I was thinking about beverages that are consumed first thing in the morning.  I drink a cup of coffee at home before work.  It’s one GOOOOOD cup of coffee!  Sometimes, I splurge and take a travel mug of coffee with me to work.  What a treat!  From then on, I drink water all day.

I see a lot of people come in to work with their buckets of diet soda from Wawa or their bottles of Mountain Dew or what have you.  Soda in the morning.  I don’t know why, but it gives me the willies.

I think I’m old and set in my ways but I can only imagine drinking coffee or tea (or possibly a glass of milk) in the morning.  It could be that I’m a little biased, too, because I generally don’t drink soda at all, but I just don’t get it.

So let’s hear from you (if there’s any of you left out there!).  What’s your beverage of choice in the morning?

Last year, I posted something about trying to find Christmas window swags.  I was desperate to find them but not for the $500 that I saw them for.  I went without them last year.

But this year?  I found some plain swags, nicely priced at $7 per swag, and I picked up some bows at the dollar store (2 for $1).  I already had the candles.

So for my 12 windows that face the road, instead of shelling out close to $500 for artificial swags, the total came to $90.  And I love how it turned out!  Nothing overly fancy or ornate, just some greenery at each window.

Wanna see?  It’s in the extended entry.  You can click to enlarge it so that you can actually see them!

Pretty!

Well, today was our annual Thanksgiving feast.  We hosted 19 people today - a small crowd, relatively speaking.  But we took two important short-cuts.  One - we ordered our Thanksgiving meal from Wegman’s and only had to heat it up.  Two - we used plastic plates for the meal.  I cannot tell you what the difference was this year!  We spent about half an hour cleaning up where we would normally spend hour upon hour and suffer for days afterward.  This was SOOOOO much better!

Next year?  Plastic utensils, plastic serving bowls and plastic cups!  No muss, no fuss - throw it all the hell away!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Oh, and congratulations to Seal and Heidi Klum on the birth of their baby.

Oh, oh, and CONGRATULATIONS TO BUDDHA AND VALLEY ON THE BIRTH OF THEIR BABY GIRL!!!!  (It’s a good thing Valley popped onto the computer and sent out the birth announcement.  If we had to wait for Buddha, we might have never known!)

This morning, I was sitting in the stall in the ladies’ room at work (yes, this is another bathroom post), just minding my own business, when I hear someone come in and turn on a hair dryer.  She was still at it by the time I finished up and washed my hands.

This struck me as odd. 

I have been in the work force for almost 30 years and I have to tell you that I have seen people in the bathroom applying makeup, brushing their teeth, repairing clothing, etc.  But I have never witnessed someone using a full-sized hair dryer at work. 

Just weird.

Show of hands, please.

Who’s not at jury duty today when they were called but got excused?

*Raises both hands high*

Yay!  The first time in 25 years I was excused!!

Geez, we had a busy day today.  I mean really busy for us.  Many people would look at what we did and call us sedentary, but it was not so much for us.

We unloaded our big huge boxes of food from NutriSystem, which took quite a while.  We both exercised, we both got showers (that’s a big accomplishment for me on a Saturday), and then we headed out.

We drove to Delaware for some tax-free shopping and were quite delighted with our purchases, I must say.  Then we came back and stopped at Best Buy to look for a new receiver for our library.  Do you know that you can not buy a receiver that takes a turntable unless you pay top dollar for one that can handle the space shuttle and other minor electronics?  So we didn’t get a receiver.  But we did get a wine chiller.  Nice!

Then we went to a big pharmacy and bought a new bathroom scale, which is kinda cool.  Then home to load up our wine chiller and try out our new bathroom scale.

Now it’s dinner time and I’m exhausted.  A nice glass of merlot awaits me and some yummy NutriSystem food. 

Oh, well, you can’t have everything!  Where would you put it?

Hope you’re having a great weekend!

I reported back in January that I had holey shoes.  I have since purchased two more pair of black shoes for work and they haven’t worked out for me.  One pair makes me trip so I can only wear them when I don’t have any meetings to go to and even then, it’s sort of risky.  The other pair just arrived from an online order and they sent me two different sizes!  I had to send them back but it was OK because, although I really liked how they looked, they hurt my feet, so that’s no good.  I ordered a different pair of shoes from the same place and they were shipped out on 11/3.

I’ve been tracking the progress of the shipment.  Take a look:

*click to enlarge*

You’ll notice that the package arrived in West Chester yesterday morning and then was shipped to Horsham.  They basically had to drive past my house to ship them to Horsham.  Then they shipped the package back to West Chester for delivery to my house - today.  Again, they basically drove past my house to get the package back to West Chester. 

If they had just delivered them from West Chester when they were there the first time, I’d have had them to wear today.

It’s raining today.  It wasn’t raining yesterday.  My feet are wet.  *grumble*

Yesterday, I voted for four people. 

Today, they are all winners!!

This is the first time that all of the people I voted for actually won - I’m so excited!!!  (It’s about time the rest of the voters in my area saw the light!)

All right, everyone!  Get out there with your voting hats on and cast your ballot for your favorite (or lesser of two evil) candidates!  Get out there and make your voice heard!  Get out there and do your civic duty privilege!!  VOTE!!!

(I was going to say that I don’t care who you vote for as long as you vote and, for the most part that’s true, but I secretly hope you vote the way I voted!  Heh!)

Look closely, if you can, at the label on this can of spinach.

The label says “Made With Fresh Cut Whole Leaf Spinach”.  What does that mean - “Made With”?  Shouldn’t it just say “Fresh Cut Whole Leaf Spinach”?  I’m sorta scared now.

Today’s Public Service Announcement™ is concerning a gooooood bottle of wine.  This was featured on a recent episode of Simply Wine on the Fine Living channel.  Andrea Immer is the host of that show and she listed this wine as her “once a week” wine.  It’s a little pricier than her “once a day” wines but it’s not something truly outrageous.  We paid about $17 for a bottle.

We opened it last night. 

I took a deep whiff of the wine in the bottle and then in the glass.  It smelled like freshly baked cookies to me.  And then I tasted it.

Oh.my.god.  It was actually like biting into a rare piece of filet mignon.  It was not sweet at all.  It was silky and meaty and hearty.  Absolutely lovely!

So, if you’re in the market for a good zinfandel, this is one I can heartily recommend!  Sláinte!

*UPDATE* I should probably mention that it is St. Francis Old Vines Zinfandel, huh?