Tallahassee Snow

It snowed in Tallahassee! It was the first measurable snowfall in Tallahassee in about thirty years, so it was notable, even though we got less than an inch of snow on the ground. It snowed for a bit in the morning, just enough to cancel school, and push work back for a couple of hours. 

There wasn't enough to play in, but we took Tuck out just to let him see snow (he didn't appreciate it).

And this was a few days later, but I loved this sign.

Things We Did Over Break

So far, 2017 is off to a pretty good start. It's been pretty chilly here, but still nothing compared to the temperatures we had in Cleveland - that's my gauge for cold now. I can't really remember what 0 degrees (fahrenheit!) feels like, but I know nothing feels as cold as those Ohio winters!

The institute Carson works at was on break from December 23 until January 9, so Carson was on a more relaxed schedule. He's not really subject to the whims of the department anyway, but he has picked up a few classes he attends throughout the week when school is in session. Obviously you don't see that part of our lives, because it probably looks like he's ALWAYS home and we're ALWAYS off adventuring.In reality most days he's headed off by 8 and home around 6 and the pictures you see are from weekends or evenings when we're together. Just wanted to clarify that, in case it looked like he was playing hooky for a year! Anyway, he didn't have the burden of classes or meetings, so while he still went to the office every day of the break, he was home a little earlier on some days and left a little later on others. It was nice having him around more! 

But here are some things we've been doing over that winter break.

I researched iPhone cases. I used to have a hard plastic but not super protective case and that worked fine, then I got confident about my ability to protect an expensive phone. I bought a pretty case with no lip on the front and had it on for less than 24 hours before dropping it face down on pavement, which cracked the screen. Since then, I've been using a Lifeproof Nuud case (mine is white/teal). I like it because it's tough, and I know that because I drop it all the time by accident. It's got a clear back, the screen is sealed but not covered with a plastic film (Carson has the Lifeproof Fre and it has one of those plastic things and I HATE it), and is just generally a great case. The one flaw I find with it is that ONLY Apple chargers fit in it. Carson's fits a slightly larger charger size but not mine, and Apple cords are pricey and sort of flimsy. I've also had the case for over a year and thanks to the constant drops, the case has seen better days. It's still protecting my phone, but it has cracks and some of the rubber has come off. Another issue that isn't that big of a deal for me is that the sound quality isn't great. Not a dealbreaker though.

So, I wanted something that was okay if dropped, since try as I might, I have the grip of a three year old (sorry for the caricature, three year olds). I watched countless YouTube reviews and drop tests on phone cases and read countless reviews online before coming up with a few options. I included my old case on the list because I really do like it except for the charger issue. There were some really highly rated clear cases with some crazy awesome reviews (some had fallen off roller coasters or gotten run over in a parking lot with no damage!), but several of them said they yellow easily and I couldn't find any drop tests for those so I was slightly wary. I wavered between the Spiegen Ultra Hybrid in clear, the Caseology Skyfall in Champagne, and the more protective Otterbox Commuter (I didn't really like the look of the clear Otterbox Symmetry once I saw pictures online). I polled friends on Facebook and nearly everyone mentioned Otterbox, so I decided to go for it and order the Otterbox Commuter. Part of the reason I did my research online was because I haven't found stores here that sell any of these cases so I can't check them out in person. Amazon Prime wasn't available for these to ship to Germany, so I had to ship to my mother in law who's coming later this month, or I might have ordered a few cases and compared, then sent one back.

Anyway, that process took many days, and I hope I made a good decision!

I haven't tried these to see if they're like Cool Ranch Doritos, but I thought the name was hilarious. 

The lake has wavered between frozen and unfrozen, and last week it was the most frozen we've seen it. Flocks of birds sit in the center of the ice and we can't figure out why they do that (is it warm/comfortable? Do they know they're safer there because the ice isn't thick enough to walk on?), but they seem very content. We were freeeeeezing on this day as I walked Carson to the office and then did some window shopping downtown.

People have been taking small chunks of ice from the edge of the lake and throwing it onto the thicker ice in the middle, where it breaks and makes a cool sound. 

