The good and the bad of 12" - 20" of snow:

• good: no school today (and if predictions are accurate, possibly tomorrow as well)! That gives me lots of time to catch up on work which I tend to put off due to the crush of schoolwork;
• bad: that puts me at least one more day, perhaps two, behind in preparing my AP students for the test in early May. Considering that prep time is always at a premium, that is not a good thing at all;
• good: I get out of a boring meeting this afternoon which was scheduled from 3:45 until about 5:00;
• bad: if school is closed tomorrow, we will not be able to go to our (early) Chinese New Year dinner;
• good: I got lots of sleep last night, and I plan to get some reading done today;
• bad: snow-blowing and shoveling! Oh, my aching back.

I picked up my 70th friend on Facebook this morning. While only a handful of those people actually post regular comments on what is happening in their lives, I try to update my status at least two-to-three times per week. Facebook is not a way to keep in constant contact with people, but at least it does keep me in touch somewhat with people whom I might otherwise have no contact with at all.