What a trip!

It was a typical winter Northeast Tour except Rob came along. We spent two days with our friends, Bruce and Fran, in central New Jersey. On Thursday we watched "The Producers," Mel Brooks' first movie. Their daughter, Katie, now 21, grew up watching it at least once a year. Mike loved it too, and used to join us reciting the lines. It was good to watch it again.

We had 17 people at the January Jersey Gang dinner, and we were as rowdy as ever, ate too much as we do every year, and had a ball. We may be getting older, but we can still have a good time -- with less liquor and an earlier bedtime. We made it to 1:30 a.m. this time, though.

We made it to Massachusetts late Saturday afternoon and Danny and Jennifer and the kids arrived at the hotel just a few minutes after we did. We went to see my mother and got to see video of my nephew's wedding in Las Vegas on Dec. 30. No, they didn't elope -- her parents live there.

But the upshot is, if they don't move away before they start a family, my mother will get to be close to at least one of her great-grandchildren. And I don't see Paul and Kim moving far away. They're close to her and to my sister.

We got to see the dogs, all of whom loved Trey. He got on the floor and let them kiss his face, then he tossed tennis balls for them. He never gets tired of it.

Then on Sunday it snowed. And it snowed. We got about 10 inches, and the four kids, who've never seen that much snow, loved it. Fortunately, my sister-in-law had a ton of gloves, snow pants and waterproof jackets. So, after a half hour of getting them dressed for snow, they went out, made snow angels, started a snowball fight and then came in crying because somebody hit somebody else in the face with a snowball. So, all the wet stuff went into the dryer nd the kids watched football.

Today was hell, though. We started home and planned to make it into Virginia, but an hour into Pennsylvania, it started to snow again, and then traffic stopped. Two hours later, we learned there was a 22-car pile-up two miles ahead and it would be at least four hours more before it was cleared up. After three hours there, people started turning around and heading back toward the previous exit in the breakdown lane. We made it the three miles in less than an hour, but we had to take a seondary road south and it was hilly, curvy and icy. Then we ran into freezing fog and then the windshield washer fluid ran out.

We finally made it to a motel, but it was he most harrowing drive I've ever made and I've spent entire winters in Maine and Wisconsin, not to mention learning to drive in Massachusetts in winter.

Oh, and I somehow pulled a muscle in my lower back and it hurts. Can you hear me whine??