Merry Chr...NO! I'm not going there quite yet. I did replace our seriously dead petunias with pine bough arrangements today, but that's as far as I'm going for now, don't worry. (OK, I did also toss slimy, squirrel-gutted pumpkins - that was a pretty combo, dead petunias and moldy pumpkins - but retiring stale Halloween decorations is not the same as putting out Christmas stuff). I appreciated the lovely fresh-pine scent as I made these arrangements, but I also thought, eh, I'm not really in the mood for this yet. Kinda Scroogie, I know. Eh. I'll get there.

PS Man was I glad that I hadn't covered our shrubs in that obnoxious (although way cool-looking) fake spider-web crap this year. I did it last year, and totally lost my steam for picking it off our shrubs, so there it sat, blowing sadly in the wind, for a good part of the winter. Pathetic. I'll never put it out again, I'm learning these things now that I'm almost-40: Don't Put Out Decorations You Don't Feel Like Taking Down. Or That You Can't Take Down In 30 Minutes, Preferably Less (exception: Christmas tree).

Motivated to get the most out of my walks (I've recently read Survival of the Thinnest, good quick read, with some new concepts, I highly recommend it), I bought myself a heart-rate monitor yesterday. How fun! I discovered that my resting heart-rate is nice and low, hovers around 50. That's good (better than I probably deserve, actually - yay for genetics, I guess. Same with my 90/70 BP, that's just how I roll...it's definitely nothing I've specifically worked for). I also discovered that I can get my heart rate up around 150-155 when I'm walking, but I do have to concentrate on movin' my butt along at a pretty good clip - 5 miles/hour. Good to know, it kept me kickin' it, it was fun. (Tangent Alert! Writing that made me think back to junior high - ah, such lovely days - and my sis Stacey, two years younger than me, telling me that her friend's older sister had told her that I wiggled my butt too much when I walked. For some reason, hearing that did not make me laugh, or wiggle my butt as hard as I possibly could, as it should have, but instead crushed me and left me stiff-legging it down the halls at school trying to figure out how the hell one walks without moving one's butt too much. Sigh.)

Product recommendation! A new Salsa Lisa (the original is terrific), Roasted Chipotle salsa. Good smoky, spicy, rich flavor. Delicious with raw veggies (that's how I ate it) so I imagine it would be sublime on tortilla chips, mmm. There used to be a cool Garrison Keillor quote on Salsa Lisa jars, but it's not there anymore - anyone know why? Salsa Lisa is a Minnesota product, available in the dairy section at grocery stores (not sure of its distritbution outside of MN).