It's the last day of the common year 2007, and between the rain and low temperatures (hovering near but not quite at the freezing point as of 0730 EST5EDT) roadways in the DC metroplex are, in short, treacherous. I nearly slipped walking down the steps from my apartment building, and my car was limned with a thin sheet of frost that had to be melted away before I was going anywhere. After getting underway, however, I discovered much to my chagrin that patches of Lee Highway in northern Virginia were sheets of ice that gave the ol' anti-lock brakes a …

How about something far more cheerful in my life these days - like Lyssa, Laurelinde, and I going to see the Dresden Dolls last night?

After arriving home from work yesterday afternoon I hurried into the bedroom to change into more suitable attire for attending a concert put on by what is best described as a punk cabaret duo, namely Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione. I traded my jeans for black linen trousers, black elastic braces, threw on an electric blue necktie, and pulled my Victorian-cut tailcoat from the closet. I traded the USB key on my watch fob for a …

It's cold. It's snowing. It's sleeting. The roads are nasty. I just got home and I'm staying home.

I think it's the cold in DC that's sapping the life from everyone and everything.

No, really. For such a relatively easy week last week, Lyssa and I just barely crawled in to the finish line, with our eyelashes and fingernails just barely breaking the tape at the end.

After hacking together a quick dinner on Friday night Lyssa all but cold-cocked me to get me to lay down on the bed and take a nap. At some point, she joined me; I don't know exactly when because I was asleep but I do know that it was shortly after …

The rude awakening came this morning as Lyssa and I checked the weather report for the DC area before getting ready for work - 13 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 if you count the wind chill factor), with a projected low of five degrees Fahrenheit (with an unspecified wind chill factor). I opted for my parka and ski gloves this morning over my usual trenchcoat and Tom Baker scarf and duster. On the whole, I opted for dynafill and a few extra layers of trapped, warm air over fashion.

It's the kind of morning in which the shockwave of air coming off the …