Just got a voice mail from my friend Dickie, who called from the 1st tee of some golf course in SoCal. He said he was "commiserating" with me, while basking in 73 degree weather on one of Cali's beautiful golf courses (OK, so I don't know how nice the course was, but anything with tee boxes and holes with flags in them in 73 degrees in December is beautiful to me).

What a jerk.

It's about 20 degrees here today. Not too bad. Tomorrow night, temps are supposed to dip below zero for the first time this year. Oh, did I mention we have no snow on the ground to lessen the blow?

Yeah. Nothing. I'm dreaming of a dead, brown, frigid Christmas.

Come on, Minnesota weather! Bring me some snow!

It's been a busy week off, I tell you. Very busy. Busy but good, I guess, even if the mercury hasn't risen above freezing yet.

Worked for Pops in his SEARS store yesterday. Unloaded two trucks full of freezers (why in December? I don't know), refridgerators, big screen TVs, tools and other REAL SEARS merchandise. Gearing up for the last push until Christmas. With any luck, my Pops will be up about 50% over last December's sales. Pretty hot. I'm proud of him. Talk about a guy with a nose for business. Too bad that didn't really rub off on me. Instead, I'm caught busting my ass to get a job that pays $40,000 per year. Yeah. After axing my biz career in lieu of $45,000 of debt, and an inevitable pay cut once I join the work force again is a bit tough to swallow.

But what the hell. It's what I want to do. Could I be more idealistic and irrational? Well, I suppose, but still...

Rolled in to the Mpls last night just in time to catch the end of the Apprentice finale on NBC. Later, I learned from fiancee that the show was three hours long. THREE HOURS? Seriously? What in the hell could have been so interesting to last longer than an NFL game on network televsion? Really? You tell me. I don't get it.

Anyway, watched that and headed to the sack (oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that my bedtime has reverted back to the standard 10:30 p.m., now that I'm at Fiancee's schedule. That's about two full hours earlier than I'm used to. Thank God for Tylenol PM (at least for the first week.)

Today I knocked down some Christmas shopping. With a small budget, I'm not going to walk away from this happy. I feel like I'm slighting everyone on my list this year, which has grown two-fold from last year with the addition of some new family members. No one is a winner on X-Mas '04. Oh well. They'll have to forgive me this time around. After all, there's not much you can buy for $20 these days. Nothing cool, anyway, in the days of IPODs, Digi-whatever elses.

Luckily, however, I was able to sneak in a slice of my favorite pie - some sausage and pepperoni from Pizza Andrea - a little known Skyway lunch joint downtown. Pure heaven for $2.73 ($3.05 with tax). I missed that stuff, and so does my waistline on a positive spin.

In a football reference, I've obviously outkicked my coverage on this one. Score one for me.

Tonight we're headed to the Timberwolves v. Clipper game at Target Center. Can't wait.

Looks like I'll finally get a shot in at L.A. afterall.

Hopefully there will be no retraction to that last statement.

Have a good weekend. And remember, it's the season to give, even if it means a $20 gift for the one you'd love to spend your life with.