Make snow angels. Make a snowman. Go sledding. Make a snow fort. Have a snowball fight. Go cross country skiing on the street. Make snow shoes out of tennis rackets. Write "Miko + Sweetie 4Eva" in the snow.

Hangman! Fondue! Putting on crazy outfits and dancing around (I will not lie- I did this last night, all by myself. Me and the dog).

Both amro's and TPS's suggestions are some I came to post. Snowball fights can be a lot of fun. So can board games. But I really love the crazy outfits thing. There are so many fun possibilities with that.

Go ice skating - be sure to bring a thermos of hot chocolate. Then go back to your place and make an igloo in your backyard and go inside it and do stuff (with your sweetie, not your friend). Igloos are really warm inside...it's awesome.

On preview - hell yes, dress up your dog! If you don't have a dog, borrow one. I dressed our corgi in a Hawaiian shirt, shorts (with a hole cut out for the tail), straw hat, and a lei once, and everyone in my family had tears in their eyes from laughing at how ridiculous he looked. And of course he loved the attention and kept strutting around like he was really hot stuff, while we all made fun of him behind his back. Dogs in clothes is pretty much guaranteed hilarity.

I read that as Make a snow fart. and thought, "That's one way to stay warm."

I recommend turning up the heat, wearing shorts & tshirts, and drinking frozen margaritas.

Or, you could come visit your friends in exciting Portland, Maine.

Dye snowballs. I used to use Procion dye powder - it works brilliantly but really, any dry pigment or even paint or food coloring will work. Then throw the snowballs at a white wall. Art! Art and snow! And make snowmen or, better yet snowomen. Snow fertility figures. Snow Venus of Willendorf - she's easy to make in snow and guaranteed to freak the neighbors. Make snow ice cream - google for a recipe; I've done it but I can't remember what we added. Snow is fun and we're getting some tonight here too, wahoo!

One evening when Boston was in a blizzard, I remembered the beginning of Where the Boys Are, when the women are all wailing that they have to go someplace warm as the snow and ice whistle through the air. I convinced my roommate (who had never seen the movie) that we had to get it now, and the only video store that had it was a 40min. walk, through the snowdrifts and wind and ice and snow. So we put on our boots and stomped over there, and stomped back, and watched Connie Francis's spring break, which was awesome.

On preview - hell yes, dress up your dog!

Twinkie asked me to assure everyone that she did not do any of the dressing up. She is far too dignified for such behavior.

You guys are brilliant.

You could come visit your friends in exciting Portland, Maine.

That is always fun, but it would be nice to keep it close to home on a weeknight. Will do again soon, though!

Great, great, superfun suggestions. Snow wall art - whoda thunk?

I'm checking out the ice skating option. That sounds full-body, bright-lights joyful in just the right way.

Connie Francis's spring break

One of my most wonderful Christmas gifts this year was Endless Summer. I was thinking of having a really tropical party sometime in February and rolling that on the TV.

But tonight I just have that need to get out of the house.

But tonight I just have that need to get out of the house.

Yeah, the highlight of that evening was definitely the hour and a half of tromping through snow. The movie was just the icing.

Or, I should say, the highlight of the evening was tromping through snow for an hour and a half on an errand as non-essential, frivolous, and girly as the sudden need to see a 1950s beach movie about how dreamy Yalies are.

I used to invite friends over for dessert.

Hear me out. Dinner parties are fun, but they take a decent amount of time and effort on everyone's part. The host has to plan, shop for, and make the entire meal as well as planning out serving arrangements; the guest have to clear an entire evening, usually coming home from work only long enough to freshen up, then hustling over to the dinner party.

For a dessert party, I would make a couple of kinds of miniature pastries --- say, tiny eclairs, mini-cheesecakes, and a batch of biscotti --- plus some frills. Maybe a small box of chocolates, maybe a plate of strawberries.

Guests can come home from work, take their shoes off, unwind over dinner, and head over to my place at whatever designated time.

When they arrive, I make coffee and pour some brandy or liqueurs, we chat for an hour or two or three, and no one has to do a lick of work.

I loved having dessert parties because they were so relaxing. It's a great excuse to spruce up my home, and they were so low-pressure that planning didn't take much work on either the host's end or on the guests' end.

Oops. Out of the house. Duh!

Well, if I were in [Town Redacted], I'd head over to Local Art-house Cinema for whatever the current offering is, or hop the shuttle to Nearby University Town, where there's sure to be some lecture, concert, documentary show, or activist meeting.

So, I suck at this: out of curiosity, I looked up Local Arthouse Cinema, and it looks like they aren't running any films for January. Hmm.

Okay, some other ideas:

- head down to the coffehouse and try the silliest drink you've ever wondered about.

- bring toys. One of the most delightful evenings I spent in Town Redacted was an evening at a local coffeehouse: I happened to have a tube of that goopy stuff that you glop onto a straw and blow plastic bubbles with. Eventually, every patron of the coffeehouse and several of the staff were bouncing plastic bubbles back and forth.

- bundle up, pocket a bottle of proper bubble fluid, and head down to the square. Blow bubbles until your nose is numb from the cold. Warm up at a coffeehouse or bar. Head out to blow more bubbles.

- pick up your digital camera and wander around taking shots.

- the local library is open 'til 9 p.m. weekdays. Head down and browse for books or DVDs. When I did this, I inevitably bumped into friends, too. Sometimes the library hosted events in the evening, as well.

mygothlaundry, that is so awesome.

patzin en tuchus and shri bravo, as my father used to say

(translation: slap yourself in the ass and yell bravo... he said it to me whenever I complained I was bored... forgive my poor yiddisha spelling)

Elsa, you picked out many of the things that are in my routine often - the coffee shop the (excellent, new) library, the Art Cinema...all good. I was hoping for something out of the usual run, but it's hard.

I was disappointed that no ice skating places (of the 3 or 4 that are nearby) had evening public skate. I guess they're all rented out for hockey leagues and stuff.

So we end up with a couple beers at the Local Brewery and a game of Rummikub back at home.

Ho hum, winter.

pips: patzin en tuchus and shri bravo, as my father used to say

I want to know if this is pronounced the way it's written, because I am SO gonna yell this the next time I'm drinking beer in public.