Thanksgiving Comes First

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween.  After nine years living in a neighborhood where we literally had over 1000 trick or treaters every year it's strange to live where we usually only get the neighbor girl knocking on the door.  Last night we actually tripled that and had THREE sets of kids come looking for candy.  Now I'm ready to move on and consider Thanksgiving.

Last Monday, on October 25th, a particular coworker felt the need to announce to every patient who asked what date it was that it was two months until Christmas.  This information was not imparted in a matter of fact way or even in a wry manner.  Instead, said coworker hopped around like a preschooler who had eaten a bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs drenched in Red Bull instead of milk.  The first couple of times I thought she was putting it on, that it was a joke.  When she repeated the manic scene a dozen or so times it became annoying.  By late afternoon I was ready to bludgeon her since gentler suggestions of all holidays in their proper time had no effect.  In an attempt to be fair I wanted to warn her of her impending doom should she keep up the crazed elf routine.  I erupted in the following tirade:

It is not even October 31st yet.  That means we haven't even seen Halloween come and go, much less Thanksgiving.  Let me be clear. This week you are allowed to dance gleefully around the office in anticipation of trick or treating and eating yourself sick on all the Halloween loot you can stuff in a pillow case.  AFTER that you may become excited about Thanksgiving, which is the one holiday of the year that has very few commercial overtones since one is expected to gratefully reflect upon the blessings one already has enjoyed rather than getting hopped up on the season of gimme, gimme, gimme.  It's the the antithesis of what every marketing department works toward.  Not until the day after Thanksgiving will I even consider tolerating excitement about Christmas.  If you persist in this behavior I shall be forced to beat you senseless and truss you like a turkey, refusing to release you until you've learned your lesson.  She skulked away calling me a grinch.

Make no mistake, I like Christmas.  But I fell about Christmas the way I feel about snow.  It's a beautiful thing in its proper season.  In October it's just irritating, annoying and makes me angry.  Truthfully, I like Thanksgiving more than I like Christmas because, as mentioned in my tirade, it's naturally a time for reflection on our blessings and cultivating gratitude for them.  I don't like being hustled past something that meaningful and into the crass commercialism Madison Avenue has morphed Christmas into.  Though I will admit my delivery was somewhat Grinch-like.

So today, the 1st of November, in response to Suldog's request I am doing my part to stave off an early Christmas, which obscures the beauty of giving thanks.  If you're interested, here's the story of one of my favorite thanksgiving celebrations.

Friday 55 & Da Count-It's a Good Thing

FRIDAY 55

Hey, Mom?  Don't be angry, ok?

Depends upon what you did wrong, son,

I forgot tomorrow is Oktoberfest for German class.

We need to cook something.

WHO needs to cook something?

Uh, we need to.

WHO?

WE need to.

And who is involved in this "we?"

Uh, me...

and hopefully you...

so it tastes good.

DA COUNT

This week I'm counting having a German heritage so all I have to do is pull out Grammy's recipe. (If you're in need of a deliciously induced myocardial infarction check the link.) Also, I will be counting that Mr. Lime is willing to go to the store for ingredients.  But since I only found out an hour or so ago I hope the other Friday 55 players will understand if I'm a bit late getting around to say hello.  I have some German potato salad to make WITH a certain teen-aged sous-chef.

Slice of Lime-Retro Halloween

Let's take a little trip to the year I was three.

Before the costume...

I'm not entirely sure whether the jack-o-lantern or I had fatter cheeks but at least we are both smiling.

After the costume...

My Nana sewed my costume.  I think I wore it every year for the next three years. Halloween in Pennsylvania can be either comfortably warmish or freezing cold so it's always a good idea to have a costume you can wear a snowsuit under...or hide an extra huge stash of candy in.  This one fits the bill either way.

I Can Stop Any Time I Want To...

I was trying to decide what to do about dinner the other day.  I was thinking about pizza but due to some dietary restrictions Calypso has right now to try to boost her immunity she can't have that so I opted not to torment my poor pizza deprived daughter by bringing it into the house.

It was a cold day so I thought a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup would be good.  I didn't have enough bread.

I looked to see what I did have.  Oh, garlic bagel chips, about 8 roma tomatoes, some fresh mozzarella pearls, and some basil.  I can dice up the tomatoes and basil, mix 'em with olive oil, garlic, and the pearls and eat it off the bagel chips!

I can get pizza for lunch tomorrow and stop at the store on the way home to get bread for grilled cheese...

So basically I want...
round bread with cheese and tomato sauce all baked together...
toasted bread with cheese dipped in liquid tomoatoes...
or chips dipped into a mixture of tomatoes and cheese.

I don't have a problem with bread, tomatoes, and cheese though.

A Meme by Any Other Name Would Still Be as Silly

The Queen and the I, the Empress, have again joined forces to bring you a meme.

It's called the What's In A Name Meme

Today we are going to talk about names.

1. Your Superhero Name (2nd fave color + fave drink):
Yellow Lemon Water (the superhero with a bladder problem by the sounds of it)

2. Your Peace Name (Zen + your last peace globe #) OH! Don't have one yet? Go here.
Zen Pi ...because even after following the link I didn't understand...(sounds like a baked good but baked goods always make me feel peaceful...unless I'm being deprived of them)

3. Your American Idol Name (fav car and seafood)
Beater Crabs (sounds like something nice girls try to avoid)

4. If you could pick another name for yourself, what would it be?
I've got no ideas.   Make some suggestions.  You can call me anything, just don't call me late to dinner.  


5. Your Twitter Name (Chirpie + your favorite bird)
Ya know I was going to link to two separate pictures to show my favorite bird but here they both are in one twisted image. 


6.  Name 1 thing you wish you'd said today that would have made your day go better?
Pretty fades in time, playing stupid gets old real fast, and relying on your blow job skills to get you through life is the most pathetic way to get ahead. (Ok, so maybe in some ways it would have made my day worse but saying it would have been reeeeally gratifying for a few moments at least.)

I think I will name the quote...Paul.



7. Go HERE to find your Royal Name and reveal it to us. 
But I am already the Grand High Exalted Mystic Empress Lime, what other title could I need?