Random Saturday

• Here in Texas, fall is sudden and fleeting, Cool temps are here then just as quickly gone. It was 87 yesterday; I wore shorts. It was hotter than ... well, you get the idea. I don't mind it in August and September, but November? I didn't turn on the AC only because I knew it wouldn't hit 70 today. As I uncomfortably made my way through the afternoon, I tried to keep it all in perspective. We were hit with a thunderstorm around 8 p.m. yesterday, and that took care of the heat. Relief.

• I don't miss the cold per se, but I do miss the cool. And I'm not enjoying mosquito bites in November.

• KIrstie Alley weighs 145 pounds? I missed her debut on Oprah Monday, but I did catch the recap. Sorry, but at 5'8", she is not 145 lbs. Rosie (O'Donnell, The View) pulled a 5'8" audience member on stage the other day and asked her weight. Brave woman. She was neither fat nor thin, really, just right, and she weighed 168. Sorry Kirstie, I cannot believe you. I respect her weight loss and more power to her (though I still find her incredibly annoying), but she needs to be a little more upfront about what she weighs. She misleads women and gives them more body issues. If she weighs 145, then put me down at an anorexic 95.

• Congrats to Sylvia, who scored not one, but two goals in her soccer match today. They still lost their game, but the team scored four goals and had at least four other excellent shots on goal. Way to go, Sylvia! It was nice to cheer for once.

• Can't quite get a read on my neighbors; since none of them reads this, I can say pretty much what I want, but I prefer to exercise caution. Suffice it to say, I was getting really weird vibes from a woman I sort of know, and then suddenly she paid me an amazing compliment, totally out of the blue. Not quite sure what to make of it, especially since I sat and stewed over it, our "friendship" as it were, for a long time, more time than the situation warranted, that's for sure. I am humbled, to say the least, and now I am back to wondering. Maybe I'm not such a suburban misfit; maybe I have a chance here after all. Or maybe I just analyze things way, way too much. Perhaps the unexamined life is worth living; some people probably ease right through life without getting all worked up over a sideways glance, a double entendre.

Someone should save me from myself.

• I find myself longing for life in Europe these days. Memory conveniently clouds all the unpleasant aspects of my life abroad, but I am suddenly nostalgic, anxious to return. If we did, all those annoyances and inconveniences would hit me like a ton of bricks. I still think we'll do it again. But not in Russia, where one of Gary's colleagues is moving. Life on a foreigners compound? No thanks.

• After two and half glorious days with an in-house husband, tomorrow sees the launch of another week of single parenting. I am so, so lucky to have easy children; how would I manage if the girls were ill-behaved or hard to manage? Still, I miss having their father/my husband around. I didn't really sign up for the single parenting gig; his travel crept up kind of slowly and before we knew it, he was gone all the time. Or, to be more accurate, half the time. On the hright side, it does mean more Ritter Sport dark chocolate coming my way.

• Went to a holiday gift mart in the neighborhood, where I purchased a third (!) Pampered Chef baking stone. Maybe this one won't get busted. Sigh ... the first one was my own fault; one should make sure one turns on the correct burner, even when the baking stone is not sitting on top of the stove. But the second one — I told Gary not to leave it sitting there as we unpacked, that it would get broken. You can guess what happened next, much like the day I told him not to leave his coffee cup on the end table while simultaneously twirling Sylvia around in the chair.

At least the coffee didn't hit the rug.

• Just finished Tom Perrotta's Little Children. Another book about infidelity — what a disturbling trend. Very well written, but I'm not sure I need to explore the darker side of suburbia again for some time. A week, at least.

• I'm getting my own iPod. I figured I could just use Gary's, but lately he is never home. And yesterday, even when he was home, he left the iPod in his briefcase, so I walked without a soundtrack. That's it — tomorrow I plan to hit the Apple store.

Out tonight, dinner and a movie. Gary and I will see one movie, the girls another. Wow. Life has changed in good ways as the girls have gotten older. I loved them as infants, have really loved every stage of their lives. Sometimes I miss the toddler and preschool years, but as the girls get older, they are so interesting;they are beoming fascinating, thinking people. I love to watch movies with them; Maddie and I thoroughly enjoyed our screening of Mildred Pierce a couple weeks ago. But I think tonight's choice is a bit much for the girls, so they will see Flushed Away while Gary and I choose more adult fare.

Not a bad weekend, all in all, and it's only half over. I am suddenly filled with optimism. More random thoughts on the horizon ... stay tuned.