In general, people seem to believe that economy might be stabilizing, or that the “recession” might at least be slowing in its downward progress.  But then came the news like a wet blanket: Americans are spending less on back-to-school shopping than they have in recent years.  Even more disturbing: most retailers use the BTS shopping trends to predict sales for the Christmas season.

While I’m no economist, I understand the basic idea that the economy tends to do better when money is changing hands, and that retail stores depend on these big buying seasons to stay open and to keep people employed.  But I still couldn’t find it in my soul to be too terribly despondent at the fact that American children might be going back to school for the first time in years wearing–gasp–last year’s blue jeans!  Or that maybe they’re having to use the same folders for their classes, even though Lisa Frank is sooo last year (okay, maybe more than that.  I’m flashing back to my own school-supply-buying days).

As for Christmas…from what I understand this holiday is like with kids, maybe scaling back there is okay, as well.  I imagine little munchkins already lost in a sea of wrapping paper and plastic toys, picking up a box to play with only to be told, “Put that down, you have more presents to open!”  It’s a lot of credit card debt in exchange for a few hours of sensory overload.  I’ve always admired the families that find ways to keep holidays simple and meaningful, keeping the flurry of gift-giving in balance with other seasonal traditions and rituals.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll admit that I’m in the final pages of a book called Affluenza, which is a tongue-in-cheek critique of materialistic, American consumer culture.  It’s full of depressing statistics on the decline of family and leisure time, ubiquitous advertising, increasing working hours and decreasing interaction with nature and community.  So I’m in the mood to notice and be irritated by the indication that “dollars spent” is any sort of indicator of the health of our society.  It’s a shame that, if this is true, the stability of our economy is dependent on our friends and neighbors spending lots of cash on stuff they don’t really need.

National implications aside, we’ve both gone back to school today, trying to encourage our new budget-friendly mindset that a frugal life is more fun anyway.  We’re halfway through our first month with the new budget, which I’m going to evaluate in a separate post.  So I’m mix-and-matching my old wardrobe (honestly, very easy since I only have about three things that fit…and later when I’m a normal size, all of my clothes will feel new again anyway), packing a lunch before I leave in the morning, and throwing together something for dinner from ingredients that I have in the pantry.  We hope it will be simply wonderful.

We just got back from a church staff retreat in Dallas.  The scheduled events themselves were very interesting and gave us lots of topics for further discussion, but the real luxury of the weekend was that the church put us up in a hotel for three nights.

Of course, the first thing we did was turn down the A/C and leave it as low as it would go.  This actually made the  room uncomfortably cold, to the extent that every minute that I was in the room I had to get under the covers of the big bed so that I wouldn’t get chill bumps and have to shave my legs before the next event.  But we weren’t paying the utility bill, dangit, so we kept the cold cranked up.

The other indulgence of a hotel room is the free cable TV.  We didn’t buy a digital converter for our retro, 2004-model TV, so we literally get no channels at home.  (We get my parents to DVR anything we can’t stand to miss.)  Occasionally we’ll debate whether we can afford to spring for the $40 converter box or the standard cable package that we get an advertisement for in the mail.  But weekends like this are good reminders of why we continue to keep our TV inaccessable.  We’re drawn to cable like flies to honey, like moths to a flame…any time we were in the room, the TV was on and one of us was flipping through the channels.

Nothing tempting was ever on, except for What Not to Wear (which tempted me, but not Stephen) and Survivorman (which tempted Stephen, but not me).  But we burned hours of our leisure time watching five-second increments of shows that we were not interested in.  The books we had brought to read collected dust on the nightstands while we sat transfixed by the glowing blue screen.

So we’ve renewed our resolve not to sign ourselves up for even the most tempting offers.  It’s not that we can’t afford the money (although it could certainly be better spent), but we can’t afford the brain cells we’d certainly lose if we had the option in our living room!

We just caught up on episodes from the last two weeks.  So many new loose ends!

Why does the smoke-monster kill some people and throw them in trees (Nadine) and spit some people back all crazy (Robert)?
What happened to Ben to get him all banged up before the flight?  And why is no one asking that question?

How did Sayid end up on the flight?  Who is that lady he is with?  Is he under arrest?  What happened there?

What happened to make Kate change her mind?  And what happened to Aaron?

What is Ben’s angle in getting everyone back to the island?

What is up with all of the freighter people (Daniel, Charlotte) having the way-back connections to the island?

How old is Daniel? Is he unchanging through time like Richard?

Who made Christian Shephard the boss?  Is he Jacob?

Explain the Dharma station in Los Angeles.

