Thursday, October 29, 2009

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.

14 comments:

  1. I totally thought about you when I heard that my company's Denver office is closed today "due to inclement weather"!

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  2. My only question is what came first: this post or our email exchange yesterday!!!! hahaha. So cool that you have two wood burning fireplaces. Me jealous. Though, you might want to do a little research re. your heating bills. While fireplaces are nice, they can also suck heat out of your home and up your chimney, making it much less helpful on the heating front!

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  3. What kind of boots did you end up getting? I'm in the market for new boots (ugh winter in Chicago) and I'd appreciate a recommendation. I'm also super jealous of the woodburning fireplace. I haven't had one of those since I lived in Austin, where of course no one needs one.

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  4. We also have a wood burning fireplace in our new house! I can't wait until we move in and start having fires.

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  5. I will never live without a wood-burning stove ever again. It is by far the best purchase I have ever made. Love it!

    I love, love, love that video of Montana running galloping around, burying her nose in the snow. Dogs!

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  6. I give you a lot of credit. I don't think I could live in a place that A)restricts my fireplace usage, and B)SNOWS IN OCTOBER!!!

    You're a brave, brave woman!

    Make a snowman and post the pics!

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  7. I love snow too, and am totally jealous a couple days trapped in the house with lots of snow sounds perfect. I always like to stock up on coco and hot buttered rum when snow is called for!

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  8. As long as you keep the snow there for another two weeks or so, I'm good. Looks like you'll be dressing your kids in snowsuits under their hallowe'en costumes in the years to come!

    (good job on the pumpkin, btw)

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  9. Holy Cow. It was 70 degrees here and you have snow. Jealous.

    Great blog, btw.

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  10. Loved the video! As for the snow, I'm not quite ready for it yet (although we had our first flakes of the year a few weeks ago!).

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  11. I hate flinter... and winter! GO AWAY SNOW. V. glad I'm not in denver right now.

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  12. AND it was 76 when I drove to work today. The world is weird.

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  13. WOW! U guys are pros already. I've never really done that, and everybody on the blogsphere got me all excited about it. So hopefully next year!! :D

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