This thaw doesn't come without cost, so far a snowmobiling couple has been hospitalized for hypothermia after crossing a creek that was no longer frozen, and the lead story on the news last night was a rescue of a couple cross country skiiing on a melting pond.

Mrs. Ha and I have skiied over that pond when I was in better shape, once when it had been cold for weeks and was real solid, once when it was starting to thaw, but we stayed behind the ice fishermen, figuring they would know what was safe, and skiis have a lower ground pressure too.

Of course, it will get cold again, and we'll have more snow, but it feels good for now.

I ordered a closeout DVD burner from Staples.com on Monday, and it arrived yesteday, whoa! Now I just have to pry the wife and kids off the XP box to install it.

Mrs. Ha was let go from her hostessing gig, and it wasn't unexpected. She had trouble with the cash register, and from my time in the biz (decades ago), the best workers had the ability to manically multitask, which Mrs. Ha does not.

She had a premonition too, as she asked me to bring the girls in for lunch yesterday, so they could see what she did. Ten year old got pancakes, fulfilling her pancake day. I hope you UKians all had pancakes, too.

In the much better news, she was given a verbal offer for the Red Cross, assuming she passes the background check. She passed one to work with kids five years ago, but given how much American society values kids, it doesn't mean much. But, she should really have no problem passing it.

It's a real light at the end of our financial tunnel, with the new job she'll be making a lot more, even part-time, and we should be able to make some traction on our credit card debts. I'd like to have them all paid off in 8 years, it's not impossible.

In other financial news, our stock is still going up slowly, though it's not back to our pre-bubble heights. I should check my 401k to make sure I'm not overexposed.