Watching: NBC Thursday night TV with two gaping holes in the schedule between Friends and Frasier and Frasier and ER. What's up with Courtney Cox? Her face is starting to look almost as skeletal as Maria Shriver's.

Pokémania

I felt low all day today. I found myself snapping at the boys for little things, and then blowing up at them for behavior that really didn't merit such an extreme response. I hate feeling this way. I don't know if it is just stress from everything I need to get done, or the onset of a more significant depressive episode, or just an isolated case of the blues. Or maybe I should just blame my mood on the change in seasons. I really hate seeing how short the days are becoming.

Looking back to an entry I wrote six months ago, I am reminded of how alive and happy I felt back in the spring. I really am a creature of the sunny seasons; fall and winter make me feel mopey in general. Maybe I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. Maybe sitting under a bank of full-spectrum lights would help. I don't know.

We have failed in our attempt to keep our house a Pokémon-free zone. Up until a few months ago our boys had never even heard of Pokémon since we only let them watch PBS. None of the kids at Daniel's school knew about it either until some of the summer camp kids introduced Pokémon to the rest of the school. One day Daniel came home with several Pokémon cards. Two of the camp kids had given him their castoffs, and he proudly showed them to me, easily rattling off their multi-syllabic names: Pikachu, Eggsecute, Bellesprout.

"This one has eye energy, and this one has leaf energy," he said, pointing to the little symbols on the back of the cards. I really don't think he knows what he's talking about; he's just putting his own interpretation on what he sees.

Even the twins have become caught up in the Pokémon mania. Though they only know the Pokémon characters from Daniel's cards, Stephen and Matthew spot them everywhere: on calendars and books and toys in the mall, on T-shirts, and on movie posters for the upcoming Pokémon film.

Now, I'll admit that I was biased against Pokémon without really knowing much about it. But one of my friends told me last year how addicted her son had become to the TV show and the merchandise, and I decided to steer clear of it as long as possible.

Now Daniel has become hooked on the cards and is campaigning to get more. When I told him we didn't think we'd buy any for him, his face fell momentarily. Then he brightened almost immediately.

"That's OK. I'll ask Santa for some for Christmas."

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