Dawn Patrol

So here I am, up real real early to start my workday and report the news.

1. We had about a foot and a half of snow this weekend.  It's hard to know exactly because it has been windy and there is a fair amount of drifting.  The snow is taller than the dogs.
2. The government and the schools are closed today.  Also, no trash pickup.  They never cancel trash pickup!  And it's all good because we can't get the trash cans out of the garage and down the hill anyway.
3. I just five minutes ago fnished the last of my secret Christmas stuff.  Now I can knit on something fun for me.
4. The Man has shoveled us a path down the front stairs to the street, and he has shoveled the public sidewalks adjacent to the house (we are on the corner, so that's A LOT of shoveling), he has carved out a space around the car on three sides (although there is still a wall of snow between the car and the street), and he scratched out a little path out the sliding glass door to a dog potty area.  The deck and the back door are impassable, as is the driveway.
5. Kirby keeps trying to climb the snow wall at the end of the dog potty path so he can frolic.  (I don't think he understands that the snow on the other side of that wall  is deeper than he is tall.)
6. Tiki finds the limited potty area to be unsatisfactory (he has some favorite places he likes to go, and he rotates them so nothing gets used but every so often), so he has been protesting by leaving piles on the rug in the middle of the night.
7. It has also been snowing in Tuscany, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Liguria, Friuli, and the Veneto, so a lot of Italian football games were cancelled this weekend.  Bummer.
8. I have been baking up a storm.
9. The Man has been alternating between grumping about the shoveling and grumping about the dishes created by the baking.  He's trying hard not to be a pill about it.  Maybe when the shoveling is done he'll be able to appreciate our winter wonderland.
10. Except for a few loose ends, the work on the HellHole is done.  At last!
11. Bianconeri beat the league leaders, then bombed out of Champions League in ignominious fashion, then lost pathetically to a team that just got promoted.  They played the worst team in Serie A yesterday.  I'm afraid to look.
12. It's best not to mention Liverpool FC right now.
13. Despite the snow and the so-far-inadequate street plowing, every yahoo with an SUV has been parading up and down the street.  Where are they all going?  I refuse to believe that they are all doctors and nurses pulling emergency shifts at the hospitals.  I think they are mostly victims of Big Mac Attacks and Mall Withdrawal.  Dummies.
14. Kirby would like you to know that it is now light out so that means it's time for his breakfast you stupid humans so can we please feed the Kirby?  That means I gotta go.