The election is over, and Christmas is on the way. I took the plunge and went shopping the day after Thanksgiving with my daughter Sarah. Woo-hoo, they was tons of folks out there. Of course, as a representative of Federated Department Stores (read Macy's, Bloomingdale's), I was happy to see this! I was even happier to see that people were actually buying things and not just looking.

We arrived at the Mall of Georgia at 8:25 AM and considered ourselves lucky to find a parking space in the O'Charley's Restaurant lot adjacent to the mall. (The mall lot itself was already full.) We walked in the Rich's (Federated also) entrance and were confronted by tons of shoppers. By 9:45, we were hungry and ready for lunch, and seeing that everyone else was already munching on burgers and plates of noodles, we joined in and were finished with lunch by 10:15. Another couple of hours at MOG and we headed to a regional outlet mall. The crowds were so thick there that a toothpick could stand on end!

Oy!

It's time to abolish the Electoral College. Here we are again in a tight presidential race, and it is entirely possible that the candidate who wins the popular vote will not win the election because of the Electoral College. It's too late now, but perhaps amending the Consitution would prevent another debacle like we saw in 2000. And look at the results of that election! (Sorry, W fans!)

Truly, iTunes and the iPod are an amazing duo. Each Tuesday, Apple posts free downloads -- this week, among the offerings were audio versions of the presidential and vice presidential debates. Since I missed the VP show, I think I might take a listen. =:)

The morning after we returned from the Great California Trip of 1975, I put Dan Fogelberg's "Wysteria" on the stereo. Just now, almost thirty years later, I finished listening to it on my iPod at work, and it is still the most beautiful, calming song.

How is it that some songs are so tightly tied to a time and place (sometimes a person)? But is that not the wonder of music, the feelings that it evokes and sustains? When I heard the song today, I thought back on the thousands of miles that we drove on that trip, the variety of Americana that we experienced along the way, and the friendships that we have to this day. It was, in three words, very cool indeed.

Hello, Mother Nature. I love what you're wearing! Oy, veh...so the hurricane passed, the power is being restored all over town, and the place looks gorgeous. The sky was the most beautiful azure today, just picture perfect. It was a day where errands were not an issue!

Today we added a new member to our family -- a tiny pooch named Payday, a two-year-old Boston terrier/dachshund mix. He has an adorable face and has already made himself part of the family, although he's only been with us about six hours as of this writing. Within that time, he's been to Jake's Ice Cream in midtown, the Georgia Tech campus, and round about Alpharetta. At least he'll be well-traveled.