5 by 5

Five Things that I am really tired of:

1. Hot weather. It is almost Halloween, and the temperatures in the afternoons here are in the 80s. It's not like I live in Miami! Let it be fall good and proper, and not just in the mornings. Please!

2. Cooking for one. This is maddening. Even if you cut recipes in half it still makes too much. Fresh fruit and other produce tends to go bad before it can be eaten. So aggravating.

3. Mosquitoes. This goes along with the hot weather. They are a scourge. If I could keep a bat house I would, but they aren't allowed in the city limits. The Old Farmer's Almanac has promised a cold, severe winter. Bring it on and kill these nasty things.

4. Tooting your own horn. I know, I know, this isn't supposed to be a bad thing. But it always feels weird to me, and sadly it has become a necessity where I work.

5. Election campaigns. Why oh why isn't it November yet? I'm so sick of both sides getting up and talking crap. They are all dishonest and overly ambitious. That's why they are politicians. It goes with the territory. The trick is to find the one who is the least dishonest. We desperately need campaign reform that prevents them from a lot of what they do in ads. Makes me sick.

5 things I am enjoying right now.

1. Dillard's. I don't know if this is true at every Dillard's, but the last few times I have been shopping there it has been a wonderful experience. The staff in all of the departments I visited were very helpful and I found a lot of things that I really liked. They even have call buttons in the dressing rooms. It was a lot like the way I imagine shopping in the 50's was, when customer service actually existed.

2. The woman's magazine Lucky. Most magazines that focus on fashion and style are filled with things that normal people cannot possibly afford. Lucky is different. Sure, there are some high end items in each article, but there is a much wider ranges of prices. What's more, they feature clothing that you can actually wear. They also have a whole section in the back of the magazine with the Lucky deal's. These are products or companies that will give you a discount on select merchandise online if you put in the codes from the section. And every issue comes with a sheet of page tabs so that you can mark what you like. How fun!

3.Pushing Daisies. I will admit to having missed the first two episodes of this season because I was watching Bones which airs at the same time. However, thanks to baseball, I was able to watch last night and I was reminded of how much I enjoy that show and how adorable Lee Pace is. Must get my Tivo working!

4. Progressive Dinner. To be fair, it really isn't a "progressive" dinner since we don't advance from house to house. It's more of a communal dinner, but that sounds funny. Recently, a group of my friends started having dinner together once a month. We pick a theme and each party prepares part of the meal. It is a lot of fun, and hopefully we will be able to continue with it. Food prices get a little scary.

5. Pandora. For those of you who don't know Pandora is an online radio station that allows you to heavily tailor the type of music that is played. I absolutely love it and I have found a lot of really cool music through it. It has a few problems; occasionally a song will stop and skip to the next one, and you can't replay a song, and of course, not everything is in their music library. But it is free and totally worthwhile. So thanks Squirrel for telling me about it!