Note to self for future blizzards: Do not let it snow 20 inches and then start a fire. The snow finds its way down the chimney and onto the flue, the smoke can’t escape, and the water drips into the fireplace and all over the logs that were dried the day before.

And about that Dockers ad campaign telling men to be men and wear the pants in the family: It sounded a whole lot better yesterday, before I realized it means wearing frozen pants to shovel snow in a blizzard. Three hours of shoveling today, and I still didn’t finish!

Apparently I should have shoveled out the fireplace, too.