Sometimes Life IS Fair

You know how I was wondering who made the decision not to plow the roads on Monday? Or Tuesday? Or even Wednesday? Well, I got my answer. Quoting from WDIV.com:

"Mike Rogers, director of Wayne County’s Roads Division, was fired Thursday. Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano said Rogers was fired due to his response to this past weekend's snowfall."

I'm enjoying this moment of justice in the world. Too bad the guy doesn't have to pay all the tow truck fees and repair bills incurred due to his incompetence.

A Tale of Two Counties

As you may or may not know, the heavens opened up again last night and dumped a boatload of snow on us. It was (fortunately) a scheduled day off school for J-Man anyway, so there was no Caught-Off-Guard-Without-A-Clue-As-To-How-I'm-Going-To-Get-Through-This-Day kind of moment. Whew. However, since it was a scheduled day off, I had it filled up with appointments for the little dude. Because I wouldn't want him to miss out on the opportunity to go to school because of an appointment. (It's not a lie if your audience knows that you're not telling the truth, right?)

So I pulled the 4x4 out of temporary storage and headed out into the arctic tundra this morning. Here's what got my attention as I was driving northward.

I took this picture at 9:15, north of 8 Mile, after I crossed over into Oakland County.


I took this picture on my way home, south of 8 Mile, in Wayne County (home to the City of Detroit) at about 11:00. Nearly 2 hours later. Do you see what I see?


What you can't see are all the cars I saw stuck in the snow, the accidents, and the nearly impassable right lane. I know I got a tax bill. I know I paid it. Where exactly did all that money go? Better yet, who made the decision not to use it for plows and salt? Inexcusable.

I should have noted, for the purposes of clarity:
1. This is the same 5-lane road, just different sides of a county line.
2. It had stopped snowing at about 4:00 am.

Annual Robin Sighting

Little K spotted the first robin of the year this morning. Almost 3 weeks earlier than last year. I hope that means spring will be 3 weeks earlier, too! Maybe Punxsutawney Phil was right.

This is what happens...

...when a big, tough doggie lives with an 8-year-old girl.


Poor boy. It's a good thing he's colorblind in the red spectrum.

Success!

I have successfully made chocolate chip cookies!! Oh happy day!!! I feel the need to use a lot of exclamation marks!!!!


I used the recipe for chocolate chunk cookies in Silvana Nardone's book Cooking for Isaiah (a beautiful book that I highly recommend) but I substituted coconut oil for the shortening. They need a little more work to get the texture right, but the girls didn't want to stop eating them. So I count that as a success.

By the way, regular chocolate chips are not always dairy free. (And did you know that MILK chocolate has dairy in it? Who knew?!?) But fortunately I found this really tasty product: Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

I love that this company's products are free of the 8 common allergens, 4 of which we're trying to avoid in our household. So far I've only tried their candy bars and chocolate chips, but I believe I'll be introducing myself to the rest of their product line soon.

Who Says I'm Not an Optimist

I made my first foray into experimental gluten- and dairy-free baking last night. Sure, I've followed some recipes and made some passable stuff. But this was my first venture into uncharted territory. Let's just say it involved a hankerin' for some chocolate chip cookies. And the realization that lard is a gluten- and dairy-free item. I know, I know, I can hear you groaning. But it was just one of those ideas you get in your head and it won't go away until you try it. And I did discover a couple of things. Like this: There isn't enough vanilla and cocoa powder in the world to cover up the taste of lard. See, did any of us really know that for a fact before? And this: There's a really good reason that I've never seen a recipe like the one I made up last night in a cookbook.

Ah well, back to the drawing board. I will not be denied a chocolate chip cookie for long!

This is what happens...

...when the University of Michigan grad in the family takes a young boy to have casts put on his legs. If the University of Minnesota grad had been present, I'm sure this never would have happened. Maybe a lesson has been learned here? Yeah, I didn't think so, either.


He looks really bothered by the whole thing, doesn't he?


This is J-Man's third and final set of casts. In about 2 weeks, we'll downgrade to braces. You know what I'm really looking forward to? Throwing the kid in the bathtub.