TO THE NINES: SNOW DAY EDITION

2/10/2010

One person's winter wonderland is another's excuse to stay home from school. With schools closed around the area yesterday, there can be little doubt that kids last night were hoping for more - doing snow dances, flushing ice cubes down toilets, and taking part in any crazy ritual that might earn another snow day. But what do you do if it works? You can only make snow angels for so long. Here are a few suggestions to keep you happily snowbound.

- Ryan E. Smith

1 Build Snowzilla. It doesn't have to be 25 feet tall like the gigantic snowman that showed up one day on Billy Powers' front lawn in Anchorage in 2008, but it would be a waste of so much snow to not build something with it. This is Toledo; it could be gone tomorrow.

2 Watch a movie. Consider Snow Day, which seems appropriate and features Chevy Chase, Iggy Pop, Chris Elliott, and Pam Grier in the cast. Or you could watch a movie that's actually good. The choice is yours.

3 Make ice pops. More than 100 years ago, the Popsicle was invented when an 11-year-old boy in San Francisco left a mixture of powdered soda and water and a stirring stick in a cup on his porch overnight. Now seems like a great time to follow in his footsteps.

4 Host your own Winter Olympics. The rush of a good snow day has got to be similar to what a gold medalist feels. Find out by putting those moon boots to work and racing in the snow, competing to roll the biggest snowball, or taking target practice with snowballs.

5 Cut paper snowflakes. They say no two snowflakes are alike, and that's probably true even if you try your hardest to follow the cool patterns found at sites like papersnow flakes.com.

6 Have some Wii-nter fun. You may be stuck at home, but that doesn't mean you can't work up a sweat inside. At least, a virtual one. Break out your Nintendo Wii and play something wintry, such as NHL 2K10.

7 Read a book. Don't worry about making a trip to the local library, you can download anything from a Junie B. Jones story to Twilight thanks to the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library. It's free at toledolibrary.org under downloadable media. All you need is your library card.

8 Play a board game. There are so many to choose from, but if you were ever going to play Don't Break the Ice, now is the time.

9 Shovel the driveway. Wait a second, how did that one get in here? Must have been a parent up to no good. Oh well. Don't fight it, just hope for hot chocolate when you're done - and maybe some marshmallows.