Happy Thanksgiving!

I got up before the newspaper made it to my doorstep - that's a first!  It was late today - usually it's here by 6 a.m.  The pile of advertisements from retailers was at least 2 inches thick (I am not kidding) and I spent a couple happy hours sipping coffee, listening to smooth jazz on my laptop (since the local smooth jazz station went the way of the dinosaur, the only way to listen to the music I like now is online) while paging through all the super-sales.

But I've done most of my shopping already.  This morning online I scored a perfect for me 15.6" laptop for $230 plus $14.99 shipping and an all-in-one wireless printer/fax/scanner with a high page per minute print rate and cheap ink refills for $69.99 with free shipping.  My desktop will go into retirement in the spare room, or perhaps I will donate it to a local charity.  It's 5 years old and not a thing wrong with it, just a little slower than I like and even the cheapest laptops these days have 2x as much storage and speed.  And I didn't shop at Walmart either - I refuse to do so, on principle.  My purchases will ship tomorrow and they should be here Monday.

So, I am a very happy camper and am just about to lug the artificial tree in from the garage and turn the Lions game on.  It's cold today, but the rain has stopped.  The winds are picking up and the temperature is dropping.  By Black Friday morning the windchills will approach zero, brrrrrr!  I'm staying inside!  It was so lovely to not have to get up in the dark this morning.  I popped out of bed about 7:15 - there is a certain level of daylight I respond to and wake up naturally.  And to think I have tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday to do the same thing!  Ahhhh, I'm in Heaven.  Now I've got to toss some more nuts out for the converging squirrels who have been swarming since daybreak now that they realize I'm home past my usual 7:25 a.m., LOL! 

Later -

It is now later - 1:10 p.m. to be exact.  I posted the above at 11:33 a.m.



Christmas, 2009.  Gifts are scattered about, including
those wine bottles, new gloves for Mr. Don, new
exhibit catalogs to read - and there's the tree!

 Ohmygoddess!  Every year I forget that wrestling that very heavy artificial tree from the garage into the front room is a 2-person job in a 1-person household. And every year I somehow manage to get it done, but usually not without knocking over a lamp or the tree stand falling apart or being attacked by bugs that did not make it into the vacuum cleaner.  Or all three at once.  This year, fortunately, I moved the lamps and furniture well out of the path of the wayward tree, and there were only two bugs. The stand did fall apart, and I noticed somehow I lost a part of it where the plastic cracked and a chunk disappeared.  I jerry rigged the two stand "legs" that kept falling out of their slots with scotch tape, LOL!  Not duct tape, that would show :)  I also used scotch tape to "tie up" a sagging branch - the prong it sits in must have gotten dented out of shape last season as I was wrestling the tree back to the garage. 

The tree seems to have a lot more "holes" this year.  Hmmmm.  I swear the tree does it to itself just to drive me crazy trying to bend the branches this way and that to "fill" them in.  Of course, I never get them filled in, no matter how hard I try!  I walk around and around that tree, bending this, pushing that, the lights are on, it's against the front window so I can see the holes quite clearly, and yet somehow, they seem to show up in other spots that do not reveal themselves until the tree is entirely decorated!  Argggghhhhh.

Decorated it is not, at the moment!  I'm taking a break before I lug the boxes of decorations and ornaments down from the spare closet.  Detroit is leading the Patriots by 7 at the half - good for them!  I listened to the Kid Rock presentation and there was a brief interview with "The Rock" Dwayne Johnson who is so - ummphh! - and has come out with a new shoot-em-up/smash-em-up revenge movie just in time for Christmas.  Nothing like peace to men of goodwill on earth, heh?  LOL!  Well, I love a good revenge movie as well as the next chess femme, and The Rock is easy on the eyes, I must say. 

It's dark here - it's nice having the light on the tree turned on, sort of brightens things up.  The clouds are really scudding low across the sky.  The squirrels are eating me out of house and home.  There can be no squirrels in sight and the second I appear at the patio door POOF, there they are, with one little paw tucked under in their "begging" pose, LOL!  How can I resist?  That's the problem, I can't.  Oh well.  There is one little fellow who has a slightly deformed mouth. He has developed a taste for Brazil nuts and won't go for the almonds.  He also loves pecans, but they are very expensive!  Anyway, he'll come right up to the patio door and stand up and look in, with his little paws pressed against the glass.  If that doesn't get my attention, he'll jump a few times - thump thump - and if that doesn't work he'll scramble up the side of the door making a goddess-awful racket with his nails on the aluminum siding!  That never fails to get my attention no matter how intent I am on the task at hand.  He is one smart little squirrel.

Okay - time to haul the boxes of decorations and ornaments downstairs.  This year I want to go for a somewhat different look on the tree.  Somehow, I am thinking it will end up looking pretty much the same but - we'll see...  Second half has started and the Lions have scored again --