Snow!
After a very mild November, we finally got hit by some snow yesterday afternoon. As has been the case the past two winters, the storm really picked up late afternoon, making the drive home miserably slow. What normally takes 40 minutes took 2 hours last night. To make matters worse, my windshield wipers kept getting frozen up, so I tried to stick my hand out the window and knock the ice off only to pull the wiper itself off. I knew it was supposed to snow but I didn’t expect it to be that bad.
Despite the big storm that has swept 2/3 of the US, I doubt this was even in the top 100 all-time worst snow storms I’ve seen. Who from Carpenter or Willow Lake could forget the winter of 1997 when we had 17 foot drifts, makeshift roads, and school cancellations damn near every day?
Lauren was hating our drive home yesterday even though it gave her plenty of time to knit. But she remarked that she’d take a whole week of blizzard weather like this as long as the MSP runway is open the morning of Friday, January 15 when our flight to Jamaica takes off. I agree.
Vegas
In other news, I’ve mentioned my company is sending me to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from January 6-11. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Brad Titwillow is also going to be at the show. Patrick Lynch has also mentioned he might drive up to hang out with us that weekend from LA. And of course good friend Dusty Hovde lives there. So I should have plenty of fun hitting up the town with these guys and co-workers alike.
PS3: MLB The Show 09
I have been playing lots of MLB The Show 09 since we got our PS3 a month ago. Before even playing a whole game, I sat down and created a bunch of players—myself, Lauren, Walsh, Colin, Jason, Tim Rosok, Josh Kleve… the list goes on and on. The announcers on the game are programmed to pronounce a lot of names, but not all of them, especially girls. Lauren Poulter is pronounced Lawrence Portillo. Sarah Domenichetti is pronounced Sergio Donnelly. A few of the names, like Patrick Lynch and Aaron Pratt, are pronounced perfectly.
You can also get really detailed when creating the looks of the players. Most of the players still don’t resemble the real-life person much, with the exceptions of Nick Sandbulte and Andrew Kartak, who are very recognizable.
Our team is the Marlins and we’re closing in on the NL East title. I have perfected the art of pitching on that game but still can’t hit worth a crap.
Christmas Carol
Those of you in the area who are interested in seeing a one-man production should check out Luke Katuin’s A Christmas Carol, which starts Friday night. Liz and I have agreed to participate in an improv scene before the play begins while the crowd is filing in, assuming someone comes to the show. We have rehearsal tomorrow evening before the show debuts.
Ryan Glanzer Blog 
Of course I remember that horrid winter. I recall taking you along on the mail route while you had a snow day at school. We had Dad’s pickup and slid into a mailbox. You got out and tried to pull it back while I drove ahead. A huge scrape in the side of the pickup resulted, much to the chagrin of your dad. That winter is responsible for ultimate hatrid of snow, ice and winter in general.