Yesterday was one of those rare days when Alane and I had the day off but Cookie and Mojo had school. So after they were safely dropped at the schoolhouse door, Alane and I drove across town to the upscale blight of Cleveland's east side to find ourselves some expensive groceries.

As for me, I rarely venture into Cleveland proper much less its outer neighborhoods -- too dismal. I could hardly make out the "Obama-Biden" lawn signs among all the "For Sale" postings. Cleveland's such a Detroit wannabe. But that was no matter: we were on our way to Whole Foods to get some broccoli rabe, Zagarra's to get some figs and mineola oranges, and Galucci's to get some prosciutto di parma and a hot eggplant parmesan to go.

Needless to say, all that made for quite the nifty lunch when we returned. Then we headed out to see American Carol, a movie that had about as many quality gags as Meet the Spartans, which I watched on DVD last week. They were both about as heavy-handed on theme.

This week we have to set up the front of the house for Halloween. We're starting to amass about as much scare-decoration as we have for Christmas... And I feel I can't let that happen.