not wettest, but definitely snowiest

Well...goodbye November...apparently you were one centimeter away from being the wettest November in Vancouver and you beat the old snow record by something like 15 centimeters.

TOMORROW'S DECEMBER.... :)

and now it's going....

rain rain go away...come again another day...

sigh...I liked the snow...

winter wonderland...

ahhh...sooo nice!

SNOW DAY!

My first ever snow day...I still have to work from home, but I'm at home! There is an institution-wide power-outage where I work, so they have cancelled all non-essential services today.

It's pretty treacherous out there...I'm glad I don't have to go to work and
everything I could possibly need today is within walking distance of my
house. I am a little concerned because Alex will have to go to work and
that means driving on the horrible roads...

It was beautiful last night. Alex and I went out wandering and it was so nice...and even this morning it's still pretty out! Just COLD!

Shannon and Alex

The snow on the deck just kept piling up yesterday...

The deck yesterday afternoon

The deck last night

The deck this morning

The men came back last night to work on the water main again. We had a
notice on Thursday that the water would be off on Friday and it was
just a bit disconcerting when they came back at 1:00 am last night.
Apparently the boil advisory is still on though...

out our front door

isn't it pretty?!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

and oh, is it ever snowing!!!

It's so pretty, but we're not going anywhere today unless we go on foot. There's still apparently a snow fall warning in effect and we might get even more tomorrow!

It was snowy last night, but when I woke up this morning, I just KNEW it had snowed a ton...you know, that snow light in the room, yeah, it was sneaking in and when I opened the curtains, sure enough, lots of snow!

last night

this morning...

more snow this morning!

What you can't actually see in these photos are the HUGE snow flakes that are still falling...ahhh...snow!

will it ever end?

Our rain, which brought a water advisory, has turned to snow and low temperatures which brought a snow fall warning and still a water advisory.

I do like the snow much better than the rain...that I will admit! We had plans to go out tomorrow, but if the advisory is still on, maybe we'll just bundle up and go for a wintery walk instead of trying to brave the street of Vancouver, where people just don't know how to drive in the snow!

Environment Canada's Official Weather Warnings

Warnings

Greater Vancouver
9:47 PM PST Saturday 25 November 2006
Snowfall warning for
Greater Vancouver continued

Up to 10 cm of snow expected for most areas with 20 to 30 cm possible inland and over the higher terrain areas of the south coast and Vancouver Island.

A strengthening Arctic ridge over the British Columbia interior is pushing cold Arctic air up against the east slopes of the coastal mountains. Strong outflow winds have developed through the valleys and inlets as the Arctic air rushes towards the coast. As the high continues to strengthen winds will increase and temperatures will gradually lowel resulting in wind chills in the minus 20 to minus 30 range. These conditions are expected to persist for several days.

The Arctic air is moving into the eastern Fraser Valley and will deepen over the Lower Mainland through Sunday. Meanwhile an intensifying low over the pacific will approach Washington state Sunday morning. Snowfall is becoming more extensive across the warning regions this evening and will result in 5 to 10 cm of snow by morning. Ahead of the low especially over parts of southern Vancouver Island slightly warmer air near the surface will result in a mixture of rain and snow until the low passes. An additional 5 to 10 cm of snow is likely over most areas through Sunday as the Arctic air slowly deepens as the low moves across Washington. The highest amounts of snow will be in the Fraser Valley and over the higher terrain areas of Vancouver Island and the south coast where amounts of 20 to 30 cm are likely from the storm.

I stand corrected

Apparently punk gave me ROSES when I first returned from England six years ago...in my old age, my memory is failing me although now that I have been reminded, I think maybe they were yellow? or have I lost it completely?

I like flowers...I like the flowers

When I was a kid we used to sing that song - I like the flowers, I love the daffodils; I like the mountains, I love the rolling hills...Alex came home last night with a bouquet of red roses for me. I don't think anyone has ever given me roses before...or if I did get roses they were part of a mixed bouquet...SO PRETTY!!!

Oh, and the SUN IS OUT!!! YAHOOOO....it's probably cold outside, but that's what winter coats are for, right?

finally...a rainbow!

The view from the boss-man's office. He's been away for a few days, so I thought what better time than this to tackle the ever growing filing that has no system. It now has a system...one which I created while taking in this view. The clouds cleared briefly for a few seconds and the snow line is moving down, down, down to sea level...the pineapple express seems to have been beaten out by the Arctic Air Flow and the masses are prepared for the dreaded s-word.

That's right SNOW...it's predicted...and then it's going to get COLD...I for one would much rather have snow and cold than the rain. You can protect against cold easier than you can beat out the rain that's coming sideways and rebounding off the pavement!


