We didn't get home from the City last night until nearly 4 a.m. after returning from Baby Grand's debut show with the new lineup at Thee Parkside. The show was fun - it was cool to hear whole versions of songs I've mostly heard in bits and pieces via Cory's guitar as he practices - but I'm really looking forward to the Old I show on Wednesday night.

As we left Jeff & Rochelle's house to return to our car, their lawn crunched with ice and our windshield looked as if someone had frosted it with a thick layer of frozen marzipan. Cold. Damn, damn cold.

We had a contest to see who could sleep in the latest and I know that, even before checking in with Sandra, Jeff or Rochelle, that I lost that one. Still, I made a pretty good dent in the day, not getting out of bed until 1 p.m. and not getting dressed until 2:30 p.m.

The rest of the day has been spent grocery shopping and working on an end-of-the-year comp that I'm putting together. To be fair, Cory has done most of the work on the comp. OK, he's done all of the work except song selection, picture selection and the gathering of music. It's been an afternoon-long project for him and I now owe him enormously. I'll have to think of a way to work it off in a way that does not completely exhaust me or break me financially.

And the house is still a wreck what with presents and cards strewn everywhere. Progress is being made, however slowly, though. Today I cleaned out much of the refrigerator and tossed newspapers and magazines and thought about places to put everything.

Hopefully by the time New Year's Eve comes around we will be back to normal. Whatever that is, of course.