I haven't been able to catch up with as many people as I might have liked lately, but we have had a few Google Hangouts/FaceTime sessions with people lately. Hi Emily and Tirzah!

It snowed again! The snow was a little more dry the second time around and we saw fewer snowmen the next day, but it was really pretty! It's been pretty rainy and gloomy for the most part and I can't remember the last time I saw a blue sky, so the snow is sort of nice to break up the wet rain. A day or so after the snow fell, there was some hail, which was super unpleasant because we were about a mile from home and had to walk back with stinging wet ice balls in our faces. 

Snow covering the Aasee

I had some really good Kartoffelpfannkuchen (potato pancakes) in Hamburg last month and I've been craving them since. I know they're similar to latkes so we looked up a latke recipe and attempted. The biggest problem was that the holes in our grater are small, so they don't grate as well, and then the mixture was so water even after squeezing for so long, so they weren't great. Next time, we will grate early in the day and leave them in a colander with a dish towel weighed down by something heavy, and maybe use less onion and add a little more garlic or something. They weren't super crispy. I mixed creme fraiche with some chives as a topping and we had applesauce too, since that's pretty good with these. Next time!

You know that I love a good reminiscing session... well, it's been ten years since I graduated from high school so here's one of my senior pictures next to a picture from Montserrat last month! It seems really weird that it's been a decade! 

Carson is taking another class in Syriac this semester from his advisor at FSU and so he's been writing it out when possible. 

Oh! And I may not have posted anything about this but GOOD NEWS, we'd been looking for a casserole dish that was tiny enough to fit our oven and also not really expensive because we're probably not going to lug anything glass back to the US - we happened on this for 5€ when looking for something else and it's so cute. Carson mixed spaghetti noodles with a variety of spices and dairy products we needed to use to make a baked spaghetti the first day we had this, and it was nice to have something in the oven that didn't require reimagining things that can be cooked on a cookie sheet.  It's ceramic and the outside is aqua while the inside is cream. On second thought, maybe we will lug it home!

Anyway, we made this Parmesan Herb Salmon the other night (I saw the video for it on Facebook - anyone else like watching those videos? I love the cake/sweets ones even though I'm never going to make them because I don't like baking and we don't have the right ingredients/measuring instruments here) and it was so good! We sort of modified it because we had smaller frozen salmon filets and we used breadcrumbs instead of almond meal because that's what we had. We'll make this again! It was easy and we didn't need to shop for anything to make it!

First Snow

I'm proud to say that we survived 2016 without living in snow.

We saw it a couple of times - last January in Maryland and at Thanksgiving in Bulgaria, but it hasn't actually snowed in a place where we lived since we lived in Cleveland. We live in a pretty mild climate here in the western part of Germany. I don't know much about weather patterns, but I'm told our weather comes from the west, so it's got a similar climate to the Netherlands. There are parts of Germany that get very very cold and snowy, but I am quite thankful to not live in one of them. I'm perfectly fine living in a place where the median temperature in December only hovered between 30-40 degrees fahrenheit (and I still don't understand celsius).

Anyway, it snowed, and I'm happy to say that it waited until the new year.

I was filling up my water bottle getting ready to go to bed late, when I looked out the window and noticed that the sky had that "snow sky" look to it. The ground has been covered in a layer of icy frost for a few days, so I wasn't sure at first if the thin white layer was snow or frost, but I looked at the nearest street light and confirmed that something thick and white was floating down to the earth. "Carson!" I hissed like something was wrong (because I'm mean), "come here, quickly! Shhh!" He rushed out of bed and tiptoed over to the window looking for the animal I was surely looking at. "Is it - is it SNOWING?" He whisper-yelled.

Since November, he's been checking the weather for snow and is constantly talking about how it really is the optimal temperature to snow. He'll announce the chance of snow when that's listed too (there was a 20% chance this day so I guess there was something to what he said!) He hurried back into the bedroom and began throwing on sweatpants and shoes and his coat; "I'm going to go out. I have to see it!" So I threw on a coat and boots over my pjs too and we headed out.