But really, we shouldn't be complaining...look at the weather in Yellowknife. The highs are negatives...double digit negatives...


Weather courtesy of the Environment Canada Weather Office.

Well Travelled?

Your Travel Profile:

You Are Very Well Traveled in Australia (63%) You Are Well Traveled in Western Europe (50%) You Are Well Traveled in the United Kingdom (50%) You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in Canada (40%) You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in Scandinavia (40%) You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in New Zealand (33%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in Eastern Europe (20%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in the Northeastern United States (14%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in the Western United States (11%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in the Southern United States (8%) You Are Untraveled in Africa (0%) You Are Untraveled in Asia (0%) You Are Untraveled in Latin America (0%) You Are Untraveled in Southern Europe (0%) You Are Untraveled in the Middle East (0%) You Are Untraveled in the Midwestern United States (0%)

How Well
Traveled Are You?

HA...I love how I've been to Eastern Europe...I haven't
been to Eastern Europe! I also love that there were only five choices
for Canada - Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and
Halifax...what happened to the Prairies?!?!?!

Anyway, I got a chuckle out of this because some of it is pretty accurate and some of it is TOTALLY INACCURATE!

Gobble Gobble Gobble

Aw gee, I wish I lived south of the 49th parallel today so that I could indulge in my second Thanksgiving of the fall...actually, I guess I only got to do that when I lived in London. When I lived south of the 49th, they just laughed at me when I said it was Thanksgiving and reminded me that I said aboot and probably had a pet polar bear hidden in my backyard in K-town.

So, to all my friends and family who are south of the 49th this week, HAPPY THANKSGIVING...I can't share your turkey tomorrow night, but I'll share the beautiful flowers I was given for CANADIAN Thanksgiving six weeks ago. And even though it's not my thanksgiving, I'm still going to be thankful for all the same things I was thankful for at our thanksgiving...

Vancouver goes British

Trying to emulate London or are too many pedestrians looking the wrong way at our major intersections? I've noticed these at Granville and Broadway and at Georgia and Burrard...They're kind of cute...and GREEN!

itsy bitsy spider

November 2005

underwater?!

the anticipated storm never materialized or if it did, it was over by the time I woke up...apparently it was windy early this morning. Now maybe if we're lucky they'll lift the boil advisory!

say what?!

This lovely poster was hanging, framed, in the restaurant where we had dinner. I know they say sex sells, but HUH!? I just don't get it...



(and where's her head?)

the calm before the storm

We awoke this morning to discover that while the gloomy weather hadn't gone away completely, it WASN'T RAINING!!!

We went for nice afternoon wander through grey Kits. With the meterologists predicting another storm tonight or tomorrow, we thought we'd be silly not to take advantage of the weather. We stopped at the beach...

down to the beach

storm drain from the street above

the (remains of the) tree in the wall

ready for a storm?

shells

the city ready and waiting for the next storm

waves

Alex and Shannon

After the beach we went in search of food and beverages that did not involve boiling any water...there are still no hot beverages like coffee (at least we've figured out how to melt ice and make coffee at home!!!), but we did find juice and pop.

not water!

our house...

A long time ago we promised some of our friends who live across a continent and an ocean that we would post some pictures of the Blue House, so here they are. They are about a month old with the exception of the three last views of the living room, which I took today. The last one is my view from the couch when I knit. Sorry, there's kind of a lot of pictures here...

Welcome to the Blue House

Come on in!

Shannon LOVES the built in bookcases!

our bedroom

dining room

kitchen

more kitchen

living room as it was

office

guest room aka Kelsey's room

stained glass bathroom

living room as it is

more living room

my view from my favourite knitting spot, the couch

my knitting stash, hidden so that it is not apparent when you enter the room and so that you do NOT mistake it for Alex's knitting stash ;) There's more stash hiding in the table at the other end of the couch!

patience and loneliness

This soft, shiny wool has been sitting in my living room, calling me to it all week, but I've avoided the temptation to create a warm nest of blankets and pillows and tea made with water boiled for a long time and wool and never leave the warm, dry house again.

But at work we have a water cooler. So we don't have to boil the water. We can just drink it straight from the cooler.

I'm patiently waiting for the weekend and the creation of my little knitting nest so I can work with that pretty shiny wool and make even more itty bitty, teensy tiny, cute hats.

Last night was I walked across campus to my class from the SUB, I looked over and saw Gage Towers (yes, that is Gage Towers) all lit up and thought for some reason that it looked SO LONELY...maybe the streaks are what it would look like if you were lonely too? I don't know...it just seemed lonely to me. I don't remember being lonely when I lived there, but last night, it was a lonely place.