What the heck is Jin doing in a clean, new Dharma outfit and van?

Speaking of Jin, how did he not blow up in that explosion?  There’s no way he was just thrown into the water.  Even if he was, how is it that he moves through the flashes in the same way as the other survivors?   Why isn’t he stuck in time like everyone else seems to be?

How am I going to wait one more week to find out all of the details about Locke coming back alive?  What the heck!

We saw Derek Webb at Common Grounds again last weekend, and this was my favorite show yet!  We enjoyed the music of our favorite nonconformist and got some great quality time with our Waco friends Dan and Sarah, and we were also introduced to three other great new groups:

Waterdeep

Alli Rogers

Sandra McCracken

It just so happens that our new friend Daniel also gave us a tip about a great website, www.noisetrade.com, where you can download music from all of these artists for FREE.  All you have to do is tell five people about it.  If you have my e-mail address, feel free to use me as one of your five.

At last, the long-awaited season premiere of The Office. Yes, I’m happy. The proposal was great. Thanks to my parents’ new DVR, I got to watch it several times. However, I’m not completely appeased–rumor has it that The Office is running for at least three more seasons, and I don’t think they can stretch a happily-ever-after story with Jim and Pam for that long. I’m definitely expecting some major glitches to come their way, with the most obvious possibility coming from the new male friend that Pam is making in NYC. I’m not expecting wedding bells to follow very quickly or easily.

Not that I actually care about any of the other plot developments, but here are my thoughts-

Regarding the Michael-Jan-Holly triangle, it seems kind of sad. The whole plot of Jan being pregnant in the first place is weird to me…but Michael assuming the role of father to the baby is pretty funny, even as he pursues a relationship with Holly.

Regarding the Dwight-Angela-Andy triangle- does anyone think for a minute that she even likes Andy? How much longer is she going to go along with her engagement? She seems to have forgiven Dwight for the Sprinkles-killing incident, so I don’t know what the problem is.  Oh, I wondered for a while if the reason that the Office was not losing weight was because Angela was pregnant and putting on pounds, but nothing seems to have come of that..at least, not yet…

Stephen wants to know what Ryan’s angle is now that he is back in the office. Obviously, neither one of us is buying his repentance. Good for Kelly for blowing him off.

I’m looking forward to next week. Yay!

Sarah Palin is awesome. And if you didn’t see her little daughter steal the show last night, you missed the funniest moment of the whole election.

Fair Warning: Don’t read this post if you don’t watch The Office.

It should come as no surprise that I am pathetically adept at wasting time. Take right now, for instance, when I am writing a blog instead of working on my plans for the history fair, which is my actual purpose for sitting here at Panera. Or take this morning, when I discovered and took the quiz, “Which Office character are you?” Result: I am most like Jan. Now Jan works for Corporate, wears nice suits, and has a cool and professional manner, most of the time. I do like that. However, Jan also is secretly (or not) attracted to Michael Scott, which is not like me at all. Let’s be clear about that.

The quiz was not very well written. It was obvious which answer choice was linked with which character (I deliberately avoided all of Angela’s answers). Most of the time, none of the answer choices were ones that I would actually give. I’m kind of glad that the answers were rigged, so that the quiz could tell me that I was like ambitious, powerful Jan. If it was a more accurate, insightful character assessment, it might tell me that my greatest fear is actually true: I am most like Dwight.

Dwight takes himself way too seriously. He can be socially awkward. He overestimates his combat skills. He likes to be in the know at work, and is easily intoxicated with even small amounts of power. On occasion, he has manipulated the behavior of others by creating a false economy within his office based on “Schrute Bucks.” He has a false sense of his own irreplacability. He writes a blog. He is slightly paranoid.  He, as you can see from the picture, is a determined worker, intense, a good worker, a hard worker, and he is terrific. It’s uncanny…and a little humbling.

So if you ever catch me being particularly Dwight-ish, please just
put my stapler in a Jell-O mold.  I’ll get the message.

Lily: I think we’re really starting to click with these people. Claire and Austin just invited us to their Fondue Fest next weekend!

Marshall: You’re trying to get me excited about fondue?

Lily: It’s dipping stuff in hot cheese! What’s not to love?

Marshall: Okay, that does sound good.

(from How I Met Your Mother)

Fondue has been a big part of our lives for the past couple of years, as it’s our favorite way to celebrate special occasions with our Life Group. Last night, we had the pleasure of introducing fondue to some newbie friends of ours. For the main course, we had steak dipped in hot oil, with salad and bread, and later we enjoyed chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas, and pretzels.

