Snow-My-Goodness

Our total was over 17" just shy of the "foot and a half" mark.  Here's how life's been for me lately:

Saturday morning: I slept in.  When I finally got up, I looked out my window to inspect the snow that'd fallen so far.  I then moved myself from the bed to the couch and continued my day of lounging.
Sometime in the afternoon, I finally made it outside to take some pictures.

Naturally occurring snow drift - the wind was for real.

The first time our lot was plowed

The "Christmas Tree" in the court yard

After photo session number one I got an hilarious call from Amanda.  The first few sentences were hilarious.  After that I did have the good sense to feel bad for her.  It went like this:

A - Tell me I'm a good person
Me - Ok, why am I doing this
A - I tried to call off work today (she's a nurse) and the supervisor started crying
Me - Laughter

The rest of the story was not so funny becuase it involved shoveling, getting stuck and depending on friends and Good Samaritans.  Amanda was also the first to describe the "shovel zombie" phenomenon that developed as part of this storm.  People just walking up and down the streets carrying around shovels....

At some point, I went out to actually dig out my car.  The only snow shovel I own, by the way, is an "emergency shovel" that fits in my trunk.  I bought it after I heard an episode of Car Talk where another girl who drives a stick called in.  I think she'd ultimately wrecked her clutch by trying to rock her car out of snow instead of digging it out.  When I went to evaluate my own situation I had an interesting puzzle.  Because of the crazy wind (no, really, it was a blizzard) one side of the car was fairly clear and the other side was hidden in a snow up to my waist.  (Ask me how I found that one out.)

Amanda - I still have your gloves.  They suck for shoveling snow but they are cute.

See all the snow between those two cars?  Yeah, me too.  The drivers side doors couldn't be opened.  Exciting!

Literally hip deep in snow!

Christmas Trees out front.

After day 1 of operation Shovel.

My shadow in the snow.

I spent a lot of last night texting Amanda, just trying to keep her spirits up about the insane amount of work she was going to have to do.  (Good thing she showed up because all of 3rd shift called in.)

In retrospect, this may not have been the most supportive picture I could've texted Amanda while she was in the middle of a 20 hour shift.

This morning: I woke up to find my state down a football stadium.  Oh my.  I again spent a large portion of the day on the couch.  Check out all the stuff I found on the internet.  (Aren't screen shots great?)

Who described 7* as "fair"?

Just so I know what's coming.  I'm all like, ooh, more snow but look how warm it will be on Wednesday.

Another nurse on her way to work - too bad Amanda couldn't do this.

Hilarious headline

See the hole in the roof - the dome popped like a balloon!  Now it's more like a sugar bowl.

Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Internet surfing is hard work.  I need another nap.

By this time the temperature had dropped from the balmy 25* it was yesterday to the 2* that was our high today.  So I really had to suit up for operation turn the car around.  (Is it odd that I can hear Gloria Estefan in my head right now?)  I rocked the car once and realized I had a little big more snow around the back tire that needed shoveling.  Then my car slid out of that snow drift like butter.  I just turned it around in the lot and backed into almost the same space.  (I just need to be able to get it out tomorrow morning.)

On the plus side, it is the first time I've seen sun in several days.

This is how we roll in Minnesota.

Oh look, the driver's side of my car, no longer in a snow bank.  Not entirely snow free.  (I should keep that in mind for tomorrow.)

My shadow is much bigger than yesterday.  Because there's sunshine.

Turn the car around - great success!

More of the Christmas Trees.  Most of the snow had actually blown off by this point.

And the courtyard Christmas tree too!

Just a shot of how high the snow got.  Those windows are about four feet off the ground.

For my next ninja trick - I will make my legs disappear in the snow.

After "turn the car around" I came back and did some serious cleaning.  I know, right, 72 hours stuck inside; you'd think I would've done that sooner.  I got done about in time to call my parents.  Then I texted Amanda (who, by the way, has been at work this whole time) to make sure she has a plan for getting her car out of wherever she got it stuck yesterday.

In a rare move, St Paul has actually declared a second snow emergency because they didn't get the roads clear enough on the first pass.  I'm assuming that people in St. Paul, much like in Minneapolis thought, "where am I going to put my car?  In a snow drift on the other side of the street?"  Or, "huh, I can't dig my car out; it's worth paying the tow fee to have someone else do it?"  So many cars in both places couldn't move for the plows that they're just going to re-plow. 

I have no idea if I'm going to work tomorrow.  I saw some people who were out today and reported that if I could get off our street I'd be fine on the main streets and expressways. 

Snowpocalypse 2010

Sven just told me we got 16" of snow at MSP Airport which is quite close to where I live.  16 Inches!?!  Another Sven gem: "2 becuase I'm an optimist; I'm staying positive" - meaning the high tomorrow may get a high as 2* above zero.  Oh lord.

There was a point when they plowed the lot.  Keep in mind - at 2:30pm I could see pavement.

Amanda's Gloves: They were no match for the blizzard.

