A Few Updates...

The Snowstorm
So, it's finally started to snow tonight – we were getting worried there for a bit. We were supposed to get 5 inches or so this afternoon, but received only a dusting. Jen thinks it's hysterical that while the forecast looks like this:

...Fargo doesn't have any kind of weather "warning" at all from the Weather Service. If D.C. were facing that kind of forecast, they'd just about be blowing the air-raid sirens. I'm guessing we'll have a full day of school tomorrow.

I was thrilled to win $1 in the courthouse snowstorm betting pool today, even before the storm began. Here's how it worked: Everyone in the pool paid 50 cents per increment of snow they signed up for, mostly by the half-inch. I took 16.1" to 16.6", then took another chance on anything over 20 inches. What the hell – I'm an optimist. But I more or less kissed that dollar goodbye – I can't compete with the pros here.

The next time I walked by the folks running the pool, they informed me that it was no longer for cash stakes. (I'm guessing it was supervisor intervention – what, no illegal gambling in a federal courthouse?) So they gave me my dollar back! A payoff far richer than I expected.

Sausages
My colleague P. took some pictures of the sauasage-making; here's a few more insights into the process:

Because no event in North Dakota is complete without a shot of red eye:

P. and T.'s lovely daughter K. is graciously administering the red eye to me, as I have raw meat all over my hands. K. wisely decided not to partake in the red eye because it was, as she put it, "10:30 in the morning."

This is me kissing a casing much more impressive than the one on the video:

This is how the casing went onto the stuffer; you inch it up over the nozzle – a surprising amount of it will fit there:

This is a better view of T. putting the sausage into the smoker:

And this is, from left, (1) P. & T.'s son E., (2) T. and (3) me. E. and I are watching T. wash the ashes from the sausages as they come out of the smoker:

Mmmm mmmmm good.