December 21

Today is the first day of winter. It's also the shortest day of the year, which, by no coincidence, makes it the worst day of the year. It's cold and dark and miserable and awful outside. I want to go to the beach and get sunburned.

But, as a Google Talk status message would have it, "after today, it will start getting lighter again." That's true, I guess, so life can't be all bad.

We are a few days from Christmas, or, for those who don't celebrate Christ's big day, a stone's throw from the "holiday break." Either way, no work is good work. I am taking a week off and heading to Wild and Wonderful West Virginia for some good ol' fashion family fun on the slopes. Unfortunately, the slopes are barren.

Timberline Ski Resort, as of this morning, only had 9 trails open, 8 0f which were greens. It looks like I will be spending a lot of time in the lodge, sipping cocoa by the open fire, rocking out the tacky holiday sweater. Hopefully there will be some impressionable married women floating around...