Well, maybe not for the turkeys

Just wanted to tell all my wonderful readers that I hope it will be a Happy Thanksgiving for you!

Stuffing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner. And dinner should be great - my Mom is making... reservations!

Of course, that means I'll have to dress up. Sigh.

And it's snowing. Right before my 200-mile drive. Double sigh.

I was thinking of driving home tonight, to beat the weather, rather than tomorrow early afternoon after the weather. But it's apparently already snowing. So it looks like I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't.

This just isn't my week.

Still, I have a lot to be thankful for. Not the least of which is the parental types. So the least I can do is survive the drive home to see them. I hope they'll still be thankful for me when I leave.

So enjoy the stuffing, and really - take a minute or two to think of everything you have to be thankful for. I know things aren't always easy in this game of Life, and anything wrong can really feel like it's important, now matter how trivial you "know" it really is. (Believe me, after this week...)

But I'm thankful for lots of things.

• My life, even if it's not perfect. It's good enough to get me by, and then some.
• My family, without whom I'd have nothing and be nothing.
• My friends, without whom I'd be either more or less crazy, depending. I'm not going to name names, because I'll leave somebody out.
• My little almost-kinda-nephew, Ben, and his sisters, Charlotte and Ellie. For either making me want children more, or less, depending. And just for being them.
• My job, which challenges me even as it wears me down. And pays well. And lets me hang around with some pretty fine people.
• My house, which is slowly but surely becoming a home.
• The men and women who worked on the Babylift and served in Vietnam. I'm here, aren't I? I didn't swim.
• The recycling people, who let me put out my cardboard without cutting it up, just this once. (It's not just the big things, people!)
• My dreams, which keep me going. My imagination, which starts me on the journey. My intelligence, which lets me overthink the journey the entire way. Well, maybe not that last one. But in any event, my gifts from God.
• The everyday heroes, who keep me safe and inspire me. Policemen, soldiers, firefighters, doctors, nurses and, Friday, the department-store clerks.
• The new Atlanta aquarium. And aquariums everywhere. Except the sucky ones.
• The Internet, for helping me meet awesome people, and get dates with girls.
• The Oakland Raiders. 'Nuff said.
• Joe Ripple and Don Dohler, the men behind Timewarp Films, for giving me the experience of a lifetime working with them on "Dead Hunt."
• Morgan Jay Dog. This man's best friend, in many ways. Most of them involving licking my face. I miss my puppy.
• Movies and DVDs, which rock. And books, which rock even harder.
• The NHL, which is back and better than ever. Plus my Strat-o-matic hockey game (both versions).
• My car. Even if it's still costing me money. She's my girl, and temperamental and bitchy like all the other ones I've loved.
• Music... and iTunes, since I still haven't figured out how to afford my iPod. But I *am* thankful I can pay my bills! And almost on time. Sometimes.
• The little things. Because they're what make my day. Especially if they're free, or toys. Like the cartoon book I found at work the other day. It made me smile.
• Munkees. And bunnies. And bunnymunkees.
• And of course, paid vacation days. I'm off 'til Tuesday! (Who might sum this post up best: "Coming up close, everything sounds like 'Welcome home.'")

There's probably lots and lots more, but I've got a long drive ahead of me. You get the idea, I hope. Now, smile and pass the turkey legs!

So, in conclusion (the two lamest transitions ever, for the price of one!)...

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful you're reading this. Be safe, and happy, and healthy, y'all.

Random referral

In the interests of time, and to spare you from continued bitching (today, car repairs!) and lamenting about putting out my Massive Mountain o' Recycling instead of watching my Big Box o' Buffy tonight, I'll just post a random link to a random blog I found on Freak's links list.

Boobs, injuries and Dr Pepper

Why this one? Well, I clicked on it because it sounded funny, boobs being something I like, injuries being something I'm too familiar with and Dr Pepper either being a sickly-sweet soda or a sickly-sweet mixed (?!) drink that I've drank either way.

(recipe for Dr Pepper, the drink, near as I could tell back in '00: drive to Canada with underage-in-U.S. girl. get hotel room across street from bar. go to bar. order a beer, then drink half. take remaining half-glass of beer, drop a shotglass full of amaretto in. chug. watch out for the shotglass hitting your teeth. repeat often. then try to walk home across much-busier-than-though street. sleep. drive home.)

