Blizzard 2011! And a contest!

I'm just sitting here waiting for the blizzard to start.  It's been snowing all morning, but the actual blizzard won't start for another hour or two.  A blizzard, vs. a massive snowstorm, is the wind combined with a lot of snow.  So we will have close to 20 inches of snow but also 40 mile an hour winds that make conditions truly hazardous.  It creates ginormous snow mountains.  I'm stoked.  The last blizzard here in Chicagoland was the winter before Matt moved from South Carolina, so it will be his first.  I have a funny memory of the last blizzard, where my parents were out of town and my sister and drove to the airport to pick them up just as the snow was starting.  I wasn't living at their house, but was helping pick them up.  Then the blizzard hit, I stayed at their house, and we had no food since they had been out of town.  My sister's boyfriend at the time, Dino, drove over in his crappy old Civic, and the two of them skidded and slid their way to the grocery store to get us some grub.  I also remember the genius parking spot war in my the neighborhood where I lived in Chicago.  People dug their cars out, so, naturally, they reserved the right to park in their spots again when they got home from work.  In order to make that clear, people used all sorts of furniture to mark the spots: lawn chairs, couches, dinette sets.  If I have one regret in life, it is not taking pictures of all of the furniture on the streets of Chicago during the blizzard of 1999.  This year, I am full-on suburban and have a garage.  Maybe I'll put out the couch for old time's sake.

If you're looking for a great read for a 7-10 year old girl or your own youthful pleasure, pop on over to my husband, Matthew Cordell's, blog.  You can win one of three arcs for his new illustrated novel, Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie, written by Julie Sternberg.  Go!  Now!  Before the blizzard hits!