It snowed... a lot

My favorite part is when they call for 'Thundersnow'

This winter, our area has received a ton of snow!  Much more than I can ever remember. To date, we have had two blizzards that have each dropped at least 15" on us- thanks, El Nino!! The first one (December 19th) got us one day off of work, and was a baby storm compared to the blizzard the week of February 8th, which brought almost 2 feet of snow and closed down the federal government for almost an entire week. This lead to a week of sleeping in, relaxing, making yummy food, and playing endless amounts of wii. SWEET! Oh, yeah, and there was shoveling... a lot of shoveling...

Scenes from digging out the car: 

left: 2/6/10; right: 12/20/09; Getting ready to save the car from snow- AGAIN!

2/6/10: We split up the work between sweeping off the car and shoveling a path around the car

12/20/09: "Help me!" I fell down in the snow!!!

  

left: 2/6/10; right: 12/20/09; The cars look like giant bugs with the windshield wipers protruding out of the snow...

Before and After: 

The evening of 2/5/10 and the morning of 2/6/10: before and after the giant snowfall...

  

2/5/10 and 2/6/10: before and after part II- the poor birdie froze!!

Walking around the Winter Wonderland:

 2/6/10: walking around after the storm

It was very beautiful to see the neighborhood covered in snow.  It was also awkward to navigate the unshoveled sidewalks and snow banks on the side of the road, not to mention mildly dangerous if you walked where it was icy, as we found out when we took walks around to view the new snowfall.  By the time we got back home, we had snow all over us and were freezing and ready for dinner!! 

 

2/6/10: the trees were weighted down with the snow, and several lost branches...

The February storm was a very heavy snow that stuck to the trees.  Several trees lost large branches, especially the pine trees. 

12/20/09: Digging out from the blizzard, Part I

12/20/09: venturing out into the storm to measure the snowfall- 15" and counting

Roll cake is a glorious confection

Due to the dire warnings of impending blizzard doom (or 'Snowmageddon', as I heard it referenced as on the news multiple times) this past weekend, we did a large grocery shopping trip last Thursday to make sure we wouldn't starve during the storm. One of the stores we went to was the Kam Sam supermarket in Rockville. Our originial purpose in going there was to replenish our stash of pork ribs, but (somewhat predictably), I was purusing the bakery section when I saw the perfect breakfast for the weekend- roll cake! And not just any roll cake, but tiger roll cake!! I have always been a fan of roll cake, which is a sponge cake that is formed into a swiss roll, with a cream filling (commonly buttercream) holding the swiss roll together. It can be either baked or steamed. Both are good, but I prefer baked, as the cake will get a light crust and golden brown coloring on the outside, which is both aesthetically pleasing and tasty. It is light, not too sweet, and delicious in the morning with tea. Sometimes the roll cake is chocolate, or even matcha flavored, but we have always been traditionalists and gone with good old vanilla. That is, until this particular supermarket visit, where I saw a roll cake that had some sort of covering that looked like an egg dough that had been seared or something similar to get the dark 'tiger' pattern on it (I have been unable to find instructions on how to get the tiger roll skin so far online). In truth, the pattern was more leopard than tiger, but that is irrelevant, as it was pure awesome! Inside, the cake wasn't a swiss roll, but a combination of a variety of different sponge cakes, all held together with the ubiquitous and delicious cream filling. This particular tiger cake was made up of vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and orange cakes. I like to pick it apart and eat all the flavors separately, but that's just my preference.

After having this roll cake, I am in love! Why buy a single flavor roll cake, when you can have 4 different flavors in one cake? And because it has more pieces of cake in it, it requires more frosting- it's a win all around! Plus, this cake is slightly larger than the normal roll cake, presumably because so much more cake is crammed into it, but that just means more for us to eat! Yay! I can't say anything for how long this cake will stay good, because it only lasted the weekend (that would be 3 breakfasts for 2 people, or 12 slices, since we each ate two slices per morning), but we stored it in the fridge and it wasn't any worse for wear by Sunday morning. The roll cake was $7, compared to their 'normal' roll cakes, which run at $6. This always seems expensive to me when I buy them, but it is the normal price- I can't find quality roll cakes of similar size much cheaper in the DC area. The best I can get is $5, so really $7 isn't that extravagent.

We also bought two pieces of cake from their bakery- one coffee and one chocolate (not pictured because I smushed them in their baggies on the way home by accident- oops!). The cakes were sponge cake with flavored icings and chocolate shavings on top. They were pretty good, though small. Each cake was $1.50.

Yay for bakeries!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday Dear Rachel,

Happy Birthday to you!

AND MANY MORE!!!

Love, Melvin

Oh! Christmas Tree Oh! Christmas Tree. . .

It's Thanksgiving/Turkey/Duck Day!!!!

Melvin was just a tad too eager for the advent of the Christmas season and so he set up his 7.5 ft Christmas tree last night- at 11pm, no less. Luckily, we were able to stop him from decorating it in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning. Despite it being three years

old, the tree is still quite full and bountiful, as you can see! Isn't it beautiful??!?!? Yes, it is! Magnificent and majestic! Doesn't it make you jealous?!?!? Hmmm?

Anyway. . .the Christmas Tree-decorating nutty took over as soon as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was over! Argh!!!!

Three hours later. . .

The tree is finally decorated according to Melvin's exacting requirements and standards. And it looks pretty darn good, too! Multi-colored lights are the best :-) It was difficult getting the lights, garland and beads evenly placed, but Melvin finally gave the nod of approval. Phew!

The next thing on the hit parade was to set up the Christmas Village. There is a ski lift, Santa toy shop, Pharmacy and Shopping Center. Everything was set up in time for the Thanksgiving dinner, and looked very festive at night!!

How YOU doin'?

Welcome! Thank you for viewing my inaugural posting- I am sure that reading this blog is the most rewarding thing you have done all day!

Let me begin to

acquaint you with the awesomeness that is Melvin Bear. To begin with, I am sexy (for proof, please see photo on left). Really sexy. Like, monkeys take off their

knitted bikinis and toss them at me when I show up on the scene. Moving on, I am also hungry. I have to keep up my sexy physique (again, see photo- left). This takes a lot of food. And it must be delicious food, or it is simply not worth devouring.

I am also an unusually well traveled bear. I have traveled abroad to France and Canada. Domestically, I have been to Hawaii, New York and most recently, Maine. I thought about answering the call of the wild, and joining a pack of bears in the wilderness, free to roam about and climb trees and whatnot, but then I realized that I would miss watching The Office every Thursday night.

Now, I would like to introduce you to some of my lady friends. Stage right, we have a lovely photo of me with my girl Chip. She's a brick house, and very feisty. She lives with my friend Rachel in Baltimore. I love her, but am glad that she has another home to live

in, so as to allow more time for me to devote to my other ladies. My main squeeze is this delicious female named Monkey Lauren. Bow chick a bow wow!! She is a belly dancer and extraordinarily limber!