Boring.

I mostly love Black Friday shopping now.

A few years ago it was a completely different story.

For a few years in a row, I always volunteered to do the Black Friday story for the newspapers I worked for. I interviewed store managers, eager shoppers and entire families who had a tradition of lining up in the middle of the night to get sales.

Back then I had never gone Black Friday shopping, and I didn't understand the excitement of it.

Then after I stopped working at newspapers, I started going. I mostly just got a kick out of being one of "those people" that I used to interview.

But you know what?

It's kind of fun.

I left my hometown at 3 a.m. Friday and headed to the next town over. A certain hardware store opened at 6 a.m. with some pretty good sales, and I wanted to be there when it opened.

In the meantime, I grabbed Starbucks at another store and roamed around for an hour.

After a few hours of shopping, I came home with a Shop Vac, a sander, and several other grown up things.

I'm pretty excited about this stuff.

Also, being an adult is really boring sometimes.

Conversations

Conversations with my family:

I don't like your glasses or your hair. You look like Hillary.
(Um, thank you?)

If you need ideas for Christmas gifts for me I want some books.
You mean books to read?
What else would you do with books?

I love my family.

Life and its annoying little problems.

I haven't been very good at blogging lately.

Being busy is a poor excuse, but I really have been busy.

I've been busy being a judge for a downtown scarecrow contest in my hometown. I've been busy trying to buy last-minute things for my beach trip in a couple of months. I've been discovering and loving a local antique shop that just opened.

There's a table and chairs set I love. Actually, love isn't a strong enough word to describe my feelings for this table and chairs.

They're perfect.

I haven't bought them yet, but if they're still there in January, I'm going to be all over that.

Antiquing is interesting. I can't say I've ever been in an antique store. I smiled as soon as I walked in the door last weekend.

This is my kind of place.

There's a shelf at a big box store that I want, but I can't justify spending more than $100 on it. I dug around the antique store a little bit, and found some suitable replacements for said shelf.

Total cost? Something like $15.

Plus, they had some cool looking old ladders on display as quilt racks.

That idea is brilliant! I've been looking for a quilt rack but I haven't found any I like. I think sticking some felt on the ladder step to protect the quilts from old paint will work out just fine.

There's another problem checked off of my stuff-to-worry-about list.

I also have the problem of having a table with no chairs, so I don't know that I can justify buying another table and four chairs. That still leaves me with the original problem.

Hmm. Life and its annoying little problems...

When life inevitably falls apart in your hands.

A few weeks ago I was driving out of town. I felt something hit my leg, but I didn't think much of it.

I noticed a few days ago that I was missing a screw from my windshield visor in my car. Aha! That must have been what hit me in the leg.

Now, fast forward a few days. With the time change it seems like it gets dark at approximately 2 p.m.  (I'm whining and exaggerating, but still). I put off finding that little screw on the floor on my car.

I was driving earlier this week into the sun in town. I reached up to pull my visor down and the whole thing came off in my hands.

Ha, ha. There's probably a joke about things falling apart in my hands in there somewhere.

I finally fixed it last night (by myself, thankyouverymuch). Not having a visor reminds me of what it feels like to know you don't have electricity during a storm. You always flick on the light switch when you enter a room, because that's just what human beings do, regardless of how useless it is when the power is out.

I knew my visor was sitting in my passenger seat, but every time I got in my car over the past few days I reached my hand up and tried to use it.

Change is hard.

Writer's note: Pieces of my car might be falling apart, but my favorite kind of car is the one I don't have to make a car payment on. Have I ever mentioned that?

Scumbag earthquake

Earlier today my Facebook newsfeed lit up with people saying they felt an earthquake, from southwest Kansas to central Kansas.

I felt nothing.

In 2011, I did feel an earthquake. It felt like a quick vibration late one night before Thanksgiving. I was looking for coupons before Black Friday, I remember.

At the time, my family and I blamed it on one of our dogs farting. Oops. I probably owe that dog an apology. (*See editor's note below on the topic of dogs farting.)

Anyway, I did not feel said earthquake this time around. Other people in my office felt it and said their desks rattled and shook.

I was at my desk. It was quiet. I didn't feel anything.

Scumbag earthquake.

One of my co-workers: "I feel violated by Mother Earth."

I don't have much else to say about the earthquake. I feel bummed that I missed it.

Editor's note: On another Mother Nature note, there was a wicked cold spell here over the past couple of days. That means I'm wearing boots, fuzzy socks, and generally acting like my world just came crashing down on me.

I hate cold weather.

My dog hates it, too, and she refuses to poop in it.

If you don't like reading about poop, you might want to click out of your browser right now. Anyway, I woke up at about 5 a.m. this morning to the grossest smelling thing ever.

There were no surprises for me on the floor. There was just a Pug sleeping on my chair who refuses to poop because it's cold outside.

Pugs.

Ice cream and curtain rods

"It's like eating ice cream and brushing your teeth at the same time." - A co-worker explaining the benefits of mint ice cream. I'm lactose intolerant. I don't know this feeling, sadly.

"I don't know what I had for breakfast yesterday, but I know where the curtain rod holders are in the garage." - My dad on helping me figure out you can buy curtain rod holders separately from curtain rods. I feel a Pinterest project in the making.

Oh, Kansas.

I'm back from a short break from blogging.

The break wasn't planned. Life happened, and blogging just kind of took a backseat.

I have a funny story to share, though.

I drove home late last night from Colorado. Pikes Peak says hi, by the way. Anyway, I stopped a few times because I always like to make sure I have enough caffeine to get me through when I'm driving by myself at night.

Actual shirts I saw in northwest Kansas:

• Your girlfriend is rated E for everyone.

• Keep calm and carry guns.

I couldn't decide if I was brave enough to ask the guy wearing the first shirt if I could take his photo. I decided not to, but I really regret that decision now.

Oh, Kansas.