BOB...THEN, NOW, FOREVAH

Saw my old boyfriend, Bob, in my dreams the other night...

No, Irma, not Bob Grace.

Bob Redford.

OK, so Bob R. was never my boyfriend...not really....but every now and then, back in the day, I would dream that Robert Redford and I were such good pals, were so close, that he asked me to call him Bob.

Or, maybe he didn't ask me....maybe, due to my delusions of grandeur, I just started calling him Bob to infer our special, best-buds relationship...whatever...

My point -- and I do have one -- is that ever since I fell in love with Bob in "The Way We Were" (ironically, the first movie I saw with my real old high school beau Bob Grace), he's always been my favorite hunky movie star...

And my favorite movie star he remains, even now, even when Bob -- dare I say it -- is growing a bit long in the tooth.

I actually caught myself about to swoon during the previews of Bob's latest movie, "Lions For Lambs" when I went to see that tear-jerker "August Rush".

And apparently, it was seeing my old, albiet, imaginary, flame in that preview that caused my psyche to conjure up his blondie-boy image in my dreams just the other night...it was if we'd never been apart. It was "Bob, this" and "Bob, that" and we were just chatting away and solving the problems of the world, and he was giving me that adorable Bob Redford grin..

Heavy sigh...

Mark my words, the day Bob dies I will be donned in sack cloth and ashes, and there will be great wailing and sobbing and gnashing of teeth...I will declare a week of mourning...I will glue myself to the DVD player and watch nothing but Bob's greatest movies -- and of course, they are all great...

(I still remember when John Denver died in that horrible plane crash several years back...I dragged out all my old JD albums and cranked up the ol' stereo and sobbed my way through "Sunshine On My Shoulders" and (of course) "Annie's Song" for days...)

Anyway...in this oft' off-balance, topsy-turvy, pell-mell world, it's comforting to know that no matter what else changes, no matter what rug is pulled out from under me, Bob Redford and I still and always will have that special connection...

LOL.

I think I may have been a stalker in another life...

Helena Shernana, This Blog's For YOU!

Hey, Nel....Is this THE perfect Christmas gift idea, or what? LOL...

From Amazon.com:

"18 Original Ruth Lyons Christmas Recordings .... This CD Will Take You Right Back To The 1950s & 1960s, December 2, 2006
By David Von Pein (Mooresville, Indiana; USA) -

If anyone reading this review happened to live in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area during the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s, this Audio-CD ("The Christmas Music Of Ruth Lyons") is sure to have you basking in the memories of hearing these 18 Christmas tunes, all written by Lyons, when they were sung every December on Cincinnati's live local TV variety/talk show, "The 50-50 Club".

I can remember regularly tuning in to Cincinnati's WLWT-TV to watch the "50-50 Club" during the Bob Braun years. The program was re-titled "The Bob Braun Show" in 1967 when Braun took over as host of the show after Ruth Lyons retired due to poor health. Ruth passed away, at the age of 81, on November 7, 1988. Bob Braun died on January 15, 2001. Lyons' and Braun's daily syndicated 90-minute program was one of the top-rated shows of its kind in the United States. In fact, the "50-50 Club" was the highest-rated daytime show in all of America in the year 1960, garnering ratings that were five times higher than all other competing daytime programs COMBINED!* * = This information comes from the excellent liner notes that are included in this Audio-CD package.

Many big-name guest stars would often appear on the Cincinnati-based "50-50 Club", including Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Dick Clark, and even Ronald Reagan. Bob Hope would also pop up on the show frequently when he visited Cincy. Members of the Cincinnati Reds' baseball club were also frequent visitors to the show's informal set. (I always liked it when Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, or Pete Rose would show up.) Christmastime was a favorite time of the year for regular members of the show (and for the program's loyal audience), because that meant the beginning of the "Christmas Countdown" at the beginning of each "Bob Braun Show". ("Five more days till Christmas, five more days till Christmas, five more days till Christmas, and Santa will be here!" -- remember that jingle at the start of each December show?)

The month of December in Cincinnati also meant that the "Ruth Lyons Children's Christmas Fund" was in full swing, with Bob (or Ruth) unveiling the current Fund total at the start of each show during December. The "Christmas Fund" was a charity which raised a great deal of money every year to help support area children's hospitals.

