The One Where God Keeps Me Humble

OK. God has a sense of humor.

Just hours after I mock San Diego mercilessly for being such a weather wimpy city, it goes and gets real rain. Yesterday's storm was actually worse than predicted. (Which is rare. It's usually the other way around.) The airport, which is downtown, only recorded .73 inches (and yet that still set a new record, which tells you something about San Diego's arid climate), but coastal areas in North County reported totals of almost two inches. And inland, where the devastating fires burned in October, rainfall totals were upward of four, even six inches. All told, yesterday's storm delivered the most rain San Diego has seen in one day in more than a year.

Whoops.

Thankfully, God didn't humiliate me completely. The storm predicted to hit Minnesota did come through and deliver a punch of snow. It's still coming down outside my window, so I can't give totals yet. But I would guess we have close to six inches on the ground right now.

Here's the scene off my back deck:





















Here's the snow piling up against our patio door; the kids love this:





















And here's the scene inside my house:
















Because what good is the first snowstorm of the year if you aren't going to hibernate a little?

Oh, and this? This is simmering on my stove:
















The world's best chili. I've only made it once before, and boy, am I excited about dinner tonight. It smells like Tex-Mex heaven in here -- cumin, chili powder, brown sugar, bay leaves. It's a cornucopia of aroma. (And the cinnamon-sugar smell of the homemade donuts I made for brunch is still perfuming the air too.)

Maybe I'll even whip up a pan of cornbread. And some fresh chocolate-chip cookies.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.