It is definitely warming up. After the snow on Wednesday, I asked locals Thursday when the cold breaks, and they said February 13. The 13th being the next day, and a much more exact answer than I expected, I thought it was a joke, but nope, that is what they say. And it is true this year. The snow pretty much completely melted away already, in sharp contrast to last Decembers snow which hung around for over a month.

On TV, Rumsfeld is saying that keeping prisoners in Guantanamo bay without trial is "a necessity, and just common sense". Funny, I thought I had common sense. It also is typical that Bush went AWOL (absense without leave) from the national guard, but then he goes and sents hundreds of American soldiers to their deaths. Over 500 so far in Iraq, plus the Americans that died in Afganistan, and then there are all of the poor Iraqis and Afgans that died. Amazing. I firmly believe that nobody should be able to send troops to any war unless their children are on the front lines. THEN we can be sure that at least they believe that the lives being lost are worth something.

Speaking of TV, they have been doing very very strange things on AATV, our cable service. Channels are coming and going, changing by the minute. You never know what to expect. What especially sucks is that MTV is gone just now, which was my staple when I am just puttering around the house not actually watching the TV. Now I have BBC on as my staple, which can be repetitive. But Mark Geragos is on there just now, so that's cool.

So, today's big new is that Ashod is getting married! Best wishes to the former logger on this page, who has been with a great girl here for years, and is tying the knot today. I know'll they grow old on the same pillow (as they say).