It's in season!
I may have been just a little too excited when I saw it on the menu, but the peppermint mocha just makes my day. And somehow it serves as an opening signal to the season ... Right up there with ridiculous inflatable decorations and Salvation Army Santas.
Much tastier than either of those, though. I assume.
I think it's time I find a new place to camp out for access ... Too many of these and I'll be twice my size by February. And broke.
There is something indescribably neat about living in the 21st century.
I mean it. An example:
I picked up Awesome Aunt in Minneapolis on Friday night -- she had flown up for my cousin's wedding, making a weekend trip of the jaunt from Houston to South Dakota. That's pretty impressive in itself.
An hour or so down the road, somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota -- emphasis on "nowhere" -- I got a call on my cell phone. No towns in sight but my phone rings.
And ... it's Mia Sorella. Using her computer to call from South Korea.
We both got to chat with her for quite some time before she had to leave since it was actually after 1:00 PM Saturday in Seoul and she had plans with one of her friends.
So, to summarize ... For some time there, my aunt from Houston was talking to my sister in South Korea while we made the drive through the middle of nowhere in Minnesota.
Only ten years ago, that was only possible with the most expensive phones and only in certain parts of the country -- decidedly NOT where we were. But on Friday night, we chatted for 40 minutes without dropping the call.
2009 is a pretty cool place to be.
That was amazing.
Under no circumstances in my life previous to now would that sentence have made such absolute and perfect sense.
"Stuart, Brian just smashed a bunch of peanuts in your book."
*
That's right -- it's a Friday. Not that Friday is a necessary requirement for peanut-smashing, but it explains why the above statement was utterly hilarious to me.
Plus I was up at an unreasonable hour this morning. Things to do, people to see, and so on and so forth.
This weekend I'm westward bound and quite excited about it. It's been almost five weeks since my looong drive back from Rapid City and I'm ready for another trek ... Of course, this one is considerably shorter and -- bonus! -- I'll have a passenger after Minneapolis. That hasn't happened since Mia Sorella moved back to SoDak.
So three or four hours by myself, then four or five hours with an Awesome Aunt. Good times. (Well, for me. She's kind of getting the short end of the stick on this one.)
With that, I release you to your weekend. Have a good one, folks, and if I don't catch you at some point in the next two days -- see you next week!
Steak lunch today for our safety milestone; Mexican tonight for the first of an occasional revival of our weekly dinners.
This is all good news. I'm headed west this weekend for a cousin's wedding and I'd rather not go to the grocery store tonight ... And I'm pretty much out of food. Something about that makes me feel like less of an adult and more of a slacker college student.
Oh well.
Something of substance ... I need to post something of substance. But what?
Facebook -- that strangely fussy website I can't seem to stop tabbing over to when I have unhindered internet access -- has been truncating my posts. SO! If you're reading this as a note on Facebook, please go to the full note, then click on "View Original Post" just above the comment section.
I hope that whole bit is in there and didn't get truncated. Alas, I am long-winded. It may have.
Now that I have your attention (right?) I'm going to give you a link. However, if you are in a public place -- such as, say, a library -- find a quiet corner. Or wait till you're at home. Whatever you do, don't click on any word of this paragraph if you're in a crowded room. Please.
Or do it anyway. I mean, I wasn't afraid to cry in public. And this site always does that to me. I suppose those holding-in-laughter-tears are probably better than uproarious laughter where I could theoretically get kicked out for being too loud ...
I'm not totally sure why I'm even here today. I intended to go home and get something done. But after leaving work a little later than anticipated -- and knowing that tomorrow I'll be up earlier than normal -- I felt the need to relax and enjoy being around strangers.
Does that make sense?
This is a terribly uneventful week. I apologize for the dull posts, but this is that glorious in-between time. Big trips mostly over; holidays only just beginning.
It'll get more exciting. Probably.
I finally raked my yard yesterday.
Well, not completely. It was a bit like trying to brush a feral dog's fur -- just when you think you're getting somewhere, you hit a snag and he tries to bite you.
Okay, maybe not, but how could I pass up the chance to use a feral dog analogy?
In any case, until Friday it seemed silly to even attempt it because only one of my four trees was naked and the wind hadn't really started. Unfortunately, by Saturday I had a foot-high leaf drift on my front sidewalk. Time to get it at least half cleaned up.
All in all it was an interesting weekend. Saturday's movie marathon was fantastic (albeit a little depressing and I had some really freaky dreams, but good all the same) and then I got to wander a corn maze with three zombies. Yesterday I made some actual headway with house stuff, did some Christmas shopping ... and got a call from Calvert, who got a new job and is currently en route to Oklahoma.
His life is infinitely more interesting than mine at the moment. I think I'm okay with that.
This weekend? The last wedding of the year. For a cousin, so it's also a family get-together. And Shorty's bringing the girlfriend.
Poor, poor girl. I feel kind of sorry and mildly protective of her already.
Yes. Chick flicks today.
Or maybe I should follow the lead of the American retail empire and watch "The Santa Clause" or something similar.
Yep ... Definitely November.
I have a Halloween tradition that started with the girls' house on Utah. We sat down and watched "Phantom of the Opera," drank wine, and handed out candy instead of going out, either bar-hopping or party-hopping. And it was a fantastic night.
Since then, I've done the same thing every Halloween. Today's marathon will be kicked off by the Phantom. Yay.
... Well, sort of. I'm back at the B -- of course -- and had to chuckle when I walked in right behind another regular. (Seriously. Here more than me.)
It's a good weekend for a lot of things. The holiday it contains makes it a good weekend to be social; the weather looks like it could be a good one for holing up at the house and avoiding people. The fact that I have nothing set in stone means that I could get a lot done ... It also means I could end up accomplishing nothing.
Yeah, that really shouldn't be an option. It used to occur a lot more often than it has lately...
The shift started when my computer died.
It's weird. This removal from internet access thing has me strategizing my time a bit more -- something that definitely needed to happen. The process has gotten streamlined; every time I hop on, I spend some time getting caught up on email, some time blogging, a little bit of time on Facebook. Heck, sometimes I even show up with a list -- "Things I Must Look Up When I Can."
Less time playing random time-wasting games, less time surfing, less time on just about every site I used to frequent.
It's no longer my time-filler. Instead of sitting down at my computer every time I have fifteen minutes before I need to leave, I pick up something on my reading list. I straighten up my living room. I work on an art project.
The only downside I've really seen so far is that I'm now more limited as far as when I can talk to Mia Sorella -- but then again, that was something that worked best with a little planning anyway. Now I just have to consider the operating hours of some obliging local businesses.
I like this change. It's been a good one for Ashleyland.
