So here are just a few things I've been wondering about lately:

• How does losing just 15 pounds also result in losing more than 4 inches off my waistline? I'm not complaining, but it's odd. Perhaps tummy crunches are the magic exercise.  Of course the message boards that dismiss them as being of no use unless you're already model thin are also places that say something like "you should do three repetitons of twelve every other day." Hmm. 200-500 a day is much more effective.


• It's barely snowed at all, but cars are all coated with a patina of salt. Why? They've hardly had to salt the roads!


• How does a guy who just turned thirty a week ago break his hip? Jesse e-mailed me Monday and said he did. Yikes! I know we're all getting older, but I thought that sort of worry was still another thirty or forty years off! And did I accidentally curse him by asking in a birthday card to let me know if turning 30 hurt?


• Speaking of Jesse, he's a mystery in his own right, yes he is. How come he didn't keep in touch for four months, but now I've heard from him within days of seeing him last? Maybe he mistook ignoring him a couple, three weeks ago because I was mad with playing hard to get. ha. And what about me? I was mad about not hearing from him, but the second he smiled because of something I said to him, I forgave him. I'm getting soft, I swear to god.


• Why couldn't I buy a computer until today? I looked all last week, but all the XPs were non-present, and they wouldn't sell any with Vista on them until this morning. Where did they put the XP computers? I guess it's possible they timed things just right to sell out of them by the exact time the new OS released, but there had to be leftovers, didn't there?


• Why do people watch American Idol? Why, God, Why?! I'm surprised they didn't replace House with it AGAIN this week too.