Snowy Days in Dallas

Today my office was closed. Again. I have worked 2 days this week, and another day I worked from home for a few hours testing some database reports for my Director. I feel slightly unproductive, but better to be home on days like this than navigating the roads. When I drove to work yesterday morning it was a nightmare - the freeway was a parking lot and my usual 'back roads' were covered in black ice - exacerbated by the horrible drivers I had to avoid. I feel like I just had a weekend (Tues and Wed) and now I have another 3-day weekend immediately after. It's nice, but I think by Sunday I'll be ready to be back in my routine again.

Kevin decided the cat should experience it, too - check out the video; this is from last night when we realized it had started to snow. ;)

Just a few photos of the snow this morning:

Carmen's thinking about going out but she's not quite sure. Yesterday's forced romp outside may have soured her opinion of snow altogether.

Our back gate drifted in snow. I love the little caps the fence posts are wearing.

Our 'lollipop' bush.

Our pretty tree in the backyard.

Still lots of icicles on the house. 

Street view ...

A fluffy little bird with poofed feathers keeping warm ... you can just make him out on the top of the fence.

Kevin thought the neighborhood cats needed a little shelter so he set up a box for them right by the house with lots of food ... we had to refill the bowl this morning since it was all eaten up overnight. We spotted lots of little paw prints in the yard from last night that were starting to fill up with snow again. ;)

Came back in the house and make some hot, frothy coffee in my French Press...

Then we watched disc two of the new anime series Kev got for us: 'Fushigi Yugi (the mysterious play)'. I'd definitely recommend it so far. As for the rest of our snow day, I think I'll do some yoga later, maybe make something cozy for dinner and watch some more 'The Office' ... I started watching Season One again as well as 'The Office' Series One - the UK version.

I had a weird day.

But it got better this evening once I came home and spent some time with Kevin, made dinner, watched some Anime (he just got me started on a series called 'Moon Phase') and went for a walk around our neighborhood. 

Dinner was chicken fajitas today, though I guess they are more like chicken tacos? I'm not sure what the magical preparation is for the restaurant fajitas that come out of the kitchen sizzling and popping on those little cast iron dishes. I just brown chicken on the stove - no extra dose of sizzle involved. But yummy for sure!

And somehow, we have the worst luck with sour cream in our house. Whenever we are putting it away we manage to drop the tub, splattering what's left of the sour cream onto the floor, rug, refrigerator, wall, trash bag. At least we had already eaten. ;)

Start with ...

2 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless) cut down to bite-size-ish pieces

Brown the chicken in a pan with a little cumin and a little chili powder and a pinch of salt

Then, prepare ...

1 green bell pepper - wash, remove seeds then slice into strips

1 onion (white or red would do here) - slice into strips

Soften the veggies in another pan over medium-high heat with some butter to keep them from sticking - add a pinch of salt, too. I like the veggies to get sort of browned around the edges, but just cook them to whatever point you like - still crunchy, soft, a little brown around the edges...whatev.

Meanwhile...

Heat a small pan on a medium-low flame and add a little butter once it's warm; swirl a corn tortilla in the butter and let the tortilla warm on both sides - set aside and cover. Repeat this with however many tortillas you want. This is actually Kevin's tip for helping the tortillas stay in one piece and not start splitting as you take a bite - that's never fun, but usually messy - and I've officially adopted it.

 The only other 'toppings' I use is some grated cheddar, some of Kevin's custom-mixed hot sauce and a drizzle of sour cream. So so good. (A beer might have made this dinner even better but, alas, we are out.)

wow, that looks like a lot of sour cream from this angle...