When you are finished and leave this spot and look behind you, will you like what you see?

Will you have made the right impression?

Or will you have left behind loose ends? Sloppy work?Bad marks? A crater-like devil mess where an angel should have been?

It's not too late to get some light coaching to turn your sorry ending around. And do things right.

You've got about three weeks. So listen up, snow slobs.

If you want to make a good impression on snow angel judgment day, which is scheduled to be 1 p.m. Feb. 17 on the state Capitol grounds, you need to take steps.

Step 1: Think snow and think hard. A good amount will be needed for the event, which is being held to recapture North Dakota's Guinness Book of Records record for snow angels made simultaneously. It's a record that North Dakota established in 2002 with 1,291 participants, which then was taken away in 2005 by some misguided Michigan malcontent Technological University students and other cohorts, 3,784 of them. They apparently thought North Dakota residents were going to just wave their halos in the air like they just didn't care. Halo no.

Step 2: Show up.

Those are the main two things.

For just about everything else, the Tribune has provided the following in-depth high- and low-definition pictorial guide, which will lead you step by step into the dos and don'ts of creating a snow angel and thus a life that has meaning.

If there are any questions after studying this in-depth manual, although that probably won't happen, call Marilyn Snyder, whose idea it was in the first place to establish the first-ever snow angel record after she found out Guinness didn't have such a record.

But don't call her if you're not Marine-like committed to the cause.

Snyder, education curator of the Historical Society of North Dakota, wants people to know that an 88-year-old South Dakota woman is attempting to travel up for the record attempt. And Secretary of State Al Jaeger's 99-year-old auntie will be there to make a snow angel.

So, no excuses for those ages 99 and under.

"If you're one hundred, we'll let you watch,"she said.

And she doesn't want to hear, like she did in 2002, motorists honking horns as they passed the Capitol Mall while others lay on the ground establishing the record.

Snyder thinks if you're physically capable of honking a horn, you have what it takes to apply a brake, stop your car, get out of it, and join the prone platoons.

To the numerous people who are asking if their dogs can participate, the answer is only if the dog owner has a dog that has a legible writing skill. Each participant needs to fill out a name, age and address on the registration form.

This one good snow angel act could bring your state things that money can't buy. Things like glory, greatness and the pursuit of harassing Michigan Technological University about its very short-lived footnote in the annals of Guinness angeldom.

Snyder said she's keeping abreast of ongoing coverage in Michigan about Bismarck's upcoming attempt to get the record back and has concluded that there are some scared mush puppies out in Michigan.

She cites a Michigan headline that states something to the effect that Michigan "retains the title, now,"apparently eluding to a shaky future in that regard.

"They must be scared,"she said.

If Snyder is worried about MTU's emotional health, she shouldn't be.

"Michigan Technological University and the city of Houghton is definitely not scared," said a chuckling Travis Pearce recently, MTU's associate director of housing and residential life.

He seemed to be wondering about her well-being.

"She obviously doesn't have enough to do," he said, if she's spending time reading Michigan newspapers.

Pearce did recall, however, that when he called Snyder to ask for Guinness' phone number during his organizational efforts for Michigan's snow angel event, Snyder didn't have time to divulge that phone number or any snow angel trade secrets.

So, for that and other reasons, he looks forward to a continued friendly rivalry for the fun of picking on Snyder, in particular, and the whole state of North Dakota, as well.

He said Michigan currently has plenty of snow underfoot to do what it needs to do, if it needs to do it.

Note: Pearce, who has a master's degree from Drake University, eventually was able to locate the Guinness phone number on his own.

For more information on the Feb. 17 re-record attempt, call 328-2792.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)