I'm blogging today, primarily because it's been a week. I really don't have much to say. This week has been so, so busy. Don't you hate it when you just plow through a week, never feeling like you have time to sit and reflect on anything?

Today I have very much enjoyed myself. I guess I'm getting in the cooking mood for the holidays, because so far today I have made little cocktail weinies for Bradley because he tried them at Publix the other night and has been begging for them ever since. Who knew grape jelly and chili sauce could be so palatable to an 8-yr-old? I also made a pumpkin dip that I had the other night and have been craving ever since. I think I'll pause and share the recipe, because some of you may need an easy appetizer this week.

2 blocks of cream cheese
1 30-oz can of pumpkin pie mix (not plain pumpkin)
1 lb powdered sugar

Mix and serve with graham cracker strips or ginger snaps. WARNING: This makes a LOT of pumpkin dip, so you may want to try and half it.

Anyway, I also made a very hearty cheesy-beefy-noodley soup for dinner tonight with our buddies. I'm planning to make broccoli cornbread to go with it, and I'm very much looking forward to it. To top it all off, I made peppermint brownies. Not an especially healthy ensemble, but a yummy day nonetheless.

I'm itching to get my Christmas decorations down out of the attic. I wanted to do it today, but since we'll be here all next weekend, I guess it's better to just wait and get them down on Friday. But I can't wait for the house to be all aglow!

I have only bought one Christmas present. Some years I'm very motivated and have almost everything bought by the weekend after Thanksgiving. I'm not feeling like this will be the case this year. The weekdays are just so busy, and on the weekends I just want to sit here like I'm doing right now. Of course, football only has a couple of weeks left, so my Saturdays will be a little more open here shortly. (sniff, sniff)

I'm watching LSU and Ole Miss right now. So far LSU is only ahead 14-7. I imagine this will not last long. Georgia got their act together and beat Kentucky. (But did anybody see that AMAZING interception in the first half? It was the third turnover for GA, and the Kentucky guy literally came out of nowhere and just took it away from him. It was beautiful.) Jeff just told me Alabama is tied with LA-Monroe. And last I heard, Tennessee is getting beat by Vandy. I imagine it's possible for the Vols to pull it out today, but I have a feeling we'll lose to Kentucky next week. I'll be shocked if we make it to the SEC championship. In years past, when all Tennessee had to do to get to the SEC championship was beat Vandy and Kentucky, it would have been a no-brainer. But this has been one of the craziest seasons in college football I can ever remember. When has being in the top 5 ever been such a kiss of death as it has been this year?

As for politics, I have nothing to say. Well, you know that's not true, but I just don't feel like wasting the energy. It's been fun watching Hillary get beat up by the media a little the past few weeks for her flip-flopping, but they've all jumped back on the suck-up express after Thursday night's debate. Let's just face the fact that she will be the Democrat nominee. There is really no question about this. The only question is who the Republicans are going to combat her with.

Will we try to go Giuliani, because we think he has a chance in the blue states, even though that means he's not a conservative? Do we go with Romney, whose positions on issues truly change according to the listening audience? (It worked for the first President Clinton, didn't it?) Do we go with Crazy John, who prides himself on being a maverick, aka, Democrat? Or how about Fred? Could he pull it off or will he ever be able to get people to take him seriously? I just don't know. The prospects are a little dim, which is frankly why it depresses me to think about it too much, so I'm trying not to. Amazing that we'll know in less than 90 days who the nominees will be, and then the games will really begin. Last time I was psyched because I LOVED my guy and I couldn't wait to watch him go for it. This time, not so much. Feels more like the Bob Dole years, in a sad sort of way.

The one bright spot is that Congress has an approval rating of 11%. This is way lower than the President's, although his is certainly less than stellar. I heard someone say the other day that O.J. Simpson's approval rating was 16% in a 1995 poll. Congress is less popular than OJ at the height of the murder scandal. That's saying something, I think. Unfortunately, the ones truly being hurt by this political battle over the war are the troops. The Democrats are refusing to fund them w/o time limits for withdrawal. The President is refusing to give them this kind of power.

In this latest bill, Pelosi demanded a 15-day waiting period before any American unit could be moved into Iraq, which would completely hamstring those people on the ground who actually KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING and are fighting this war. Can we say Vietnam? The Democrats have tried to compare Iraq to Vietnam in many different ways, and in this way they are right on target. If we allow the war to be run by politicians, we will lose. There is no plainer way to state it. You'd think this would be the lesson learned 30 years ago, but apparently not by a long shot.

So, I guess that's all I have to say about that. I really don't want to get worked up. I just want to sit. And so I shall.

LSU is still only up by a touchdown. They are currently ranked No. 1. That's not been a good place to be so far this season. We shall see...