The Stitch Up

Middleburg, Virginia

We managed to make it through the snow storm with no permanent damage.  We did have huge branch fall.  It took down some wires, but it turned out that was not the cause of any power loss.  (Thank goodness.  I would have been embarrassed to have been the cause of the whole neighborhood losing power.)  It turns out the wires that came down were just old telephone lines but it sounded and looked pretty damaging:

Wild, huh?  The husband chopped up the limb and took care of business and looking around the neighborhood there were quite a few people who had downed tree limbs.  

We spent a lot of time at Starbucks and hitting some restaurants over the few days that the electricity was off.  It was cold in the house and we are also sadly addicted to internet access.  

I was thinking about writing Starbucks a thank you note when I was sitting there warm, snuggly, full of vanilla latte and perusing my favorite craft blogs with their free wireless.  But then I remembered that Starbucks has been getting PLENTY of my cash over the years so I figure we're even.

Once the electricity was back on and things had settled back to normal the Hubby and I decided to take an outing.  We've been out to Middleburg, Virginia several times.  It's one of those cute towns in Virginia horse country with a lot of history, beautiful old buildings and adorable shops.  They have a great Christmas parade that also signals the start of fox hunting season so the parade begins with hunting dogs and horses and riders who take part in the hunt.  I think because this is such a big part of the Middleburg social scene, the unofficial mascot of the town is the fox:

We in fact had lunch at The Red Fox Inn.  It's a restaurant and hotel that was originally built in 1728 and according to their web site, this was how Middleburg got it's name.  It was the half way point between Winchester and Alexandria Virginia, and where travelers would stop on their trip to spend the night.  The Inn has lots of history - of course as with most places in Virginia, that history includes the Confederacy during the Civil War.  General Jeb Stuart and Colonel John Mosby (who is insanely popular here btw, everything is named after Mosby!) met there and it was used as Confederate headquarters and a hospital during the war.  John Kennedy also gave a press conference here and they say that Jackie Kennedy stayed at the Inn during fox hunting season.  More importantly - Elizabeth Taylor used to kick it in the Tap Room at the Inn when she was married to Senator John Warner.  

The Inn is beautiful as well as historically interesting and the food is great:

After lunch we strolled around the shops and buildings in Middleburg.  

My favorite shop in Middleburg is The Christmas Sleigh which carries Christmas ornaments and decorations from Germany:

I bought this adorable smoker:

I think he matches the Santa Claus table runner kit I bought in Berlin and embroidered.  I can't wait for next Christmas!

I've got some progress on knitting and embroidery to post soon.  We're expecting more snow tonight so keep your fingers crossed that it's a small storm.  I'm looking forward to heading into Spring.

Survivalist Training

We had a big storm Wednesday night and between the snow, freeze and falling tree branches a big part of the northern Virginia area lost power.  We're part of a handful of lucky peeps that have continued to be without power while they clean this mess up.  It's been challenging and COLD!  

Luckily, the husband makes a mean fire.  Of course one member of the household did not have to be asked twice to take the warmest spot in the room:

We've been going out to eat as the stove is electric and so we can't cook.  One plus is that even thought the fridge is out we haven't had to worry about food spoiling as it is so cold every thing is staying fresh.  How cold is it you ask?  Well, none of the ice in the freezer has melted even a bit and we are wandering around the house in layers of sweaters, jackets and gloves.  We did try to do a little cooking over the fire:

This was an effort to make a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich over the fire.  Let's just say that one side of the sandwich was edible and we learned that maybe we're not meant to try a campfire cook out in our fireplace.  

Dominion claims we will be back to normal by tonight.  Of course, as I'm typing this at the Starbucks, snow is starting to fall again which always seems to complicate things around here.  Keep your fingers crossed.  I don't think we can survive on burnt campfire sandwiches for much longer!

New Year Resolutions #3 - Get Moving

I have a long list of fitness resolutions that I won't bore everyone with, but it boils down to the idea that I need to get outside and get some exercise.  Which is a good goal but one that has been tough to meet with the crazy blizzards that have blown through here this Winter.

