Oh how I hate the cold!

When I woke up this morning, I knew it was going to be a bad day because the sky was black. I actually wasn't sure whether it was morning or night and I did sleep in a little through my alarm. I think it's just one of those days that starts off not knowing which way's up or down.

But the GREAT thing about the impending winter -- nay, it's already here as it's only 9º Celsius and it's nearly 11 a.m. -- are the ways in which I choose to warm myself up! For example, I ran home and heated up some chestnuts then proceeded to devour the entire bag.... mmmm. Healthy, too. Now a pot of water is boiling on the stove, waiting for me to go turn it into a cup of minty tea goodness.

But at the grocery store yesterday, I really did get into the fall and winter festivities. This began by purchasing first and foremost some pumpkin soup! Actually, it was sparked by the spotting of OCEANSPRAY CRANBERRY SAUCE IN THE INTERNATIONAL AISLE!!!! For anyone who knows me, my favorite thing about Thanksgiving is hands down, the cranberry sauce. And the pumpkin pie. But mostly the sauce. I refrained from buying it, because the jar was about the same size as a jar of baby food and cost nearly 3 Euros. No thanks.

Then my cart and I continued throughout the store picking up fun seasonal treats. The best part? My 1,25 Euro Mickey and Minnie Mouse advent calendar! Bring on December and the rain!! I don't really mind that my shoes, pants, airing laundry on the balcony are soaked because it means I get to start making some yummy warm things to fill my belly. Now I'm just waiting on my French Press and then I can go looking for Peppermint Schnapps to add into a cup of coffee or hot chocolate ;) Or, if I'm feeling non-alcoholic, I need to find hard peppermints or candy canes to dissolve in cups of warm drinks.

Oh yeah, my other really exciting piece of news is:

I GET TO SEE MY DAD TOMORROW!!! Really, really excited about that -- can you tell?

He called me from France last night and after notifying him that I used his credit card to purchase my groceries -- I hope said card isn't canceled now ;) -- do you know what his first words to me were? (And I'm putting this in here because he, sarcastically, told me to. See, I'm an obedient daughter).

"You bitch!!!"

After laughing quite a bit, my response was, wait for it...

"Dad, have you been drinking tonight?"

Affirmative. Haha, I love you. Can't wait for this weekend!!!!

Oh yes, I almost forgot. If you're curious about how my diet's been going over the past week, I've already lost between 3-4 lbs! However, I've been cheating pretty badly on the weekends and it looks like this week will be no exception. So that just means I'll stick with it a little longer than normally anticipated to compensate for my days off in between :) My overall number is still up from when I first came here, so let's just say I can drop 2-3 more kilos (about 5ish lbs.) then I'm back at what I started :)