So I'm sitting in my apartment here in Chicago, pouring through some information on my pending magazine article for Tuesday morning and I just heard THUNDER? WHAT?

No, that couldn't be thunder. It's got to be someone moving a steel dumpster, or perhaps the neighbor upstairs took a spill...

No. It's thunder. Just saw some lightning. I can't believe it. It's a January thunderstorm. I just called home and they didn't belive me. They really didn't. They had to log on to weather.com before finally believing me. No kidding.

And you know what? It's not even the most mind-bending feature of the day. It was 64 degrees here on the lakefront. 64 degrees! In January! I walked outside with a wool coat on, par for the course in Chicago, IN JANUARY, and found no need for it. In fact, no need for a coat whatsoever - of any kind. I'm not kidding.

And I thought Chicago winters were supposed to pack some punch? Oh, don't try to tell me on Friday when it's 4 degrees that I was wrong -- that's not even a cold day in Minneapolis, my friends. Oh no. It's supposed to be -20 on Sunday. Love it. Believe it. It's no wonder people down here are kind of whiny -- and soft, generally... Chicago is NOT a tough-guy town.

Chicago winters -- what a joke! 64 degrees... pssssssssshhhhhhht!

On a positive note, Randy Moss is funny, but a dolt, and Major League Baseball is finally putting a REAL steroid policy together, or so says Murray Chass of www.nyt.com...

Last note: Finacee (TM) is visiting on Friday. Can't wait. We've got a great weekend planned out...

Ah... now back to preparing a magazine article for Tuesday. Hopefully it will end up published in something --anything, really. Even the Reader would suffice, but I'm shooting for Chicago Magazine... or maybe even Men's Health. We'll see.