Why is it that I have the most pronounced tendency to buy something nice for myself when I know I should be thinking about Christmas shopping for other people. Maybe it's because I hardly ever just idlly shop. Usually I have something in mind that I plan on getting, and I go and buy it.

A book fair came to my company today, and I bought a leather briefcase, which I probably don't need, but I liked it. It has lots of zippers and pockets and places for pens and a cell phone.

Well, I was close. By my estimate, it was a 23 point meal. But good. It was the 9 point slice of apple pie that did me in.

The trouble with Weight Watchers, or any balanced reduced calorie diet, for that matter, is that you're always thinking of food. You have to plan very carefully, or you'll be left with nothing to eat by 3:00 p.m. That's why I really like the "Flex Points" system. You start out each dieting week (my third week starts today) with 35 extra points to be used at your discretion. A point is roughly 50 calories, with an advantage for more fiber in a food and a disadvantage for more fat. At my present weight, I'm allowed 26 points per day.

My company is giving us a voucher to go to the cafeteria today for a free special Thanksgiving lunch. I could easily eat a 25 point lunch today, and I've already had 6 points. This will severly cut into my Flex Points. Well, you know what they say. TNSTAAFL. There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.

God loves us. Let me tell you how I know.

Thursday evening I stayed on the "L" and met Chuck downtown for the Symphony. It wasn't our regular subscription night, but one we swapped tickets for due to a conflict with the Steinmetz Homecoming football game. When we found each other, he told me we had car trouble. As he was going up the spiral ramp in the parking structure, the coolant light went on (couldn't have been the water pump or thermostat; I just had them replaced while Chuck was on his "meander" this summer). He said he could smell the antifreeze, and when he finally located a parking spot and got out of the car he could see the green iridescent trail the car had left.

The miracle of it was that he was in the parking structure when it happened. It didn't happen ten minutes earlier, when he was on the Kennedy. And it didn't happen Tuesday (Veteran's Day) when he drove to Champaign to stock up on Maul's Barbeque Sauce.

The concert was great, by the way. When I switched our tickets I had asked for "terrace" seating. We were right over the brass, and when the organ hit the low notes I could feel the music in my chest.

Dinner at Miller's Pub after the concert was wonderful, too. I ordered the salmon instead of the ribs. I've been on Weight Watchers for two weeks, and I've lost 8.8 lbs. My company is sponsoring a leader to come in to our offices. If I lose half of my initial goal (10% of my weight) the company will refund half of the fees to me. I'm almost there already. Let's see if I can keep going through Thanksgiving.

We took the Blue Line and the bus home, making perfect connections. Then Chuck got up early and called the Auto Club, took the CTA back downtown, paid an exorbitant amount for overnight parking, and met the tow truck, which took him and the car to the service station near Steinmetz. And he was on time for work!

It turned out to be the heater core, and while it was in the shop, we had the brakes worked on, too. It cost all but $13.00 of the money I had been saving for Christmas shopping. Oh, well. It's only money.

I had the day off Friday, but I had to stay home and wait for the movers to come for Ben's stuff. He is studying at the Air Force Language Institute in Monterey, CA. The movers finally showed up about 3:00 p.m., and it took all of about 30 minutes for them to pack and load all of Ben's worldly possessions.

Saturday was the LCC Fall Festival. Chuck and I went as "civilians" for the first time, since we dropped out of the choir this year. We attended the Director's Workshop, where the guest speaker was Anton Armstrong of St. Olaf College. We missed the Festival Choir rehearsal because we had to go to a wake. We went back to the Festival for the dinner and stayed to listen to the concert instead of singing this time.

It was really great to see everyone again. Bev was there with her baby, Abby. And of course, Floyd, who is having all kinds of fun teaching 6 and 7 year olds in a private school.

I have 50 more pages to read in a book for which I had high hopes.

I felt somewhat unqualified to render judgement on such a book. After all, the author was published and I was not. But then the voice of reason spoke: My husband said, "And how many books have you read?"

But, still, the author had written such a sensible tome about the proceess of writing itelf. (Is anyone into ornitology?) My thought is that the author should have re-read the previous publication and followed the rules set forth therein.

Everything is so jisjointed. There are probably three good stories in there, but they need to be separated from all the day-to-day garbage.

I don't really care about the changing of the seasons.

Well, yes, I do, but not in a book.

Does anybody out there know what book I'm talking about?