2.8.10
According to my iPod shuffle, which I listened to whenver I went out to shovel snow (about five separate outings, starting at 7:30 in the morning and ending around dusk), I spent four hours shoveling snow on Saturday alone. Add in the half hour from Friday night to get the first few inches before the massive amount fell overnight, and the hour or so I spent on Sunday cleaning up the driveway, shoveling out the second car, and clearing around the heat pump, and I spent a solid five and a half hours shoveling wet, heavy snow this weekend.

Hopkins is the only school in DC or Baltimore that's open today, but given the road conditions I saw yesterday, the freezing temperatures that are preventing any melt off, and the likelihood of many, many accidents today as people try to return to work on what are sure to be treacherous streets, Julie and I are just going to work from home.

And we pretty much have to go in tomorrow, because like it or not, it looks like the third snowstorm in the past seven days is going to roll into the region on Tuesday night into Wednesday, dropping anywhere from another five to twelve inches, which means that getting to work on Wednesday is also unlikely. Maybe we'll get lucky and this one will miss us, but they've already upgraded the accumulation predictions in the last 24 hours, and luck in avoiding snowstorms doesn't seem to be something the mid-Atlantic is blessed with these days.

2.5.10
Our friend Leila is in DC for a meeting this week, and the original plan was to pick her up from the train station after work and host her overnight before taking her to the airport on Saturday afternoon. But the snow has changed all that: already the airline has let her reschedule her flight for Sunday, when they hope the airport will be operating again, and she's trying to move up and/or shorten her afternoon meeting so she can get on the train sooner than she'd planned.

Julie is just going to work from home, but I'm going to go in to pick up a couple things from work and get Leila from Penn Station whenever she can get there. Hopefully the snow will hold off long enough for us to get home without any major stress, and all of the early closings could actually work in our favor, as the rush hour shouldn't be as congested even though the Baltimorons will be in full-on snow panic mode at that point.

We're planning to cook at home since we're assuming the roads won't be in any kind of decent shape at dinner time (and the restaurants might not be open either), but depending on when Leila and I make it back, we might try to order out something to bring home and reheat later. Either way, we're anticipating being snowed in Friday night and all of Saturday; I just hope the roads are clear enough to get Leila to her noon flight on Sunday, although that could be unrealistically optimistic if we get 24-30 inches and the snow doesn't stop falling until sometime Saturday night.

2.4.10
We got five or six inches of snow yesterday, but that's supposedly just a warm up for tomorrow and Saturday, when we'll get a storm that will likely rival our December snow (the official tally, taken at BWI, was 21 inches, but we got more than two feet out where we are). Just what I wanted: a weekend spent shoveling. Maybe it won't be as bad as they think, but we're likely to get some significant accumulation that won't fall until after the workday has ended.

2.3.10
I've finally got a handle on how many files I'm going to read this year, and surprisingly, given how many extra files we received this year, it's below my typical number. So I'm going to pick up the slack from some other readers and take at least another 50 files, which will bring me in line with my normal totals.

Doing the math, I should only have to read about 60 files a week to finish everything by our early March deadline for completing the first reads, and normally, that wouldn't be hard at all. In past years, when I've really been able to focus on nothing but reading files by working from home, I've been able to get through 40 files in a day. But this year, with so many other projects I'm managing and so much else going on, I'm only averaging about 50 files, so I'm going to try working from home for three days a week instead of my normal two.

Hopefully this will help, but there have been many days already when answering my email and making phone calls have taken up more than half of my day, leaving me little time to read files. Luckily, if I fall too far behind, it's easy to work some extra hours at night or on the weekend to get caught up, but things are so hectic that I really value my non-work hours these days, so I'd like it if it didn't come to that.

2.2.10
Groundhog Day! And it's a seamonkey day for us, too.

2.1.10
Finally caught up with Tom over the weekend. We couldn't figure out exactly how long it had been since we last spoke, but it's been at least a couple of years, maybe more. I've really missed his sense of humor, and it was great to talk to him again and get caught up on each other's lives. Hopefully we'll get a chance to hang out in person sometime soon, but we'll at least be better about staying in touch via phone.