Yesterday it snowed several inches.  It reminded me of the snowfalls back home; gentle giants that last a long time and slowly dump a lot of snow on the ground.  My family sneaked out to run some errands before it hit.  Afterwards, we stopped for breakfast and watched the snow accumulate.  For the first time in a long time I enjoyed the snow.  It’s the weekend and I have nowhere pressing to go.  Usually snow is a nuisance to me because it snarls traffic and halts commutes, but when I have nowhere to go it’s usually enjoyable.  I doused my son with some snow, and we enjoyed watching the apartment complex’ hired snowplow get stuck and unstuck.  I’m just glad I didn’t have to drive anywhere yesterday.  Driving in snow isn’t too difficult, but with all the crazy drivers and unplowed streets it can be nerve wracking.  After we returned home I studied Korean and spent time with my family.  It was a relaxing kind of day I haven’t had for a long, long time.

We also stayed home today.  Tonight an old friend is coming for dinner.  I’ve known him since grade school.  We lost touch for many years until a mutual friend reintroduced us.  Now he’s coming over to say goodbye before we head to Korea.  It would have been nice today to watch the NFL Championship football games on TV.  Philadelphia and Atlanta via for the NFC championship, and Pittsburgh and New England will play for the AFC championship.  It will likely be Philadelphia and New England (we’ll see tomorrow), although I’m partial to an all-Pennsylvania matchup.  That would be fun.  I’m an AFC fan, but the Eagles have never won a Superbowl so I’m not sure who I would root for if the all-Penn matchup happens.  Unfortunately, I can’t watch the game on TV.  We disconnected our cable because we never watch it, so now we can’t watch it when we want to.  However, it’s still a sacrifice worth making because we no longer have to pay those exorbitant cable fees.  I guess we’ll have to have fun around the table instead of in front of the TV–just like it was in the old days.

I missed the Inauguration festivities today, although I really enjoyed having the day off.  Tomorrow is Friday, so it feels almost as if I have a 4-day weekend (five hours of Korean class notwithstanding).  I could have gone to the inauguration and would have liked to because I’ve never had the opportunity to do so.  It doesn’t matter so much to me who’s being inaugurated, at least when it comes to attending the ceremony–I would have gone regardless of whether President Bush or Senator Kerry had won the Election.  In either case I would still have enjoyed the pomp and circumstance of the occasion, not to mention the beautiful winter scenery surrounding the ceremony.  The Inauguration Parade would have been fun to see.  If I had had an extra $300 I could have bought a couple $150 Inauguration Ball tickets for my wife and me.  Alas, I stayed home with my family.  I would have been ill-advised to drag my young son out into the cold to see something that he would not have enjoyed anyway.  I also did not want to leave my wife to take care of him without me, because I already do that while I work full time.  Perhaps when he’s older and another president is inaugurated I can take in the festivities. 

Today we all headed to Barnes & Noble and Starbucks.  Mommy and baby checked out the kid’s reading area with the wooden train track, and daddy headed over to Starbucks to settle in with a Korean workbook and a Frappuccino.  I absolutely love Starbucks.  It always reminds me of Seattle, my old home.  It’s a Seattle experience I can enjoy around the world, even in Seoul.  I like Starbucks so much that I designed their first web page (I write tongue-in-cheek).  Back in the mid-1990’s I built my first web site and put together a list of popular Seattle companies.  Starbucks was much smaller back then.  I looked for Starbucks’ web site and could not find one, so I built a page of my own with the title, "Here’s why Starbucks needs a Web site."  I added a counter to count the number of page hits.  I think the page generated a few thousand hits while it was still online (I removed it a long time ago).  I never reported the results to Starbucks, but I’m glad they took me up on my advice in a big way.  I digress.  Today I went to Starbucks today and studied Korean.  I noticed a new drink called "Chantico," a "drinking chocolate."  I had to laugh.  Of course it’s glorified hot chocolate.  But if you brand it, give it a fancy name, package it as gourmet, and convince people to pay a premium, you can make a lot of money.  Starbucks is famous for turning commodity products into "affordable luxury."  If they could do it with coffee, why not hot chocolate?  A brilliant idea.  I might just have to try one.