Your story is wonderful, bon bon. I'm so happy for you both.

I told her, she was happy but of course wanted me to call my dad, and I apparently have the wrong number for him.

That could have been awkward. "Sir, I'd like permission to marry your daughter!" "...my daughter's five." "I'm sure she'll always be a child in your heart?" "I'm hanging up now and calling the police, you pervert!"

Congratulations, bon bon & bob bob!!!! I love the engagement story! It's made me a little weepy.

It was great fun and I hope to do it again soon when we have a bit more time to sit back and relax.

Yes, absolutely!!! I was worried about being dullsville because I was so sleepy but you both are so nice and chatty and interesting and we ended up with way more to talk about than time.

sarameg, thanks again for driving! And am really hoping Brentwood tells you all is well and that clutch will be with you for a good long while yet.

Awww, what a sweet engagement story!

A lawyer and a philosopher, bound in marriage. That will be a talky marriage. Congratulations! Bon, don't let Bob convince you that the world doesn't exist. He might try it, you know.

The world of ice is still the world of ice. Will it please be warm enough tomorrow (as predicted) that all of the ice magically turns into slush? I will gladly wear my ugly boots if I can stop slip-sliding around. (Everybody on my street shoveled too soon, so some of the sidewalk is literally ice-skateable. Smooth and beautiful -- from a distance.)

In a sense, shovelling at all in this storm was a losing move for sidewalks. You're actually better off if the snow/ice has been tramped down some, up to the point where it starts melting slightly and freezing all shiny.

I expect there isn't an unsold bag of snowmelt within 50 miles.

The world of ice is still the world of ice.

It was a whole 4F this morning when I got downtown, and on the way, I apparently sat in the Arctic Blast seat on the bus. I am still shivering in my office.

I'm trying to talk my mother out of walking up to the hospital to see her sister (who had colon cancer surgery a week ago yesterday, and now needs some physical rehab). Mum keeps talking about the roads being bad, and I keep telling her they're a heck of a lot more clear than the sidewalks, because the road she'll be taking is Main St. which has been salted, sanded, and plowed, and driven on for three days, now.

She's very stubborn, though. I may stoop to making her afraid she'll aggrevate her sore neck if she slips.

Everything is lovely and non-icy except my porch steps, which are the lovely sort of icy that you don't know is there until you stumble out there sleepily in your pajamas and fleece slippers to let the dog into his kennel in the morning. Just hypothetically.

Edited to clarify that sleepily modifies me, not the dog. The dog is wide awake and very happy. He doesn't mind icy porch steps because he leaps over them.

It was a whole 4F this morning when I got downtown, and on the way, I apparently sat in the Arctic Blast seat on the bus. I am still shivering in my office.

Well, the high today is supposed to be 20F. Early next week it should be in the upper 30s. Warm enough to melt this white stuff, or so Science tells me....