NOT!

You know, I love winter (yada yada yada) but it is SPRING now.

This is what the view from my door looked like 3 days in a row at roughly the same time of day.

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Funny April Fools Day joke God played, isn’t it? The good news is that it will be gone soon. We got 5 1/2 inches and it will probably be gone by the weekend.

*Working*

I am going to use The Interview Series, Part III for my Meme Monday, today. And it is brought to you by none other than the one and only Jersey Girl, Libragirl. At least she is the only one that I know.

The Interviews, Part I–Interviewer, Fab
The Interviews, Part II–Interviewer, Blue
The Interviews, Part IV, Dutchbitchiness–Interviewer, Dutchbitch
The Interviews, Part V, Ten Hut–Interviewer, Charlotte

1. Why? Because I said so. Besides, my way is always the best way.

2. Why is the sky blue? Because it is not green or red or purple.

3. If you ran the world, would Who’s Dannilyn’s father be top news? No. If I were running the world, I would be top news because it is all about me.

4. Can you loan me 10$? Only if you can loan me $20 first.

5 How many shoes do you have? Not nearly enough. Does any woman ever have enough shoes?

Okay, you know what to do. If you want to continue this bloggy snowball…

*Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
*I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
*You will update your weblog with the answers to the questions.
*You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
*When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Several of you commented that you saw snow in the picture. You were right. There is snow in the picture. It is what caused the accident. Well that and the stupid lady who obviously doesn’t know how to drive in snow. I digress. The snow happened on New Year’s Eve. That was more than 12 days ago now. Since then, we have had temperatures in the 40s. Temps that warm are not very good for keeping snow around. Especially when snowfall being referred to was of the under 5 inches variety. Five inches of snow in Minnesota in the winter is like a Londoner saying, “we got one drop of rain today.” It isn’t even news worthy. Well, maybe a little. But only because the last several winters have had huge snow droughts. The problem with not having much snow in Minnesota in the winter is that it, believe it or not, is very hard on the plants. Some of them rely on snow to insulate them from the very cold temperatures that we typically get in January and February. Some of them rely on the moisture in the spring when the snow melts. The problem we have been having this year is that some of the plants have been tricked by the warm weather and have started budding already. The people who know about these things have been saying that this unusually warm, dry winter may be lethal to our plants and trees. Snow. I want and need more snow.

In other news…

Jason and I had a wonderful day together yesterday. We dropped Belle off at her new ‘partment with her mommy. She was so excited to show us everything. She likes her new living arrangements. After we dropped her off, we pretended we didn’t have children to worry about. We went shopping and to lunch and just enjoyed each other’s company. I got lots of stuff. I got a new dress coat, a pair of jeans, two shirts, 4 bras (what you thought that I, as a woman, didn’t wear them?), a lab coat, a name tag for my stethoscope, pajamas, a brush, a comb, some floss for cross stitching and a very nice Mexican lunch with my husband. The dress coat and the bras were exchanges. The rest was because I needed them.

What did Jason get, you ask? He got to spend the day with me. (Fab, if you say it, I will not talk to you at least until…hmmm…the next time we talk.)

After we had that killer storm (literally speaking) here on Saturday night, it got cold. I mean autumn cold, not winter cold. For those of you in the south, that means 50-ish as opposed to 20-ish. This makes several things happen at our house. First, we turn off the air conditioning and open the windows. Then we put on our sweatshirts and change out of our shorts. And finally, we put on a pot of chili. This got me to thinking about other people’s experiences with chili.

Now wait a minute, don’t go away. Just listen for a minute. What is your experience with chili? For instance, does the weather have to be cloudy or rainy and cool? Or can you eat chili in the middle of the summer when it is hot and the sun is shining outside? Would you say that it is a comfort food for you and/or your family?

Do you have a family recipe or do you make it using a product like Chili Magic? When you make chili, do you cook it all day in the crock pot or do you just make it up quick on the stove? Do you like it really spicy so that you have to have ice water sitting next to you to put out the fire?

Jason does most of the cooking in our house and when it comes to making the chili it is up to him as well. I could make the chili (shut up, Fab). My Mom had an awesome recipe that she would gladly sell me for my first born. Oh wait, she has my first born! (Just teasin’ Mom.) But, she does have an awesome chili recipe and she used to cook it all day, either on the stove or in a crock pot. Jason makes ours on the stove using Chili Magic. It’s really good. I highly recommend it. They have a Texan version as well, but since I don’t like really spicy food, we just get the original recipe.

When we get it to the table, that’s when the fun begins. We have many different ways of eating chili. We put sour cream and shredded cheese on ours. Some of us put crackers in it or sometimes tortilla chips. We use the tortilla chips as scoops or the chili as a dip for the tortilla chips, however you want to look at it. Sometimes we will leave out the chips and crackers and get a really good French bread. With butter on it and dipped in the chili, mmmmm…So good.

Do you put anything on top of your chili? Cheese or sour cream? Crackers, oyster crackers, tortilla chips or bread? How do you like your chili?

It’s getting to be that time of year. Autumn is coming. Bring out the chili!

(I would have said “fall”, but someone, who is a smartass, would harass me endlessly.)

Oh, who am I kidding? It was going to be another spur of the moment, whatever is on my mind right then, type it up and publish it sort of post. Anyway, because I waited until right before bed to write my post (as usual), I am writing this as the Tornado Warning sirens are going off. There is hail coming down and the wind is really strong here. We haven’t lost power. Yet.

I live somewhere in the middle of that mess!

I will update this post in the morning, providing we have power.

*Update: We didn’t lose power and as far as we can tell, we don’t have any serious damage.