There was more snow on the ground than I'd expected, fluffy wet stuff that was maybe only two inches deep. Since it was really late (after midnight) when I'd spotted it, our footprints were the only ones out there. It felt really special. We headed for the bridge, where the night before there had been so much merriment, and stood there taking in the falling snow and the peace and quiet it brought to a sleeping world.

Then Carson built a little snowman and I began reflecting on how maybe I'll start liking snow again since I won't have to drive in it (not super likely because I also don't like how it makes everything wet, and I just generally hate being cold).

It really was a great start to 2017.

A Very Deer Reunion

My cousin Morgan is one of my closest friends. I'm only ten months older than she is, and growing up we spent a lot of time together playing and creating ridiculous adventures. When we were still in elementary school, her family moved from Beaufort to Florida, but we kept in touch by writing letters. Years later, we are still pen pals. Our letters have always been sporadic, never completely regular (although in 2011-2012 we were very faithful to write). She was a bridesmaid in my wedding in 2010, and in 2012, I was in hers. It's so fun having her as not only a cousin but as a friend. We can reminisce about growing up, because we had basically the same childhood, and we can talk for hours about all kinds of things, as we discovered very recently. 

As one of her Christmas presents, Morgan's husband Caleb decided to send her to Cleveland for a few days. He told me about it just after Thanksgiving and I almost burst from the news. She finally found out and we've been texting excitedly about it ever since.  

Sadly, she didn't bring warm weather (it was 15 degrees when she arrived and it got 20 degrees lower and only about five degrees higher the whole time) but there was sunshine a few times, and there was a TON of snow for her enjoyment. 

She wore flip flops to travel, got strange looks on the plane (we had 10 inches of snow the night before she arrived), and changed into boots upon arrival.

Carson had dinner ready when we got home, and then we settled in for a long night of hanging out on the couch, catching up and realizing that we hadn't spent undivided time together in probably over ten years (wedding weekends definitely don't count).

Before we woke up on Friday morning, Carson was off, traveling to a conference near Chicago. Morgan and I slept in (talking late in to the night will do that to you) and then venturing out to pick up some supplies for our time together. We went to the mall, to Hobby Lobby for some projects, and to the store for junk food. And Morgan bought a PowerBall ticket because who doesn't want to be $247,000,000 richer? (she said she'd give me a couple million) Spoiler alert: she's now $2 poorer.

Morgan wanted to see John Carroll, so we parked quickly and ran out to take these pictures. The sunshine is deceptive when it's cold - the "real feel" that day was right around 2 degrees. Prior to this stop, we'd only walked in and out of stores, so Morgan declared that she could definitely live in the snow. After this stop, her tune changed. Florida life is a good life indeed.

We tried out arm-knitting after a healthy meal of leftover pasta (over which we discovered that we both really hate leftovers. Oh well.) It's supposed to be a 30 minute project, but since neither of us had done it before and one had to teach the other, it took over an hour. We feel like we'll be experts next time though. (post about it coming soon)

We stayed up late again, talking and eating and watching movies. The next morning, we woke up late and hung out under the electric blanket with the space heater on high. Our poor house is not well-insulated, so we were freezing (it was 55 inside) but cozy under the blanket.

Over lunch, we watched figure skating on the Olympics. Morgan found a free 30 minute trial, so while we watched some, we didn't get to see Team USA skate.

We picked up Lana around 1 that afternoon and headed for Ohio City. We had trouble finding parking, but had fun browsing the vendors at the West Side Market.

And the poor Civic got stuck in the snow, so Morgan got the fun experience of pushing a car out of snow. It was tough going until a kind gentleman walked over to help push.

We headed over to Lake Erie, which looks VERY different in the summer.

Morgan with the skyline in the background. Such a beautiful (frozen) day!

And yes, with no concern for our safety, we walked on the lake. It was frozen solid (as far as we know) and had several inches of snow on top. What a strange thing!

