I greet you from snowy, icy, yucko Minnesota. We had almost six inches of snow over the weekend and I had to mince to the car this morning in my non-slip-proof knee-high black suede boots. They are cute, but dangerous in this weather. Will I ever learn? (Sadly, no.)

WINTER/WEEKEND

Yes, as I mentioned, six inches of snow. Andrew played outside Saturday and Sunday with his pals from across the street, mainly sledding on the low hills around our house; at one point I looked outside and saw Andrew and Joseph sledding down the steps across the street, laughing their heads off as they went bumping down. Little boys are different from little girls.

We had a nice weekend. Kip and I had tickets to see Chicago in concert Friday night at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Minneapolis -- one of those old restored movie palaces. It was a great, sold-out show, and Chicago still sounds fabulous. (We saw them a few years ago in concert with Earth, Wind and Fire at the Target Center, but this was a much better venue.) The crowd was filled with boomers rocking out. We still rule.

On Saturday we headed out in the morning, bought groceries and then came home and hibernated. We watched "Waitress" Saturday evening and liked it, kind of, but I found it a little disappointing, given all the good reviews I'd read. It seemed rather disjointed, like it didn't know what kind of movie it wanted to be. I did like the guy who played the doctor, and realized Sunday night that he's also the guy who plays a doctor on "Desperate Housewives."

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES

!!!! What on earth was Lynette screaming about at the end of the show? Is her whole family toast? Do you think Carlos is dead? (It's pretty clear that the mayor is.) And wasn't all that tornado stuff silly? Clearly, those writers never lived in the Midwest, and were equating a tornado watch with a hurricane warning, or something. Kip, the former meterologist, was all but sputtering with outrage. And was anyone else disappointed by the denouement of the Katherine-Adam storyline? Or *is* that the denouement? Personally, I was expecting something far more sinister.

Sheesh. I should get out more.

WHAT I'M READING

Kip lucked into a copy of "Tamar" by Mal Peet at the famous Julie Chuba welcome-to-St. Paul pig party in August, and it landed on a to-read bookshelf, where I found it yesterday and clutched it triumphantly to my bosom, uttering cries of delight. (I should get out more.) I started reading it and I cannot put it down. Seriously. I can't. I'm typing while holding it right now, so excuse any typos.

CANDY CANE JOE JOES (FROM TRADER JOE'S)

Love them, even with the extraneous apostrophe, which nevertheless I refuse to acknowledge. It seems that I love all things peppermint: Twisted Peppermint stuff from Bath and Body Works, Kemp's peppermint ice cream, Candy Cane Joe Joes ... I never knew this about myself. At least my breath will smell minty while I eat myself into a coma over the holiday season.

KIP'S ILLUSTRIOUS NAMESAKE

He modestly neglected to mention in his survey responses that the Kip Sundgaard for whom he is named was on the Olympic ski-jumping team in 1976. And Kip Sundgaard's son -- and Kip Sundquist's cousin -- is Sven Sundgaard, the weather gnome on KARE-11 TV. (Seriously, Twin Cities folks, doesn't he look like a gnome? Or like Ed Grimley, the pointy-haired character that Martin Short used to portray on "Saturday Night Live"?)

ISN'T THAT ENOUGH TRIVIAL NONSENSE NOW, BETSY?

Yup. More than, I'd say.