How many feet of snow would it take to make you want to exercise on TV?

1. Rudy is to leotards as Marley is to nighties. The past couple of snow days, Marley has hopped and swung and lounged around in her satiny finest, all day, and Rudy's been all ready to perform a floor routine or a graceful series of fluttery tippy-toe steps no matter what the hour.

2. There is a ridiculous amount of snow outside. It's ludicrous. I'm not mad about it; at this point, I still look outside and feel like laughing. This is not Colorado. This is not Alaska. And I am not that hardy. Sure, I like to wear a winter hat around the house all day, and I think I've gotten Todd and Rudy to do the same every so often, but that sort of seasonal chic is as far as I go. Let me put it this way: today I stocked up on some Dollar Store jigsaw puzzles for the weather that might be coming this weekend. I am looking forward to them. (Spring and summer are much, much better seasons, aren't they?)

3. Rudy continues to be preoccupied with babies and Hermey the elf. She's often reciting Hermey's lines, (Lately, it's "Someday...I'd like to be...a dentist.") and either sniffs or kisses his picture whenever her bedtime story is based on Rankin and Bass's continually delightful Christmas special.

4. I am lethargic, Rudy and Todd have been sick over the past couple of days, and Marley's practiced whining is even more incessant and even more irritating when we've been snowed in. But here's my chance to get out and do something: I just got a call from a friend who's filming a yoga class for public access, and she's my yoga instructor and fellow field hockey and lacrosse coach, and she needs a sidekick to downward dog for the community. So where are my yoga pants? And where are my hair and make-up people?