Snow. . . Up Close and Personal

Well, we are at home again. We have Snowklahoma part two this week - now on the sixth snow day for the girls, and the third for Jerry. Apparently though, not many people bothered to check in from home on the last snow days, so this time they caveated their "the office will be closed" e-mail with "but we expect you to work from home if at all possible."

Today's snow is a bit different - a lot fluffier and softer than the last one. There is also not nearly as much wind, so everything is, well soft and fluffy. Here's the backyard:


And a close up of the lanterns on the table reveals the soft fluffiness of the snow:


But that still didn't convey the fluffiness of it all, so I decided to take a close up of the snow on the window sill. My standard portrait lens wouldn't focus that close up, so I ran and got my macro lens that Jerry got me for my birthday several years back, and, wah-lah:


Detail of fluffy snow. Of course, I was making this hard for myself, trying to take the picture of the windowsill outside the kitchen window over the sink - duh! Let's move to a window that doesn't have a counter and sink in front of it! I went over to the breakfast nook, but the screen made the window sill shot icky. I looked up, and there was a snowflake stuck to the window. Hm. . . click:


Cool, but blurry. Back to the closet to get the tripod, and click!:


Click!:


Click!:


And about forty more clicks, but these were the best. And you know what they say is the difference between and amateur and professional photographer? The professional only shows you the good ones! I'm working my way up from amateur, so that's all you get to see!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled snow day. . .

But Wait! There's more!!!

*** *** *** Encore *** *** ***






Still gotta watch out for that yellow snow. . .

SNOOOOOOOOOW-klahoma where the snow comes blowing down the plain. . .

Here's what it looks like when 11.8 inches of snow (official total for February 1, 2011) meets our famous Oklahoma wind. Snow dunes!

Aye, yi, yi, I am tired of snow!

Well, the girls and I were home for another snow day today. About an hour after I got up this morning, GUESS WHAT! It started snowing again! Whoop-de-do!

Still, today was more fun that some of the other snow days so far. I realized that the paper that I thought was due today isn't due until tomorrow, so GUESS WHAT! I decided to procrastinate!

Instead, I enjoyed the day teaching the girls how to play Clue!, which they got for Christmas, and making Chili's Chicken Enchilada Soup, which was tasty! I did not totally shirk off my schoolwork though - I did keep up with my discussion boards, because every day you "take off" is just another day you have to catch up.

Gracie and I spent a little over two hours outside Wednesday - her playing with some of the neighborhood kids, and me shoveling the drive. (Nine weight-watchers points - YEAH - enough to have hot chocolate with whipped cream when we came in!) Jerry was inside, recuperating. He had yet another cold, so he didn't enjoy his snow days either.

Anyway, Gracie and I got properly bundled:



And worked our way out the door:





When Gracie had had enough, we went back inside and enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate with PLENTY of whipped cream.

Apparently, she had enough, because although she did briefly mention going outside this morning, she hasn't pursued the thought.

So now we are on to the weekend - still snowed in, for the most part, because when it comes to driving in bad weather, I'm a big chicken. I just hope it all clears out by Tuesday, when I have to make my next trip to Norman for a class. If it's still this cold though, I'm definitely springing for a parking meter!

Frustrations

Well, it's snow day number two in Snow-klahoma. It is very, very cold, but of course the question of the day ( times 5000 ) from Gracie is, "When can we play in the snow?" Never mind that it is 8 degrees with a windchill of -9. Frostbite and hypothermia mean nothing to her. I told her that when I got ready to shovel the drive I would take her out there with me, so she's already gotten bundled up. I suppose it would be cruel to break it to her that I wasn't planning on shoveling the drive until Saturday. . .


We are all at home. The girls school cancelled, Jerry's work cancelled, even OU cancelled, but as far as I can tell, cancellations don't apply to online courses. If they do, no one sent out an e-mail. Since they don't add snow days to college semesters, it's up to the professors to adjust their syllabus to fit everything in, so it's better to just keep the online schedule going. The downside is that since the girls and Jerry are around, I have a few more distractions than normal. Still, I managed to finish the two papers that were due yesterday. That seems almost miraculous to me, but not for reasons that involve the weather.

My frustrations at this point involve one of my professors. We are now two full weeks into the course, past the drop date, and she has yet to teach us anything. She did finally put up the syllabus after a week, told us to read chapter one, two young adult novels, and write a paper discussing the literary elements of the book on each one, but, other than posting a handout of questions on literary elements, she's not gone over any of it. No examples, no guidance, nada. She hasn't opened a discussion board so we can ask questions, she hasn't posted the content to the online site that the syllabus says is supposed to be there, no recorded lectures, nothing! When I contact her, I get a reply saying how sorry she is, and that it will be there soon, but then nothing happens! I'm not sure what to do next. This professor is in charge of us School Library Media Specialist wanna-bes, and I'm going to have to work with her for the next three years, so I don't want to go burning any bridges, but this is ridiculous. I pay thousands of dollars to OU, and this is what I get? The kicker is that this was a course that I was really looking forward to, and now it's become a source of nothing but frustration.

I suppose I could go work out my frustrations on the driveway. I know that would make at least one person very, very happy.