I'm sure that local Cincinnati residents also have fond memories of the several other local programs that were staples for many TV viewers in the '50s and '60s, including "The Paul Dixon Show" and "Midwestern Hayride". This CD of "The Christmas Music Of Ruth Lyons" contains -- to quote directly from the back of the CD jewel case -- "The original 1957-1963 recordings of her best-known holiday songs, featuring Ruby Wright, Marian Spelman, Bonnie Lou, Peter Grant and Bob Braun, with Cliff Lash and the 50-50 Club Band".

My favorite song out of this wonderfully-nostalgic batch of eighteen Ruth Lyons-composed Yuletide originals, and certainly the best-known of the lot, is "Let's Light The Christmas Tree", which is sung by Ruby Wright (a regular performer on "The 50-50 Club" for 20 years). That song is one that I believe can hold its own with many other classic and more well-known Christmas tunes.

"Let's Light The Christmas Tree" wasn't just a locally-known song in the Cincinnati area either -- it was recorded by Wright in a Chicago studio in the late 1950s and, somewhat amazingly, made it all the way into the "Top 100 Records" survey on the famed charts of Billboard magazine in December 1957 (ranking #41). In June 1958, Ruby Wright re-recorded "Let's Light The Christmas Tree" as part of Ruth Lyons' first LP record album, "Ten Tunes Of Christmas". The album, which was distributed only regionally in the Cincinnati area, sold more than 250,000 copies, a staggering figure considering the limited market in which it was made available.

As a side piece of trivia concerning that beautiful holiday tune ("Let's Light The Christmas Tree") -- The song was written by Ruth Lyons in the year 1943; and was composed by Ruth while she was driving on Cincinnati's Central Parkway on her way to work one day. The 18 songs that make up this CD collection were originally released on two different holiday albums in the '50s and '60s -- "Ten Tunes Of Christmas" (which came out in 1958) and "It's Christmastime Again" (1963). The original LP cover photos from both of those albums are shown on the paper insert (liner notes) that comes with this product.

Those Christmas LPs were first issued by Ruth Lyons' own "Candee Records", named after Ruth's daughter (Candy Newman). This CD re-issue was distributed by "X-Star Radio Network" in 1995. The liner notes that come with this Compact Disc are a real treat too, due to the inclusion of some very informative and interesting tidbits of info about Ruth Lyons' career and the history of these Christmas songs, plus the inclusion of five rarely-published "behind-the-scenes" photographs of Ruth Lyons (and company) during studio recording and rehearsal sessions.

CD Track List (audio quality is very good too): 1.) "Hey Nonny Nonny" 2.) "Soon 'Twill Be Christmas Eve" 3.) "Christmas Is Getting Mighty Close" 4.) "Christmas Is A Birthday Time" 5.) "Have A Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas" 6.) "The Happy Time" 7.) "There's No Time Like Christmas Time" 8.) "It's Christmas Time Again" 9.) "Sing A Song Of Christmas" 10.) "Christmas Marching Song" 11.) "This Is Christmas" 12.) "Always At Christmas Time" 13.) "Once Upon A Christmas Time" 14.) "All Because It's Christmas" 15.) "Christmas Lullaby" 16.) "Everywhere The Bells Are Ringing" 17.) "It's That Very, Very Special Time Of Year" 18.) "Let's Light The Christmas Tree" "

:)

Meowy Christmas

Cats' Top Ten Favorite Christmas Songs

10. Up on the Mousetop
9. Have Yourself a Furry Little Christmas
8. Joy to the Curled
7. I Saw Mommy Hiss at Santa Claus
6. The First Meow
5. Oh, Come All Ye Fishful
4. Silent Mice
3. Fluffy, the Snowman
2. Jingle Balls

And Cats' No. 1 Favorite Christmas Song:
1. Wreck The Halls

Ba-Da-Bump...

Here We Go A'Squandering...

"Employees hired here for ho-hum per hour
evade frazzled shoppers who from all different wealths,
squander the numbered heartbeats of their lives
to search for bargains planted cleverly
near high-margin impulse racks."

Yes, I went to Wal-Mart today.

I NEVER go Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving.

But I did today.

Not at the crack of dawn like all the nut-so malls were inviting people to do. I went about 10 a.m. Drove 30 flippin' miles...what a spectacle...

Talked to one of the sales associates...he said people were running and yelling through the doors at 5 a.m. One customer even pulled a sales associate's hair to get her attention...

What a world, what a world...what a sick, materialistic world...

Why do we even bother with Thanksgiving?

Soon, we will just skip the day of giving thanks and rush right into the Christmas h0liday the day after Labor Day...

