I realize I haven't been very active here lately. There's really no reason, just nothing too horribly interesting going on.

When the snow melted, the water came into the house. That sucked. We now have a few chunks of missing drywall in one room, and no trim around our front door. Once it stops raining, Ejdo is going to put a drip plate up on the roof so that water coming off the shingles goes straight into the gutters. Hopefully this will help and we'll be able to fix all the stuff inside.

Sawyer managed some mischief on Saturday night. We left him out of the crate for the first time since the cookie incident and it failed miserably. He nosed his way into the pantry and ate all of his pig ears and treats, a small baggie of rice, and got into our expensive protein powder. We were not happy. Had to make him yarf it all up at 11 at night. Bad news.

The main reason for posting today though is hockey. The Olympics were fantastic. Almost every men's game had something exciting going on in it. I have a new "favorite" international player in Girts Akipans from Latvia. Coolest name ever. I hope that dude makes it someday.

Big issues going on in the NHL with regards to dangerous hits/play. This issue has really taken off and this week was a perfect example of why. Last Sunday, Matt Cooke of the Pens nailed Marc Savard of the Bruins with a questionable hit. Was it an elbow to the head, or a shoulder? Hard to tell, but either way Savard is out, for a while. Unluckily enough for Cooke, the NHL owners just happened to be meeting and discussing head hits. Surprisingly, he escaped without a suspension, but there is quite a bit of bad blood. I realize these aren't sized properly, but get over it. Here's the hit:

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Then last night, Sid Crosby gets essentially slew-footed by Steve Downie of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Luckily Sid escaped without serious injury, but the fall looked NASTY. Here's the clip:

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Both Downie and Cooke are notorious "dirty" players within the NHL. Some would argue that Mike Richards hit on David Booth would classify him as a dirty player. Clip of that hit:

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Others would say that Alex Ovechkin is dirty because of his relatively common knee-on-knee hits or yesterdays boarding against Brian Campbell. Clip of that hit:

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Regardless of whether these players are classified as dirty or clean, lucky or embellishers, whatever, there needs to be something done to protect players from these types of impacts. Often, players get hit with a larger penalty due to "intent to injure" the other player. Even if something is a clean hit, there can be an obvious intent to injure the other guy.

I have no idea how to put a system in place that would prevent hits to the head, or slew footing, or boarding, without removing some of the passion and speed from the game. It would be very difficult to play hockey successfully without going full bore. But perhaps a new penalty needs to be created. An "intent to injure" penalty. It could work similar to a game misconduct. Even if you make a clean hit on someone, if it is obvious that you were gunning for that guy, you get to visit the locker room for the remainder of the game. This seems similar to what happened to Ovie yesterday.

There are two major issues with this plan. First off, Ovie's hit yesterday would fall under this new penalty. However, this hasn't been created yet, so he was punished for something that wasn't exactly illegal. I don't agree with that. The other issue is that of embellishing. Sid gets accused of this on a regular basis and yes I'm sure he does it sometimes. I would be willing to bet that most players do it when they know it will work. But making an injury seem like more under this new penalty would cause there to be many more game misconducts handed out. The implications for all teams would be severe.

Since I'm not an owner of an NHL team, or on the NHL staff, its not my job to fix this problem. But as a fan, I hope they can figure it out. As great as it is to see a bone crushing, clean hit during a game, its heartbreaking to watch a player lie motionless on the ice. Something has to give.

The snow is melting.

I was really excited about this until we realized that we were getting water into the house. We had an ice dam. After abotut 4 days of fans and stripping off trim, Ejdo decided just to get a ladder, go up to the roof, and clean out the ice. Scary proposition, but it has helped immensely. Too bad we already cut a big hole in the wall in the computer room :-( But, at least it was a room we hadn't already repainted. I guess its time to choose a new wall color.

Along with that, the Olympics are going on. I love the Olympics. Especially the winter ones. I have vivid memories of watching speed skating and skiing as a kid, and watching bobsled with a Marine Corps colonel in college. Theres just something so exciting about watching an athlete excel at a fringe sport in front of the world. Best thing ever.

Yesterday was Super Sunday. Not the Super Bowl, the new Super Sunday. First at 3 PM the Russian hockey team played the Czechs. Then at 7:30 the US team played Canada. After that the Swedish team played the Finns. What a day.

Unfortunately the Russians defeated the Czechs pretty soundly. They were completely dominant and the Czechs had a tough time with puck control. In the late game, the Swedes dominated the Finns.

The real highlight for us was the US/Canada game. The US hadn't beaten Canada in 10 tries in the Olympics, but this was the one to end that streak. It was an amazing game that had us screaming till the end. Awesome stuff.

Add in Lindsay Vonn, Bode Miller, Apollo Ohno, Shaun White, and all the other US athletes, and there's been some great stuff on TV recently. Makes up for the fact that everything outside is a melty, muddy, disgusting mess.

Almost.

Snoverkill. It is truly overkill. I love the snow, as many of you know, but even I have a breaking point. This is getting to be a little nuts.

But when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. So I go for walks with the dog and take pictures. Here are some of the good ones from today.

This is what Golden Ball Tavern looks like as of 1 PM:





Notice how the snow has formed a shelf of sorts over the water:



Same shot of the lake as the pretty blue sky from a few days ago:



Trail's eye view:













These next two are what it looks like when a 40 mph wind rips across a parking lot.

Snoverkill. The most fitting name for a storm ever.

The view of the deck at 10 AM:



The view of the street at 10 AM:



You can see the snow is really coming down. We're in a blizzard warning, and have probably recieved another 8+ inches since last night. Its incredible that this keeps happening to the DC area. Its relentless this year. I haven't seen this much snow is a long, long time.

