Old Man Winter

February is a horrible month, I wouldn't recommend it. After a winter of record snowfall and record low temperatures I think we're about done with this. On the plus side we read lots of books and got stuff done around the house. Rose had her orientation at Wash and registered for classes. It's crazy to realize that she's kind of a real person now and is going into high school. She was just a little kid and then all of a sudden she's growing up. In the fall Emily will be going into middle school which is also difficult to comprehend. She's been the baby for so long, but now she is looking so grown up. Dang kids.

Emily decorated a pizza box for Marco's Pizza at school again this year:

I took this picture during a foggy walk downtown before another soul-crushing snowfall:

And the snow never stops...

And the shoveling...

We tried out an escape room with the Von Thuns and had a blast! We didn't completely solve the Underground Casino within the one-hour time slot, but we gathered up the clues, unlocked the vault, solved most of the puzzles and ended up with a respectable score. Not bad for our first escape room experience and I can't wait to do it again.

To stave off cabin fever and restlessness, I launched into a minor home improvement project. As usual, I didn't think to take a "before" picture, but the wooden ledge along the second floor stairs had forty bajillion coats of paint on it and was kinda jankity. It's been bugging me for a while, so I pulled it off and tossed it, then went to Menard's and bought an oak board to finish and install in its place. First of two coats of stain after cutting it out:

Four coats of semigloss polyurethane:

Before installation:

Finished!

Now if it will warm up a little I need to finish installing the new basement windows...

A Song for February

Teddy Ruxpin speaks for all of us.

February for the Rest of Your Life

"Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's coooold out there today."

Yup, February. Lots of snow, lots of sledding. It was not a bad month, as Februaries go. A good month for reading books and planning home improvement projects.

Goodbye to the old Sinclair meatpacking building... that was a good photography spot. One more dilapidated landmark gone. We happened to be a few blocks away when it caught fire and took some cool video of it, too.

Mild February

Enjoying a very warm February!

Nom, nom, nom

Ever since I was a kid, I have always liked the Little Debbie "Be My Valentine" snack cakes. Even though they taste sort of like candle wax and never seem to go bad (much like Twinkies), I still like 'em. My mom bought a box of them for me and my brother one year and I have picked up a box of them every February since.

I stopped at HyVee this week to pick up a box and man, are they good. They are a strange mix of nasty and tasty at the same time, but the tasty part wins out. I've never cared about the nutritional value of these things (because obviously if you are buying snack cakes you're not concerned about frivolous things like nutrition), but for some reason I happened to look at the panel on the back of the box and wow, when it comes to making really unhealthy junk food, Little Debbie doesn't mess around.

The cakes in the box come in clear plastic packages of 2 and they are fairly small. The serving size is for both of those little cakes and the Nutrition Facts panel boasts some impressive numbers. For calories, you get 290 and for sugar, you get a generous 27g to keep your heart buzzing along. I can hardly sit still just thinking about all that sugar. Sure, you could just eat one cake and save the other for later and that would cut the scariness in half, but who would really do that? I mean, c'mon, if you open the package you're gonna eat that second one.

If you think about it (and do a little research), that's more sugar than you'll get from a whole bowl of Frosted Flakes. More than a bowl of Fruit Loops, too. Which raises the question: why would you bother with a bowl of sugary cereal when you can just eat a couple Little Debbie snack cakes? It would save time and milk AND would result in an even stronger sugar buzz. No downside there. Another important note: if you're worried that you might accidentally ingest some vitamins, just read a little farther down the panel: there's a big "0%" next to everything that matters. You're all set!