Where Does The Snow Go?

I've seen the convoys of snow eating bulldozers with special "spitters" where the bulldozers suck and chew up the snow from the street (or frozen slush as the case may be) and blows it into the back of a large dump truck until the truck is full and another truck takes its place. So where do those trucks go? Well one place is the large former train yard that runs along the 1-20 west of Montreal. We drove past there today on the way home from the airport and saw mountains of snow lined up where there were no mountains before. The dump trucks drive up and then in a reverse action, they dump the snow onto a conveyor belt that takes the snow to some "sucking/spitting" devise that then blow/spits the newly ground up snow and ice up onto big mountains of snow. And then I guess they wait until spring?

Montreal Travel Notes Are Up~

Check out my travel blog for all the fun stuff we've been up to this week.

With a new appreciation of menopausal minnesotan women

Do you know that it is possible to have a hot flash in 20 degree weather? And that despite the sub-freezing weather, the urge to rip off ones wool coat, hat and gloves is still as strong as in the middle of summer! Well, it is true. I'm constantly astonished at the ability of a menopausal woman's body to create the sensation of an internal temperature consistent with that of the earth's core.

I know how the snow man felt!

When I was little, my mother had a small snow globe with a snowman in its center. I loved that snow globe and would watch the snowflakes whirl around the little guy...snowflakes whirling in all directions at once. This morning we woke to sunny skies and 12 degrees F. I puttered around making coffee, checking email, and reading. As i walked to the kitchen to get more coffee I looked out the windows and said "I am in a snow globe". It was snowing big, flake, fluffy flakes that couldn't make up their minds if they were falling or rising, swirling or dancing. There were as many flakes rising as there were falling. It was a snow ballet and I was the snowman in its center.

Snowy Dawn in Montreal.

Woke to the beepbeepbeep of the little snowplow that comes in the early morning to plow the sidewalks and small alleys. So even before my eyes were open I knew...snow! About 2 inches while it still lightly snows.

will be posting mainly at my travel blog site while in montreal. See: www.thetravelingbaesels.blogspot.com

New Wheels

When we were in Orlando last month, Jason and I spent as Saturday in search of a new car. He traded in his silver bullet of a subaru WRX Sti for a great Scion Xb...not as quick off the gun...but roomier, more practical, and cool in its own way.

Flan...or not?

Three batches of caramel, two batches of custard, and one burned fingertip (caramel is really hot!) later, I think I have decent flan chilling in the refrigerator for Valentine's Day dinner. We will see how it tastes!

after dinner: It came out tasting just like...flan! It was great...if I do say so myself. so happy!

Home and Happy

Had a really productive trip to Florida...but it was exhausting. Two conferences (jerry), a quick weekend with the boys (which I mostly spent with jason trading in his subaru for a new scion), and then 4 days of productive meetings and decisions in St. Petersburg (windows, travertine flooring, hardwood flooring, stained glass windows, picking out mom Maxine's new apartment). I'm glad to be home, in bed, on my laptop, watching the Grammy's, surrounded by dogs and cats.