The roads were fine, but the walk -- now that was interesting

We had a sleet/freezing rain event today. It occurred entirely while I was at work, so I did not have to venture out into it, but Mrs. Wolves texted me in the afternoon and let me know that my drive home might be challenging. Since I have managed to stay out of the ditch through all of our recent winter weather events that have forced me to drive home through them, I was feeling pretty good about my odds.

And as it turned out, by the time I left work, two things had happened. The roads had been treated, and the temperature had risen. No ice on the roads, at least not that I could tell.

Sidewalks? Different story. It wasn't like Sunday night, when I was the only one on my block who de-iced his sidewalk. That actually was better -- because all of the sidewalk except for the part in front of my house was iced over, I knew what to do. Walking on ice is not a big deal -- just walk like a penguin, taking small steps and never really taking your feet off the ice. Shuffle, waddle, whatever you want to call it, you won't fall.

You also won't move very fast. This is a problem for me, because I actually have two dog-walks every night when I get home. First, I walk Jeb the Wonder Dog and Sadie the Auxiliary Back-up Dog together. Jeb pees on everything in sight, and Sadie poops. Five, ten minutes, tops. I waddled as necessary Sunday, with the sidewalks iced over, and when possible I let Jeb pull me along, sliding on the ice, for much of the walk. Kinda fun, like those kids at the mall who have roller skate wheels in the heels of their shoes. I never have figured out how the fuck you walk in those normally. But I digress.

But then I have to walk Jeb again so that he will unleash evil. This is a two-mile, half-hour walk. He needs the exercise, and so do I. Ice complicates this and can make it take much longer than a half-hour. Sunday, we walked in the street, which was ice free. Tonight, different ballgame.

Most of the sidewalks on our two-mile trek were ice-free. Probably 80 percent. The problem, of course, is that other 20 percent. My neighborhood has no streetlights, so I would find myself walking cheerfully on dry (or at least ice-free) sidewalk, and then I suddenly would be sliding all over the place. This happened just at random, and I usually couldn't see the ice before I hit it. I never went down, but I was slip-sliding, Jeb was slip-sliding -- it was like a fucking Paul Simon concert:

Yeah, cheap reference. Live with it.

I'm sorry, the calendar says March

So why did we get snow and ice Sunday? And snow and ice forecast for this afternoon? And more snow Thursday? Someone needs to have a word with someone. It's almost spring, and I expect some spring-like weather, damn it. And yeah, I'm blogging behind enemy lines.

A little food porn for you

So, Sunday night I made some maple-glazed pork chops. Pretty simple, really. You'll need four pork chops -- the recipe calls for bone-in, 3/4-inch thick chops -- and some maple syrup, sea salt, pepper, and apple cider vinegar.

Take the pork chops, season them with some sea salt. Heat a little olive oil in a skillet, then toss those chops in. Cook 'em up right:

Once you have cooked the chops (notice that I used boneless, because that is what I had) plate those suckers and tent them (put aluminum foil over them):

Now, put 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar into the pan in which you just cooked the chops. Stir it in nicely with the chops' leavings. Bring the vinegar to a boil, then add 1/3 cup of maple syrup:

Bring that to a boil, stirring constantly:

Pour that over the chops:

Looks good, don't it?

And, of course, plate it up:

Bon appetit.

I swear it only does this because I am working weekends

For the third weekend in a row, we had a winter storm that made my drive home ever so interesting. Today, it was snow, sleet and freezing rain -- everyone's favorite. It started snowing right before I got to work, and down in DC it quickly turned to freezing rain. Out where I live, it snowed about an inch before switching over to "wintry mix." I was only planning on working a half day Sunday -- lots of stuff to do back at home -- and I cut that an hour short because of the weather. My trip home was interesting, but nowhere near as interesting as it must have been for all the people I saw who had accidents on along the way -- mostly one-car accidents, at that. A few folks got up close and personal with the Jersey wall in the median. That's going to leave a mark.

I made it home fine, and ran my errands without incident. I just walked the dogs, and the storm is over, but I apparently am the only person on my block who put down salt (I actually use potassium chloride, which is basically fertilizer and totes plant-friendly), because the sidewalks are a skating rink. Both dogs fell on the ice, and you have not lived until you have seen a dog fall on the ice. I don't think they appreciated my laughter. I'm sure when I hit the roads tomorrow at zero dark thirty, I won't be laughing.

Man bites dog!

The United States is not my leading source of visitors today -- not even close. Russia has more than twice as many visitors than does the US. I don't think this has ever happened. Sign of the apocalypse?

Mrs. Wolves digs sunsets

I mean, who doesn't, right? But she really digs sunsets. And she takes pictures of them. A lot. Not as much as she takes pictures of the kit-tays, but a lot. And she gets great pictures of some pretty good sunsets. Like this one:

A slightly different view of the same sunset:

Taken shortly after last week's snowstorm, obviously.

Have they no mercy?

Murder and Mayhem like killing hats. A lot. But only bomber-style winter hats, of which we have two. Usually, they are killing mine. The other day, Mrs. Wolves caught them killing Cpl. Wolves' hat.

Sometimes it's just one cat:

Sometimes it's both cats, but Mayhem was operating alone on this occasion:

You can never be too careful with hats:

They never show mercy. The hat always gets attacked until it is dead.