Like a lot of folks...I suspect....this is not turning out to be a particularly productive week for me. I know what you're thinking: How is that different from any other week, for you, noodlehead? Well, in addition to not getting anything done, I find my mind wandering. I lack...jingle bells... focus...reindeer... and mentally...cookies...veer off...Santa... the path. And, most importantly, I find my mind wandering. It just wanders. Wander. Wander. Wander. My mind wanders.

This condition exists in my own home, too. Our youngest children have started their winter breaks already. No, they still have had classes but they're on break. Anything more challenging than a Holiday Word Find Puzzle, and you may as well forget it. For the two high-schoolers, it has been exam week. The oldest boy has not seemed particularly intent on studying. He insisted that he was actually preparing for his physics exam by playing Frisbee football with his pals. At one point, I pointed out the pile of unopened textbooks sitting on the coffee table. It scared him so much, the only way he could regain his composure was by playing Madden 2007 on the Playstation for about six hours. The second high school boy has spent a fair amount of time studying this week pausing only to eat...and eat...and eat...and eat. On Saturday morning he returned home after early morning swim team practice and was horrified to see the kitchen was off-limits! His mother was getting her hair done. She had so much hardware on her noggin she looked like a very pretty Sputnik. It took most of the day for the chemical cloud to dissipate. Anyway, it meant none of us were allowed in the kitchen so our hungry boy had to go out in search of chicken or beef or shrimp or all three. In the midst of our holiday muddles, he was able to focus on food.

The problem, for me, is my mind wanders. Even writing this thing is a challenge. I keep thinking I must have a bunch of cute, touching or funny holiday stories. We have four kids! One of them must have said or done something memorable, sometime, somewhere, somehow. But, for the life of me and this blog, I can't come up with anything.

For most of this week, I felt that, at least, I'd been hiding my holiday-induced lethargy pretty well around the weather center. That is the advantage of not quite being mediocre, even on the best of days. Then, this morning, my boss did approach me with a 2x4 and said "Apply directly to forehead."

I think that's what he said but my mind wandered.