I spent much of Saturday putting up Christmas lights and driving back and forth to the hardware store. Why the hell don't house builders put outlets on the front of the house? Silly me, I thought I'd try something different this year with a little lighted snowman and some lighted vine balls hung in the tree. So, there is now an 80 foot extension cord running around to the backyard outlet, which come to find out, is on the same circuit as the bathroom outlets and the, uh, furnace. Furnace goes on, pretty lights go out. We still have the standard string of chunky colored lights across the front of the garage, but I mistakenly got flasher replacement bulbs at Orchard Supply (nowhere did it say flasher on the box), so now only two green bulbs blink on and off, like a failing neon sign at a rundown motel.

I'm beginning to prefer the pagan celebration of Yule: all you need is a bunch of candles, some wine, and a really big log.

Random thought for late fall: getting a garbage can full of wet leaves out to the curb is not unlike trying to shove the Empire State Building down Fifth Avenue.

I've been spending a lot of time in the car lately, so I got Stanley Lombardo's Iliad on CD. It came with two CDs #5 and no CD #6, so I went and exchanged it, and the new one has the same problem. The publisher has yet to get back to me about what they plan to do about it. Meanwhile, I'm left hanging at the end of Book 11 where the Greeks are getting their butts kicked again.

Current reading (using my eyes): Yoga: the Spirit & Practice of Moving into Stillness by Erich Schiffman and more of the Adept series.