Canada vs. Russia

Anyone else watching this game? Sadly, we can't view it on TV or in streaming video here in the U.S. of A. The best we can do is see live score updates, which doesn't quite capture the excitement. Still, looks like Team Canada is off to a great start against our Russian friends.

Leave a comment to tell us what you were doing during this game! (please) Bob is weird. And I am too.

Those last (do random letters now) few comments are from Jordan as I type. Better send this quick (daddy now just type random letters, okay? ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ) before he says anything else!

Home Group Olympics 2010

Someone from our Home Group had a great idea (and lots of energy!) to organize a Home Group Olympics 2010 event, and what a blast it was! Competitors from around the world came together to vie for gold, silver and bronze in seven different events including luge, ski jump, downhill speed racing, moguls, figure skating pairs and two exhibition events called Wild Man Running and the Ironman. Jordan did us proud, bringing home a bronze medal in moguls! Go Team Hekman!


Team Hekman during the Opening Ceremonies


Getting air on the ski jump


Spectators of all ages flocked to the event

More photos than you can imagine can be found here.

Wordless whatever the day is

Always shoveling

Tired of snow pictures yet? There's not much else to show these days! Here's Claudia taking a break from shoveling the back deck, which we were worried wasn't designed for the weight of snow it had to carry. This was taken about a week ago -- the past few days have been nice and warm and the snow has gone down considerably.

Enjoying a starbucks moment

Tired of shoveling

I didn't quite make it to the front steps when shoveling the walk today, but I left a note for the next person to come along. :-)

Family portrait

Tire d'érable

We tried making tire d'érable, but didn't quite get the recipe right! It made for great tasting snow, but didn't get all chewy as it should have. I've now looked up the recipe and I see the maple syrup needs to boil quite a while before putting it on fresh snow. It should boil until it reaches 230 F, then put it on the snow and it should turn to "candy" which can be coiled up on a spoon or stick.

2010 Olympics have begun!

We stayed up last night to watch the opening ceremonies for the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the first time I've ever see any Olympic opening ceremony live (as far as I can remember, anyway). I use the term "we" loosely there, because Claudia succumbed to sleep deprivation around 11:00pm and Jordan not much later, and despite my best efforts I was unable to rouse Jordan for the lighting of the Olympic torch around midnight. :-( I taped it, though, so we got to relive the occasion this morning.

I was impressed and moved by the show as many were, and proud to be a Canadian.

If you missed the ceremony you can see clips of it here courtesy of NBC. The songs and visual effects were incredible -- my favorite was the visualization of the prairie provinces. I also loved KD Lang's interpretation of Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah".


From my scrapbook, a much younger me carrying the Olympic torch for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics:


How many of you watched the ceremonies last night?

Only one path to the door

Since most of our outside activity is between the house and the barn, the back door is the first one to get cleared (and so far the only one).

More fun in the snow

Snow activities

Snow pictures

Mobile Jessie

A basement door has been installed to keep curious Jessies upstairs.

Tuesday afternoon

It's Tuesday, and it's been snowing on and off since 10am, with about an inch on the ground so far. The predictions for this storm have increased over the past couple days, now generally expected to add 7 to 14 inches to what the last storm left us. It's been fun, but I'm starting to get worn out and ready for normal life again. What with shoveling ourselves out, shoveling our neighbors out, bringing generators and water to neighbors, and falling farther and farther behind at work I could use a week just to catch up on life again. Still, it's making great memories and will be talked about for years to come. And it partially makes up for our last three nearly snowless Virginia winters.

Luke, how about bringing your ski-doo and half an oil barrel down here so we can put all this snow to good use?

Panoramic view out our back window

Click on the photo for full size

Snow records

I thought I'd share this comment from one of our "readers", and the answer, for those who may not go read all the comments otherwise:

Answer:

I've seen many different "records" recorded for Washington D.C., but the one that seems the most accurate is for 28 inches, set back in 1922. This one blew that away at 32.2 inches (measured at Dulles airport). But in January of 1772, before official records were kept, both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson recorded in their diaries that 36 inches of snow fell in one storm in the capital! That storm is now referred to as the Washington-Jefferson snow storm.

Loving the swow

We got loads of snow, and lots of pictures to share, but our internet connection was down most of the day (snow covered up the antenna on our roof), so they're just getting posted now. We also lost our phone connection, but happily we never lost power throughout the storm, even while houses a half mile from us did. We're thankful for our warm, cozy house!

The sun came out about an hour ago, after 16 hours of snow dumped between 2 and 3 feet in our yard. Schools have already been canceled for Monday and Tuesday -- Jordan is ecstatic, and Jessie is spitting with joy (or is it her teeth?).

Click here for full sized photos.

Grazing

Grazing is messy in the snow.

Winter storm warning

NOAA WINTER STORM WARNING FOR NORTHERN VIRGINIA
A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM FRIDAY TO10 PM EST SATURDAY.
* PRECIPITATION TYPE...HEAVY SNOW.
* ACCUMULATIONS...STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 18 TO 24 INCHES.
* TIMING...SNOW WILL BEGIN MID-MORNING FRIDAY...AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING. CONDITIONS WILL DETERIORATE RAPIDLY FRIDAY AFTERNOON...WITH HEAVIEST SNOWFALL OCCURRING BETWEEN SUNSET FRIDAY TO SUNRISE SATURDAY. THE MOST HAZARDOUS WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS WILL OCCUR FRIDAY NIGHT.
* VISIBILITIES...THE COMBINATION OF HEAVY SNOW AND STRONG WINDS WILL REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO BELOW ONE-QUARTER MILE...PRODUCING NEAR-BLIZZARD CONDITIONS AT TIMES FRIDAY NIGHT AND EARLY SATURDAY MORNING.