Morning all.
Ceejay - Hope your workday is quiet. Nice to have more vacation time to look forward to!
Good to get into a routine - once it's established, it's so much easier to maintain. Congrats on finding your gm's grave. I saw some really old headstones when we vacationed in Boston in 1995 - many were really difficult to make out.
Happy - Wow, that's a good amount of snow. A bit early for me. We had a dusting a couple weeks back and I
didn't like that, short-lived as it was. I prefer no snow until December! Sorry the longer shop hours weren't worth it and you were stuck there. After today, will you be off for several days now? Yum, fresh cranberry sauce! My mother, who doesn't like cooking, actually likes making that, LOL. I have some cranberries stashed in the freezer. Need to decide what I want to do with them. Bf never seems enthused about some of the cranberry recipes that appeal to me, so I guess I'll go with what I want.
Mel - Glad all was quiet yesterday. Sounds like your Thanksgiving was filled with people thanking your for all your hard work and kindness. How nice that it comes back to you.
Love the Calvin and Hobbes in your signature! Loved that cartoon. Right now my favorite is Mutts. I'm loving the Hallmark channel these days too. I'm missing some of the new movies, but I'm sure I'll get a chance to catch up in the next month, or there's always next year, LOL.
Shad - I'm glad you'll have a chance to enjoy the fruits of your labor! Smart DS hauling the desk over for the gf to use. Bf currently has his laptop set up on the dining room table and I alternate between wanting to hide it and hold it for ransom or feeling justified in leaving parts of the newspaper sitting on the table for
my convenience. Maybe when I finally find a nice bowl to display my fake fruit collection I'll get around to making the DR table a no laptop, no newspaper, no junk zone, heehee.
Ellen - Hello stranger! I too am out of my normal routine - feels like Saturday again. Hmmm. Hope your holiday was happy.
Annie - Awww, I'm sure everyone wanted to keep little Sassy, of course, after you've done all the hard work!!! I feel like at least 75% of the pet owners don't put in the effort with their pets and hence their frustration with undesired behaviors. It takes a lot of work and it never ends, but it's soooo worth it!!!
Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend, except for the shopping, lol. Let us know how the cream cheese lasagna recipe goes - I'm a fan of ricotta myself.
Michelle - Your Thanksgiving dinner sounded nice - and no cleanup afterwards! Hope your Friday at work was quiet and you got to leave a bit early. So nice that all the poochies get along.
Bummer you don't have laundry in your apartment, but nice that you can save your quarters and do it at the house. My mom has a small shop vac and she loves it too! Bf and I are in a vacuum cleaner quandary - we have a fancy upright we've abandoned because it's heavy, and our older one is okay, but it's sometimes balky to push even though the belt was recently replaced. I'm just glad we really only have some area rugs to deal with and not a house full of wall-to-wall carpet.
Patty - You sound like you're busy as heck and all over the place these days with the Maximo project. Glad you enjoyed the holiday as a mini-break from the craziness. Yes, we have to be thankful for gainful employment in spite of the craziness.
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My Thanksgiving was nice. Bf's brother's in-laws are nice people and we enjoy seeing them. Big crowd though - about 20, and when there are little ones in the mix, the noise level gets crazy. We both thoroughly enjoyed the peace of our drive home, LOL.
My pumpkin roll turned out well, but there were so darn many desserts at the gathering that I probably could have reserved half of the roll at home for a future event, like my upcoming book club. Oh well, we took home a section and so I'll get to enjoy another slice or two.
Friday was when the cold weather came in, with gusty winds to boot - brrr. Had to hold onto the car door handle firmly or it blew open and into the car parked next to you in the parking lot. No, we didn't shop - just stopped at the hardware store to get one of those christmas light detector/repair thingies. After Turkey Day, I was in the mood for some red meat, so we picked up some steak burritos from the place that doesn't bother with beans, lettuce, sour cream, etc. - just steak, a bit of cheese and cilantro. Yum. Rest of the day was low key, i.e, some laundry loads and Hallmark channel, haha.
Saturday I went to the 9 am circuit class, then showered and went to my hair appointment. Right after that was lunch with my friend D at the Schaumburg Lou Malnati's. We each ordered our own small so we could take home leftovers. Bf probably would have been very disappointed if I'd come home with just a slice, LOL.
I'd planned to hop over to a holiday bazaar being held down the road from the restaurant, but by the time we finished lunch, the bazaar was closing for the day. Instead I stopped on the way home at a Tuesday Morning near the house and found a couple ornaments worthy of the book club ornament exchange (one even has a bit of a tie-in to the book club book we just read)... and a couple more for myself, lol. I just love Christmas ornaments.
But Mel - you've got a good idea - I always have stuff in my Christmas decoration boxes that just stays in the boxes year after year that I don't use and that I don't have any particular sentimental feelings for, and so I should sorth through it and donate that stuff. But I'm not just ready yet to go up to the attic and drag down any boxes, so that might be a donation for 2013...
We watched the 2007 movie "Hot Fuzz" last night - a British comedy. Very funny.
Today I've been lazing around with the newspaper and I also unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and got that going. Nothing much planned for today except some errands - several things to get a Walmart.
Tomorrow is a vacation day for me and we'll get together with bf's mum to have lunch and go to a movie. Perhaps Skyfall or Argo. Also finally decided to join the no-frills gym near the house. I missed a $10 joining fee special about a week ago, but bf talked to the manager so I can get it when I go in tomorrow. Then it's just $10/month. No contract, and it'll supplement whatever classes I take at the park district's rec plex.
Well, that's about it, and what a novel of a post.
Enjoy what's left of your weekend! TTFN!
Home! How was the trip?
with a spoonful of cold medicine to help us sleep and went off to bed. I got a good solid 8 hours of sleep and feel so much better. I have to work again today but I'm hoping for an early out. It has been lightly snowing for 2 days now - I'd say we have a good 5 inches of snow at least. Winter is here. But it does look kind of pretty. 
Hope you had a nice dinner. If you like cranberries you need to come visit in the autumn. Apparently rice and cranberries are big crops out this way. But I'll throw a bag in the freezer for you just in case you decide to visit in the summer. 
Hi Ellen
