"Yay! Snow day!" That was my first reaction when I received the call from Dr. Epperson. I mean, who wouldn't want a day off school?

A snow day is pretty much an unexpected extra weekend day. I can do whatever I want and sleep in as late as I want. Cooking? As long as I don't make a mess. Reading? Go ahead. Surf the Net? If there's no blackout.

Which is more or less what I did for the majority of the day. I tried out a new recipe — a red velvet cake — from a cookbook I received for Christmas. Despite misreading the amount of white vinegar to put in and accidently spilling some extra baking soda in, it turned out pretty tasty.

I also tried my hand at frying frozen green-onion pancakes and decided to make Nutella on a log, a version of ants on a log where I substitute raisins and peanut butter for Nutella on a stick of celery. The variation wasn't bad at all, though one foot-long stick was enough for me.

The pancakes were another story. Apart from keeping them from sticking to the pot, I had to make sure they didn't burn to a crisp. Just when I thought I got the hang of it, I managed to color a side a nice, dark brown. Extremely brown.

After lunch, I started catching up on some fiction reading — namely, “Half Moon Investigations” by Eoin Colfer. It's about a kid detective who solves mysteries and ends up having to clear his own name. I was fairly reluctant to let the book go, but then I remembered that I had to go over to senior Linda Song's house and fax a document to one of the colleges that I'm applying to.

Bringing some of my velvet cake with me, my younger brother and I trekked over to send the document. Unfortunately, the college's fax machine was extremely busy and I couldn't get through. I talked to a financial aid officer, but she had no idea when it would be less clogged and informed me that I couldn't send it via e-mail.

I ended up staying over at Linda's house for another hour or so, allowing my brother to play computer games with Linda's little sister. After a couple more unsuccessful faxes, my brother and I returned home for dinner and to dry our socks.

Not a bad half day.