All I really wanted to do was scout out a few ideas for DJ...Santa has to really watch his pennies this year...like every year...geeze, all the folks hauling out big ol' flat screen tvs and other junk...cha-ching, cha-ching goes the credit cards

Not us. It's cash or nuthin' this year.

All I want for Christmas is an hour-long therapeutic massage...maybe the whole hour just spent on my aching feet...or my neck...yeah, my neck

Or maybe a bottle of that $10 mascara remover from Target...Sonja whatsername...splurge a little...Or maybe a bottle of body mist, with the matching shower gel and lotion, let's see, what is the scent? Sensual Amber? Yeah...from Bath and Body Works...

Santa, are you reading my blog? LOL

A girl can dream, can't she?

Anyway, after I got home from the Wal-Mart Black Friday Shopping Debacle, I soothed by soul by playing my late mother's Christmas albums...I remember listening to those 33 RPMS while decorating the livingroom in our house on Buckeye Crescent in good ol' Madeira, OH.

But back to Thanksgiving

John really knocked himself out with the meal this year...yes, that's right. John makes the meal. I set the table and do the dishes...I am the envy of many a woman who has to slave away the entire Turkey Day while hubby and the other men in the fam sit around watching football...

Speaking of football...What a laughable Happy Thanksgiving "greeting" from the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders...anybody else catch that? LOL

And must the "easy listening" radio stations start playing the 24/7 Christmas carols a week before Thanksgiving?

I mean, how much "Feliz Navidad" can one person really enjoy?

And must they play Dan Fogelberg's "Another Old Lang Syne" five times a day? arghghghghghghgh...

"Met my old lover at the grocery store....the snow was falling Christmas Eve.... blah, blah, blah..."

LOL

Yup. It's the holiday season...

Pass me the Prozac and the sugar cookies, please.

EMBRACING THE CHANGE

At first blush, the title of the book "The Wisdom of Menopause", seems a bit of an oxymoron...

I mean, traditionally, one associates "menopause" with only icky things like searing, sweaty hot flashes, rollercoaster mood swings, and aging, adle-brained crones with black, coarse chin whiskers that would make a broom envious...i.e, anything BUT wisdom.

Au contraire!

Thanks to my friend Nancy and her wise choice to read "The Wisdom of Menopause", and her generous offer to loan me the groundbreaking classic, I am learning that, according to author Christiane Northrup, M.D., the infamous "change" that we women often dread and fear is not merely a plethora of perplexing physical symptoms to be "fixed" but (and I quote from the back cover), "a mind-body revolution that brings the greatest opportunity for growth since adolescence."

(Ah, yes, adolescence...a positively riveting -- not to mention hormonally and emotionally devastating -- time in a young girl's life... but I digress...)

According to the good doc, the choices a woman makes NOW -- from the quality of her relationships to the quality of her diet -- have the power to secure vibrant health and well-being for the rest of her life.

(Yikes! Relationships and diet...not exactly my strong suits thus far...)

Yes, Dr. Northrup maintains that women can "make menopause a time of personal empowerment and positive energy, and emerge wiser, healthier and stronger in both mind and body than ever before."

What the heck...I'm totally in.

I swear I am going to read this book cover to cover, and soak up every bit of menopausal insight I can...

For starters, I'm absolutely inspired and energized just by the book's dedication: "This book is dedicated to the pioneering spirit embodied in the women of the baby boom generation."

Amen to that, sisters! Right on!

And the first chapter, "Menopause Puts Your Life Under A Microscope" is a real eye-opener. From there, the book covers everything from "Embracing the Message of our Menopausal Anger" (Angry? Who? Me? Surely, you jest...) and "The Menopause Food Plan: A Program to Balance Your Hormones and Prevent Middle-Age Spread" to "Testosterone: The Hormone of Desire?" and "Nurturing Your Brain: Sleep, Depression and Memory"

I really think this book will be life-changing...if only I could stay awake long enough after supper to read more than a dozen pages at a time...and if I could just remember where I put my glasses...

I wonder if there's a chapter addressing women who wake up every morning about 2 a.m., wide awake and rarin' to go, and blog till 3 a.m. -- and then can't wake up to save their souls when it's time to get ready for work...

The good news is, it's SATURDAY! Yay! I don't have to go to work! Instead, I'll be having coffee and a homemade sweet roll at In The Dough with my friend Nancy...

What's that, Dr. Northrup? Read page 220, "How To Quell Your Sugar Cravings"? Oh. And Page 316? Avoid caffeine?

Heavy sigh.

