Just To Catch Up....

So if you're from WA State, then you'll know about the snow and sub-freezing temps. I don't need to go over that for you.

But I did want to to catch you all up on what's been happening around here:

I went to work on Wednesday since the roads were clear and no snow had fallen the night before.
It was a slow day (as it has been lately) and nothing very exciting.
Then around 4:15 p.m. it started to snow. In 15 minutes our parking lot was white and my boss said "If you want to go home now, go ahead. It's not that busy and there's only a 1/2-hour to go anyway". So I cut out and headed home, only to quickly to discover that the hill out of the parking lot was kinda slick and I was spinning my tires (my SNOW tires) getting out.

The drive home was a scary one and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it home in my car.
I drove slow and steady and made it into town, and thought "Well, I'll either make home or I won't" so I continued on, up the hills and windy roads to my place. When I pulled into my parking spot I turned off the car and called it a night.

The next morning we woke up to about 6-8" of snow. Too deep or me to drive through, so I called in a 'snow day' at work and stayed home.
Hotness tried to make it out, and she got as far as town but was scared to go any further , so she came back and worked from home.

By mid-day Thursday we had over a foot of snow and it was still coming down.
So on Friday morning, Hotness just planned on working from home and I called in to work to say I wasn't going to make it.

In the meantime, I've been baking cookies, filling the bird feeders and keeping the fire going.
The house is warm and smells yummy.

We've made it into town a couple of times so far to get groceries, but the roads are covered with compacted snow and ice. I'm still a bit wary of trying to drive to work on Monday if it doesn't clear up a bit.

We had a bit of excitement last evening.
Hotness and I have been taking turns watching the stove and keeping a fire going.
Last night, she curled up on the floor in front of the stove while I was in the kitchen baking.
I started smelling smoke but attributed it to the fire, but it kept getting stronger.
So during a break between pans of cookies I went to the living room to check the fire and noticed that smoke was coming up from the top of the stove.
A piece of wood we had drying on top of it had gotten hot enough to start smoldering and had coals starting to burn on it.
I yelled "SMOKE!" which jolted Hotness wide awake. She ran for the front door and told me to toss the piece outside, but I just put it in the stove and closed the damper down.
After that, we decided NOT to dry any more wood on top of the stove. Close call but quickly (and thankfully) danger was averted.

This morning I got up around 6:00 a.m. and looked at the thermometer: 6 degrees! Brrrr!!!

Right now, I have another pork shoulder cooking in the crock pot with BBQ sauce. I made some potato salad earlier today and a little later this evening we're going to our neighbor's to play "Redneck Life" and have dinner.
I'd better go, as I need to shred the pork so we can make sandwiches.

I hope everyone is faring well and that you got all your shopping for Christmas finished before this weather hit.

Be safe and I'll be back with more soon.