Seriously, I'm not a Luddite

Can I just tell you how domestic I was this morning? I could not get over myself. I was frosting cupcakes, putting ingredients in a Crock Pot, and running the dishwasher at the same time! These may not sound like earth-shattering tasks to you, but they are rare for me. The occasion for cupcakes: a coworker's birthday. I made some last month for a different coworker, but these turned out so much better because a) I left them uncovered overnight, and b) I stirred the frosting before I tried to spread it (it helps to read the directions, folks.) Last time the cupcake tops were too moist and the frosting was too thick, and the result was a crumby frosting mess. This time, though, I felt like freakin' Martha Stewart!

Meanwhile I loaded corn, stewed tomatoes, kidney beans, chiles, taco seasoning, and ground turkey into the Crock Pot to stew up some tasty dinner for tonight. I really need to look for some good Crock Pot recipes. I underutilize that lovely contraption. I mean, it can't get much easier than that!

And last but certainly not least, the dishwasher. Every apartment I've ever had was equipped with an automatic dishwasher, but I've always been a hand-washer. The only explanation I have is that living alone, the quanitity of dirty dishes never justified using a dishwasher. And I always thought it was lame that you had to basically wash the dishes before loading them anyway. But lately I've been so busy, and uber lazy, so the dishes have just piled up. It occurred to me to try using the dishwasher to get caught up, and now I'm hooked! It is quite ironic, because I consider myself to be interested in all the latest gadgets, yet here I am just now catching on to something that's been around for decades! But it really is quite fabulous.

The other household item I've recently fallen in love with is the electric blanket. My apartment is not very warm unless I crank the heater way up, so it's usually pretty chilly in there during the winter. We had a cold snap recently, and despite wearing three layers, I was cold. You can imagine my glee when I slipped between the sheets and felt the cozy warmth envelop me. Again, been around for ages (and I even had one for a spell as a teen back in CA) but I'm just now hopping on the bandwagon.

I wonder what other ingenious products are out there that I've been clueless about?!

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So I never went to Texas! The customer cancelled the training at the last minute. And by "last minute," I mean that if they called 45 minutes later, I'd have been at the airport already! Craziness. Our training director tried to convince them to go through with it, but to no avail. The superintendent decided they weren't ready for it yet, she waved her hand, and her will was done. They are going to have to pay a hefty rescheduling fee, because of course I'd already paid for my plane ticket and rental car, and the hotel is not refundable unless you give them 24 hours notice....I was giving them about 6. I was able to get most of the money back for the plane ticket, in the form of a credit at Air Tran, so that's good. Of course I will be reimbursed for everything, so if there had been any loss, it would have been the company's, not mine. There was about an hour of will-I-be-in-Texas tonight or won't I, and I was kind of ambivalent. If I go, cool, I get to touch the Gulf of Mexico. If I don't go, fine, I get to sleep in my own bed tonight.

Today it got to about 80 degrees here, which was quite nice. Meanwhile the leaves are falling off the trees like nobody's business. I sit in front of a window at work, looking out on the front parking lot, and several times the past few days when I've looked up, it's appeared to be raining leaves. Kinda cool. But the trees are becoming barren and that is so very, very bleak.

Lost comment: They built up to the "Fall Finale" as if it was going to be some spectacular thing, and it thus it was kind of disappointing. It's also a bummer that we have to wait until Feb for new episodes, but that's better than them running reruns the whole time, with a new episode thrown in just often enough that you are afraid to stop watching in case you miss it.

Grey's Anatomy comment: Last night's episode was about to veer into throw-your-hands-in-the-air territory when Mer was tempted by McSteamy, but thank GOD she chose Derek. My question, though, is "Now what?" The hero and heroine are together. That scene we saw at the end where they introduced themselves to each other would have made a perfect series finale. So it'll be interesting to see how the writers (hopefully) keep things interesting between these two.

P.S. Yes, the post time is correct; I'm writing this at work. Things were pretty quiet today since most schools had the day off for Veterans Day. Days like this make me miss being a teacher! (But then I quickly get over it!)