And so the journey to physical and emotional health during "The Change" begins.

Stay tuned.

WHAT A GIRL WANTS, WHAT A GIRL NEEDS...

...is rarely what a girl gets...

Unless of course, you happen to love coon huntin' and are married to/involved with/in a committed relationship with an avid coon hunter(which, fortunately, I do not and am not, respectively)...

But if you and/or your significant other DO happen to love huntin' them cute and furry little four-footed apple polishers, well, then have I got a great little catalogue for you...I mean it is chock full of perfect Christmas gift ideas for the hard-to-shop for coon huntin' enthusiast and/or his woman.

It's the Holiday 2007 NiteLite Master Catalogue. And I am not sure how one arrived at our house addressed to my husband, but it's excellent fodder for a Saturday a.m. blog...

I mean, forget Victoria's Secret, ladies and gents...

(From here on in, it's best if you read the following lingerie descriptions, etc., outloud with your best Jeff Foxworthy/redneck Batavia, OH (or better yet, Mt. Orab) twang, to get the full, comedic effect...my editorial comments, of course, will be in italics and parenthesis.)

Ready...get your twang set...go...

This holiday season, why not surprise the little woman with a hot number from the NiteLite Cabin Fever Collection...

(And I quote) "Our Cabin Fever Collection items are made of comfortable 5 oz. microdenier polyester. The tops feature exceptional comfort and durability, while the pants feature front pockets (pockets? in lingerie? for what? her extra ammo?), elastic waist and matching drawstring...Drinking a cup of coffee or reading the newspaper takes on new meaning when Cabin Fever's collection is your attire (I'll bet...). Available in Break-Up, Max-4 and Blaze Camo. (Decisions, decisions...)

(Speaking of camo...)

Camo Panties

Ideal for any lady who needs to get her man's attention during hunting season (but won't she just blend in with the scenery?? ) 100% cotton bikini-cut panties come in Realtree Advantage (whatever that means...) $9.99

(And now, my personal favorite...)

Coon Panties

A very unique gift idea for the coonhunter's special lady. (I should say!) These bikini-cut panties are available in white. (with a big ol' bushy racoon tail stamped on the rear, dont'cha know...) All sales final. $9.99 (LOL...I can hear it now...Sorry, Becky Jo, but I just can't take 'em back, girl...)

(And, here's a smokin' hot -- and affordably priced -- gift idea for the guys...)

Men's Glow-In-The-Dark Coon Boxers

These boxers were designed exclusively for NiteLite's coonhunters (well, who the hell else would wear them?)...Imagine the look you will receive when you flash the coon's glow-in-the-dark eyes...(yes...just imagine...) $9.99

LOLOLOLOLOL....

Oh, dear...

I could go on...I mean there's the Mossy Oak Break-Up Camo Swimwear, "both sexy and classy; stylish, yet functional"...Or, for your coon huntin' kids...the Kitten KoonerII -- a rechargable hunting light that weighs under 3 pounds...or if you've got some cold hard cash burnin' a hole in your holiday pocket, there's the "Tree My Dog" clock sporting -- as one might suppose -- a walker hound with a treed raccoon. The alarm sounds off with coon hounds barking, hot on the trail, followed by coon squalls. Push the snooze button, and end the hunt with a gunshot...(what will they think of next?) Only $39.99.

But I've got a house to clean this afternoon, and my son is playing a Munchkin farmer in our high school's musical production of "The Wizard of Oz" this evening...

Gotta go.

Only 46 days till Christmas...twang, twang.

WOULDA, COULDA, SHOULDA

So I just got off the phone after a surprise call from an old college friend...

There's no friend like an old college friend when it comes to the uncanny ability to instantly whisk you down memory lane to a younger, less-encumbered, more carefree time of life...like, say, when you were in your early 20s...

(Oh, by the way, that's a pic of my freshman dorm, Boyd Hall, at Ohio University in Athens...some very fond memories...)

Anyway...my friend and I were catching up with each other's lives and I was sharing some tidbits about my recent fun trip to Minneapolis to visit my 23-year-old niece. I noted how confident, energetic, and rarin' to take on the world my niece is...and how, at the ripe ol' and somewhat tired and disillusioned age of 51, I am downright envious of her. How I wish I had her verve.

"You had that when you were her age," my friend said.

"I did?" I asked. "Really? I don't remember..."

"Yeah, you did," my friend said.

I just don't remember feeling vervy.

