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Yesterday, we went out to do a bunch of running around and had to wait in town to meet up with the husband. Someone got hungry (fine, it was me), so we went to McDonald's. Guppy drank her milk and shared her french fries with me, ate a few pieces of chicken... and got to discover Playland.

She was pretty tentative about the whole thing - and definitely NOT interested in roaming out of sight through the tubes - but the slide met wholeheartedly with her approval:



We also went to the post office, where a box from the amazing Jenny was waiting for us, with a blanket that she's been knitting for TWO YEARS. It is so gorgeous and soft and amazing, and I confess I teared up a little, thinking about all the work that went into it. I will post photos, when I get a chance. There is a small monster sleeping under it right now.

Parents are out on the road again, contractors are nearly finished with our garage (mud and tape and texture and paint!), Guppy is sporting lots of bandaids because she won't stop scratching her mosquito bites, it's raining AGAIN (but I got all my plants in and new grass seed spread), there is a bruise the size of a hand that is deep purple and turning yellow on one knee, bills to pay today, art I've promised, and programming to do... but I'm going to make cookies and watch an episode of Dr Who instead of being responsible. Being a grownup means I get to choose that sometimes.

And I am not sure there will be any cookies left when the Guppy gets up from her nap, let alone when the husband gets home. Sorry, sweetie!

I refuse to shop today. I don't even want to drive into town, if I can help it. I am not running a Black Friday sale. My big plans to be a hermit for this entire weekend are in risk because I'm wait-listed for a bazaar on Saturday and Sunday (which I probably won't find out if I'm in until late morning Saturday!) and because I forgot that this weekend is Muse Fusion!

Skip the crowds, come join Torn World creators for a weekend of creative jamming - leave prompts and ideas, and see what we come up with! (Me, I have three more stories to finish before the end of the month, so I will be jamming on flash fiction, though depending on my bazaar status, I may not have much time until Monday...) I will be opening this up in just a few hours - I'll announce it here!

My Thanksgiving was lovely.

It was just me, Jake, Guppy and the pets, mostly watching football, cooking and cleaning. We had homemade bacon, hashbrowns and eggs for breakfast, walnut cranberry celebration bread (OMG good) and a large dinner, which was a ham (one of the super-yummy spiral flame-crafted ones from Fred Meyers), sausage stuffing, greenbean casserole, and pineapple-upside-down cake. We have leftovers, including soon-to-come walnut cranberry celebration bread french toast...

I thought a great deal about things I was thankful for. Last year, the week around thanksgiving was not so pleasant: my car was in the shop being rebuilt after being smooshed by two colliding trucks while I waited at a stoplight and I was still having nightmares of the sound it made, and flashing back badly to the car accident where I broke my back. We had just been through an ice storm, spent a few days without power, couldn't get up our driveway, and had lost a dozen trees right around the house. We ended up scavenging whatever we could for thanksgiving dinner out of our freezer. Within a few days, I had taken Norway for a walk and he'd run into me and sprained my ankle so bad it still sometimes hurt 6 months later. It was, in general, a very dark time for me.

So, mostly I am thankful that it is this year, and not last. I am in a much, much happier place right now, occasional anti-social tendencies notwithstanding.

I am also thankful for all of you, my beautiful friends, family and creative inspirations. Thank you for being your quirky, supportive, amazing selves.

French toast to make now... Mmmm....