Fellow Wisconsin son Jim Muraco asked me to put in a plug for his latest film It’s My House. It’s a documentary about strange and cool houses in the Midwest, mostly in Wisconsin and particularly in Milwaukee. Think of it as Cribs: Brewtown. Or not—I haven’t seen the movie yet myself. With luck, it’ll be ready in January, a perfect piece to view while snowed in.

Speaking of which, I spent the morning toting around a sick preschooler and putting a soaking-wet Christmas tree up in the house. It’s been raining here since my stepmother dropped the tree off last night (she and my father supply all the local family members with swank holiday lumber), and normally I’d have waited for the water to let up. However, we have rain forecast all day, followed by thunderstorms and capped off with three to five inches of snow tonight.

Better to move around in the wet than the snow. Wisconsin’s winter will be here soon enough.