What's On My Mind?

I haven't posted for a few days because things have been busy, or I've just been too distracted to formulate a blog entry. To this end, I'm recording, for posterity, what is on my mind on Monday, November 3rd, 2008:

-- The election tomorrow will tell us who will be the new president for the next four years (with all that that implies), and if marriage will still be defined as between a man or a woman in California (vote YES! on Prop 8!!).
-- The stock market is still wobbly, but now that I'm invested in it, it seems to be more on my mind than I expected. Did my stocks go up or did they go down today? How much will the dividends be worth? How can I minimize my taxes on the earnings? Are there other stocks that seem safe that maybe I should consider? Have I made bad choices?! (And will the election tomorrow cause a surge on Wall Street? Please, please, please ...)
-- My work assignment is potentially shifting, with, perhaps, a raise and a need to back-fill. In addition, one of the people I have working for me is having a baby in January, and I need to find somebody to come in temporarily to help pick up the slack.
-- Halloween was a lot of fun. The kids had a great time and were, from oldest to youngest, Harry Potter, Wonder Woman, and Dash from "The Incredibles". I made it through with only minimal weight gain. We have huge bowls of candy that the kids are slowly working through (and my wife keeps taking some and freezing it for later use). With my diet in-progress, I find the things I miss most are peanut butter-related chocolates: peanut butter M&Ms and Reese's peanut butter cups.
-- I'm now over 30 pounds lighter than when I started dieting this past May, meaning that absolutely none of my clothes fit me right anymore. It's getting really bad, but I'm not done losing weight (about 5 more pounds to go!) so I don't want to buy new clothes, yet. My wife's in a similar condition, but her wardrobe seems more flexible than mine.
-- My work changed my email system from Eudora to Microsoft Outlook. It's got some features I like and others I hate, but I'm managing. My productivity has tanked this past week, though. I'm trying to get things done a little more efficiently, but it's a weird time right now.
-- Daylight Savings Time happened and it seems the kids have adjusted pretty quick. My wife and I? Not so much. We stayed up "late" last night trying to reset our bodies, but we woke up on full-speed at the "usual" time this morning, which means tonight we'll be one more hour tired by the time we go to bed.
-- With the holidays approaching, it seems life gets busier, though really it's just the same but feels busier. We are anxious for soccer to end for my daughter since that seriously cramps our style, especially on Saturdays. We also are looking forward to having ward families over for dinner, just as a get-to-know-you effort. My wife and I haven't been social that way in a long time, but want to start getting back to it. With no biological family around, we have created a circle of friends that we consider our "adopted" family.
-- I held a little party for my wife last night in celebration of her birthday. I invited eight different couples over for dessert, and explicitly stated they could bring their children (it being Sunday and all, with babysitters hard to come by). In all, we had about 20 kids and 18 adults in the house. The intent was to eat dessert, have adult socialization, and let the kids play. I think it was a greatly successful party, and my wife was moved that all these people came to our house just to wish her a happy birthday -- she was nearly in tears when they sang happy birthday to her. In attempting to bake the two cakes for the party, my wife (who is, without a doubt, the chef in our family -- and baked all the cupcakes for the kids) pretty much hovered behind me the whole time, anxiously giving me advice and instructions on what to do. I desperately needed it, and was grateful for it, and it is clearly evident that I am incapable of planning a social event without her involvement. I'm delighted that she's my better half and I look forward to many more birthdays to come. I'm glad I had the chance to throw that little party to express that, and I now have ideas on how to do it even better in the future.
-- I haven't done any family history in weeks and I have so much to do. I interviewed my parents and my grand-aunt when I was in Utah a few months back, and I still haven't transcribed that. Oy. So much to do.
-- Our savings are drastically reduced. We recently paid the mortgage, paid the property taxes, paid the homeowners insurance, paid the auto insurance, had new tile floors installed in the kitchen and entryway, replaced the garage door (it was broken), finished purchasing the last bit of food we need to get a "year's supply", and invested in the stock market. This pretty much means that our savings account has dramatically shrunk. I'm not complaining about any of these things, as they are all good or needful things (except the garage door bit ...), but it just means the numbers on the monthly statement are smaller than we are comfortable with. Unfortunately, when this happens, my wife goes into "I'm so stressed about money that I can't buy anything" mode, and then complains bitterly when I buy something for her because she works so hard to save money. Seeing as she needs a whole new wardrobe to fit her newly-trim physique (looking good, babe!), the next few months are going to be interesting. Gratefully, Christmas shopping is pretty much already done (thanks again, honey!).

That's pretty much all that's on my mind right now. Later!