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I've heard horror stories of block heaters creating insanely high electrical bills. One of the things an engine does best (or worst rather) is create a bunch of heat, so I would say keep the car in a garage that hopefully is reasonably warm, then drive it normally. As long as the engine block is kept at a normal temperature until startup, the losses of driving it on a cold day versus a warm day should be minimal.
Remember that the engine has to warm up to somewhere around 180-210 degrees F, so regardless of the weather the engine still has to warm itself up at least 150 degrees to get to its normal operating temp, so I imagine that the bill for operating a block heater would be much larger than the loss of running an engine rich for an extra minute or so. And if the highway route is indeed shorter and you're driving earlier than most of the traffic then definitely take it.
Now I don't have data to back this up, so if anyone does, feel free to prove me wrong.
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