Friday random thoughts...

Well, Halloween is over, which means it is officially the start of the Thanksgiving/Christmas season. I saw the very first holiday commercial of the year yesterday – for, strangely, Boston Market. I would’ve thought the frontrunners in the race for early Christmas commercials would be department stores or Toys R Us… but no, it seems that Boston Market has won. So everyone is getting coupons for free roasted chicken this year – my shopping is done…

I’m already wondering how my Christmas tree will fare this year, what with Piva in the house now. She has a habit of chewing on just about anything she finds intriguing. When that tree goes up, she’ll be gnawing on branches and batting at ornaments… and, quite possibly, launching herself from the couch into the middle of the fake foliage, where she will no doubt attempt to wrestle it to the ground. I wouldn’t put it past her… she’s already launched herself at ME several times, apparently because I resemble some sort of human-sized scratching post. Yes, Christmas is going to be interesting…

So we have about a week and a half until our trip to Kauai, and I’m pretty happy with my eating/working out/weight loss progress. We had dinner at Rick’s parents’ house last night, and his sister asked if I’d lost weight recently – it’s always nice when people notice. Right now, I believe I’m at the lowest weight I’ve been in about ten years… and I’m only a few pounds away from weighing the same as when I met Rick back in 1992. Hopefully we’ll be walking and swimming a lot in Hawaii, because there’s no way I’m skipping out on the Hula Pie…

Does anyone else hate those stickers that people put on the back of their cars that advertise their kids’ names and extracurricular activities? And are those popular anywhere else but Texas? Sometimes I wonder if it’s a Texas thing, because I can’t remember seeing them in New Jersey or Chicago or any of the other places I’ve visited recently. Texans ARE rather proud of their kids’ participation in extracurricular activities. I only need to look across the street at the 20 million dollar HIGH SCHOOL football stadium to know that. Only Texans would spend that kind of money on a high school stadium. And those stickers on the back of cars really annoy me, because why would you want to advertise your kids’ names and interests to the whole world? It just doesn’t seem like a prudent idea… too many crazy people out there…

I just got over a cold, which I’m sure I caught from Rick… it’s weird, because my immune system is usually so much stronger than that. I’ve now had TWO colds this year, which hasn’t happened in years and years… like probably since high school or something. But perhaps this was a particularly strong strain of the cold virus, because it lasted much longer than my colds usually last. So that’s IT for the rest of the year. And maybe for next year, too…

Did anyone hear about that flight to Denver where both pilots FELL ASLEEP, and they didn’t wake up until the air traffic controllers were trying to get a hold of them to tell them their plane was approaching the airport too fast? That’s just great. Super. I REALLY want to know about this stuff a couple weeks before I get on a plane to fly to Hawaii. I mean, honestly, that’s like a scene from a sitcom or something – where two people are in some kind of vehicle, and the camera shows a shot of the person on the passenger side sleeping peacefully, and then it slowly pans to the driver’s side and THAT person is asleep too. And then of course someone wakes up and begins yelling hysterically, pointing out the window at the tree or street sign or (in the case of an airplane) mountain the runaway vehicle is about to hit. It’s funny when it’s a sitcom… not so funny when it’s an actual commercial jet…

Well, I pretty much have nothing interesting to say today, do I? :) Hope everyone has a good weekend…