I am SO READY for vacation

No school this past Wednesday (Valentine's Day) – the first snow day of the year. Though it was really more of a Slush Day. See, it was frigidly cold for weeks before this storm, then about 33 degrees for a day while it precipitated, then frigid again, so we were left with about half a foot of solid ice with footprints and snowplow chunks frozen into visually interesting though ankle-breaking sidewalk sculptures, coated with a durable polyurethane shell of solid ice and a lovely dusting of powder from the last half-hour of the storm when it got colder again. All the salt in the world will not budge this crap until it gets above freezing again, if ever. We finally get snow and the result is a giant construction site where a cinder-block building was recently demolished. Calgonite, take me away – to Palm Beach Gardens, where I can sit outside without risking my breath-taking beauty and future concert pianist career with tissue-destroying frostbite on face and fingers. And I can breathe without freezing the goo inside my nostrils. And where our last day of vacation will feature not one but two mind-bending events of note: Becky's fifth burtthday, and Oscar Night. I'm cheering for "Little Miss Sunshine" for best picture even though it hasn't got a prayer, because (a) I aspire to the main character's innocence and persistence for my own daughters (though I have somewhat less hope for either of their grandfathers evolving into anything like Alan Arkin's character), and (b) it's the only one of the five nominees I've seen.