If I hear one more forecast about a polar vortex I may go mad. Winter temperatures are ‘nice day’, ‘cold’, ‘damn cold’ and ‘what were people thinking building cities here?’

And if folks aren’t buzzing over polar vortices they are talking about Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford or Justin Bieber being pulled over. Now you know I enjoy a good rant over public figures and celebrities behaving poorly but even I have limits. Like Narnia, winter without Christmas to look forward to is just a marathon of hanging on until the sun comes out. You’d think we’d all be used to winter by now. It’s not like a cold January should be surprising anyone anymore yet we (okay ME!) grumble and groan. Bears have the right of it. I’d sleep until April if I could.

So what is there to look forward to? Well two things come to mind at least.

Here at BFE we’re in full swing taking your submissions for the annual LICD Valentine’s Contest. You can enter here: /valentines/ to win a date with an LICD character of your choice. Please remember to fill out all fields. And while there’s no one thing you can do win, one thing that will definitely oust you from any chance of winning is a poor picture. If I can’t see your face I can’t draw you.

The other thing to look forward to is my weekly Ustream! Every Friday (like tonight) I’m live from 8pm ET till around midnight, drawing, chatting and doing my best to keep up with the conversation in the chat room. There’s a host of friendly regulars as well as the best dang moderators in the known universe standing at the ready with ban hammers to keep spam bots and capslockers away. So why not put your feet up, pour yourself a select beverage and maybe even grab a pencil to art along for the evening.