Dinner for ten..

Saturday my niece , who lives in Boston , stopped in Kansas City on her way to Colorado!! We hadn't seen her ( in person) since before the pandemic and we hadn't met her boyfriend who was traveling with her.  

So we arranged for the whole KC family to meet her for dinner at Lidia's.... a very nice Italian restaurant owned by Lidia Bastianich (sp?) of PBS cooking shows fame.

Luckily a server was willing to take a picture of all of us... stuffed with great food, talk and drink!!

My niece and her boyfriend had an early start the next morning... it's a 10 hour drive to Denver and they were due for dinner with his family!!

BTW.. they enjoyed their visit to the KC Jazz Museum and the Negro Baseball Hall of Fame ... both in the 19th and Vine District.

lots of snow... and birdies

 We did get quite a lot of snow. When I woke at 5 am ( Thursday) for a potty break there wasn't any but by 8 am we had about three inches. When it finally stopped sometime in the afternoon we had 6 - 7 inches!!

It seems like all the schools and lots of offices went virtual. Our daughter's parent /teachers conferences did! And the parents seemed delighted!!

Bob made sure the birds had lots of food... going out onto the deck several times to replenish things. We had a "flock" of juncoes... coming in groups of 8 to 10 at a time

Boy did they eat!!  We had blue jays and sparrows as well.... and squirrels galore!! Tigger, the orange tripper cat, loved watched them all through the kitchen windows.

This morning was sunny and I opened the curtains to take a look from our "office" window... lots of fresh untouched (?) snow plus  bunny and squirrel tracks!  The snowplow did "do" our cul de sac.... the middle section only, leaving a big untouched swath in front of our driveway and the mailbox. Bob has cleared a path to get the paper but since we aren't planning to go out, that's it!!

 

 

taking advantage of the warm temps

It was warm yesterday !!! And the overnight temperature only went down a few degrees so we decided a walk in Railroad Park would be a good idea.  Especially since the forecast for tonight is rain turning into snow overnight! A wind advisory is still up!

The walk was nice but very windy ( as the weatherman said it would be). Lots of geese around the lake. One has to be careful... lots of poop ... on the pathways!!  BTW.. these are all Canada geese.  

Just north of Kansas City a fellow blogger saw thousands of Snow Geese ... when they took off the sky was full. There must be a  migratory flight path ...

Another up and down week

 We have been enjoying a mild winter week these last few days... mid 40's by afternoon. BUT it is supposed to take a huge jump up by this evening to the high 60's!! It is sunny and windy and 58 right now!!

Tomorrow things will drop to a wet evening and snow by Thursday morning. Not much snow around the Kansas City area... but East and South ( in a band) could get up to a foot!!

I did a jaunt out this morning... Aldi had empty shelves for the first time. No cream cheese, plain or flavored....no English muffins... etc. and prices had jumped since my last visit!! Also went to Hobby Lobby for Easter accessories for my bears. Not successful!! Plenty of things but not what I wanted/needed.

Bob is going on his own jaunt this afternoon... the library and several thrift stores to drop off things. The bedroom will look a lot emptier now!

Later on...

Temp made it but the wind is now something else and a wind advisory has been issued.

same old same old

 Well... not exactly. We have been staying home most of the time except for necessary errands like groceries, prescriptions etc.BUT... this week has our 56th wedding anniversary and Valentine's Day.

We celebrate early to avoid the rush!! Of to lunch we went on Wednesday to our favorite restaurant, Ophelia's on the square in Independence. We splurged with an appetizer ( chorizo dip with purple corn chips). The Bob has a Cuban sandwich and I had a smashed burger...Ophelia's has wonderful coffee  so ...  and the restaurant treated us to dessert (double chocolate brownie with ice cream).

There was enough leftovers for dinner that evening!!

We are heading out to our daughter's for a Valentine's day dinner on Saturday...

The weather has been almost springlike this week... grass is greening up and buds are showing up on trees and bushes. But winter is returning this weekend and temps dropping. I am glad I am not a farmer with fruit trees or grapes...

During the last cold weather and snow spell we put out lots of bird food.... and we were favored with juncoes, sparrows, tufted titmice, blue jays, a woodpecker, black capped chickadees,  morning doves..... squirrels!!

winter storm??

 After all the hoopla yesterday I expected a doozy of an ice/ snowfall event. When I went out for the paper I didn't feel any ice under the 4 inches of snow.  As a former NYer. Michigander... etc that didn't faze me. But then I wasn't driving...

Schools have all gone to virtual today and probably tomorrow. My grand daughter got stuck in her apartment's complex parking lot but got out and went home. She wouldn't have tried it but her male cat had a neutering appointment ( now postponed for two weeks).

The news mentioned loads of accidents on the interstate...injuries but no fatalities ( good).

Since we filled in stuff at the grocery store yesterday, we are going to hunker down and fill up the bird feeders. Today we have a flock of juncoes, tufted titmouse, blue jays and morning doves.

watching the weather reports... and so on...

Due to the winter storm on its way, my daughter's school district is going virtual Wednesday and Thursday even though Mo. Governor Parson has "forbidden" it !  The school district is also part of the Missouri Attorney General's suit against school requiring masks.... Guess doing what is best for the kids is not the governor's or attorney general's agenda... ??

It looks like lots of snow is on it's way tomorrow and Thursday!! Yesterday the temperature hit 62 by Thursday we will be lucky to get to 20... Crazy up and downs??

I am participating in another online bear show this weekend... the promoter is afraid this winter storm will wipe out her ability to run the show.... no electricity... no servers... and so on. She has a generator and plans "just in case".

We've done our grocery shopping and so are planning to just hunker down and see what happens..