Blizzard! (Soon)

Jolly good fun ahead for the first of February, says the National Weather Service. All caps as usual, copied from the 3:20 pm bulletin for Cook County (and a lot of other places): THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHICAGO HAS ISSUED A BLIZZARD WARNING... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM CST TUESDAY TO 3 PM CST WEDNESDAY.

SNOW ACCUMULATIONS IN EXCESS OF A FOOT ARE EXPECTED OVER MUCH OF THE AREA FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.... WHITE-OUT CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED AT TIMES TUESDAY NIGHT AS VERY HEAVY SNOW AND STRONG WINDS RESULT IN BLIZZARD CONDITIONS. SNOWFALL RATES OF AT LEAST 2 TO 3 INCHES PER HOUR ARE POSSIBLE...

Guess it's our turn, then. Heavy snow has been slapping most of the rest of the North, and some of the South, all winter, but not so much here. In fact we'd slipped into a late-February-like winter stasis lately, with snow cover but mostly sedate air.

The weekend might have been a better time for such a blow, as far as most people are concerned, but I'm glad it didn't hit yesterday, when Ann had her birthday party. This was the rush to open presents.

As usual at my daughters' birthday parties, I learned about corners of the toy industry I didn't know existed, and yesterday was no different. One of the girls brought Ann a Lalaloopsie™ doll, a creation of MGA Entertainment. Turns out they were the It doll of the 2010 Xmas season. I missed hearing about them completely, and that's to my youngest daughter's credit. She didn't ask me for one.

Back in November, blogger Julie Ryan Evans wrote, "There are reports that the doll that typically retails for $24.99 is already being sold on eBay for $150." A price that caters to the more-money-than-sense demographic, which is large if not overwhelming in size. Now that Christmas is over, of course, the stores are probably full of the things again.