Damn. Once again I apparantly missed seeing Ah-nold at the gym by only five minutes. I really wanted to see him in person just to figure out once and for all how short he really is. (Oh, and the only reason I spell it that annoying way is so that there's no mistake as to which Arnold I'm talking about. That and just to annoy you.)

Anyway, we are back from Monterey. We did vacation-y things. The weather was great, the whales were amazing and I only got a little seasick. In addition to being tourists we also indulged in one of my favorite holiday pastimes - watching inordinate amounts of headline news and bad TV. This time out the bad TV arrived courtesy the Home Shopping Network.

In my defense, re: Home Shopping Network - I was oddly drawn in and thoroughly creeped out by the sight of a boozy, Norma Desmond-esque Suzanne Somers hawking her Somersize line of clothing, jewelry, skincare and food. I just couldn't take my eyes off of her. The thing is, for someone who's trying to sell fitness, health and diet products (to hear Suzanne tell it, her Somersize program is the original low-carb diet), she looked rather round. In fact she seemed to be hiding behind various layers of clothes and plants like actresses do when they're trying to cover up a pregnancy on TV or like Kirstie Alley in those godawful Pier One commercials.

Suzanne also talked a lot about nothing (and usually made no sense whatsoever) and seemed to be highly annoying the poor woman assigned to "assist" her during the infomercials. You could just taste the seething frustration as it seeped out of this schlep's mouth as she fought the urge to tell Chrissie Snow to shut her trap.

Anyhoo, enough about Suzanne. I may post a few Monterey pictures later. Then again, maybe not. School starts tomorrow and if history, as they say, repeats itself, it should kick off with a time-crunching, bone-crushing bang.

Let the fun begin.