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Finally, some cold weather. This, our third winter in Champaign, marks the first sub-zero temperature reading that we’ve seen. And being a conoisseur of cold weather, I had no choice but to force the wife on a cold weather stroll the instant Willard Airport hit -0 degrees. Yep, it was cold. Not quite Russian Gulag cold, but still cold. Hopefully my Arctic obsession will one day yield a trip to Fairbanks in the dead of winter, during which I guarantee Rachel will have nothing but fond memories of tonight’s Alaska warm-up. In the meantime, I will do my best to enjoy this bush-league coldness. The high tomorrow: 8.

Despite making scant use of the cosine and not solving a single differential equation analytically during my last seven months in “industry”, the math sector of my brain has not yet turned completely to mush. As recently as tonight I recited the solution to the integral 1/(1+x^2)dx from memory (arctan(x) + C) and tutored a certain calculus tutor in basic trigonometry. Clearly, my college experience gave me life skills that a Communication major could only dream of. Now if I could only focus those skills on my thesis…

These frequent flier miles are burning a hole in my pocket. Who wants to go skiing?

Why did the good people of Iowa choose Kerry on electability? Come on, now. New Hampshire had better put him in his place. And I’m not even a Dean supporter.

The title may be pure marketing glitz, but I do plan to keep aerogeek alive during 2004. First order of business: do something about the pathetically-outdated Wedding and Research links, and post a honeymoon update — or keep talking about posting a honeymoon update, at the very least. There are also mounds of photos to post. Sadly, all this talk of unfinished business is giving me pangs of guilt, so I must think about other things. My thesis, which I prefer to think of as an unfinished symphony, may also be a contributing factor in my pangs.

In happier news, 2004 has been running smoothly so far. Rachel and I drove with the cats to Maryland for Christmas and the New Year, but I’ll skip over that part. We saw 96% of blog readers during our break, and they know we had a great time. I especially enjoyed the skiing portion of our trip, during which my muscles awoke from six months of hibernation. If ever there was an incentive to return to the gym, it would be the ability to ski without incurring a four-day, full-body ache. In my former glory, I could bench a mind-blowing 110 lbs. (gwaaaahhhhhrrr!!), but I required the same level of intensity simply to lift a ski pole after my second day at Wisp. Unfortunately, joining a gym this week would reek of a New Year’s resolution, so I’ll wait until next week. In the meantime, who wants to go skiing?

To complement my impending gym membership, Rachel recently put us on a crazy diet. She has been reading “Going Against the Grain” and can now give an impassioned, 25-minute lecture on the evils of wheat. Wheat, as well as its nefarious cousin, refined sugar, both foundations of modern society and major ingredients in Chips Ahoy cookies, are no longer in our diet. Talk to Rachel; she’ll explain. Were I not so busy craving a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream, I could explain this insanity myself. Actually, the no-wheat diet makes sense when considering the foods that evolution designed us to eat. Damn you, evolution.

This just in — Superman recently confiscated the following pair of earrings in Western Maryland and is demanding a hefty ransom for their safe return to Atlanta. Payment will be accepted in Dollars or Yen.