Janine and I are about to head out to the Left Coast for the bi-annual visit to my family for Christmas and New Years. We leave tomorrow for San Jose, spend a few days running around my old stomping grounds, and then head up to Lake Tahoe for a wonderful week of snow, skiing, hot tubbing and general relaxing.

I always look forward to Tahoe. If there was ever a place I would want to 'settle down', it would be there. The summers are nice, with lots of stuff to do like hiking or boating. Winter, however, is the season I cherish most up there. The smell is what solidifies it. The crispness of cold, clean mountain air can't be matched. Add a dash of wood-burning fire and a sprinkling of stars in the dark night's sky, and it's almost like a slice of heaven.

My bags are packed, and I'm ready to go. Janine, however, still needs to pack... blame her 3-hour nap for that one. ;-)