Hey! It's November

Hello to the four of you who are breathlessly waiting for an account of what's going on in my life lately ;-)

I'm crazy surprised that it's almost the end of November. I'm not sure where most of 2007 really went. I mean, I was there and everything, but it seems to have been a bit of a whirlwind.

So, remember last month when I said I'd be heading to the cottage to rake a bunch of leaves and get further into the fall spirit? Yeah, not so much. My parents elected to head up there on a weekend when I had a wedding to go to so not only do I feel sad for missing out on the end of the season wrap up, but I feel incredibly guilty about leaving all the work for my parents. Do you think really nice Christmas gifts will make up for it??

I did get around to partaking in some Halloween festivities this year thanks to the encouragement of D, who elevates the enjoyment of the holiday to a whole new level. Her four costume tribute to Maria Von Trapp was inspired...fully augmented by the 7 carved Von Trapp children pumpkins. I also discovered that I have quite the talent for the shooter luge...who knew? :-)


I also managed to get around to my shopping trip to Buffalo with mom and sister-in-law which was fantastic. We were pretty much run off our feet at the end of the Longest Shopping Day Ever on Saturday but scored some fantastic deals and got a start on our Christmas shopping. I managed to make a couple of early Christmas gift purchases for myself with a snazzy new watch and purse. Isn't it pretty?? Shopping savings are definitely there to be had by crossing south of the 49th. First of all, the Canadian dollar being at basically par (which, I know, isn't quite as good as it was a few weeks ago) means that any brand is automatically going to be cheaper just because they haven't adjusted the 'list' price to account for the change in exchange. Coach purses that were $500 here were less than $400 there. But our biggest savings came from spending about 3 hours at Macy's. I had assumed the 'international savings card' 11% (who comes up with these numbers?) discount was only available at the Macy's in New York and Las Vegas, where they had visitors centres, but no, they had them right at the service desks at the Galleria. And then they had a 'sign up for a Macy's account and get an additional 20% purchases' thing going on. 31% off everything in the store?? Let me at it! We also stayed at a really cute hotel and managed to eat lunch at the Cheesecake Factory without an hour and a half wait for a table (here's a tip...ALWAYS check to see if there is seating available at the bar). Thanks to Vickie, the cross border expert, for the advice on the best border crossing spot, location for hotel and the Targets to avoid we had an absolutely no stress weekend. Well, except for the usual anxiety about getting back across the border ;-).

Otherwise I have been enjoying the fall television offerings (and am preparing myself for the ugly near future of a reality television bonanza for as long as the strike goes on). I'm *loving* the new Chuck, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Gossip Girl and Reaper. And really enjoying the returning Friday Night Lights (why aren't more people watching this show??), Heroes (for the most part), The Office, and House (for Hugh Laurie).

And now we're coming up on December and I should be getting in the mood for Christmas. Part of me is feeling too lazy to bother to get all the decorations out...which I know I'd regret since I love coming home to the twinkling lights on the tree once it's up. My mom's planning on visiting next weekend to help with the decorating and do some Christmas shopping so I really shouldn't complain about the work, but it's never stopped me before.

And now, the top five things I'm looking forward to in the coming weeks:

1. Dirty Dancing the musical
2. KT Tunstall
3. weekend visits with Shawna and the munchkin and my mom
4. Bon Jovi
5. The multitude of Christmas parties, gatherings and brunches filling up my calendar

Stay tuned :-)