Chance of snow near 100 percent.

The National Weather Service is now forecasting 6-9 inches of snow, which doesn't sound too terrible. But I was looking at the weather data for the huge storm of March 1, 2007, which left us trapped at home for four days with a 4 foot deep snow drift across the driveway. The NWS recorded only 7 inches of snow that day in Omaha.

Uh-oh.

Hopefully things won't be as bad. Since the fence was installed, the snow drifts differently, so maybe it won't pile up as bad. Or it might be worse. The winds aren't forecast to be as strong, either, with gusts to around 30 MPH, rather than the 58 MPH recorded during that storm.

Chocolate reviews, part 4

Hachez Cocoa d'Arriba 77% dark chocolate Strawberry & Pepper

That's pepper as in black pepper, the stuff you grind up and sprinkle over eggs.  I'm all for strawberries and chocolate, and pepper sounded like an interesting idea.  I did not like this bar.  The strawberry flavor was totally overpowered by the pepper.  The package shows flakes of strawberry scattered through the chocolate, but I didn't find anything like that, the chocolate appeared uniform.


3400 Phinney Chocolate Factory Bread & Chocolate 65% Dark Chocolate

This bar has a most interesting texture.  Although it looks totally smooth, when you bite into it, it's got a crispiness to it.  There's also a salty note, not as extreme as the World Market Sea Salt bar, but stronger then any other chocolate I've had.  It's not unlike eating a chocolate-covered crouton.  The chocolate is rather bitter.  This bar has the highest amount of salt of any I've ever seen in a chocolate bar, 250 mg per serving, or 10% of your daily allowance!  That's nearly double that of the Sea Salt bar!


Niederegger Dark Chocolate Covered Marzipan

This stuff is FANTASTIC.  The dark chocolate covering is sweet, but the real star of the show is a THICK slab of marzipan (almond paste).  Of all the bars I purchased at Cost Plus, this is my hands-down favorite so far, and the only one that I went back to buy more of.  It's actually lower in calories, fat and sodium than most of the other bars, with only 139 calories, 9 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat and zero sodium per serving. (In comparison, the Hachez bar above has 250 calories, 22g of fat, 14g saturated fat and 15 mg sodium for the same size serving!)