I mean, I remember wanting to become the next Erma Bombeck, and being jazzed about graduating from journalism school...but I was never one of those gutsty j-school students who lived and breathed journalism and bravely embarked on exciting summer internships to Tel Aviv or even Cleveland.

I wrote a few horribly boring pieces for the Athens Messenger...and I was a copy editor for The Post, the Ohio University newspaper.

Yippy Skippy.

And then I moved to Carroll, Iowa, for cryin' out loud, after graduation.

How safe and very non-vervy.

"But you wanted to be near your family, your sister," my friend gently reminded me.

Oh, yeah. I'd forgotten my reasoning...it's all coming back to me now...

Actually, I had intended to live and work in Davenport (where my sister resided) that summer after graduation , send out resumes and eventually land a writing job back in Ohio. Back to my beloved Cincinnati...maybe write a humor column for The Cincinnati Enquirier...write the Great American Novel...

I never made it back to the Queen City.

I snagged a daily newspaper job in Carroll (my only job offer), ended up getting married, pursued my writing career here and there about The Tall Corn State... and the rest, as they say is history...

Bottom line is -- to quote from one of my favorite movies, The Way We Were -- "We make our choices, and then our choices make us." (Thank you, Babs Streisand.)

The thing is, for all sorts of reasons, life often just happens, just sort of unfolds serendipitously before us, in spite of our plans, intentions or true desires.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Nearly 30 years later, tho, as one stands a bit past the mid-mile marker on life's rocky road, staring down what's left of the not-so-long homestretch, one can't help but ponder now and then -- particularly after a surprise phone call from an old college friend -- what if I woulda? I coulda...maybe I shoulda...

If I'd only had the verve...

LEAF RAKING AND WHY I DO IT

Well, if I don't rake the leaves, all MY leaves are blown helter-skelter into my neighbors' leaf-free yards...and then I feel guilty.

And who needs more guilt?

Besides, I love the crisp fall air, the feel of gardening gloves and a rake in my hand...tho I don't care much for the ever-predictable blister that shows up between my thumb and index finger even if I wear said gardening gloves...

Actually, truth be told, I think I'm ditching the rake this year and using my neighbor Jeff's bagger/mower. It will still take me all day to sweep the lawn free of those pesky-once-colorful-and-charming-now-brown-and-dead leaves. But at least I won't have a blister at the end of the day. Plus my lawn -- or haven of Creeping Charlie, if you will -- will be trimmed one last time before the cold Iowa wind blows in its first snowstorm. That is, of course, if global warming hasn't done away with the snow entirely...

If I were truly energetic -- and I am a tad more energetic than usual due to that LOVELY extra hour of sleep gained by turning our clocks back last night...I would drag out the ladder and hang the Christmas lights after I've "raked" the leaves...you know, take advantage of the nice fall weather...

Granted, it is more fun to wait till just before Thanksgiving and watch John battle the take-your-breath-away Iowa chill and tornado-like high winter winds while balancing precariously atop a ladder as he attempts to position the tiny little brackets that clasp the twinkling white icicle lights to the gutter...

But, let's face it...John is getting a little long in the tooth (as we all are) and perhaps its time for young Mr. Daniel to inherit the yearly Christmas lights debacle, er, duty . And it really does make more sense to put up the damn, I mean, beautiful, lights on a beautiful day.

Hey, and maybe, while I am hauling the leaves to the lagoon (or the dump, or wherever I'm supposed to take them), and Daniel is hanging Christmas lights, John could grab the ol' hairdryer and the recently purchased window insulation kits and install those oh-so-attractive and allegedly see-through shrink film insulates over our oh-so-old-and-rather-non-energy-efficient windows.

(BTW, despite my promise that we were not turning on the furnace this winter in an effort to thwart the "blood-sucking municipal utility people" (as I so kindly refer to them the day I get my monthly bill), and regardless of my vow that we'd be wearing coats, hats, gloves, and towels wrapped around our faces to stave off nose hair freezing at bedtime, we have, alas, turned on the furnace. But it's set only at 60. And from there it will not budge. Not one degree. Or else, the wrath of Mommy Dearest will be unleashed.)

Now where was I?

Oh, yes. I feel a family work day coming on...

Wait...oh, drat.

What was I thinking? John and Daniel are going over to Grandma's to watch football this afternoon and evening...silly me...

Looks like it's just me and the leaves and the lagoon...the Christmas lights and shrink wrap will have to wait.

Oh, well...I hear the lagoon is lovely this time of year...

Hark! What's that noise?

