and pick some apples and keep that doctor away! (or keep yourself away from that doctor because I doubt any of us know a doctor that makes house calls anymore . . .)

<3 B