It's nice not working right now... and even though I feel endless pressure to work on a slew of projects I've built up, I'm doing a good job of ignoring it. J. and I went to the downtown German Christmas festival yesterday. It was snowing lightly as we left, but by the time we arrived downtown it was coming down hard. It was the kind of snow you have to bend into because it gets into your eyes if you straighten up. I got a warm hat there and some spiced wine in a boot.
J. and I chickened out on eating german food outside in the snow though. It was just too cold and the snow/wind a bit intense. We ducked into a cafe and had pasta and soup instead.
His brother and bro's wife came over in the evening for munchies and screening of the odd mid-80s film "Brother from Another Planet".
Some of the maps of the American colonies were really interesting. I noted that they all spelled it "Pensilvania" or "Pensilvanie". Virginia = Virgine. Or so said Benjamin Franklin, who was apparently also a cartographer (did he do everything?) Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington also tried their hands at map-making. I loved the early maps of Chicago as well, and the map of Cholera death in England. There's a fascinating-looking book about the exhibit.