I think our President was a little hasty dissing the school systems for closing, actually, because the sidewalks were impossible, even at 10 a.m. when I dropped the dog off. I saw quite a few parents walking their kids to school take flyers.

Also, I know that the public school systems will close if the bus companies tell them they won't put their drivers on the road.

But, having spent all those years in Buffalo, I agree that DC (and California) people are weather wimps.

15 Gifts That Will Surely Piss Off Your Valentine

Valentine's Gift #8: For The Crappy Lover

Any fan of J. Geils Band, will certainly know "Love Stinks." Never before was this quite so perfectly illustrated before this wonderful message was delivered with fake poop. It may actually not stink like the real thing, but I'm sure your date will understand the underlying hate in your gift of "I love you" poop.

the real problem is that DC has 1) no money 2) is kinda sorta really poorly run. I mean, right?

you know what would get me stoked? DC representaion from the Obama administration. Also, covering DC's expenses for stuff like the inauguration [link]

I will say, having lived through an ice storm in NC, that ice and snow are completely different things to prep for and deal with, and ice is harder and tricker. And it seems like semi-southern areas are more likely to have ice than snow on the infrequent occasions wintry stuff falls from the sky. And the unpreparedness thing - the time that people were stuck on the highway in traffic for 12 hours and elementary school kids had to spend the night at school was not predicted to snow, and there wasn't any pre-salting, and 1/4 inch of snow totally fucked everything up. On a different occasion I witnessed a *road-grader* attempting to plow a highway in Durham. They just have no equipment for that stuff.

A woman on another board (prompted by this) said that she always feels nervous/hypervigilant when a man comes onto an elevator she's been alone in.

This seems odd to me, unless the woman has been assaulted previously. I only get nervous if I'm walking outside, in the evening, alone and there are not many people around, so I don't really do that. It happened on occasion when I had night classes and I always hated it. But now I've GRADUATED!!! so no more of that.

I cannot focus on anything today. I just want to sleep for a week and wake up and reset everything.

My mother is totally blowing me off -- she's coming to the city tomorrow for work, so my dad is coming with her, but I don't know where they're staying, what they want to have for dinner, if they think it makes sense that I take tomorrow afternoon off, etc., etc. I need to make plans!

Bacon Explosion. [link]

Bacon Explosion. [link]

Oh. It's a recipe.

I was hoping for something more...explode-y.

DC really can't cope with snow. Schools shut down because the roads aren't cleared, and the roads aren't cleared because the city government really cannot get its act together in much of anything.

Also, does DC have laws about building owners clearing the sidewalks? Because there are plenty of unshoveled unsalted sidewalks here.

On the elevator thing, there have been a few times that I was touched kind of weirdly in an elevator. Not anything major, but just the guy kind of standing or leaning in such a way that my hand would have to brush against his stomach when I pressed the button or something like that. (In most circumstances, I would have just asked him to move, but these couple times were really early in the morning when I could barely put a sentence together.) But I don't really get hypervigilant -- I kind of notice, but that's about it.