So with this blog, when I see posts with titles like "Hockey and A New Way To Tell Someone That They're Retarded" I was hooked.

Lady's blog almost makes me wish I had kids - it would probably make this blog more entertaining, although this blog is probably a prime argument for why I SHOULDN'T have kids.

And any woman who'll discuss how and why she shaves in her blog deserves some kind of praise.

Meanwhile, time to prepare the severance package for my Cardboard Sherpas.

Links:
• A guide to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the TV version
• Dr Pepper, the soda
• Sherpas

If I don't post by Thanksgiving, I probably won't until next week. Consider yourselves warned. I'm going home for the holiday, and to bury my dog.

I cried last night thinking about how if I went home early and slept in the guest bed it would be the first time I ever slept in that bed without him jumping on, licking my face, stepping on my head and eventually curling up next to me to sleep.

This is doing wonders for my depression. Not.

In case I haven't been cranky enough lately...

Allow me to spend a moment bitching about the lovely piece of shit, er, I mean, piece of hardware I like to think of as my iBook.

Earlier this week, I was trying to fix my fonts. I bought some new ones and was trying to remove some old ones. Yummy.

Instead of installing fonts, I wound up reinstalling my entire operating system. And downloading all the updates. That I'd already downloaded and installed.

Whatever I did, the computer wouldn't freakin' start. Literally it wouldn't run the finder. God bless Mac OS X for coming with a system restore disc. So all I really lost was time.

Eight freakin' hours. Midnight to 8 a.m. Then off to work on three hours' sleep. I almost fell asleep driving to work. I almost fell asleep at work. I almost fell asleep driving home.

If you were in the car next to me, I apologize for the dreadful, loud singing. Beats swerving into your lane, snoring.

Anyway, just when that crisis passes - and I get the fonts I want up and running (yay!) - tonight, my Entourage e-mail program bombs.

Totally. Not loading.

So I've been fucked by Apple AND Microsoft this week. I haven't gotten this much action in years.

This time, there were casualties.

I wound up reinstalling my entire Microsoft Office suite. Which wouldn't really matter much, in fact, would amount to only redoing my Word toolbars, which I customize like crazy, except...

I lost all of my saved e-mail.

Fortunately, I'm not one to keep every e-mail ever written to me. In fact, I delete about 90% of what I get after I read and/or reply, and that's not including the spam.

But I did lose my archive. And that's sad.

Not because most of my mail-order receipts were in there. I can get my order status online from places like Amazon.

Not because I lost a few shareware password codes from actually paying and registering. I'm sure I can track those down, too, if push comes to shove.

Not because I lost my goofy quotes for my sig files and had to type them back in.

But because I lost the notes and jokes from people I'd carefully saved, sometimes for years.

There were notes of congratulations, nice notes from my parents, some of my father's reminiscences. A lot of nice remarks from the cast and crew of "Dead Hunt," to me and in general. Those hurt.

But I have the memories - it's not like I didn't read them or cherish them. And it's not like I've never lost anything before.

Just one more frustration in a frustrating week. Another bad end to a good weekend.

Since Morgan died, I've been kind of sad to begin with, so maybe I'm taking this a little harder than I should.

And of course I know this is a teeny-tiny problem compared to so many other people's. But you know how it is - when something bad happens to YOU, no matter how small, you get frustrated or aggravated. And it's been an aggravating week.

I mean, this week's Thanksgiving, and I do have a lot to be thankful for.

It's just right now, I could use a hug. And a nap. And some ice cream.

Sigh. I guess it was just my turn to be Charlie Brown this week.

Links:
• Apple.com; I sure got the worm in the Apple this week, didn't I?
• Typography and design, which might explain my font addiction
• Wayne Fontes, just because
• Damn you, Entourage, you betrayer!
• Timewarp Films - "Dead Hunt" is coming soon!
• Lastly, Charlie Brown and his football

Why the good weekend, you ask? Well, Ed and I got a jump-start on our yearly tradition of spending an entire weekend learning and playing the latest "Smackdown" video game, this year dubbed "Smackdown vs. Raw 2006." We both happened to be free this weekend - our big weekend is scheduled for next month, so we got a lot done (the create-a-wrestler is tough), plus we watched a bunch of movies and ate some bad-for-us food.

Plus, the Raiders won! So at least some things are well in the world.