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Coal City is actually the name of a tiny little town near here… and yesterday, as we were trying to figure out if it was going to snow (again), I pulled up the good ol’ weather channel, whose radar image showed… you guessed it, snowing in Coal City.

As I thought about it, I thought… Snowing in Coal City… that’d be a great name for … well, something. So, I turn to you, readers, for suggestions. I’m thinking Folk Album, but what else could Snowing in Coal City be a name for?

One of my favorite things to do is to get my little boy Luke up when he first wakes up (most mornings — I’ll admit that on certain mornings I think, “Why will this kid not sleep longer?”). We usually say hi to each other. Some days he pretends that he’s going to go back to sleep. He’s hilarious through diaper changes (right now, his favorite thing to do is to throw the light switch while he gets changed), and usually starts to talk about “Mama” half way through the process. He’s sweet, and it’s enough to make waking up almost kind of fun!

But possibly only if you remember rap from the early 90s.

“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.”

I’ll get back to being more routine here… for real!

File this under short movie reviews that came months too late. We finally had the opportunity to watch Up this week. It was a great story–one of the best I’ve seen put into cartoon form, ever. They do a great job of making the audience sympathize with the protagonist before he says his first line. The first 15 minutes or so were sweet and deep with meaning. My wife held my hand.

A well-told story, with elements of sweetness, silliness, and perhaps some serious, I’d definitely say it’s a must see. The moral of the story was beautiful (and sad). I can’t wait to watch it with Luke when he’s older and to talk about some of the issues Up raises like loss and absentee fathers and motivation. One of my favorite things about good art is the opportunity it provides for discussion and development. Up definitely fits into good art under that definition. Go see it!

Yesterday snow fell here in southern West Virginia for the first time this year. Why is this significant? Because there is little that compares with watching a 20 month old realize that it’s kind of like rain (“wain wain”) but mom and dad keep on referring to it as snow (toe… not to be confused with tomato, also pronounced… you guessed it, toe!) It was pretty cool