Live-Blogging The Blizzard of 2011

The riveting blow-by-blow account......

4:13 am: Too sleepy to look out window and see what it's doing. Sure hope I don't have to go into work. My ears hurt. I must be getting an ear infection. What if it goes to my brain? What if I need to seek medical attention? What if it's fatal? How will I get to the hospital in a snow storm? How will I?.......Zzzzzzzz.............

5:00 am: What's that obnoxious beeping noise? I'm getting a text message. The college is closed and I don't have to go to work. Thank goodness!! I read the message five times to make sure I'm not just dreaming..

7:20 am: What am I doing awake when I could be sleeping in?

8:15: What's going on out there? Is it a blizzard yet? Too weak and achy to get up and look. My head swims.

9:00: Make feeble but brave attempt to become upright. I don't want to waste a snow day being sick. Must will self to feel better! I look out window and see it's already snowing a lot.

9:30: Make a cup of Mandarin Orange Spice tea. Sit in a daze. My ears don't hurt as much. My will power is winning!

9:50: Wander around in robe. Check my Face book. Pet dog.

11:00. Make oatmeal and homemade chai tea. See recipe below.

11:20: Drink tea and idly thumb through latest issue of Rolling Stone. Find myself reading about Lil' Wayne's time in the slammer.

12:10 Roger puts the bowl out. We will use the snow we collect to make snow ice cream later.

12:30: Getting my energy back. Change out of pajama bottoms into a pair of jeans, which officially makes me a member of the living. Wash dishes, and feel incredibly productive.

1:40: Start monopoly game with the fam. We find out that all we have is "Monopoly Junior" and half the money is missing. We switch to the game of "Life," which has a frustrating lack of career and relationship options. I have to get married inside a church.

2:30: Still playing Life. I have a son named Zeb, short for Zebedee. I have given $120,000 to an orphanage, bought a luxury car, invented something for $50,000, but lost my auto insurance due to reckless driving. I am not winning.

2:52 Still playing life. The snow bowl is almost completely covered. We can barely spot it in the back yard.

3:00 Driving snow! It's coming down at an angle, and the flakes are huge. Someone is gonna have to take the dog out to pee.

3:13: I have lost the game of Life.

3:30: The snow bowl is completely buried. All we can see is the tippy-top of a tiny twig Lilah put in the bowl to mark it.

3:35: Lilah ventures out and retrieves the bowl. Time for snow ice cream! Get out the milk, pankcake syrup, and vanilla.

3:50: Just ate two bowls of snow ice cream. Omg, now I'm freezing! Time to go sit on the furnace vent upstairs.

3:58: Lilah and Roger are taking the dog out. I am spared.

4:01: Post my recipe for chai tea.

Recipe for Chai Tea:

Makes aprox. 4 cups:

Take a big hunk of ginger and cut up into little pieces. Mix with the following ingredients: Five tsp of loose black tea grounds. Various spices to taste, probably 1/4 tsp or less: cinnamon, nutmeg, whole cloves, cardamom pods (6 or 7) or minute amount of ground cardamom, small amount black pepper.

I have a tea-making device that lets you mix whatever loose ingredients you want, and steeps the tea in them, and then lets you strain the tea into a teacup. So I boil two cups of water in a tea pot and heat two cups of milk in the microwave, then pour both into this tea device filled with the ingredients listed above, and let it steep for several minutes.

If you don't have such a device, you could boil the loose ingredients in a pot of water, add the hot milk, and then use a tea strainer to sift out the tea and spices.

Makes a cup of rich and milky tea with a nice spiced flavor. Add lots of honey or sugar, or it won't taste so good.

Snow Ice Cream:

Mix together snow, milk, vanilla and sweetener in a small bowl, until you get the consistency you want. I like pancake syrup, but you could also use sugar or honey.