the last day of november

Today is the last day of November, and everyone knows that the last day of November is the day you dump all your leftover fall-ish photos, and then accompany those photos with random bits of blather that have been floating around in your noggin. That way, your brain and your blog are fresh and clean and ready to be all sparkly and cinnamony and full of glitter and Christmas cheer come December first.

Which happens to be tomorrow, by the way.

Eeek.

1. First and foremost, I finally found my sock monkey slippers.


I have been looking for my sock monkey slippers since the middle of October. I did such a fabulous job last spring of putting away my winter wardrobe that I couldn't find my slippers or any of my wool sweaters or my two favorite Target Christmas t-shirts. And believe me, I've been looking. For weeks and weeks. But the other morning, by the light of my cell phone aka flashlight, as my hubby was still sleeping, I found them tucked neatly and safely away in the trunk in my bedroom. Which is where I always put my winter sweaters and my favorite Target Christmas t-shirts, and pretty much everything else winter apparel related, so I'm not quite sure why it didn't occur to me earlier to look there for my sock monkey slippers.

I guess it's just another nail in the I'm losing my mind coffin.

Or maybe it's just another brick in the wall.

Yes, I've had too much coffee this morning. Why do you ask?


2. Dave's bread. Yes, I'm going to talk about Dave's bread again.

I'm sorry.

On my road trip earlier this month, I bought so much Dave's Killer bread that we can barely get our freezer closed. I couldn't even stock up on ice cream when it was on sale last week. That's how full my freezer is.

As soon as I got home from my road trip, I got a call from a friend who was shopping at our local grocery store, and she told me she was standing in front of a table where they were giving out samples of Dave's bread because our local grocery store was going to start carrying every single kind of bread that Dave makes.

Needless to say, I'll be holding a slightly smushed frozen Costco twin pack Dave's bread giveaway any day now.

Be watching for it.


3. I'm also going to talk about soup pots again.

I know.

Because I got such a killer deal on my 7.25 qt Caribbean Blue Le Creuset Enameled Cast Iron Round French Oven, I still had a very substantial Macy's credit left. So I once again popped onto Macy's site and discovered that the smaller but equally useful 5.5 qt Le Creuset Enameled Cast Iron Round French Oven in the lovely Caribbean Blue color was back in stock. In addition, they were offering a bonus gift of two - TWO! - Enameled Stoneware Baking Dishes - a $160.00 value!!! - if you spend $200.00.

Sign. Me. Up.

I'm a sucker for a bonus.

I'm also a person who pretty much goes by the picture and doesn't always read the fine print or even the not so fine print for that matter, and therefore just assumed that my bonus baking dishes were a 9x13 and a 9x13's little sister. Please tell me that for a $160.00 value you'd be tempted to think you were getting a 9x13 out of the deal?

You wouldn't? You'd actually read the description beneath the picture of your $160.00 valued bonus?

Well then.

I actually burst out laughing when I opened the box and found a very cute and little 5x7 baking dish and the somewhat larger and perhaps slightly more useful 7x10.

They are adorable, that's for sure. They're also a very pretty bright and shiny red. If anyone has suggestions for what one might bake in a 5x7 sized baking dish, I'd love to hear them.

I should probably finish up this story by telling you that the day after my Bonus Baking Dishes arrived, I went to TJ Maxx and saw the exact same 5x7 dish for $7.99.

$7.99.

Not 79.99.

$7.99.

Occupy Macy's!


4. Are you getting tired yet?

Me too.

I'm almost done. I promise.


5. We put the Christmas tree up on Monday, and true to form, we had lighting issues from the get-go. I amazed and impressed myself by changing out the fuses in one of the misbehaving strings all by myself. That was after I amazed and impressed myself by actually finding extra fuses in the first place. Normally, changing out fuses is a job I would hand off to my hubby, but he'd already been to town that morning just to buy a piece of fresh ginger for me, and therefore was quite behind in his plans for the day. Electrical skills don't usually dwell in my wheelhouse, and there was a moment of alarm when I almost put a screwdriver through my hand whilst trying to get the fuse holder thingy open, but the Christmas tree lights are on.

Yee.

Haw.

6. Then I had these two...


... help me put the ornaments on the tree. We had a lot of fun, and it was nice to have help because I have a lot of ornaments and it takes forever and a day to put them all on by myself.

Then, I woke up the next morning and realized we hadn't put the garland on, so I took the vast majority of the ornaments back off the tree, because they're all glass and there was just no way I could get the garland on without a pretty significant casualty count.


7. I was also going to tell you about the crazy zombie dreams I've been having lately and ask if anyone knows what it means when a middle aged woman has zombie dreams on a fairly regular basis, but I'm pretty sure most of the dream analyzers checked out somewhere between the Dave's bread and the mini baking dishes, so we'll just leave that for another day.

So, there we go! My brain is now empty of pre-December thoughts and starting tomorrow I can be all Christmas all the time.

Thank you for listening.

Happy last day of November!