It’s the coldest morning of the season today — 16 degrees — according to the local weather geek. Last night, the local weather diva told us to expect freezing drizzle on Sunday evening and six inches of snow on Wednesday morning. I’m not a big fan of cold weather, or the dry air that comes along with it. The mild weather we’ve enjoyed throughout November has been amazing and much appreciated.

Where I’ve Been — I drove to Cincinnati to spend Thanksgiving with family. While there, I explored the Land of Ikea, and the only things that really impressed me were how flat they actually pack their merchandise, and the Swedish meatballs in the cafeteria. My sister thinks the store is really big. She hasn’t seen Nebraska Furniture Mart.

What I’m Reading — To keep me company on the long drive, I listened to "Death Du Jour", a Temperance Brennan mystery by Kathy Reichs. The Brennan character in the novel is quite different from the character in the television show "Bones". She’s older, wiser, and more socially adept. The novel is intricately plotted and compellingly written, and kept my attention from beginning to end. I’m looking forward to reading other novels by this author.

What I’ve Been Doing — The job search meanders on, as I expect it will until after the first of the year. This town is flush with unemployed marketing professionals. I did get a rare rejection note from an employer, letting me know he had over 100 qualified candidates for the position (which required extensive experience and some old-school skills). Most employers don’t even bother to let you know you’ve been rejected.

What I Just Bought — I finally bought and installed a new printer so I can actually print stuff in the colors they were meant to be, rather than in their complementary opposite and/or just magenta. I scored a great deal on an Epson photo printer/scanner/copier at OfficeMax. The one I ordered online was put on backorder, so I bought one locally and tried to cancel the order. But the second printer shipped anyway. My sweetie has claimed the extra unit for his own, and is now looking for a good home that will appreciate his old fully-functional Lexmark printer/scanner/copier. My old Canon has served me well since 2002, but it has gone irreparably feebleminded. Alas, it is destined to reside next to its predecessor, neglected and forlorn, in the basement where all of our electronics go to die (because we’re too cheap and lazy to pay someone to recycle our dead computer stuff).