A reprise of the family newsletter.

The results from Aliina's check-up today:

24 3/4" and 14# 4 oz. No apparent allergies, diseases, rashes... Growin' like a weed. Cute as a bug's ear! (Whattaya mean, conceited?! I'm not talkin' about myself here!)

This is a breast fed baby. My wife ain't gainin' no weight! 600 calories/day my behinder! You should see what she eats! We go to Taco Bell and my jaw drops at what she thinks is an acceptable order!

Hey! We went up north last weekend. Tower, Minnesota regularly records low temperatures lower than Embarass, MN. In fact, although Embarass has an annual average temperature more than one degree lower than any other town in the lower 48, the lowest official temp recorded is -57 degrees in Tower. Tower is at the same elevation (a major factor in this contest) and 5 miles southeast of my inlaws cabin/house. Guess where I frickin' was.

Tower airport recorded -39 degrees.

Do you know what that means? New Years day, and several days thereafter, I was in Oklahoma, where temperatures were in the 60s. Two weeks later I was experiencing temps 100 degrees lower. And, yes, I had things to do outside while they were like that. I had six layers on my upper body and three on the lower.

Oh, by the way, Rosie cross country skied her first mile in that weather (once it reached 10 below.

I finished that weekend talkin' Flintlock Rifles with my buddy Dan, who with his wife Stoni, got us involved in Rendezvous reenacting, which harks back to the activities of the French Voyageurs in this area and throughout the Northwest. He expressed doubts about those temperature readings, but I didn't tell him about the WELY weather reports. You don't interrupt Dan when he gets going, he's too damn entertaining.