Five for Friday

1. So the holidays are over and "normal" life returns (in quotation marks because when is life really ever normal?). I had a good, relaxing holiday and hope you did too. We were in Ohio at my in-laws from Christmas Eve morning through Tuesday, the 29th. Then we came home and just kind of vegged out (or I did, Brad had to go back to work, poor thing). Getting up before 10am to go to work on Monday was disappointing all around. But, at the same time, it's nice to be back into some sort of routine now.

2. We got some snow last night, which was pretty, but kind of loses its luster after the holidays. Of course this snow fell on top of the huge mounds of snow left over from the snowpocolypse a few weeks ago. It's a shame that, almost four weeks later, there are still entire lanes on the road and intersections that have huge, six foot tall mounds of ice covered snow everywhere (I swear, I am not exaggerating!). In fact, I almost plowed into one trying to get in the proper turn lane to go to the grocery store the other day. I predict they will be gone soon... and soon, I mean around March.

3. It has been crazy cold in much of the country over the past week or so and D.C. was not immune. The wind is just crazy cold and it results in quite a bit of crankiness and general "hunkering down" that seems to be going on across the city. Personally, I don't plan on leaving the house all weekend, with the predicted wind chill of a ripe 19 degrees at noon tomorrow (thanks weather.com). This cold weather is killing my exercise routine, or maybe I'm actually burning more calories shivering?

4. Did anyone see that college football national championship game last night? Man, oh man. Normally, I am not the biggest Texas or Alabama fan, and didn't really go into the game rooting for anyone. But how could you not feel bad for a senior quarterback, the clear leader of a team that got screwed out of playing for last year's championship, who has lost the Heisman race TWICE, get hurt on the first drive of the game? The accounts that have been in the news today of him trying in vain to convince his coaches that he was alright during an unsuccessful game of catch with his Dad in the locker room is enough to get even the biggest Texas hater a little choked up.

Perhaps what makes me choked up the most is that college football season is over now.... it's a long way to August!

5. Seen any good movies lately? On Christmas Day, we saw "The Blind Side," which was the most feel-good, family-friendly (in-law-friendly) movie I have seen in years. Last Saturday, we froze our butts off and went out to see "Up in the Air," which I really enjoyed.

PS The squirrels? Oh yeah, they're still here!