Here are some shots from the last few days.

Sawyer is king of the hill:



Sawyer is still king of the hill. Think about this, Ejdo is 6'4" and the dog is at head height. Thats how much snow we've moved from our parking spots. Pic:



Golden Ball Tavern on Sunday:



Whats that number again?:



Golden Ball Tavern on Monday:



Sawyer likes the snow:



He really likes the snow:



I'll try to keep updating throughout the day today, but there is a very real possibility that we'll lose power at some point. Hopefully we won't, but it could happen.

Can you believe we're at it again? Blizzard warning all day today. Started snowing last night and woke up this morning to 6-8 inches of blowing snow. Its amazing how we just keep getting pounded by storms.

So our road never got plowed from the last storm and now we're supposed to get 16+ inches more, with 50 mph winds. This can't end well.

Oh and the name for the new storm......Snoverkill. Very fitting.

Pictures of the last few days and the new snow to come. Stay safe everyone!

Snowpocalypse 2010 Day 2.

Its just as incredible as they said it would be. Woke up at 8 and couldn't convince myself to go back to sleep, because I just HAD to see what the snow looked like. And its amazing.

Some of my 8 AM photos had to be taken through the door, because the door doesn't open right now. The snow is high enough on our porch that we can't open the screen door. Its awesome.

When I let Sawyer out to go to the bathroom in the backyard, he looked at me like I was nuts. He did a few bunny hops through the snow, then came back and looked at me. I shoveled a little spot for him, and he did his thing. Pretty funny.

No numbers yet, but the snow was well up the dog's belly. I'd estimate 18" or so right now. Weathermen say we should expect another 8+ inches today. The news is loving it. They just showed a woman walking down Connecticut Ave to go into Chevy Chase MD for a sandwich at Giant. Its a 6 mile round trip from where she lives to the Giant and back. But hey, what else is she gonna do today?

8 AM shot of the deck:



8 AM shot of the street:



8 AM shot of backyard:



8 AM shot of Sawyer trying not to sink:



This is all pretty incredible. I can't wait to go out in it later on.

10 AM shot of the deck:



10 AM shot of the street:



Sawyer trying to go down the stairs:



1 PM. We've spent the last 2.5 hours shoveling outside with all the neighbors. Our goal was to make it so the truck could get out, so that Ejdo could deliver a pork shoulder to Mike/Michelle's for smoking. This will not happen. Ejdo made it off Gutman and barely onto Golden Ball before getting stuck. Luckily, we were all out there to help shovel him out. It was a fun little exercise in futility.

The snow is still falling at an heavy rate. A very heavy rate. Its really quite incredible.

Here are a few photos:













Snow is falling at a heavy heavy rate. I bet we're looking at 2" an hour right now. We're going to be stuck here a while.

Around 3 or so we decided to walk to Giant. Our neighbor went with us, since she needed a few things. It was amazing to see what the roads looked like, and the damage that had occured. Here are a few shots of our walk, and from when we got back.











As of 6 PM, a plow has come down Golden Ball. He got stuck at one point and our pack of neighbors helped him out. As thanks, he plowed everything in front of our homes for us. Nice guy. Hopefully this means we may be able to get out tomorrow, although I still don't plan on being able to get anywhere non-essential for a few days.

I'm ending my official "live blog" now too. There won't be near as much change now that the snow has tapered off. The sky is clearing, you can see a few stars, and its really quite beautiful.

Leave a comment and let me know you read!

Snowpocalypse 2010. Live blogging the storm.

1 PM view of the deck:



4 PM view of the deck:



4 PM view of the street:



5 PM view of deck:



5 PM view of the street:



5:00- You can see the snow has picked up a bit and the temp has dropped a bit. Its sticking much better than an hour ago. And if you look closely, you can see where Sawyer and I were playing in the street shot. He's now fond of catching snowballs.

5:12- The snow is really coming down hard now. Pretty impressive how much is falling and how large the flakes are. We're gonna have fun tomorrow!

6 PM view of the deck:



6 PM view of the street:



6:00- The road is basically covered. Only one line of tracks visible, all taking same line regardless of in or out. Predictions for overnight snow now include the possibility for thunder snow. I hope I'm awake when it happens. Also possible rates overnight have been bumped to 2-3 inches per hour. Amazing.

7 PM view from deck:



7 PM view of street:



7:00- Blizzard warning for DC. You can see the snow falling much heavier in the 7 PM photos, especially the one of the street. Winds have picked up as well. I had trouble taking a shot without the flag getting in the way. We're the lead story on the NBC Nightly News.

8 PM view of deck:



8 PM view of the street:



8:00- Some local programming in the 7:30 hour was completely pre-empted by weather news. Nothing new is happening. Big flakes, falling fast. Ejdo shoveled the walk between the 7 and 8 pictures. You can barely tell in the 8 pic. Watchin the Caps play the Thrashers. Decent game.

9 PM shot of deck:



9 PM shot of street:



Gratuitious shot of our flag, with snow accumulation:



As of 9, its really coming down. Local weather is reporting sightings of lightning from the thundersnow. Mostly near Charlottesville. I'm hoping we get some here cause that would be really cool. Ejdo just shoveled again. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts this time. Worth noting in the deck photo, the tomato pot is just about totally covered at this point.

10 PM shot of deck:



10 PM shot of street:



10 PM shot of dog in back yard:



Looks like about 9.5-10 inches in the backyard right now. Rough estimate. Last update for the night. I'm not posting pictures all night long. It sure will be interesting to see what we wake up to. Tomorrow will be a new post. See you all in the morning.

This all should be entertaining if nothing else.