It really is difficult to comprehend ...

... the amount of chocolate we now have in our apartment.

Merry Christmas!

(It's even snowing outside, a little!)

"Those houses"

Every year, Tom and I make a point of driving by certain houses that have outlandish outdoor Christmas decorations. There is one particular neighborhood that has a few very dependable displays every year. People who live within ten miles of this stretch know exactly which ones we mean.

This one is on a side street.


It has actually toned down over the years -- originally, there were lights on the rooftop that were made to look like snowballs. For some reason (actually I can think of plenty of good reasons!) they stopped putting those up.

If you roll down the windows, you can here some tinny-sounding Christmas music coming from god knows which of those decorations.

Then, a short drive around the corner is this:

(and they've actually toned this one down since last year -- much less kitsch, and they picked a color scheme!)

That one's on a pretty major road, and people tend to slow down and stare in disbelief. When we were there, a tow truck was towing away a dented car (no one was hurt) -- right across the street from this house. I'd be surprised if it was the only fender-bender in the vicinity with all those lights on.

And a short drive from there was this.

Yikes.

I know there are other crazy-houses around, but these? They're the must-sees.

Is it a sign?

This perfect red leaf was lying on the steps of my workplace the other day.


But there were no trees nearby that had leaves of that color. There was just this one, all by itself, lying patiently on the stair.

It was gone when I went out at lunchtime.

Perhaps it had accomplished its mission by then.

Three-day weekends rule

Had some extra vacation days that needed using up, so I've been taking Fridays off.

I highly recommend it. It's amazing how much adding one day to the "weekend" improves quality of life.

Of course, almost as fun was announcing a couple weeks ago, "I'm not coming in on Friday FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR!"