This collection of entries is from December 13, 2003.
Driving down rural roads is a real trip when there's fresh, slick snow on the ground without any salt trucks in the area. Fortunately, it's just a very thin coating - even though it's been cold and the snow is accumulating, there's not enough there to really screw up traffic. It's just really slick out there, and the local towns and villages as well as the county and state haven't really handled the salting duties very well, and certainly not consistently from town to town.
Our friends Chelby & Damian moved up to Wisconsin back in... oh... April? We haven't seen them since. We went up to see them (they're barely in Wisconsin, between Genoa City and Pell Lake) for Chelby's 31st birthday (which is today). The house is, well, a bit of a mess right now as they're still in the middle of painting/decorating, and considering the Chelby is 6 months pregnant, they're running out of time to get a nursery ready - I hope they make it!
Today was billed as a "Stitch-N-Bitch", where people come over (sort of Open House style) with sewing projects and everyone just sits around and sews and yacks and sews and drinks and sews and eats. Actually, it was a great time - even though Carol & I didn't bring anything to sew. (Hey, I did my part - installing some software on their computer).
Carol & I were the only "hockey friends" there - everybody else was from the Renn Faire circle of friends. It's always interesting going to a party of any sort where there are multiple circles of friends that are centered around a couple. The union of the two sets is interesting - they're swell people and there are so many similarities and it's just all comfortable.
It was a good time and I miss those guys. I'm surprised my allergy medicine lasted without incident!