Valentine’s day has come, and almost gone, here in Rochester and was marked with the first true “blizzard” we’ve had in quite a while. While we’ve gotten off light compared to places like Oswego, over the last 20+ hours almost a foot of snow has fallen on the immediate area (more in some places). RIT canceled night classes, effectively closing the campus at 6.00pm. Here’s a shot of my walk out to the car at 4.00pm today:

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As far as my car itself, I found it partially buried by the snow that had fallen since I arrived on campus around 8.50am:

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For Dre and myself our outside day ended in much the same way as it began: shovelling the driveway. And it was literally the same amount of snow at 5.40 (yes, it took me more than an hour to make a normally half-an-hour commute) as there was a 7 this morning. One big difference however was Dre’s decision to make a celebratory snow angel at the end of shoveling this evening. I opted not to join her.

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Before I got home, I did make a stop off for supplies at the local Wegmans (it still took me about an hour to get from RIT to Penfield). Thankfully, that gave me one last chance to take a few pictures of the Valentine’s display there. Wegmans, well, went a little over the top this year. More than a little. A lot. While from the outside things look normal:

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Once you got inside, things got crazy. The following panorama of the Valentines display doesn’t quite do it enough justice. The entire center island was all flowers with two florists pulling together last minute bouquets. To one side was candies, to the other side chocolate cakes. Yesterday, they actually had one of the chefs (yes, our supermarket has floor chefs), in a tux, passing out chocolate covered fruit.

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But in my opinion the cat’s pajama’s was this ice sculpture:

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Yup, Wegman’s Ultimate Chocolate Cake (which while quite good is no where near “ultimate”) was complimented by an ice sculpture “vase.” If there was any question before, it’s been laid to rest, Wegman’s is no longer a store, it’s a shopping experience. Take that Whole Foods!

But Dre and I were not swayed by this crass consumerism. We opted for a quiet dinner (we went out for our night on the town dinner last weekend). And, provided we’re dug out by the weekend, we’re planning a date for Saturday night.