This last week just flew by, it was that busy.

Thanksgiving was a nice, quiet affair, since it was just dinner with my family. And plenty of turkey leftovers for the next two days, of course.

The paper is doing okay. Lots of things going on to keep me busy. I thought I could go in a little bit earlier than normal today, but I was too tired, after last night covering one of the most melodramatic football games ever played, which also contained quite possibly the worst officiating call of all time.

Anyhow, that's life right now.

It is nice to not have anything to do on Saturdays - which this time of year is very rare.

I just found out that since our paper has been back in business for a year, we now get two weeks paid vacation. I won't be able to take one until March, but it does have me thinking about the possibilities already. I'm also open to suggestions.

I'm doing fine, other than the fact that I suddenly gained four pounds. Argh. I have a feeling it's because I just ate the wrong foods.

Have to leave to go to work soon, but had to catch a little bit of As the World Turns, because one of my favorite characters is back! (Memo to the soap writers and producers: Viewers WILL tune in again if you bring back the fan favorites.)

I first heard this song Sunday night, and I can't stop listening to it:



Proof that the 80's never went away!

I actually had a Saturday where I didn't have to go anywhere, which is the first time that's happened in several weeks. At the risk of sounding like a Brady Bunch song, it was nice to spend a day at home, in addition to going for a walk outside.

Relatively speaking, it's been a quiet week. Work hasn't been as busy lately, save for the chaos with designing a special section that required me to be in the office until close to 4 a.m. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Special sections and I don't get along.

I've been eating too much angel hair pasta lately. But is there such a thing as too much angel hair pasta?

Happy birthday jjirish79, who I believe turns 30 today! Despite what you may have heard, it's not so bad :-)

Hope you have a great day!

At least I can be clever about my non-posting!

I'm doing fine. Will post more later.

Lest anyone think my job is super-exciting, right now I am sitting at home typing bowling results. Yes, they are a pain to type, but they are also good space-filler.

I'm at home because there's an event on the other side of town that starts at 6 p.m., and I don't want to drive back and forth. And seeing as the big news in Indy today is the guy who rammed a propane tanker into an interstate guardrail, it's probably best to stay off the roads as much as possible.

My life has been dominated by soccer for the past five days, thanks to all the tournaments going on. Soccer is arguably the most popular youth sport in the area, which means that all of our teams are good.

Unfortunately, the weather has been nasty to us. Freezing cold, lots of rain, which means lots of muddy fields. I don't mind the mud, but the cold is another story. I must be getting old if three layers of clothing isn't enough to stay warm.

This week looks to be a lot easier. All complaining about the weather aside, I love this time of year. Lots of stuff going on, but not all at once.

From "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", Meredith Vieira gets a little too flirty with a Navy guy:

( Hello, Sailor! )

In Meredith's defense, this guy is pretty hot.

Happy birthday to cynickalone! Hope you are in the middle of a great day!

It's tournament time, so that means I've been busy all this past week. This coming week will be even busier. It's just a part of October. I've doing it for 10 years, and I'm pretty much used to it.

Since it's gotten cooler here, I have been wearing a jacket for outside events. It's this green windbreaker that I've had ever since high school - probably got it around 1992. It's been with me for 17 years.

While it's impressive that the jacket has held up for so long, it's nice to know that there's at least ONE item of clothing from my younger days that I can still fit into.

People have been moving in and out of my building the past couple weeks. Two had moved out, and today it looks like one has moved in.

He looks like a nice guy, mid 20's, and not the kind who would throw wild drunken parties. That automatically qualifies him as the perfect neighbor. Kinda cute, too.

Meanwhile, I am catching up on laundry and trying to take it easy.

A very happy birthday to mikeinbama! Hope you have a great day!

The noisy, party neighbors that I have written about before have moved out. So I guess that means no more loud parties at 4 a.m., and no more strong smells of alcohol that last the entire weekend.

As I was going downstairs to do laundry, I noticed a professional strength air freshener right above the laundry room door. I doubt it's related to the party neighbors moving out - but I wouldn't be surprised if it is.

I was covering a golf tournament Saturday, and noticed something:





It may be hard to see, but that is a fox lying in the grass. At first, everyone thought something was wrong with it, but it turned out to just be sleeping. I watched it for a few minutes, until it got up, stretched and sauntered back into the woods.

Then when I was driving home last night, I noticed a fox running down the street. Remember, this is Main Street in Carmel, which is all full of businesses and apartments - one of the last places you'd expect to see a fox. It eventually ran into a little wooded area in between streets.

That's the reason I like foxes. They always seem to pop up when you least expect it.

I hadn't gotten a chance to hear anything from her new album until now, but then I saw the video for "Million Dollar Bill"

( Whitney! )

THIS is the Whitney I've loved since I was nine years old.

I've decided to no longer cook anything by frying it in oil. The last two attempts have met with fire (see previous post), and setting off the incredibly sensitive smoke alarm.

At least that'll make it easier to eat better - and that's surprisingly easy to begin with.

I was having a tranquil Labor Day weekend until last night, when I was cooking something and it set the kitchen on fire. I was able to extinguish it, but it left a big mess to clean up because of the contents of the fire extinguisher.

It also meant an emergency trip to the store to replace food I had to throw away, and a late-night trip to the laundromat to clean up the many towels that were used in cleaning up the kitchen.

Fortunately, that's been the only excitement this weekend.

You never know how dependent you are on something until it stops working.

Since I use Gmail for both work and personal e-mail, I was thrown completely into a state of panic during the big outage Tuesday. It was all resolved by 5 p.m., but I was already having nightmare visions.

Oh, did you know that if you access Gmail through Outlook Express, it'll bring in every single one of your messages? All 6,000 of them? I did today.