corny?

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my blog friends. I'm truly thankful for all of you all.
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trail mix

We pulled into the parking lot at the trailhead and got out for a short afternoon hike. Just the two of us.

I says, "Sheesh, just go to the trailhead and make out in the car..."

He says, "Uh..mm... okay?"

I says, "No, I'm talkin' about that couple in the car parked next to us!" *whispering kind of loud*

"OH!", he says, "I didn't see them". *whispering kind of loud now too*

I figured he'd seen them when he got out of the car. I had driven, and the make out car was to our passenger side. I just happened to look over and catch a glimpse of the festivities.

I really don't think they'd planned on going to a popular trailhead to make out in the car in the middle of a sunny afternoon. We figured they just got so caught up in the whole splendor-of-nature moment.

Or they just like doing that sort of thing.

Well, we hiked. See ^ ? Got some photos.

I wonder if the make out car couple got photos.

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music for the season

I got up this morning and looked outside. It was dark and rather unappealing. I could make out some stars and patches of ice and crusty snow. The thermometer said 18.3 Fahrenheit.

So I thought a bit. Go out and freeze my face off before biting it on a crusty chunk of ice and laying broken and immobilized while dying a slow hypothermic death? Or treadmill?

As much as I love a good adventure, I chose the treadmill.

A treadmill can be drudgery to some, and yes, it's not the same experience as running outside. Not at all. When I'm outside, I can enjoy the fresh air and the scenery and whatnot. Inside on the treadmill, I compensate. I listen to tunes.

We all have different tastes in music. Sometimes people will ask for music recommendations for the treadmill. Some good high-energy music to pass the miles. My preferences might not match yours. Let me just say, though, after this morning. Here's one I recommend.

I want your ugly

I want your disease...

I want Lady Gaga to come to my house for Thanksgiving, please

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Silver Liningness Sunday

The week started off with heavy, dense snow, and a lot of that snow is still here. Lots to evaporate! Aren't we all thankful for the hydrologic cycle?!

Onto other thankfulness, it was another good week, after all.

Firstly, we are all officially on Fall Break at the moment. An entire 9 days of no work, no school. I'm looking forward to that... I think.

The Thanksgiving Feast at the elementary school was fun and nourishing. Yes, I obediently complied and wore my white shirt/black pants casino outfit. I had stuffing duty, which is quite taxing on the forarm. Luckily, I later rotated to gravy.

No, we did not go camping this week. We would've likely frozen our patooties off had we gone, but since I made it a point to include a photo in the silver liningness entries, I just went and found one to my liking from a camping trip last summer. I'm thankful for technology... and memory.

Remember last week, I was all Laura Ingalls and made banana bread while the snow flew outside? Well Judy subsequently sent me one of her banana bread recipes, which includes crushed pineapple - oh she's a saucy one that Judy! I made two loaves of it this week. Num num num num... (no photo on account of the feeding frenzy that ensued).

We watched G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra this weekend. Clearly, I am not a member of the target audience for this movie. But it did provide a nice little nap opportunity for me.

Oh, and I'm a year older. Beats the alternative.
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eleven twenty-one sixty-four

I came across this photo of my brother and me several several years ago, I was probably about 13 years old or so.

Being a 13-years-old-or-so girl, my initial reaction was, "GAWD, Mom, I look terrible!" Yeah, Mom was in the room with me as I poured through a box of old photos.

"I look like I'm on my deathbed!", I continued in annoying adolescent girl fashion.

"Yes", she replied. "I think you're saying that Wombat killed you" (noting my index finger clearly identifying the villain) after which she commenced to laughing hysterically. Really. I think she may have peed a little.

So, what brought back this memory? Well, today is my birthday, so naturally I'm thinking of my death.

Just kidding, that would be morbid. A little.

Actually, that memory came back because I was thinking *a little bit* about my death and I got a birthday greeting from the villain brother. He wished me a happy birthday in tagalog - Filipino language. Mom's Filipina, Dad's not, so we kids are half. We really don't know the language other than a few words like terms for body parts taught to us during bath times and not typically shared in mixed company.

Being born on the cusp of Scorpio, my birthday has always fallen near Thanksgiving. So I'm thankful to be seeing another birthday. I'm thankful for Mom. And Dad. And brothers. Even Wombat, who was and is, clearly, the favorite child. Bad hair and all.
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oh em gee

It's a day off today, and I've got a to-do list sitting here in front of me. There is no item that says "blog", but since I can't decide what to do next, here I am.

I just got back from Friday morning VoMo duty in Meego's classroom, so maybe I can scratch that off of the TD list to make me feel somewhat productive. Of course, I'll have to write it on the TD list first... then scratch.

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Update: It's later now.

See, as I was sitting here procrastinating, I looked at what I needed to do and saw "alignment for the subaru", and thought, "well, there's something fun I can do". Okay, not really. But I wanted to get that done and it looked better than dog kennel duty so....

I've vented here before about my mistrust of our automotive service place. Seemed that every time I took a vehicle there for something minor like an oil change, they'd find a bunch of $$$tuff that needed fixing. But I reluctantly continued to go there because of their convenient location.

Today, I rebelled. I found another shop that's a little further away, but not by much, for the alignment. After a short wait, this is what they said (paraphrasing).

"The alignment's not that bad, the pulling is mainly caused by a tire issue. Your tire tread is still okay, but if you're going to get tires in the next few months, you should just do the alignment then. You don't really need to do anything now".

Then she printed out a "receipt" for ZERO dollars.

It's Friday, I'm in love.

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spooning, missionary style

Got a call yesterday. A not-too-frantic call from a mom friend from the elementary school. Seems she had gotten a slightly more frantic call from another mom friend a bit earlier.

Me: Hello?
MF: Hey Abby, it's Mom Friend
Me: Hey
MF: I just got a call from Other Mom Friend who just got a call from School Secretary
Me: Yeah hmmmm.
MF: School Secretary's in a panic because they NEEEED servers for the feast. Other Mom Friend has to go to work today, so she asked me to round up a few servers. Neighbor Mom Friend and I're going, you wanna go?
Me: Yeah, I can sling some hash on Wednesday.
MF: Cool, that's 4 of us so far...


So yes, today's the annual Thanksgiving Feast at the elementary school, also known as Let's-Get-High-Off-Sterno day.

Each year, the school goes all out, setting up a couple of buffet lines, cooking up a bunch of turkeys and fixings, inviting parents to eat with their kids, and getting all tryptophaned out. This endeavor takes a bit of help, mainly in the form of slave labor to carve the turkeys and dish out the food. That's where we come in.

I've done this before and it's actually quite fun and festive. And did I mention the sterno high?

So our phone conversation wrapped up

MF: School Secretary says to be there about 10:45.
Me: No problem.
MF: She says to wear black pants and white shirt.
Me: What?
MF: Yeah, they're imposing a dress code on us this year.
Me: Right, first they're begging for help, then they wanna tell us how to dress?
MF: Yeah....
Me: Okay fine.


Black pants and white shirt. Sounds a bit like "casino night at the elementary school" or perhaps a gathering of Mormon missionaries.

Anything for Let's-Get-High-Off-Sterno day, I suppose.
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