HI Chris,
I'm terribly sorry for discouraging you!
I have a habit of approving articles and scheduling them at the same time. I also try very hard to schedule articles at the most time-appropriate so that the most people will benefit. When your article came in, I thought that it was much better suited for an early spring article, so it is sitting in the queue waiting for it's appearance in the spring.
I am aware that I've frustrated a few people with my slowness of approvals this year. It's on my TODO to completely clean out and schedule the queue so that no one is left wondering! I should probably add "approve articles in a more reasonable time frame" to my resolutions as well