It's Thursday and the office is quiet and my boss is gone again until Monday and I want to go home. I am feeling guilty because of my lack of energy at work lately, which I attribute to the change in the weather, the coming of winter with its wind and cold and darkness, dry skin and nosebleeds. Things have calmed down to a dull roar, and I'm finding myself with more and more free time, which is hard to mask when you sit in a room all day with two other people. So I schedule, type, organize and timeline my upcoming Thanksgiving Adventure. I also make lists. I also keep tabs on the number of bottles of water I drink a day. I take lots of trips to the women's lounge. I do all of these things while trying not to shop. It is very difficult. I'm not very successful.

Kitchen items I need: (in no particular order)

1. A meat grinder. I don't trust pre-ground beef, and I'm itching to experiment with making my own sausage.
2. A dutch oven. Preferably this one (note the free 2-1/2 quart oven with purchase), but I'd be willing to settle for one that's not as fashionable.
3. A nut cracker. I recently purchased a huge bag of mixed nuts only to discover I have no way to get into them without banging up the kitchen counters with a hammer.
4. More silicone bakeware. This stuff is amazing and makes me want to be a better baker.
5. A soup tureen. I don't have one, and I feel like it would be a neat thing to have.
6. These mixing bowls that I am totally in love with.
7. A bigger wine rack. I like to stock up in case we get snowed in for several weeks at a time.
8. New chairs for the kitchen table. I'm leaning towards these, though they don't appear to come in black anymore. Fluorescent lime and orange don't exactly match my kitchen.
9. New dishes. I'm bored.
10. An oven that holds a consistent temperature.

I nearly got blown down this morning as I got off the bus, and again as I left for my lunch break. Working right on the lake is definitely going to work on me this winter. Eh.