And then you're all - "dude, where'd the pavement go?"  And then I was all, "dude, how am I going to get in?"

There was obviously waaaay less snow on the north side of the car, I'll be climbing over the gear shift sometime tomorrow to get her moved out.

You can't see my legs because I'm hip deep in snow.

The after may be worse than the before.

I hope the plow comes back and moves more of this snow.

Now I'm really all "where's the concrete?"  Good to know it's probably still down there anyways.

They canceled hockey.  We are "The State of Hockey".

We could play football tomorrow becuase the field is inside and there's no snow on it.  Except there's no one to play against?!?

Running in Freaking Narnia

Here's how life has been:
Thursday: I worked from home.  I am so productive when I work from home.
I also went to the gym and tried to run on the dreadmill and failed spectacularly.  Using a treadmill was fine exactly one time.  I probably shouldn't have had it up as fast as I did so early in the run.  Oops.  I started with a goal of moving nine miles and wound up doing about six between the dreadmill and a couple of ellipticals.

Friday:  I woke up and did a little more work from home.  I was forced to put half-and-half in my oatmeal because I was out of hazelnut milk and I refuse to use water.  WIN for me.  I had a meeting for work and then stopped in the office for a little while.

I was furloughed for the afternoon, an opportunity I turned into "lunch with Amanda".  Amanda helped me learn the general awesomeness that is Punch Pizza.  And I don't even like pizza.  Ever.  During lunch Amanda talked to me about "the golden hour" after working out when my body has the easiest time converting food back into glycogen.  (To be clear, runners burn off a lot of glycogen when we run.  A lot.)

After lunch, I did some research just to verify that she wasn't full of crap.  (Sorry sweetie, but really?  "The golden hour"?)  Turns out it's for real and then I was distracted by the things on the bottom of that website so I googled "Vatta Pita Kaptha" which lead me to a test to find out which one I am.  (Dude, a blizzard is on it's way.  I may not leave this house again until Monday morning and I need entertainment.)  Here's my results (from this website.)  And some gems from this website too. 

Amen!

Double amen!  Pooky Bear: Where's My Coffee?!

After yesterday's awful workout, I headed out today for a run around Lake Nokomis. The paths were mercifully clear but it otherwise felt like I was running in Narnia. Especially with the light posts all lit up and glowing off the snow.  You know the scene:

Just to be clear, running after pizza was a bad ideas. There were no winners.

The weather was actually pretty good for the run, temperatures up in the 20's and no wind. Not like the next few days which is why I got out there. Still, ice does collect after a run.

Ice and frost on my hat.  After running and the car ride home from the lake, there's still that much frozen stuff on me.  Brrr.

After the run, I took a couple pictures of me with me thank-you gifts from Team:Work

Put on a happy face - a Chipotle Gift Card

Gloves for winter running - perhaps because my current pair while hilarious, were not adequate to Minnesota's needs.  I call these my Spidey-Gloves because the fingers have these sticky-grippers that are just unreal.

Friday LINKFEST and assorted ramblings

Apparently, there's about to be a blizzard in Minnesota so I'm staying in tonight.  (Why isn't The Good Guys more interesting right now?)  Here's what's happening so far:

• My exchange-student-brother, currently at InvestFashion, used to work for American Eagle as a fashion designer.  He would tell stories about endless meetings with business people talking about the cost of a zipper and "this thread is $.09/yard but this thread is $.08/yard and it's almost the same color" kind of thing.  This story made me think of him.
• Hey! State of Minnesota: this is a great idea, especially since those traffic cameras that would fine/issue tickets were declared unconstitutional.  Pavolov taught me it's much easier to use rewards to increase behavior than to use punishments as a deterrent.  Just saying.
• Go Purple!, apparently now also an Alzheimer's fighter.
• Speaking of health, diabetes prevalence across the US over time.  Am I correct in thinking that the counties in Arizona, and South Dakota with high incidence of diabetes are also largely populated by Native American tribes?  Just curious.
• Which color are you?  And which one will make you buy stuff?
• Remember that blizzard I mentioned?  the only relief I could find....

Dashing through the snow

It's that time again, for the best 5k in town.  Every year, I swear the weather is going to be better for the Dreidel Dash and every year the weather seems to outdo itself with hilarity.   This year, the course looked about like this without the 30mph winds.  Thank goodness because it was 20 degrees cooler than when that picture was taken.

This is also the first year I'd captained a team for the dash.  There's a pot of chili on the line every year to see which community partner can have the biggest team.  My team of four people didn't come close to the school or the congregations, but we had a blast.  And what we lacked in size, we made up for in cool hats.

 Lindsay - inside and warm before the race

 Oh look, it's the St Paul Runners, and one of them has my other cool hat too!

 There I am, with the Team:Work cool hat on.

 See, I mean really, are those visors not completely hilarious?  Here we are at the starting line.