Fondue is great for prolonged meals. There’s plenty of time for conversation, and the slow pace of eating helps everyone to eat moderately so that they have room to stuff themselves with the next course. Our guests were relatively new friends of ours, so we swapped stories of college life and courtship. I felt gratified when Sarah left the house asking Dan for a fondue pot for her birthday, but the highlight of the evening for me was when Stephen admitted once and for all that I was RIGHT about registering for the fondue pot in the first place!

Most wedding registry selections are made based on a bride’s delusional fantasies about the kind of woman she will grow up to be. A giant, family-sized griddle, mini-loaf pans, an expensive Kitchenaid mixer: all of these gifts represent a baking, breakfast-serving housewife with whom I have very little actual resemblance. I have yet to use my breadmaker, and the ice cream maker has only been used once, but I still hold on to the hopes that I will one day be the sort of superwoman that makes sandwiches on homemade bread and serves delicious homemade ice cream to guests on a hot summer day.

But the fondue pot is in use! We have, on a regular basis, sat at the table around a pot of sizzling oil, quick-frying our steak and enjoying delightful conversation with friends. Dreams for active and occasionally interesting social life are fulfilled.

Lest you get too envious of our sophisticated and stimulating life, I’ll give you a brief snapshot of the Watson family only two hours before our company arrived. Desperate to find out the truth about the freighter waiting only eighty miles off shore, we have resorted to watching Season 4 of LOST online. We crowded around our 12-inch computer screen, each getting one ear bud of the iPod headphones to hold up to one lucky ear (somehow this produced better sound quality than the laptop speakers). The video quality was a little choppy as the video play went faster than the computer could buffer. But we made it through one episode! As always, the show raised more questions than it answered: Did only six survivors get rescued? Why are they all going crazy? Does Kate choose Sawyer or Jack? How can Hurley see Jacob? We shall soon see…

It’s been a year since we saw Derek Webb at Common Grounds, so the timing seemed about right for us when our friends Josh and Abbey invited us to go hear him when he came through Dallas last night.

This is now my fourth time to see Derek Webb as a solo act, and I’m still not disappointed, although the long show did get us home at 2 AM on the night of “spring forward.” He rocks! Enjoy some timely thoughts, just like I did last night.

I’m so tired of these mortal men
with their hands on their wallets and their hearts full of sin
scared of their enemies, scared of their friends
and always running for re-election
so come to DC if it be thy will
because we’ve never had a savior on Capitol Hill

You can always trust the devil or a politician
to be the devil or a politician
but beyond that friends you’d best beware
‘cause at the Pentagon bar they’re an inseparable pair
and as long as the lobbyists are paying their bills
we’ll never have a savior on Capitol Hill

All of our problems gonna disappear
when we can whisper right in that President’s ear
he could walk right across the reflection pool
in his combat boots and ten thousand dollar suit

You can render unto Caesar everything that’s his
you can trust in his power to come to your defense
it’s the way of the world, the way of the gun
it’s the trading of an evil for a lesser one
so don’t hold your breath or your vote until
you think you’ve finally found a savior up on Capitol Hill

(from the album The Ringing Bell- check it out)

We have had a trauma in our family this past week:  our DVD player has quit working.  It was very sudden and unexpected; on Friday we watched Catch Me If You Can, and on Saturday when I tried to watch the whole disc of special features, the DVD player was unresponsive.  (For electronic handymen, the player will say that it is trying to read the disc but it will never go to the menu)  After trying the obvious remedies of repeatedly ejecting the disc, turning the power off and on, and unplugging the whole machine, we tried running a cleaning disc, which didn’t work either.

I am a little embarrassed at how my life has come to a screeching halt without this electronic device.  When I was stuck at home by myself in the cold rain on Saturday, I had no DVD bonus materials to keep me company.  On Monday night after HIMYM came on, there was no good TV to watch until the Kit Carson documentary came on PBS.  Normally we’d have gone to Hastings to get an old disc of The Office or one of our other new favorite shows.

Tonight I am supposed to get through a stack of paragraphs about Through the Looking Glass, and I’ve decided to go out and spend part of my treasured Starbucks gift card rather than sit at home with a boring task and a silent TV.

We’re trying hard to pinch pennies around the Watson casa, but it probably won’t take long for us to splurge on a new DVD player from Wal-Mart.  Considering I can buy a cheap one for the price of a tank of gas, it might be worth it to me to ride a bike for a week in exchange.

Meanwhile, we’re stuck using the still-functional VHS side of the player.  We’re brushing up on our old standby movies like The Buttercream Gang.  (“Sorry, Margaret, I didn’t see you there.”)