Woke up crazy early so I went downstairs and got the meatballs and gravy going. It's simmering now on the small back-burner, with some big beef ribs thrown in to melt away their bony goodness over the next few hours.

Still dark around here -- it's getting to be that time of year when the sun doesn't get over the horizon until around 7:30 which still seems eerie to me.

Went to the shopping center yesterday -- the outside stores, not the mall itself. Wasn't as crazy as I'd feared. As usual, the overly helpful staff at Beast Buy interrupted my product-browsing no less than three times to offer me assistance in finding expensive electronic products. One guy thrust a clipboard at me to review my deferred payment options. It turns out I could have that sweet blu-ray home theater system that isn't really worth all that money -- and not have to worry about paying for it for 18 months.

Heh. I thought consumers couldn't get credit these days. Or people were learning to live within their means. Or whatever the newspapers are speculating these days. No matter: the merry-go-round is apparently still turning, tickets still being sold. On lay-away.

Decorating for Christmas has begun here at Berea-Rose. It's a gradual process. Naturally, the music is one of the first things to come out. Then lights. That back room is pretty damn festive now. And from there it just gets bigger.

I'm watching the news on the local Fox station. The news-readers are so glum. Maybe it's because Cuyahoga County has no chance of cleaning itself up.

The local phone company knocked on my door today wanting to sell me their broadband TV service. I said I wasn't interested and they asked why. I said I don't get cable TV. That's a great way to end a conversation because it's a statement no one ever expects to hear.

Hey, at least Da Chimpz read books. When they're not eating the Halloween candy. Got heaps of it strewn all over Berea-Rose this week.