Philly Snowmen

Word went around work yesterday afternoon - check out the snow sculptures in Rittenhouse Square. I didn't make it there until the evening, after my yoga class.

There were dozens of classic snowmen. This was one of the tallest, and the most impressive.

Pregnant snowlady.

This cupid, which was tall as me, had a complex and impressive internal armature made out of twigs.

A huge and sprawling cuttlefish-type thing.

The best ones:

This pointy-spined monster was big enough that you could comfortably fit your entire head into its mouth.

Winner for Cutest Snow-Sculpture Ever = baby polar bead riding the frog sculpture.

Barely eight inches tall, this is a work of genius.

Downton Abbey

The British make the best costume dramas in the entire world. The one I'm currently all-about is Downton Abbey. So good. PBS is posting an episode online every Monday, and this coming Monday will be the last one: but (!) all four episodes will be online until late February.

Massive Snow

As you may know, the east coast got a fair bit of snow yesterday. It snowed in the morning, changed to rain in the afternoon (but not enough rain to melt all of the prior snow), then immediately post-work it turned to ice pellets, and then in the evening back to giant snowflakes.

This was the view from Chez Moi around 11:00 last night. It looks all sparkly because of the ice on the window screen.

And on the walk to work (yes, we still put in a full day, saving cultural property and whatnot) this morning...

Doppelgänger Rug

For Christmas my grandma got me some crazy things.

1. Do-it-yourself funnel cake kit. With a red plastic oil-can-like funnel cake batter dispenser. Come visit me. Funnel cake will be made.

2. A little rug with Cordelia's doppelgänger on it.

She really likes sitting on it. The doppelgänger rug doesn't have a permanent place in the apartment yet: it kind of floats around near the paper/photo-conservation bookshelf.

Christmas and the Little Brother's Cunning Hat

This was the year for knitted gifts. Behold: the Little Brother received this Cunning Hat:

It's a copy of a Cunning Hat from the sci-fi show Firefly, of which the Little Brother is a big fan. I knew as soon as he opened the package that he would recognize it. Sure enough, he exclaimed, "What a cunning hat!" and then jammed it on his head. Late on Christmas Day he made us all watch that particular episode of Firefly so that Mum could truly understand the cunningness of the Cunning Hat. (Still of the tv show hat below.)

Crazy also bought himself a bow for Christmas. Luckily he had a nice warm hat for the wintertime target shooting.

People might knock Western PA for a number of things, but it is a really lovely place.

New

I changed the formatting again. Still deciding if I like it. It drives me crazy how the text then improperly off-sets itself. Thoughts?

Picksburgh Talkin, and Whatnot

I love accents.