It was a dark, snowy morning.

It's 5:51 a.m. here in Madison, still dark out, with a thick, wet layer of new snow to which I added a couple dozen clog-footprints as I went out without a coat to pick the Sunday NYT up off the front walk. It's the first time I've been out of the house since I went out in the morning darkness to pick up the Saturday Times. No, I'm not sick. I just got so woefully little sleep on Friday night that I didn't even want to drive, and I indulged in the simple pleasure of hanging around the house all day, reading, blogging, talking, and watching TV. Now, I've had enough sleep, having gone to bed embarrassingly early, and the challenge is to read the newspaper, sample the TV news shows, and do a little blogging without letting the entire morning slip by in the process.