A Letter

Dear Christmas Coffee Cream Makers (Lucerne, Coffee Mate, etc);

The holiday season is upon us. I can always tell when it draws near because suddenly, next to the rows and rows of regular and specialty flavored coffee creamers, there are bottles upon bottles of seasonal flavors. First rolls in the Autumn flavors, Pumpkin Spice, etc, and then finally the Christmas flavors arrive. Each year I practically squeal in delight when I see the peppermint mocha and other wonderful flavors. I grab a few bottles and then walk/run to the coffee aisle for I know that the peppermint flavored coffee has arrived as well. And so begins Christmas for me.

I practically swoon right there in the store. I can barely stand the thought of waiting until the next morning to make my coffee, knowing that the much anticipated peppermint flavor is just sitting there waiting.

The next morning, and in fact, many mornings after that, I curl up in my favorite spot on the couch and I drink my Christmas coffee. And I know that it will be a good day.

But then.... Oh you knew there had to be a "but then".

But then I run low on my stash of creamer and I head back to the store to get more. But what to my wondering eyes is not there? You guessed it. My Christmas coffee creamer. The place is there...it's just empty. There are still plenty of the Autumn flavors to be had but... yuck. I don't like those. I want Peppermint Mocha.

I go to a few other stores in search of it. Nothing. Places on the shelf for it to be but none to be found.

How can this be?

Let's do the math, shall we? Rows and rows of pumpkin spice and only empty rows of peppermint mocha. Do you see a workable solution? Do you?

Make more peppermint and less pumpkin!!

It's not so difficult to see, really. You have an excess of that nasty stuff and none of the good stuff. So frikkin' MAKE MORE!!!!!!

It's November 19th and for the last two weeks I have not been able to locate more peppermint creamer. SERIOUSLY??? Do you realize that this does not bode well for peppermint creamer drinkers? It's not even Thanksgiving yet people. The pumpkin spice crap should be flying off the shelf if it were really that good (and I'm not saying it's not but let's assume the shelves are speaking for themselves. No shortage there. I rest my case.).

So stop production of the autumn stuff and ramp up production of the peppermint and all other Christmas related flavors.

We go through this year after year after flippin' year. Pull your heads out and MAKE MORE!

Thank you for your time in this matter and I look forward to seeing my beloved creamers back on the shelves in abundance very soon. And oh hey - while I have your attention; it really would be ok to sell those flavors for much longer than two months. Some of us would buy them. I'm just saying.

Sincerely,
Casey

Feed Me

No, this post doesn't really have to do with my daughter melting down over being denied popcorn yesterday when she decided to yet again boycott her swimming lesson (!) and instead sit on my lap to watch. Though frankly I could have done without her screaming and crying "I'm hungry! I'm hungry!" over and over while people looked at her thinking..well. God only knows what. One woman offered the "poor starving girl" a carrot stick but alas, she wasn't "hungry" she was pissed off she couldn't have a snack of popcorn at the community center (which is where the kids are taking swimming lessons). (And when I took her outside to collect herself (ie: collect *myself* since she was starting to piss me off) a young teen aged boy came up and said "I have a little money today. Would you like me to buy her something to eat?" Sweet, yes. Mortifying? ABSOLUTELY!) But no - this post doesn't really have to do with that at all. :)

I'm more thinking along the lines of RSS Feeds.

I noticed, much to my dismay, that my visit stats are on the decline. And yes, I am just as insecure as the next person. Declining stats are a slight blow to my ego. I ask myself: "Am I boring people with stories about my kids?" "Is this because I stopped talking about the "real" stuff like how hard being a parent is and about other things besides 'look at my cute kids'" What is it? Why?

Then - I was at a play date today and one of the moms mentioned feeds and did I know if people had me on their feeds because if they did, they only need to visit my blog (and therefore be counted by my stat counter) to comment. Ah-ha! Feeds. This would also account for the lessening of comments. Though I guess I'm hardly one to talk. It seems I read blogs but rarely comment these days. And in fact, some days I don't get through my blog listing so sometimes it will be a day or more between my visits to blogs. So yes, I'm guilty in the lessening of visits and comments myself. *sigh*

So - the purpose of this rambling and all over the place post is to ask this: Am I on your RSS feed (or whatever feeder you use...I totally have no idea how they work) or do you just stop by?

I'm just curious.

And hey - maybe, just maybe I'll start talking about things other than "Check out my adorable kids" even if it means I come off looking a little unstable at times - as apparently has been the case in times gone by. In my opinion, stability is totally and absolutely over-rated as I'm sure all you moms with young kids can attest. :) And besides, I have a theory - those who come off looking completely in control and "stable" are usually the most unstable of us all. It reminds me of a quote I read on someone's blog (taken from the Grey's Anatomy blog):

“Don’t wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don’t. In the face of all we can lose in a day, in an instant, wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together.”

Why aren’t you crazy?

I'll Huff and I'll Puff and I'll Blow Your House Down

Wow - the wind is howling tonight. I had heard that it was supposed to get windy tonight and yet the sound of the trees blowing and the swings clanging still came as a bit of a surprise. I don't know why exactly, as I've never had a tree fall on a house I've lived in but whenever the wind gets to blowing this hard I think quickly about our home owners insurance and try to remember what they cover when a tree does fall on a house.

Long ago and far away I worked for an agent of a major insurance company and it's weird how often I use knowledge that I gained from that job. Home and Auto insurance - I used to know it inside out and backwards.

Most "Acts of God" aren't covered but, if I remember correctly, if a tree falls insurance will pay to repair the damage done to the house but not to remove the tree from the house (I dare you to try to fix damage without moving the tree but whatever...). I always thought that was weird. I guess the question would be - if a windstorm isn't considered an "Act of God" then what exactly is it? (Totally rhetorical for those who do not believe in God..... I'm just saying.)

See what happens when I'm tired? I ramble on and on and make not one lick of sense. Guess it's time to turn off the computer and go rest while I watch TV. Not like there is much on to watch these days. I'm finding I am watching way too much Home Improvement. :) It's a late school night for Dakota so I have lots of time to occupy. *sigh*

November Already

After Halloween it's just one slippery slope into the Christmas season. Oh who am I kidding? It's already the Christmas season. The kids and I went to Target this afternoon to buy a few 50% off costumes they could use for dress up throughout the next year and I was caught off guard by the Christmas trees and decorations already cramming the aisles. Now I don't mind all that much because I love looking at the Christmas stuff and at least I'll be able to walk into stores with the kids and not have to worry about what freaky thing will set them off. (For instance, Kelton has been really bad about "freaking his head out", as he puts it. He wanted to see all the "spooky" stuff but once we got about 2 rows from the Halloween aisle, the poor boy would flip his top and start crying and begging us to turn around. It got to the point where I would dread having to go anywhere with him for fear of what might trigger him...and you just know that some of the houses last night about did him in. *sigh* Hopefully next year he will be better about it all and he won't feel the need to run as far as Las Vegas whenever he catches sight of something Halloween-ish.) But it was still so odd to see orange and black smashed in right next to red and green. In fact, one aisle was so mixed up that half of it was Halloween clearance and the other half was tree decorations.

Talk about "freaking out your head"! :)

So it's really November 1st, huh? It just seems impossible that the year is coming to a close already. Where did it all go? And why is it I can never find aisle's filled with Thanksgiving stuff? Does anyone else feel like Thanksgiving gets the short end of the deal in this one? Halloween; big deal. Christmas (or whichever winter holiday you celebrate); big deal. Thanksgiving? It's just a long weekend stop over for Christmas shopping.

Yep - it definitely got ripped off. :)