Omigod! It's the leaf blower! I take back what I said...John and Daniel, it seems, are doing their part to rid the lawn of leaves before they go to Grandmama's for an afternoon of football...

Hmm...guilt must've gotten the better of them...more than likely it was John's picturing me attempting to drive the neighbor's pick-up truck, packed full with leaves, to the dump.

Tee-hee.

Guess guilt is a good thing sometimes...

I (Still) Got The Music In Me

I was thinking today (which is no small feat...ba-da-bump) how depressing that song is that Daniel and his friends listen to...it is often playing on the radio in the background during the day at my new job...

And it goes something like this....

"I...believe...the world...is coming to an end", la, la, la, so forth and so on.

But is it really any more depressing than that classic from back in the day that goes something like this...

"Dust in the wind...all we are is dust in the wind" la, la, la, so forth and so on...

I mean, for cryin' out loud, I bought the damn album my sophomore year in college (or was it my junior year?) and listened to Dust in The Wind over and over again...they should have handed out Prozac with each album sold....

Not that the sound track from The Way We Were was any cheerier...I used to cry myself to sleep to that ol' 33 RPM...LOL...

Or how about the movie Beaches? How 'bout ol Wind Beneath My Wings? How many times in a row did I watch that tear jerker?How many times did I play that rip-your-heart-out song on my cassette recorder, huh?

Holy Cow...

And as long as I'm blogging about sad, silly sentimental songs and such...

Seems there's a lot of Bob Seger playing during the day on the classic rock station that's on now and then at work...Someday lady you'll accompany me, blah, blah, blah...Down on Main Street...Turn The Page, yada, yada, yada...

Enough, already.

Yeah, that's Bob way down and over on the right in my blog sidebar (down past my boyfriend Johnny Depp)...I captioned Bob's pic "Ear Candy" last summer when I resdesigned my blog after my cinci vacation. I used to LOVE Bob Seeger. I used to LOVE the sound of his scraggly, shall-we-say somewhat hillbilly-ish voice.

Well, make sure and take another gander down there at ol' Bob.

LOL.

I dunno. Guess my taste in music has just simply changed. Bob just doesn't speak to me anymore (snooty sniff, hands on hips, nose up in the air).

In fact, if I never hear another Bob Seger song again the rest of my life, it will be too soon. I'm even considering regifting my Bob Seger's Greatest Hits CD this Christmas...(along with the Songs and Songwriters of the 70s CD set that someone once gave me...retro-schmetro.)

LOL.

Give me kickin-a Gwen Stefani any day of the week...

A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Because I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl...

I'll give that song a 10, Dick. It's got a beat, and you can dance to it.

And, like my heroes the Dixie Chicks once sang...

Sometimes ya gotta dance.

IT"S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

And I don't mean the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays...

This Saturday night is THE most wonderful time of the year because -- ta-da! Daylight Savings Time comes to an end, we get to set our clocks back, and we all get one whole extra hour of SLEEP!

YAY!

I will savor all 60 beautiful extra minutes in ZZZZ-Town...

Sleep and chocolate -- two things -- the only things -- I crave these days...

Perhaps I'll celebrate Daylight Savings Time's end by nibbling on some Peanut M&Ms...

Speaking of Peanut M&Ms...

It was "Ghouls Gone Wild" on our street this Halloween...

OK, maybe more like "Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun"...

At any rate, there were lots and lots of ADORABLE little ghosts, goblins, bees, fairies, dinosaurs, super heroes and the like combing the neighborhood for treats...

Noticed, however, that kids rarely actually say "Trick or Treat" any more...they just hold out their bags and expect you to toss the sugary loot in without a word...

"What do you say?" I asked those who attempted to forgo the traditional Halloween greeting...

"Please?" they'd respond, staring at me, as though totally confused, as they held open their bags.
"How 'bout 'Trick or Treat?" I'd offer back.

"Oh, yeah, Trick or Treat!" they'd giggle.

Ya know, back in the day, when candy was a true treat instead of a main staple in kids' diets, I think Halloween was more fun, or meant more....

I, as family tradition holds, handed out treats by myself..Daniel fashioned himself too old to help...and John did his usual disappearing act -- this year he conveniently had to fix a leak in his mom's kitchen faucet.

I think he was traumatized somehow by trick-o-treaters back in the day...

Whatever.

And I, as tradition also holds, ate more peanut M&Ms than I handed out..

Two mini bags for me, one for the kiddies...

Hey, don't forget to set those clocks back!

More rambling to come...