Extreme Pig Out...

...that was the title of a show I was just watching on the Travel Channel as I ate some of the massive slice of chocolate peanut butter layer cake that Paul and I took home from Gregg's last night (if you've ever been to Gregg's for dessert, you know they are very very generous with their cake slices!). Thankfully they were showing skinny teenagers trying to eat 7 pound burgers, so it didn't turn me off from the cake (does that mean I've completely re-acclimated to the American lifestyle?). Anyway, Gregg's cakes are one of the things I miss when I'm away from the Rhode Island area. That and Del's frozen lemonade.

But there are definitely new things to look forward to with regard to "extreme pig outs". Like Steak N' Shake, a burger and milkshake restaurant that's open 24 hours. Their claim to fame is that they use steak in their burgers, as opposed to other chain fast food burger joints that supposedly use lesser quality beef. Either way, it's tasty. And then there's Bruster's ice cream, which Paul introduced me to on our recent trip to Bloomington, and I am now a card-carrying member of their "sweet rewards" club so I can get a free ice cream cone after I buy 9. And I'm sure I'll get there.

I'm also fascinated by farms. There are some farms in and around Seekonk, but not nearly on the scale of what you've got in the midwest. I think grain elevators are really neat, and I love seeing tractors and combines in action. In Bloomington, I'm hoping to take full advantage of the weekly community farmers market and if we can, we might be signing up for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) plan where you pay to get a share of each week's crops, kind of like the vegetable box scheme we signed up for in Oxford. I've got a lot to learn about our new home state, that's for sure! And I think even Paul will be experiencing a lot of new things since he's going back to his college town as a grown and married man.

Well, we've got a lot to figure out in the next few months, but at least most of our stuff is packed (and has been for nearly 2 years!), so getting there won't be much of a hassle!

Snowy Wintery Weather

I was going to write about the snowfalls we've been having by making a comparison to the Eskimos and their 9 words for snow, but apparently according to wikipedia.org and several other sources, that's not true. Either way, we've been having some interesting weather. Just before Christmas, we had nearly a foot of snow fall, which is when we made that cool snowman. Well, that snow melted away and then we got another snowstorm on New Year's eve, resulting in about 6 inches of snow. That snow started to melt, and then we got a nasty sleety rainy slushy storm that left a thick icy glaze over the remaining snow. So now we've got a crunchy, glossy layer of snow carpeting the area, so thick that I can actually walk across parts of it without leaving a footprint. It's actually kind of pretty when the sun is shining and it shimmers, or at night when the moon reflects off it. We're due for another 4-8 inches of snow tonight, so that will make things interesting - thick snow over an icy crust. Could be trouble!

But thinking about this, and getting back to the Eskimo thing, it would be neat if we had more words to describe the snow. I guess we call it "powder" when it's a dry snow, and maybe "packed powder" when it's a little squished on a ski slope. But then, I don't really have a word for the kind of snow that's perfect for making snowballs. Then there's the "dusting" you get sometimes that doesn't stay. And this icy snow with a glossy finish, I have no idea what to call that.

It's been a few years since Paul or I lived somewhere where it both snowed and we had a yard to look out onto. Sure, Chicago snowed, but in the city it quickly turns brown and slushy. And it snowed once during our time in England, but actually we were in Poland at the time so we missed it. Now we've got the time (LOTS of time!) to look out the window and see the pretty snow. And who knows, maybe tomorrow we'll get another shot at sledding!