It's February. In Chicago, that's traditionally the month when everyone starts to go a little out of their minds with cabin fever. The cold has gone on for too long. Spring is just around the corner. . . but it still feels like it will never arrive.

So, you do what you can to get over the hump. Dan and I tried the direct approach yesterday--going out into the face of winter, hanging out by the lake and walking about. Today, I'm taking the indirect approach--by searching out bright colorful things online that make me happy. . . and maybe by making a few colorful things as well!

Speaking of bright, colorful and cheerful, I found this adorable pillow cover at sukanart's shop



And it would be hard to stay crabby sleeping under this quilt by Ozark Quilters every night:



Or maybe just take a second to remember how excited you were to wear fall clothes and your new coat back in October with Michele Maule's "Little Red Coat" (available as a print in her shop on Etsy!:

Why Doesn't He Care?

Trying to take pictures of L.P. outside in the snow is a little like trying solve a problem like Maria. He's not having it. He's too busy playing and digging it to be cute for the camera.

Dan joked today at the Lawrence dog beach that L.P. just doesn't care about his web presence.

So true. He's too cool for friendface and so refuses to try to understand why I might want cute pictures of him either for posterity or for my blog.



He's too cool for school.



He's also obviously pretty mouthy. What can we say? We forgot to pack a tennis ball for the beach, and L.P. was sorely vexed in between meeting other dogs, running about and eating snow.

Snowmaggedon

Our little house. . . Can't wait to get rid of those two crazy trees. . .

and L.P. looooooooooovees this weather. I let him out of the yard and he super geeked out on getting to run in places he doesn't usually get to go off leash. Pretty fun.

Snowtorious B.I.G.

Yesterday, all Chicagoans--maybe during their early commutes home--seemed to be competing to come up with the best name of the impending blizzard. The title of this post was my favorite, but others included: snowgasm, snowpocalypse, snO.M.G, Blizzaster, "Snow you di'int!", snowverkill, snowmaggedon, Snobel Prize. . . you get the picture.

Chicagoans usually laugh in the face of snow. We don't take it very seriously. . . we scoff at southern towns that screech to a halt and make mad stampedes on the Piggly Wiggly for a dusting of a few inches. We're hardy folks up here and are offended by the notion of taking snow days.

But this time is different. This is a bona fide blizzard. Impossible to measure the snowfall because it blew around in 60 mph winds last night, so that in some spots, the snow is 2" deep, but the drift right next to that is 4 feet tall. Everything is closed today as far as I can tell--schools, colleges, businesses. It's a mess out there.

2 PM on Tuesday--no blizzard in sight yet, but I was still sent home early from work. That was maybe the oddest thing about yesterday. . . a town that usually mocks snow and weather, took the blizzard really seriously and cleared out of the city before the heaviest snow had even started. The folks who got stuck on Lake Shore Drive later in the evening were either idiots or had terrible bosses who made them stay later than they should have.

Took a while for the blizzard to ramp up. Tiny snow filled the air, but the most impressive thing was the wind and the lightning/thundersnow. Accumulation was slow. Before going to bed, after 8 hours of blizzard, L.P. was only up to his knees in the snow.

by morning, though, it was clear that the blizzard had continued its work overnight.

for folks unfamiliar with my house. . . this snow covered bush is about 4.5 feet tall. The snow is adding another 12" to its height, which means the snow drift around it is about 4 feet high. Dan has to shovel that some time today.

and it's still snowing as of 9:30 AM.

This final picture just to give you a sense of the kind of wind involved in this blizzard. This is a picture of snow lodged in the southwest corner of our front porch. Snow rarely even gets on the floor of the porch, much less lodged into the most protected ceiling corner. But how do you measure snowfall if some decent portion of it is stuck to walls and windows and doors?

NYC Day 3: Mitra Orders the Blizzard to Stop

Right before the wedding, it's as if my buddy Mitra declared that the blizzard and the overcast grey weather in NYC simply had to cease. She's a very powerful woman. She could control such things if she put her mind to it.

And then New York was lit up in gorgeous late day light for everyone's cab rides over to the Foundry in Long Island City.

NYC Day 3: Downtown, Chinatown and the East Village

Our third day in NYC was Mitra's wedding day, but not until later in the evening, so we hopped on the train and took it to the end of the line into Downtown and walked back to our hotel in the East Village via Chinatown.

The last time I was in Chinatown, I think Mitra just took me for a skim through the top of the neighborhood. I had no idea New York's Chinatown was so massive. We walked and walked and walked and thought we would never come to the end of it. But so many great sights in the way.

All crazy cute except that final red-eyed crazed piglet. Why the red eyes?

This picture is for Dan, who loved that we saw "Mr. T" on our travels.

If you know my Dan, this is what he does to make me laugh. I can't explain why I think it's so funny. But he finds the cutest thing he can find and then poses next to it as apathetically as possible. Ridiculous.

So, I feel like I found two dream apartments/homes right next to each other in the East Village. One is on the left--the modern house plunked down on the top of a four flat. The other is on the right and looks French to me--the 4 huge windows running the length of the apartment. I'm hoping inside, it's a loft space filled with mirrors and reflected light.

My handsome husband in the cafe where we took a break from walking to warm up. And before we split up--him to haunt record shops, me to hang out with the bride while she got ready for the big event.

NYC Day 2 Part 3

Friday in New York was a big day. We covered a lot of ground. The last third of the day was spent in Times Square, a quick stop at Magnolia Bakery, Rockefeller Center, eating dinner at a great Japanese Noodle Shop just off of 5th Ave., and then a final walk up 5th to the train at the edge of Central Park that carried us back to the hotel where we ate our Magnolia desserts and then drifted off to a much needed sleep.

This is what we saw on the way.

The Chrysler Building lit up, peaking between buildings in the distance.

This is the first thing I saw at the south end of Times Square. It's a Target ad, but this Red Yeti is super cute and about 25 feet tall.

And then, you know, everyone knows what Times Square is. We've all seen pictures. It's Broadway. It's a million lights. It's hustle and bustle. But nothing can really prepare you for the actual place. Pictures don't do it justice. It's overwhelmingly lit up. It's somehow simultaneously beautiful, deeply American, shocking and kind of appalling. It's a strange and marvelous place.

A steakhouse just off the Square. We didn't eat there. I just really liked their sign.

No flash needed to capture the happy travellers. It was like daylight there in the square.

The 30 Rock Statue was wearing a snow hat!

Thank you, Mitra, for suggesting this place. On 55th between 5th and 6th. Really good food. And if you're exhausted and cold and your feet are wet from walking through snow all day, nothing is more comforting than this place. I've been thinking about it ever since.

Detailed mosaic on 5th Avenue churchfront. They're sermon topic for Sunday: "Can My Avatar Take Communion?" So, curious about where that talk would be headed.

Crazy beautiful shop window.

Dan's NYC Heaven. Such a pretty Apple store. It's all below ground beneath this lit glass box. . . which promted me to say, "It's just like the Louvre." Ridiculous.

The train back to the hotel--clearly we were in the station closest to the zoo. There were little mosaic animals everywhere.