Thanksgiving Eve

     Okay, it's Thanksgiving Eve. So far, I have resisted the endless Facebook posts about what I'm grateful for (one thing a day, presumably starting with hubs and kids), and while I was initially proud of myself for not falling down that rabbit hole, I'm now starting to feel like a Thanksgiving Scrooge. You know what that means...all four of you readers get to be my Gratitudinous Sounding Board. I hear you moaning and groaning about how you just survived a damn month of Facebook posts about all the Precious Moments crap that everybody else is grateful for - and now her, too? Yes, me too. You don't have to read it, Scrooge.
Meanwhile, for the three of you who didn't just open a new tab to search for YouTube videos like this one, here we go.

1. My dog. Everybody thinks they have the best dog, but in my case it's empirically true.
2. Having finished The Grapes of Wrath AND Passage to India, and never having to read them again.
3.The possibility of seeing both my sisters and their offspring this winter.
4. My kids. Except for when I want to kill them. No, even when I want to kill them. They are pretty awesome. And sometimes provide me with opportunities to practice patience and understanding.
5. My husband. See above.
6. Chocolate
7. That I have a coworker who is as grammatically anal-retentive as I am, so we can be pariahs together. A rare thing anywhere, but particularly so in elementary education.
8. Being able to call it a night.

Okay, that was kind of weak - but in my defense, it's later than I thought. If you are feeling rather let down or unfulfilled, you should totally check out the YouTube link above. It's a porcupine eating pumpkins, better than which it does not get.

pro tip

When you are going through a personal crisis, The Grapes of Wrath might not be the most productive reading material.

Reason #21

The native hummingbird population needs to be kept under control.

Reason #20

That nest of clean laundry is not going to build itself.

Reason #19

Why Everyone Should Have a Cat

Because every time she turns her back, you keep getting lotion all over you, and somebody's gotta lick it off. I mean, seriously. If it weren't for her, you'd just be walking around covered in lotion all the time. What would people think?

T-minus five days to residency...not that I'm counting.

update

 Isaac is still using his powers for evil instead of good, but he's getting craftier, and therefore more socially acceptable, or at least less noticeable, in his evil plots. Example: when he was two, his idea of a good time was to walk into the middle of a crowd and shout "BUTTCRACK!!" at the top of his well-developed lungs. And, in fairness, I must say he always got a reaction. These days he prefers to hone his negotiation skills - how many peas does he have to eat to get the cookie, how many minutes can he play with Alec's prized whatever-it-is before Alec's head explodes, exactly who is going to wipe his butt after he poops. And he is not content to test each boundary only once, oh no. Yesterday's rules cannot be construed to have any bearing on today's situations, and just because he wiped his own butt yesterday is no reason to go and get all complacent.