This is not what I wanted to see when I looked out my window this morning.

Yeah, I know it’s not a lot, but it’s way too much for my tastes. I hate snow. HATE! I got all the snow I need for the rest of my life when I lived in Wyoming and Lake Tahoe. I’d be happy if I never saw another flake of snow again.

Is this Mother Nature’s idea of an early holiday gift? I wonder what the return policy is…

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Now the meal is in your stomach and the leftovers are in the fridge. After a little rest and maybe some pie, it’ll be time to get on with what this season is really about: shopping! If you celebrate Christmas or any other gift-giving December holiday, it’s time to get with the program.

I’d like to offer the one most valuable piece of advice anyone can give you: do all of your shopping online! That’s right. Forget the Friday morning sales, avoid the malls and put the enormous crowds out of your mind. You don’t have to deal with full parking lots or grumpy cashiers. All of the things you want to buy for everyone on your list is available on the web.

Do you want Mrs. Ball’s Original Chutney? Not a problem. How about a Steiner Velvet Shield Welding Blanket? Piece of cake. Perhaps you’re looking for the SmellKiller 90000 Fish Slayer. It’s there! I’m sure there’s someone on your list who would like a Hohner D40 Concertina, and if all of the shopping makes you tired, you can pick up a Manhattan Chocolate Platform Bed.

See? It’s easy! Just point, click and buy!

I know that some of you may not have used your Amazon.com accounts in a while. If you need a practice run, please feel free to buy things for me from my wishlist.

Have fun!

Oh, I almost forgot! I know a number of you are probably looking for red hats. Here are some excellent options:

Shiny Vinyl Bucket Rain Hat
Fishing Hat
Bucket Fishing Hat
Reversible Fleece Bucket Hat
Burberry Women’s Canvas Bucket Hat
Leather Bucket Hat
Angora Bucket Hat

We made it back from Florida, and we’re mostly happy to be home. We had a great time, but we were pretty exhausted by the end of the trip. However, the one thing we weren’t ready to be back to is the weather. Seattle is just how we left it — grey, rainy and chilly. Apparently there was quite a storm (or three) while we were gone. High winds, power outages, flooding, the works. Our house is fine, but the yard is a huge mess of leaves and branches and stuff. Joy.

But that’s enough complaining about Seattle. The trip was wonderful! This was a combination business and pleasure trip. I had a couple of conferences to go to, and we decided to make it into a small vacation too. We flew out early Friday morning. Due to the distance and the time change, we didn’t get into Orlando until Friday evening. The first few nights, we stayed at Disney’s Pop Century Resort.

Continue reading “Back into the deluge”

If you live in the United States, you’ve probably seen ads for the Select Comfort “Sleep Number bed.” The claim is that the bed’s firmness is completely adjustable, to give each person their own perfect mattress. The king mattress has independent adjustments for the left and right side, to accommodate couples with different preferences. You have a remote control-like device to adjust the firmness of the mattress, and the control shows a number representing the setting you’ve chosen. Select Comfort says that this number is your “Sleep Number.”

This all sounds reasonable enough, I suppose. Last year when we were looking for new beds and mattresses, Becky and I briefly stopped in the Select Comfort store in a local mall and checked them out. We weren’t terribly impressed, either by the product or the sales staff. We didn’t really stick around long enough to find our “Sleep Numbers.” I thought maybe I hadn’t given Select Comfort a fair trial, but I also didn’t feel compelled to go back.

This week, I’m staying at a Radisson hotel, and the rooms have Select Comfort beds. I have little choice but to give the bed a real test drive, since I’m here for six nights. So far, I’ve tried a wide range of settings, and I haven’t been able to find any that are even remotely acceptable. Yes, it ranges from firm to soft. The firmness isn’t the problem. The problem is that it feels like a cheap air mattress! That’s not very surprising, since it is an air mattress, albiet a very expensive one. They put some padding on top (the more you pay, the more padding you get), but it’s still just an air mattress. If I crank the firmness way up, it loses a bit of the “air mattress” feel, but then it’s far too firm to sleep on.

Suffice it to say, I haven’t been sleeping very well this week.