We begin the slow climb out of the deep freeze here. Temps should get up close to 20 today, and by Sunday in the mid to uppers 20s. Pretty sad when I go outside this morning and a 7 degrees wind chill feels downright balmy. It's odd how the weather patterns work, in that Alaska can be warmer than here. You'd think it would be one continuum, the farther north you go, the colder the air. How bitter cold air can slip all the way down here while Alaska is 20 or 30 degrees warmer beats me. And, always seems odd to me that the coldest weather usually comes in January, after the solstice and the days start to lengthen again. I suppose it just takes awhile for the planet to cool down, and once it does, it takes awhile for the sun to warm it back up again. Goes to show just how cold it can get in space without a star to provide heat. Ok, thus ends our weather rant for today.

24 was interesting last night. Nina made a return appearance. I think she and Jack have been the heart and soul of the show since the beginning, so her return promises to add some zing. It almost seemed anticlimactic though. She appeared, and then was kind of in the background.

Am going through the cast commentary on my Two Towers dvd set. Boy they did a good with the dvds for these movies. Can't wait till the last one. (will probably be next fall though, argh.) The cast though, the guys who played Merry and Pippin seem like utter cards and hams and crackups, and they're fun to listen to. But some of the others, they just seem so vain and shallow. Their comments always seem to focus on everybody's performance, how great they were, how brilliant, etc... I suppose as the cast they are supposed to talk about their experience filming, but it always seems to come down to them, they are so important. Never mind the script, the director, Tolkien himself, all the artists and craftsmen and special effects wizards, etc...