GO BLUE! ...or not?

What do you get when you combine this

with this

and this?

The first ever cancelled-due-to-weather Michigan football game!

On Saturday, college football season commenced with the University of Michigan vs. Western University of Michigan game. This is not something people take lightly. It's a huuuuuge deal out here with people coming from all over Michigan to fill the nearly 110,000 seats in the Big House (aka UM stadium). And that stadium was packed on Saturday!

Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas.

Not only was it swelteringly hot (95°F), it was also extremely humid (around 85%). Yuck. We chose to watch the game from the comfort of our air conditioned living room. Not long into the game the warnings started to flash on the screen with Excessive Heat Advisories and Severe Thunderstorm Watches in half the counties across southeast Michigan, including ours. That's what happens when a cold front crashes into a hot-humid one.

The first cell hit Ann Arbor during the second quarter with a driving rain, though it didn't seem to phase the players. When the first lightening strike was detected, the refs called a timeout and everyone took cover for half an hour. The rules state that if there is a lightening strike within 6 miles, the game is suspended for at least half an hour.

The cell passed and we had some sun, so they brought the players back out. We got through half time and some of the third quarter when the next cell hit. Lightening was detected and the game was suspended again.

Sorry, it's hard to video a TV, you'll have to turn it up. And yes, that is our TV - we're accepting donations.

We waited and watched the Notre Dame vs. South Florida game also get suspended due to weather, though they later persevered. We waited some more. Then the storm arrived at our doorstep. It's strange, Ann Arbor is a small town with a radius of about 5 miles, but it has microclimates and while it was pouring on the stadium (about 2 miles away), we just had some gray skies. But then it arrived!

And with it came our first hail. It was about the size of a dime.

[Please excuse my potty mouth.]

And then came the announcement. For the first time in history, the Michigan football game was cancelled due to weather. They couldn't ensure the safety of the players on the field or the audience sitting on metal benches, because of all the lightening strikes. And at this point, cell after cell of severe thunderstorms were forming, seemingly on top, of Ann Arbor. We were extra glad to have watched the game from home!

Since UM was winning, both teams decided to call it and UM was declared the victor.

And it hasn't been the same since. Our weather turned cold and gray with hardly any sun at all.

This is during the day!

For the past few days, the daytime high hasn't gone above 67°F, and it gets into the low 50's at night. It seems like summer is officially over, blown out by the cold wind we can't shake. Locals tell us that the gray skies/no sun is what we should expect every day in the winter. But we're going to have to get used to the cold again. Our bodies have acclimated to the hot summer and 67°F feels like it's freezing. I know, it's like that in the Bay Area almost every day, but we've forgotten! And yes, I also know that it's going to get much much much colder, so we'd better get used to it!

I like the cold, prefer it to the hot, actually. It gives you an excuse to hunker down at home with some warm blankets, a movie, and a man. Also, you can cook without the risk of heat stroke.

So, we made some really yummy GF pancakes, recipe here, with home-made peach preserves and eggs on the griddle, Abba-style.

We even turned on the oven! Using Bob's Redmill GF Pizza Crust mix (which was quite good), we made some hearty pizza.

Our weather is supposed to stay cold and gloomy for the rest of this week, with rain on and off. It might get warmer on Monday, but they're not promising anything. Oh, and we have a picnic in the park on Friday - jacket time!

Happy Wednesday,