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I was just checking the 7-day weather forecast from our friends at the National Weather Service. Their description for Tuesday’s weather in Columbus contains an impressive level of detail, including all the ingredients for a Wintry mix:

Tuesday: Periods of snow and sleet before 10am, then periods of sleet between 10am and 11am, then periods of freezing rain between 11am and 1pm, then periods of rain or freezing rain between 1pm and 2pm, then periods of rain after 2pm. High near 38. East wind 9 to 14 mph becoming south. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.

Tuesday Night: Rain likely, mainly before 8pm, then a chance of snow, mainly between 11pm and 1am. Cloudy, with a low around 22. Northwest wind between 11 and 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

Tomorrow is my two year anniversary in Columbus. It seems like yesterday that I was moving to a completely random city in the middle of winter for a six month long job.

I’ll wrap up my year with two trips. This weekend I’ll see New York City for the first time. Then I’ll be back in the St. Louis area for Twelve Days of Christmas (and New Year’s). I don’t know which is more promising… a flight into Newark airport during rush hour or driving Highway 70 through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois during holiday traffic and winter weather.

What else have I been up to? Several beverage-themed trips kept me busy in the fall. In September, I flew back to St. Louis for the Schlafly Hop in the City event. Then I hosted Derek and his uncle Pat for the German Village Oktoberfest here in Columbus. In early October I was back in Missouri for the annual winery weekend in Hermann with the usual crowd.

And then later in October I had a great time in San Francisco and Napa Valley visiting Emily.

I went to my first Ohio State University football game here in Columbus in November. And Illinois won! My trip home for Thanksgiving went well. The airline industry hasn’t disappointed me the past two Thanksgivings.

This month I helped Nick and Katie tear apart their living room. Somehow I did not help them rebuild it.

I also went to a holiday party for the CYP at the Wexner Center. And then went back on Saturday with Leslie and Zach to get a closer look at the funny William Wegman exhibit.

2007 has been a year for taking advantage of travel deals and racking up frequent flier miles, allowing me to see new cities and meet up with old friends in Seattle, Portland, St. Louis, Chicago, San Francisco, and soon New York City.

Sunday’s edition of The New York Times included an article featuring the Drexel movie theater in Columbus.

Also in Sunday’s paper, T Magazine described “Columbus Cool” in this article. I agree that Marcella’s is cool… their wine list is exclusively Italian, and every wine is available by the bottle, 1/2 bottle, and glass.

This observation about Columbus made me laugh (because I moved here to work at Limited Brands):

“…in the last few years, Columbus has undergone a transformation. By luring young professionals to its homegrown empires like the Limited and Abercrombie & Fitch, the city has seen a flurry of downtown development — and gained an unexpected new profile as a Midwestern style capital.”

I made a trip back to St. Louis last weekend, and my photos from the Schlafly Hop in the City are online in the gallery.

A major goal of mine was accomplished today. I finally broke out my wobbly lobster pen during an otherwise serious meeting at work. For a few minutes nobody noticed the absurd jiggling motion of the writing device shaped like a crustacean, and then the chuckles started. It was just a little reminder that even in the most important meetings, you should never take yourself too seriously.

This morning I met Leslie for breakfast at Northstar Cafe, my new favorite a.m. spot in Columbus. They have a small menu of perfect brunch food, served in the gourmet hipster format. From their patio you can gaze across the street at White Castle and regret every meal you ever had there.

I braved the crowds of around half a million people last night to see Columbus’s Red, White & Boom from the 26th floor of the Vern Riffe Center, where my friend Katie works. (The tall building on the left in the photo above from the Columbus Dispatch.) The fireworks were top-notch, which I would expect for a city that spends somewhere around $75,000 on them.

Some of the newer web technology inspired me to migrate to a Web 2.0 format here. So far I’m happy with the new tools, especially WordPress. All the historic posts came from two blogs that had previously been hidden away on other sites.

Limited Brands is in the news after announcing plans to cut 10% of its corporate workforce and buyback $1 billion in stock. As a shareholder, I welcome the news. As an employee, I would rather not deal with everything that comes along with this announcement.

My weekend began and ended with amazing concerts. Friday night I saw The Decemberists here in Columbus, and tonight I saw a chamber music concert featuring Michael Riesman performing Philip Glass’s music from the movie The Hours. The fact that I was able to see two live performances of music in my short list of favorites in a single weekend reaffirms my decision to move to Columbus.

No one I’ve mentioned The Decemberists to has ever heard of them, but a couple thousand fans in the Columbus area showed up at the Lifestyle Communities Pavillion on Friday for a memorable concert. Their music is indie rock meets folk music–for English majors. Their songs blend drum-and-guitar rock with accordian, hammond organ, cello, viola, string bass, pedal steel guitar, and/or many other oddball instruments. One amazing thing about their live performance was the group’s ability to perfectly re-create the sound of their recorded music with all these instruments. If you’re curious to hear them, use http://www.pandora.com to sample some full-length songs.

Tomorrow is my first day as an employee of Limited Brands. They finally came to their senses and hired me. It should be a good week.

Friday morning Emily and I left the Minneapolis airport with plans to get breakfast, buy wedding gifts, and locate our hotel. She had traveled from San Francisco, and I had traveled from Columbus to attend Brett’s wedding and catch up as we explored some of the city’s attractions. I had done some homework, finding out where Brett and Heather were registered for gifts and then jotting down directions from the airport to an area with a Target and Crate & Barrel store.

It was around 9:30 a.m. by the time we left the airport, and I was incredibly hungry. We set off in our rented Buick LaCrosse to the Southdale area, looking for a restaurant with a breakfast menu. After driving in circles for 10 minutes, we waited at a stop light to make a left turn toward York Avenue.

“That guy is waving at us,” Emily told me. The driver of the car in front of us had waved, but stopped waving when I looked forward. Who was this person? Who did they think we were? After contemplating that question for a few seconds I began to consider the possibility that this might be someone who truly knew us. I studied the car, and then I took a good look at the silhouette of the driver. “Is that Brett?” I whispered.

The driver of the car in front of us was Brett. As he waited at the stoplight, he happened to look in his rearview mirror and saw Emily and I. He later told me that he had read my lips when I said “Is that Brett?” That’s when he turned around to look out the rear window of his car and confirmed that we were who he thought we were.

I followed Brett as he pulled into the parking lot of the Galleria Shops. We got out of our cars and laughed for several minutes about the amazing coincidence. He was about ten miles away from his apartment, dropping off his and Heather’s wedding rings to have them polished. The twist of fate allowed us to catch up over breakfast while he waited for the rings.