You could see the water in this darker part which we were careful not to walk on in case it was less solid.

I braved the rocks.

And almost died coming down.

These people were braver than we were and walked out really far. It's crazy to think that in the summer, people swim right there!

We got to explore downtown a little bit too. A lot of the city seems to be just office buildings, because it's pretty dead on the weekends; coffee shops aren't even open. But we went to the Cleveland Clothing Company for Morgan to grab a souvenir. Cute things, and I'll be making purchases there myself I think :) 

Because it was warm and very PINK, we stopped in at this cupcake place on the way back to the car. Lana got a deep fried cupcake which she shared - it was good and didn't taste super fried. 

We enjoyed some of our market purchases for dinner that night... fresh pasta - YUM!

We ended Saturday evening by creating deer sweatshirts. We've called each other "Deer" as an inside joke we don't even remember since we were around 10 years old. Morgan took a cat-nap at about 9pm and then we stayed up until 2:30pm. I think we just talked for a really long time - I can't even remember.

It snowed that evening, and Morgan kept checking out the windows and the front door to make sure it was still coming down. I laughed at her (while remembering that I did the same thing the first time I lived in a real winter climate).

We were supposed to get one inch of snow overnight, but several inches of fluffy snow had to be scraped off the car before we could leave the next morning. We trudged through the snow on the way to church (it was rough, a mini hike). The snow continued all day, and I let Morgan do the honors when we left church for a more authentic Ohio experience, grateful for the chance to sit and watch (and document).

We went to Melt for lunch, where Morgan had the Chicken Parmesan grilled cheese. I had accidentally left my phone under my chair at church so I was distracted from looking at the menu and ordered the 1/2 and 1/2 combo, which turned out to be a cup of soup, half a sandwich AND a salad. My salad and Morgan's pickle were the first green things we ate.

We went home and took pictures in the snow, taking off our coats because it's annoying wearing clothes and only ever being about to see your coat. This area we're standing in is the "low" area for the snow in the backyard and we stamped around to push it down.  

Modeling our scarves!

We spent the afternoon napping on the couch, watching YouTube videos and debating whether we wanted to go to the store to replace the bag of popcorn we'd already devoured (outcome: we were too lazy to do even that). We ultimately decided to get outside and build a snowman, which can be a lot more difficult than you'd think; it depends on the KIND of snow. This was not good snowman snow, very powdery and sticky, so we made what we called a "Snow Ghost"

Our Christmas lights are still up because it's been so cold.

As we were working on our snowman, Carson returned from Illinois to laugh at our poor creation. 

 I think we gave him a name but I can't recall what it was. Also, note the matching headbands; both Christmas gifts from our moms!

Morgan wanted to make a snowman, but the only good place was the driveway because it had the least amount of snow.

And we got ready to go to see the movie Frozen at the 9:50 showing. We made these shirts! 

There were five people in the theater, including the three of us, and all five of us laughed and enjoyed the movie - it was a great movie!

As we got ready to leave the next day, I took a picture of the Diet Coke graveyard...

This is our driveway when Morgan saw it for the last time. I'm sure she kissed the green grass when she arrived in warm, sunny Florida!

The fresh snow called for plowing the streets, which pushes the snow up on the end of our driveway like a speed bump. Needless to say, we got stuck, so I took over driving and Carson directed/dug us out. This was, you'll notice, the second time that we got stuck while Morgan was here. Even Carson has had enough of the snow (for real! He said so!)

We dropped him off at school and then did a little window shopping in Woodmere. Morgan and I had a bit of an adventure finding food on the way to the airport, but finally found a Steak and Shake that was delicious. We both had burgers and milkshakes and mine was cookie dough. The chunks of cookie made a hole in my straw so that was my afternoon crisis (haha).

We said our goodbyes at the airport after wolfing down our food, then she was off! Her flight had a bit of a delay, but by the time I'd found out about that, I was already home so we didn't get more time together, sadly.

And it was back to real life for me on a looks-warm-but-isn't Monday afternoon. Meanwhile, Florida temperatures read 70. Jealous.