"Rainy days and Mondays always get me down."

I don’t feel like doing any work right now, and nothing absolutely needs to be done at the moment, so I thought I’d blog some of my random thoughts for a bit.

I went to Target at Hampton and Chippewa yesterday to do a bit of shopping and discovered that they are closing it on January 7. They are tearing it down and building a new Target on the same spot that is supposed to be 30,000 square feet bigger than the current one and will have a parking garage attached. They are planning on having it open in early October – just in time to catch next year’s holiday shopping season. Needless to say I was very excited about the new Target, but I was concerned how I was going to get through next spring and summer without a Target so close to home.

After shopping I came home and did a couple loads of laundry and baked over 8 dozen cookies for my office’s annual cookie exchange. I used Hannah’s Gooey Butter Cookie recipe which I was pleased to find is relatively easy (for those of you who have not experienced St. Louis’s Gooey Butter Cake, it is a rich, buttery, gooey goodness that you really need to try when you are in town). I didn’t realize how thick and hard to handle the cookie dough was, but I managed to get through the four batches needed to make the required number. They turned out well once I realized how long I needed to cook them in my oven. I’ll make them again sometime but I think one batch at a time is plenty to deal with.

After watching Sideways on Saturday I realize that I know absolutely nothing about wine and I should learn more. I know that the community college offers wine tasting classes because I’ve looked into taking them before but always found an excuse not to. I think I’ll check their schedule and try to do it after tax season. Hopefully I can convince some friends to join me as I think it would be very entertaining.

I’m also thinking about taking guitar lessons but I need to buy a guitar first. I had a crappy guitar at one point but I have no idea what happened to it. I tried to teach myself how to play but at the time I didn’t want to be forced to cut my fingernails (I know, I know). This is something I think I’d really enjoy and it would give a reason to get back into music, which I miss deeply.

I still need to buy Christmas gifts for my brother, his fiancée, my grandparents on both sides, my aunt and uncle, a female gift, and small, less than $1 gifts for my little cousins on my mom’s side. I’m pretty much done shopping for Mom, Dad may need one more thing like a book, and I pretty much know what I’m getting everyone else. So considering I’m usually still buying Christmas presents on Christmas Eve, I think I’m doing pretty well this year. We’ll see if I can get it all done before I leave on the 18th.

Oh I suppose I should get some work done today (dammit). I’m really content being lazy and doing nothing though. Alright, back to the grind.