  

 

Even now that the blizzards are in the past, it's still cold and there is a bunch of snow on the ground. Which doesn't encourage a lot of getting out and getting active, but has been good for my embroidery projects.

We did get out to a pretty local park last weekend and had a nice winter walk, but it took some slogging through the snow.

 

I'm hoping that the Spring thaw will light a fire under my behind that sparks some motivation to work out.  In the mean time I am justifying the fact that my behind is firmly planted on the couch with the knowledge that I do have a lot of crafting planned and, the sooner I get it done the sooner I'm ready for an action-packed Spring.  Until then, I am enjoying the pretty winter scenery and relaxing!

 

 
 
 

Who's the Idiot Now, Smart Guy?

I decided to do a little retail therapy at the mall on Sunday to squeeze some enjoyment into my one day off as most of the rest of the day was taken up with chores and errands.  As I was browsing through the magazines at Barnes & Noble I heard this married couple chatting.  Him:  "They said on the news that we're going to get 7 - 10 inches of snow tonight".  I thought to myself 'we got an inch of snow last night, it's already melted, we haven't gotten 7 inches of snow all YEAR - this guy is an idiot'.  About that same time the guy's wife says to him:  "You're an idiot".  Ha!  Him: Sigh "I'm just telling you what they said on the news".  (I got the impression that they have this type of conversation a lot.)  But sure enough as I went into other stores in the mall the salespeople were making plans to close early because of "the storm".  At Trader Joe's it was packed with shoppers and the guy at the checkout said it was because of "the storm".  And the news report said we would get 7 to 10 inches of snow.  At this point though, the sun was still out and it was hard to believe we were going to get any snow.  But Monday morning:

 

Ruh Row:

 

  

So - it turns out the guy at the mall knew what he was talking about.  We got 6 inches overnight and it kept snowing through about noon.  It stuck around a few days as it was pretty cold Tuesday and Wednesday - but its mostly gone now and it's scheduled to warm up to 60 tomorrow so I think it will all melt by Saturday.  A nice little winter blast there but I figure that's got to be our last winter blast this season.  Right?  Maybe I should go skulk at the mall and see if I can get anymore good weather tips!    

I know I've said this before - but my current project is wrapping up and I think I will have time for crafting and maybe some blogging over the next few weeks!  This time I mean it!  Stay tuned!

Brrrrr! Baby It's Cold Outside!

It looks like I've already flaked a bit on my New Years resolution to blog more. I started on a new project about three weeks ago and it's been keeping me busy. On the plus side, it involves reviewing documents in Spanish and I'm enjoying the opportunity to use what I learned in Madrid back here in DC. On the down side it requires some long hours and working 6 days a week often (although the pace is quite a bit better than other projects I've been on). In any case I'm usually at the bus stop at 7 am to get across DC to Tenleytown by 8 and after leaving work at 7 pm, I usually don't hit the door to my place until about 8pm. It makes for a long day and since I'm usually inside staring at a computer the whole time, I haven't felt that I have a lot to blog about. But this week we had some snow and ice and it prettied up what is usually my somewhat dreary commute. 

First, before the sun was out I took a couple of shots of the snow falling at my bus stop: 

 

This is what things looked like about 20 minutes later at the metro:

 

And about 40 minutes later near the office where I'm working:

 

Starting to pile up nicely huh?  Sadly it did not last much longer than the next day when most of it melted.  I enjoyed the snow and the nice little blast of winter but the panic the weather induces in the local DC populace is always a little annoying.  In most cases all the federal agencies will close down if there is even a hint of snow so it can make the commute nice because there are about half the number of people who usually ride the train.  On those days (like this week) however, when the snow does not start early enough, the feds don't close and everyone crowds on the train as they are too freaked out to drive on the highways.  This is understandable as DC is full of people who come from states and countries that don't get snow and they have no idea how to drive in it.  This naturally causes the stupidest accidents that involve a crazy number of cars.  I think we all came through relatively unscathed and so far there are no more storms on the horizon.

I have Sunday off and I'm trying to finish a couple of embroidery projects.  Hopefully, I can get back into a somewhat regular schedule soon and blog about more than my commute!  Until then!