The weather is abominable. We started out the day with thick, slushy, wet clumps of snow coming down with rain, and now we’ve got fierce winds and an icy fog of blowing blizzardy stuff everywhere. So I fixed myself a dinner of baked salmon and washed it down with Fire Rock Pale Ale.

If I close my eyes and turn up the music loud to drown out the howling winds, I can almost — almost — imagine it’s Hawaii.