It’s Groundhog’s Day.   The news this morning has reported various and conflicting groundhog reports.   Punxsutawney Phil has predicted six more weeks of winter while Staten Island Chuck has predicted an early spring.   At my home, however, we have our own groundhog, Wally.    A few months after we moved into our house, my husband Carey said, “I saw a strange animal in the backyard.   I think it’s a beaver.”   As there is no stream or river in our yard, I suspected it wasn’t a beaver, and determined that is was a groundhog, and that it was living under the shed in our yard.   We named him Wally, since it wasn’t “The Beaver.”  Last Spring we noticed that Wally seemed sluggish; Wally had gained weight and was moving slowly and I feared that it was old age.   In early May, however, we saw Wally with two little groundhogs.  Apparently Wally is female; we named the little groundhogs Clarence and Eddie.

We have decided not to pull our groundhogs out from under our shed today but to let them finish their hibernation until Spring arrives.   It’s a cloudy day here so I know they wouldn’t see their shadows anyway.

It’s the middle of January, the weather is cold, the bus into the city is crowded and slow, it seems like Spring will never arrive. Our 2010 office holiday calendar came out and our next holiday is Memorial Day – five months away. So I’m not letting myself feel guilty about guilty pleasures, no matter what their name implies. One of mine includes the return of network television after its “winter hiatus” and the return of my no-longer-secret guilty pleasure, American Idol. It’s the only reality show I follow from the auditions to Hollywood Week to the live performances. I have even started voting since AT&T customers can text their votes. I was sorry to have Adam Lambert lose last year, but was happy to receive his debut CD for Christmas. I read the funny reviews on VoteForThe Worst.com. I debate whether Ellen de Generis will be a good addition and whether the show will survive without Simon Cowell next year. The ninth season started last night and I have my DVR(s) set to record for the nights I have to work late during tax season.  I even own the Disney plush figures from the Walt Disney World American Idol Experience:   Donald as Simon, Minnie as Paula, and Goofy as Randy.

I used to think that Drake Ring Dings® were my guilty pleasure but that is just silly – they are one of nature’s perfect foods.