Thoughts on the "snow storm"

I don't mean to boast, but having lived in New York for several arctic winters, I failed to be impressed by El Paso's two-day snow flurries. Still, I appreciated the two days off and the exciting news footage and I am thankful that I didn't have a blackout at my house.

So, what did I do? I read a book on my Kindle ("Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother") and decided to be more like a Chinese mother. Therefore, I taught my 6-year-old daughter the multiplication table of 2. After which, she said she hated me. I also had to fix complete meals with only the food in the house (a great exercise to clean your cupboards). I tried to be smart about keeping warm: Layering clothes, plugging drafts, opening cupboards so the pipes wouldn't freeze, running the cars so the fluids would still flow (who am I kidding, my husband did that one.).

I wondered whether I had a smaller carbon footprint when I was holed up trying to heat up a house against all odds or when I was running around during a normal day. I thought about how exciting it would be work at a power plant during a storm (like the command center in Independence Day). I also thought about all these people in Juarez who live in wood pallet houses. How did they keep warm?

So, readers, what did you do during the great two-day snow flurry of 2011?