Out of the office

I'm off to a work conference in San Diego, California tomorrow through late Sunday night.

I won't have my laptop with me, so I'll probably be out of blogging touch for a few days.

(Sorry! Really, don't cry.)

When I get back, I'll blog about Die Hard 4, if I can still remember how ridiculous it was.

Stop me if you've heard this before.

I really should lose about 15 pounds.

I just haven't figured out a good way to go about doing it.

It is particularly difficult to lose weight this time of year, since we're surrounded with cookies, pies, and everything else. And as the weather up here gets colder and less hospitable, the ability to even THINK about going outside for exercise diminishes. (Not that I have a particularly strong history of active exercising.)

Getting down to brass tacks, I'm lazy and unwilling (so far) to find ways to fit hard exercise--the beneficial kind--into my daily routine. Without that commitment to change, I don't see how I'm going to achieve the reality of what needs to be done. I've got to find an effective way to exercise.

I also need to find better ways to eat.

The only other time that I was able to effectively lose weight was when Lynda and I were doing Weight Watchers after Sarah was born. It helped a great deal that the cafeteria at work was actively participating in the program back then, so you could easily calculate the Points--which were displayed by the food items. Now there is much more guesswork and I haven't done a very good job of thinking about it all.

But, I don't like what I see in the mirror. Shame alone isn't cutting it though.

Random definition

Did you know that the word succinct originally meant "having one's clothes gathered up by a belt . . ." related to the word cincture? I like the connection between tightening up one's clothes with tightening up one's language.

I discovered that today when double-checking the spelling of said word in my dictionary.

I have a habit of marking the words I look up in the dictionary. I admit that I stole the idea from Diane Court (Ione Skye) the valedictorian object of Lloyd Dobler's (John Cusack) affection in the film Say Anything. Lloyd was intimidated by the number of words Diane had looked up in the dictionary, and I'll further admit that I like seeing the marks on the page when I flip through looking for another word. However, I am slightly saddened when I find that I have already marked a word that I am currently looking up. (Gotta improve that memory!)

NOTE: I tried really hard to find the appropriate moment from Say Anything to illustrate what I am talking about, but it turns out the internet CAN'T find everything you're looking for.

Let it begin!

The day after Thanksgiving . . . and we're all here together at home. No daycare, no work, no parade, no activity built in this afternoon.

Lynda, in a fit of familial consumerist madness, braved the After Thanksgiving Sales for a few hours this morning. Nothing horribly strenuous, but it signals that That Time Of Year has begun. The turkey leftovers haven't even been thought of and we're already seeing things in Red and Green (or at least those of you who aren't colorblind are).

I've got MSquared's Holiday music mix running on iTunes now as we all decide how to handle the rest of the day. Grace is playing with Barbie toys from holidays past (THAT is a Christmas miracle!). Sarah is thinking about being a Young Adult (taking showers in the morning, watching the news and the Weather Channel . . . seriously!), and Lynda and I wonder when we'll get out the trees, ornaments, and start baking up those Christmas cookies.

AFTERNOON UPDATE

Trees are up and lighted.

Ornaments have been placed and tree skirts are down.

Boxes are still everywhere and I think I'm going to wait until tomorrow to tackle the yearly conundrum of outdoor lights--which ones work and which ones don't, what mysterious combination of extension cords and outlets combine to make it all function, whether or not I should put icicle lights around the porch or not. (This summer I put the icicle lights around the dining room nook for a Great Hall effect during Sarah's Harry Potter party . . . maybe I'll do that again?

Lots of holiday knickknacks are out and about in some rooms of the house. I always feel that some rooms get lots of decorations and other rooms nothing at all. (I always feel badly for those other rooms, such as every upstairs room.) But the minute a Santa statue or a small nativity goes down, the war begins. As soon as I turn around, here comes a kid with Baby Jesus in one hand and a snowman candle in the other. They won't leave well enough alone.

Christmas decorations are for the adults, attempting to recapture that innocence in their own memory. The kids participate, but they don't have enough foundation yet to make it truly special. They just enjoy the transformation of the everyday house into something Other. It won't be until later that they want to make that transformation for their own reasons.

So, right now I put out trees and hang ornaments, thinking of when I did it as a boy. And Lynda bakes batch after batch of cookies, cooling them in blank rows, awaiting the icing to come--all the while thinking of her mom.

Someday, our kids will remember. Right now they can only wait.

Giving Thanks

Right now I'm thankful for good friends who invited us over for a wonderful amount of food that I am struggling to digest in a wakeful state. Our normal Thanksgiving meal with RoF and her family was put aside this year, because she's very busy and has got lots of stuff going on in her life besides.

Jack T. and Cordelia invited us over this year and we had lots of delicious turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, squash, mashed potatoes, green beans, and something else that I'm sure to be forgetting. We brought along some of my mom's best fruit salad recipe.

Everyone had so much to eat and that was followed by delicious homemade pecan and pumpkin pies.

I reflected on how many time since we've moved to Ohio we've had the benefit of eating this meal with friends and (almost) family. It is a great luxury to have such people in our lives when we are many miles from our own family.

Not to mention the comfortably warm house and warm clothes we enjoy without thought each and every day. We have lots of luxury and blessings in our life, including our many other friends that enrich our lives.

Thanks to you all. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!