Fall + winter = flinter? wall?

So, that snow stuff? Totally showed up. I haven't measured today, but last night when I went out with the dog we were at over nine inches, and it was still snowing. And I know it was even more in some areas of Denver that are further west, closer to the mountains.

We didn't take many pictures, but we did snap a few, just for posterity. This is our street, last night:


Can you tell that at that point it had already been plowed twice?

And here's a photo of our front yard this morning (the street had just been plowed for the third time):


And I updated yesterday's post with a video of the dog frolicking in the snow, but if you missed it the first time, check it out here. She is pretty freaking cute (in my humble opinion).

Also yesterday, since we couldn't leave the house (other than to walk the dog--and thank god for proper snow boots when it comes to that), we finally got around to carving our pumpkin. We did buy one of those carving kits as recommended by most of you, and we used the tools, but the patterns were all too kooky for our taste. Since this is our first pumpkin (Torsten's first ever!), we wanted to stick with something simple and classic. So, we winged it:


Apologies for the crappy picture, but I think the pumpkin turned out pretty well. Torsten is pleased too. Plus, it was a great source for delicious roasted seeds. Yummy.

We also enjoyed our lovely wood-burning fireplace, which we've been using for a few weeks, but it becomes even cozier when there's snow outside. I've learned a thing or two about fireplaces in Denver since we started house hunting.

First of all, according to our realtor, wood-burning fireplaces are banned in new construction in Denver, and have been since, I believe, 1997. So, if your house is newer than that, you can only have a gas fireplace. This pretty much ruled out any house built after 1997 as far as we were concerned, because a wood-burning fireplace was a must for us (and we were lucky enough to end up with two).

The ban is in place for pollution reasons, and along the same lines, from November to March, there are "high-pollution days" in Denver, when you aren't allowed to use your wood-burning fireplace even if you have one. Of course, it seems like a difficult thing to enforce--somebody would have to report you, and they admit on their own website that you will pretty much just get a warning unless you are a serious repeat offender. Still, of course we'll comply, but I just hope that not every day all winter is considered a high-pollution day, because that would be a real disappointment (and bad for our energy bill).

Still, it's definitely feeling like winter around these parts at the moment. That jack-o'-lantern feels a bit incongruous, really.

Oh and P.S., I have a new post over at Bodies about trying to figure out how to best take advantage of the gym. I wrote it before we became snowbound, but I'm hoping that since the snow is supposed to stop this afternoon, the roads will be clear in time for me to make it to water aerobics tonight. We'll see.