Morning in the park

Unless we have something planned for the evening, we usually go to Mass at 5 or 7:30 on Sunday nights, which means the mornings can be for playtime.  On a day like today when it's absolutely gorgeous outside (66, sunny, and light breeze in February!), we take advantage and head to the playground.  I can get so crabby with the boys sometimes when the sibling sniping gets out of hand for no discernible reason, as it did a few times this morning.  Sleep deprivation never helps with this.  But I drank some tea this morning, remembered my allergy medicine, slowly herded everyone through the go-potty-get-dressed-and-get-shoes-on process, loaded up the bikes and kids in the car ... and when we all got outside everyone was happy.  Thankful to God for a beautiful day and the blessings of these munchkins.

Yay, we get to go to the playground!

Ergo baby content to hang out and watch everything

Bubbles from a birthday party yesterday

A River Runs Through It

We had a nice little storm pass over Dallas on our way home from work. Below is the effect:

That's the runoff behind our house. Usually, the water trickles out from the rest of the neighborhood, but today's storm made it swell to just 3 feet below ground level.

Snow day

Last week, Dallas got 10-12 inches of snow -- the most in 30 years, easily, and I think they said the most ever in a 24-hour period. It was perfect Texas snow -- pretty and white for a day, then mostly melted within two days! The danger here would really have been ice, since the snow was so heavy and slushy that if it had gone to under 30 degrees as predicted overnight, the streets really would have been skating rinks. There were inches of water on the road on Thursday. Happily for Mike's and my commutes on Friday, the temperature never dropped enough to cause severe driving problems and everything was pretty clear.


Michael did not know what to make of the snow at first. Elizabeth tried to take him outside a few times (and I went out with her when I got home early) but he was having none of it! He didn't want to touch it or take any steps in it. He knows what snowmen are but I don't think he entirely got we were making a little one. So after Elizabeth left I took him outside again with the measuring cups and showed him how to scoop up some snow. He loves the measuring cups and so he definitely got that. He spent the next 20 minutes concentrating intently on hacking the snow with the cups. It was fun :) Over the weekend on one of our walks we also got to see a still-standing snowman and he liked that too.

Global Warming: Threat Level Midnight

While Obama and other world leaders were busy in Copenhagen over the past 48 hours trying to hammer out some climate change accord (which seems to have mostly failed), this was happening in Washington, D.C.:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2009/12/update_double_digit_snowfall_f.html

Many parts of the metro region -- particularly in the south -- have received 10 or more inches of snow through 11 a.m. Around Charlottesville, totals have reached 15-20". Another 5-9" is likely, with locally heavier amounts, especially east of town. The worst part of the storm will continue through the mid-to-late afternoon hours, with snow decreasing in coverage and intensity from southwest to northeast. Overnight, snow will be lighter and more intermittent and should end most places before dawn.

I know this doesn't exactly prove whether or not human activity has been causing the Earth to heat up, but don't you think God has a wicked sense of humor when the most important global warming conference ever is inundated with below freezing temperatures and snow, and, back here in the United States, our nation's capital is slammed by the largest December snowfall in recorded history?

Global Warming II: The Ice Age

Global warming struck again late last night in Dallas when an ice storm descended on the region, crippling the morning commute and closing all schools in Dallas County and beyond. Thanks to the city's "no salt" policy of road management I enjoyed a leisurely 30 mph commute down Central Expressway. It's clearly better to let inexperienced drivers on ice rather than risk any damage to the precious Texas highways.

Ultra ironic final note: Al Gore is set to testify to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a session called: ADDRESSING GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE:
THE ROAD TO COPENHAGEN

Washington, D.C. has a high of 40 today with a 100% chance of ice pellets. Mr. Gore has an impeccable sense of timing.

The Day After the The Day After Tomorrow

[caption id="attachment_473" align="aligncenter" width="468" caption="Climate change"][/caption]

Today is probably not a good day for global warming fanatics. Years of hysterics about melting glaciers and rising oceans look pretty silly on a day like today. And it's only the first day of winter.

Could this be in our near future?

The Ice Storm

Global warming continued to wreak havoc on our planet as Dallas was crushed by sudden drop in temperatures and waves of ice descending on the metroplex. (Just like The Day After Tomorrow, except without wolves!) The trouble began Sunday night when the temperature dropped 35 degrees in the span of a few hours. The cold front started bringing up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico yesterday afternoon, and has continued throughout this morning.

I avoided all major highways during my commute home last night, but still saw plenty of accidents. This sign finally made sense:



Luckily, we are not in deep freeze conditions, like Chicago, and the weather will be back in the 70s by the weekend.

Many of you will hate us now.