Merry New Year -- the weather is cloudless and cold from a temperature inversion. We had a reasonable amount of snow during the holiday, but our first clear day in awhile features near-zero temperatures (Fahrenheit) and a smelly dioxin plume from a pulp mill, about 150 miles north of here, in Canada.

Charity Alert: The Literacy Site -- Buy books to teach reading!

Wildlife: We participated in the annual Audubon Society bird count last Sunday, just by watching our yard. Several dozen Doves, many dozen Finches, nearly a dozen Magpies, a few Chickadees, at least one Nuthatch, a Downy Woodpecker, a pair of California Blue Jays, a half-dozen Pheasants, plus two Bald Eagles eating their freshly-killed Muskrat out by the aereator pond in Middle Foy's Lake. A lone Merlin checked out the carcass, but there wasn't much left.

In The Community: The Hockaday Museum of Art and Flathead Valley Community College were both closed for the last two weeks. Besides sleeping in, I updated the website for the Northwest Montana Historical Society, but I think I'll turn that volunteer gig over to someone else soon. The Museum at Central School

Media Watch: NFL Football -- The regular season is too long. A whole lot of key players were injured before the playoffs, or else a lot of coaches rested their critical starters. We got a lot of low-energy games as a result.
Philadelphia may not get anywhere while Terrill Owens is nursing a broken leg.
At least there were no clubs with losing records in the playoffs, just a couple of 8-8 teams.
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra -- someone made a homage to low-grade Corman-style movies of the 50's. I liked it, but I'm not calling it anything but BAD.
Gawd! They even have a Website!