Looks like my wishes for a quiet weekend are probably not going to be granted. I was thinking that this weekend might, at last, be the quiet one I've been wishing for. Kat will be in Atlanta, Heather in D.C., Jess in England. Jeff will be recovering from finals, Andy and Sean will be out of pocket, and everyone else could just heed the N/A sign on ICQ.

Then, of course, tonight, my computer decides to throw out signs of impending doom. I know it's time to do a wipe and reinstall—it doesn't mean that I have to like it. I think I'll be using the laptop for computing until I can get my main machine sandblasted and reorganized.Sigh. But, it happens.

Winter seems to have arrived with a vengeance; or, at least, with the small bit of muttering purpose which it occasionally musters here in northern Alabama. No snow, but there was ice out in the parking lot this morning by the back door of the office. It made me wonder how my parents were doing; in the last email I had from them a day or so ago, they were prepared to hunker down and weather out the storm that was about to blow through Arkansas.

From what I heard, they got a combination of ice and snow. Given that my parents live in a very rural area, it wouldn't surprise me if they'd lost power for at least some time. It was a common occurrence while I was growing up. The weather channel said that a lot of schools were closed in Arkansas, which means that Mom probably got a day off.