I'm trying to figure out what I did to myself during this race.  I finished at 33:07 which is not, you know, breaking the bank on time.  But I swear I started out at about a 12:00 or 12:30 mile and kept it up for a mile or maybe a bit longer.  Then my next fastest teammate was all, "you go on Liz, save yourself" and I started moving a little faster.  Only, if I'm right about my opening pace, I started moving a lot faster, like sub 10:00-mile faster.  No wonder I almost puked.

Right there at the finish line were two more people who came out to support Team:Work.  They supported me with hot cider right at the finish.  Sadly the Russians didn't bring the Vodka.  I got to watch my boss roll in a sub-12:00 mile performance.  I've run with her before and she hauls it in at the end.

Our third teammate came in right after 40 minutes to complete her first 5k in life.  She started running in August and she's, um, older than me.  So I say, right on.

Our fourth teammate wanted to power-walk the race because, believe it or not, she walks faster than she runs.  I believe it, I still remember the last time I got passed by a power-walker.  She set her own PR for the 5k distance walking or running.

I'm already talking to Team:Work about our next race.  I've offered the 'freeze your butt off' training program.  That means we just run outside after work.  I'm hoping they'll opt for running at the Metrodome which apparently happens some nights in the winter.  Possible next races include Securian Winter Run, formerly known as the Securian Frozen Half, or the "freeze your ass off half marathon" as I called it.  Also possible is the Oy Vey 5k, which doesn't have a link up yet, I hope they do it again. 

Fun fun from the weekend

My internet was haywire last night so blogging was interrupted.  It was so bad all of Comcast's lines were busy.  Not like, we'll put you in the queue and make you wait an hour, just busy signal.

Friday was staff meeting and Latkes day. (Happy Hannukah! I'm in favor of any holiday that's about oil; and to celebrate all food must be cooked in oil.) We also got end of year tokens of appreciation. (Seriously, they're not Christmas gifts and we're not calling them that.)

Friday was also the No Coast Craft-o-Rama.  It's pretty cool.  I found a lady who made awesome earrings (my favorite) and had hooks that won't make me break out.  What more could I need? AT&T reception in my house? Go Amanda!

Margaritas with the girls would be a nice touch!

After we were full (and full of margaritas) things got mildly silly. Here's a moose for my good friend Chris. He knows why.

Is there any explanation I could give you that would make this ok?  Nope.  It's still funny though isn't it?

Speaking of YakTrax...

I don't know why Amanda wanted to put so many things on her head today.  It was entertaining.  She does look more like a teddy bear than usual in that pose.

Saturday: was the day it finally stopped snowing.  Like six inches later.  I did go out to the gym and the store at the end of the day, once my fair city had a pass or two at plowing the roads.

Running on Ice and Snow

Running on snow is Minnesota's answer to running on the beach.  Both are a novelty and both give your calves the greatest workout.

Running on ice is Minnesota's answer to shark diving.

Wednesday morning: I got up at the crack of dawn and went for a run with Heather and Beth.  Sadly, they did not hear the python story and now people tell me I've told it too many times.  Wednesday was mildly icy, especially on the way back.

The rest of Wednesday was fairly routine.  I did get to go home early because a home visit I had scheduled wound up being a no-show.

Thursday I woke up early and had to go to work.  I also knew today was the day I needed 8 miles.  (Why am I marathon training already?)  Plus I needed a hill run this week.  Plus I needed to do 3 with Team:Work.

I ran a hill run at work.  It was only mildly a slip and slide.  Luckily the really steep down hill part at the end was also really well cleared and had plenty of salt.   I could see people had been out in yaktrax but I feel like it's not the correct terrain for the trax yet; there needs to be a thicker and more regular covering of snow first.

Wardrobe was also a question.  I wore my awesome new hat which is good until the second I stop running.  I didn't have enough on my arms.  On my legs I had my awesome running tights (thanks Mom, they still rock) and fleece pants.  And wool socks.  Wool is my new best friend.

After the hill run, I headed over to the gym with Team:Work for our last workout.  All the people who were working out tonight were members of the Y.  I was painfully reminded why I can't stand going to the gym after work in the winter.  Why are all of you people here?  The lobby was a zoo; the track was a zoo; the locker room was a zoo.

My teammate and I had an hilarious discussion about the number of laps we'd run.  She swears up and down it was 20 laps, or 3.333333 miles and I swear up and down it was 19 laps or 3.16666 miles.  Now, if I'm correct we ran roughly and 12:20-12:25 mile.  If she's correct we ran an 11:40ish mile.  To be clear, there is no way on god's green earth we were running an 11:40 mile.  I can tell you this because she doesn't read my blog so I won't be breaking her heart.

Sunday is the big day.  The Dreidel Dash (the 5k race we've been training for) is at 1pm.  Every time we look at the forecast, it goes down a degree or two.  At least they took the snowflakes off the picture.  I wonder if I'll be able to clean my running tights before then.  Brrr.

After all the running tonight, I had thai food.  It's been waaay too long since I've had Thai.  I love it.  Is it odd that I can call a Thai restaurant and order food even if I've never been there and haven't seen the menu?  Mmmm.