Sunday - 331st

Super Bowl Sunday is a day of opportunity. You can seize the quiet outside and make it yours. As the entire nation huddles in front of the TV, highways empty out, ski trails have fewer winter nuts plowing through them.  [I'm speaking from the perspective of a person who absolutely does not like football. Sorry, I haven't a cell in my body that would muster up enthusiasm for the game. I have tried. It can't be done.]

But then comes the polar vortex. We wake up to -11F (-24C). The high will be somewhere around 0F (-18C). Would you be happy seizing the moment outside when the numbers are in these ranges? You would not.

There is some sunshine, and that does help...

But mostly, it's just plain cold. I float the idea of skiing early on, but Ed had damaged his knee yesterday when he slipped on the ice and so he is taking it easy for a few days. Convenient excuse!

Breakfast. Warm and cozy.

In the afternoon, I once again raise the idea of doing something, anything outside, and Ed still resists (due to his knee), so I go at it alone: a quick loop on our favorite hilly trail.

It's not great fun. Sure, the park is empty, but the wind has created drifts and there isn't a track to follow and the going is slow and the air feels mean. 

On the upside, it is Sunday -- the day I bake and cook for the young family. I had asked for baking suggestions and was told any cake would do. Fine. I'll bake Heatter's FBI cake -- an old family favorite. Chocolate with whipped cream. And strawberries is you have nice ones. It looks like this:

And very chocolaty on the inside, with a layer of whipped cream and strawberries cutting through it. Ed and I get to keep a wedge, but mostly it's for these guys:

Along with the usual dinner favorites.

On the downside, I got a call from my credit card company asking if I really did order the delivery (presumably for a Super Bowl party) of all those pizzas in D.C. Of course it wasn't me. As I've said, I do not like football! Fraud alert! So, good bye credit card number. You did not last that long. It's a mean world out there.

On the upside, I saw a mouse in the mud room (where we keep incoming groceries) and we asked Dance to please catch it and she did!

Oh, and there was an odd fragment of a rainbow in the sky tonight. Odd, but lovely. 

So here we now are, Sunday evening, staying in, Netflix running, as if Super Bowl Sunday wasn't even happening, as if it were just a fine old weekend night, where the big event is the arrival of the deer (I confess that this photos is from yesterday, but it looks the same, every evening, they are here, digging in my flower beds, hoping for lotus seed pots or dried remains of my plants.)