family

Oh! That crazy ol' snow... it just keeps on comin' down... Just when I thought we might be done with the white stuff, here it comes again. The picture attached to this blog entry took 15 seconds to expose (due to darkness), so you can't see the hoards of falling snow. However, you can see it is beginning to pile up again. This area was bare just a couple hours ago. Who said it hardly every snows in Seattle? That it's just too warm?

After traveling for nearly a day, Elena has arrived in Seattle. On the left is a photograph of Jessica with Elena in the Seattle airport. It's after 2 a.m. in Moldova, but we managed to get messages through to her parents! E-mail and Skype are great inventions! I was finally able to hear Dima's (Elena's father) voice. I expect to use Skype many times this week.

"The Tale of Despereaux" (a.k.a. The tale of a desperate movie company getting a film out before Christmas)

Grade: Lame

Warning: spoilers below!!

“The Tale of Despereaux” – an epic title for an epic disappointment of a movie. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bad. But even all the exciting commercials and holiday hype were not enough to salvage this film from my “lame” bin.

This is impressive seeing as it carries so many of the elements that would usually endear a movie to my heart. Anyone who knows this film critic knows I love a good animated movie. In fact, I usually love bad animated movies, too, if I can laugh at them. But this one was neither. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t funny. These are rather sweeping accusations, so let’s get into the nitty-gritty of it, shall we?

I must write here one more time that I am planning on discussing every element of this film and if you do not want it completely ruined for you, stop reading now. Ok, on to the movie. (Click "Read More" for the review)

The weather forecasters were a little short on their snow prognostications - three inches of new snow manifested itself as six inches over night, with drifts easily exceeding a foot. We’re grateful that the winds haven’t been as strong as expected, but perhaps it was their lack of ferocity that allowed the latest storm to drop more snow than expected.

For the first time in decades, our church services were cancelled today. My notification arrived just minutes before I arrived at the church – sounds guys are often the first person in the building on Sunday mornings. I stayed for a while, with one of the pastors, to greet those hearty souls who braved the elements.

I arrived home later to discover my neighbor Doug gleefully playing with his snow shovel. I told him that I wouldn’t stop him from continuing on his rampage down my driveway; he offered to loan me his shovel later.

Seattle's winter hit early this year, with a streak of sub-freezing days, an injection of several inches of snow, followed by several more sub-freezing days. Many of the roads a covered with ice (not compact snow). Vehicles with studded tires and chains are having difficulty getting around. Our house has icicles dangling from the roof that are nearly three feet long... and very pointy!

Now we're hearing that we could have six more inches of snow tonight, accompanied by severe winds. They report that the winds in the foothills could exceed hurricane force. How bad may it become? The Weather Service issued a rare blizzard warning along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The big news? It should all be gone before Christmas... no white Christmas for us!