The kids were off from school and Pete and I were off from work for MLK day. Since the four of us had a long weekend, we took an extra day of vacation and went to...Chicago. (Not exactly the tropics, but it was warmer than Minneapolis.) And now I have a new work-PC background:

A cold and blustery day

Lake Michigan, January 2007

We did a lot of fun stuff, including a visit to Sue (the T-Rex at the Field Museum), the Shedd Aquarium, and the U-505. We also didn't see the sun once while we were there, and -- like here before the snowstorm on...Monday? Sunday? (what day did y'all get that snowstorm, anyway?)...everything was drab and brown with unending grey skies above. It was actually very nice to get back into town yesterday morning and see 1) clean white snow and 2) blue skies and sun.

In other news...wow, my last post was December 9th. I'll have to double check, but I think that's a new personal best for time between blog entries. So, what have I been up to?

There was Christmas -- we hosted for my husband's side of the family the weekend before Christmas, and then spent Christmas weekend with my side of the family.

There was New Year's Eve/Day -- which involved going through a snow-and-ice storm to get to New Ulm, MN, where we were meeting friends. The Cities to New Ulm is usually an hour-and-a-half to two-hour drive; that day, it took us four hours and involved roads reduced to one lane, multiple vehicles sliding off the roads and/or crashing into each other, and general weather insanity. Thanks to Pete's mod driving sklz we made it without any incidents, but I'm not in a hurry to do that again.

And then there was the novel -- which is now finished (huzzah!) and off to my writing group for review/critique. That's been a HUGE time suck and the biggest reason why I've been ignoring this blog and everything else that's ignorable. (Remind me never, ever to try to finish a novel over the holidays. Ye gods.) I've got one final, post-critique pass to do, and then it's well and truly done -- and then I'll move on the next one. I'm telling you, the fun just never stops around here...