Monday, December 17, 2007

Tree Is Up!

We unofficially opened the Christmas season last weekend by obtaining and decorating our tree (yes, we actually did this all in one day!).  The specimen is one of the best, if not the best, we've ever had -- just the right height and thickness.  In fact, it is so stereotypical in its appearance that one might even think it is artificial.  But all of my sneezing while carrying it into the house, putting it into the stand and stringing the lights was proof of the tree's genuineness.  Here are a few pictures of the finished product, and of the kids decorating.

Merry Christmas, and here's hoping all your preparations are going well!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Come Again?

Here is a funny excerpt from Gregg Easterbrook's column this week on ESPN.com:

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I Am Not Making This Up: On Wednesday, the Maryland counties around Washington, D.C., area received 2 inches of snow. As a result of the snow, the city of Gaithersburg, Md., canceled part of its winter festival for the day.

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By the way, many of you may recall that Easterbrook, formerly of the New Republic, is one of my favorite writers on science and current affairs.  His weekly column on ESPN.com is ostensibly a football column, but if you take a quick look, you'll see it ranges far afield at times, often to very interesting places.