Friday afternoon is here and still no call from the pain clinic. This lack of promptness is getting to be a pain and I am not looking forward to calling the appointment's person at the other doctor's office and being told to be patient. Yes, I am a patient, but patient I am not!! By Monday I will be good and cranky about it when I call.

Made a quick run to WalMart to get salad makings for dinner. Steve is still doing great on the NutriSystem diet and I am still gaining and losing the same pound and a 1/2 but we have the food so may as well go for it until it is gone but man the minestrone soup I had for lunch was awful!! Wandered through the Christmas aisles but nothing piqued my fancy. Meijer has better stuff. Need to go to Garden Ridge and Michael's next time.

Pretty proud of myself - two final exams written and ready to go. I didn't want them haunting me during the Thanksgiving Break. I am going to curl up and watch old movies with Steve. We both love them, though I go more for the romance and Christmas movies and he goes for the military ones. We both love the humorous ones. I want to watch the Nick and Norah Christmas one again. Very funny and how can you not love Asta the dog?

For those of you looking for a cute present for your kid's teacher or for yourself, take a look at the delightful Mrs. Spitzer's Garden by Edith Pattou. The illustrations by Tricia Tusa are adorable - who knew how express flowers could be? It is a feast for the eyes and the comparison to students in her elementary classroom to the garden she tends is wonderful. The tidbit on the back book jacket flap states that Pattou wrote the book as a gift for her daughter's kindergarten teacher. The nurturing, watchful way of a teacher is very much like that of gardener. :-) I also like that it is smaller in size than a regular picture book - fits the story line. This one I am keeping for myself. Many of you already have this in your collection, personal or library, as it was initially published in 2001 but Harcourt brought it back out in a new gift edition - that's the one I have.

The weekend is almost here and I can finish decorating the tree! :-) We are going see Trans-Siberian Orchestra tomorrow night. I can't wait - I love their Christmas CDs and DVDs. Mary saw them in Green Bay a few years ago and loved them and I was so jealous. Now they are here in Lexington.