Oh, come on ... Everyone has time for a few moments of fun, especially during the holidays!  Don't be a Scrooge ... steal this Meme the same way I did (I snatched it from Candy-Apple) and tell the world how you feel!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?  Plain or spiked? Egg Nog with rum for the spiked choice ... hot chocolate with whipped cream for the non-spiked. Of course hot chocolate with a little Bailey's is pretty good, too.

2 . Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?   He doesn't wrap anything!  He makes me do it!  But I refuse to wrap the Teddy Bears. Poor little guys get all stuffy after a while (uh, no pun intended). 

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?   Colored, if they're all one color (like all blue or all red or all white); Otherwise, white (which I guess is the same thing if they're still all one color, huh?).

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope ... I use lethal injection. It's more humane. 

5. When do you put your decorations up?  Usually right about the time I get them out of storage ... which is usually about a day before I expect people to come over ... which is usually about Christmas Eve. 

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?  I used to like this really cool serving platter that I had but I think the Butthead ended up with it.  So now I need to find a new favorite.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:   When the Ladies Club showed up at our door with a bride doll and a portable record player, just for me! Actually, that's about the only holiday memory I have ... hmmmm.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?  Truth about what? What about Santa?  I don't understand the question.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?   Unpack the storage unit, bring in the boxes, set them on the floor and tell whoever is there to "Go for it!"  I hate decorating the tree! There. Now you know. (*Whew* That felt good!) 

11. Snow ... Love it or Dread it?  Love it ... in some body else's world!

12. Can you ice skate?    HA! About as well as I roller skate ... which hasn't happened in about 20 years!!

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?  It's the end of another year ... and I'm another year older ... which is a good thing.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?   I don't think I have one!  There's not a dessert that I eat only during the holidays and not the rest of the year. Well, except pumpkin pie. So I guess I should say pumpkin pie. With lots of whipped cream! 

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?  Finding, buying and giving a special teddy bear to Michelle.  It can't be just any old bear ... it has to have that "I need a home" face and it has to reach out and tug at my heart strings.  I've managed to find one every year for the past 30+ years.  Which tells me there are a lot of homeless bears out there.

17. What tops your tree?   Green stuff ... but I think it's part of the tree.

18.  Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?    Well, everybody likes to receive, even people who like to give. But I'd have to say I really enjoy that giving stuff thing.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?   Little Drummer Boy ... and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer!

20. Candy Canes ... Yuck or Yum?    Yuck! There's a reason those things only show up at Christmas time ... kinda like that one fruitcake that keeps traveling around the world.

Puppies are such a pain in the butt joy to have around! 

The little fur-balls following wherever you go, snagging the bottom of your bathrobe as you attempt to walk from one room to the other; the sudden stop while in the middle of a flat-out run to squat down and piddle; those tiny needle-point puppy teeth imbedded in your toes as you sit at the computer and try to type; watching them go from sixty to zero in a matter of milliseconds.

And then there is bedtime … that ear-splitting puppy howl in the middle of the night when they wake up and realize you really aren’t going to sleep on the floor next to them; waking from a dead sleep to go to the bathroom and immediately stepping in a little wet puddle.

The nice thing is having an older “puppy” that becomes somewhat of a surrogate mother and playmate. However, when you tell her to stay with the baby-puppy, she gives you a looks of pure disgust because it’s the middle of the night and all she wants to do is sleep and she knows it means waking up every few hours to play.  But being the good, obedient dog that she is, she does it. Just for you. So you can sleep.

Except having these two trample around the bedroom, jumping and rolling and snarfing and occasionally yelping, is not conducive to sleep.

Add to that a sick man with an upper respiratory infection who spends most of the night trying to dislodge at least one of his lungs, and sleep is nothing more than an illusion. 

And there is nothing worse than a sick man.  They whimper and whine; they follow you from one room to the other, hanging on to your bathrobe so you can’t get further than two feet away; they moan and cry in the middle of the night; they expect you to sleep on the floor wrapped up right next to them and all the while you’re sweating off a good ten pounds because they’re cold even though the room temperature is around eighty.

Now that I think about it, there’s a definite correlation between puppies and sick men.  The biggest difference is that puppies are cute.

And there’s really nothing better than little puppy kisses in the middle of the night ... Except maybe sleep.

Well, the long weekend is over (not that it makes a huge difference for us non-working slugs).  I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

We went to the nephew's for dinner and yes, I took the vegetables.  It turned out to be a nice time though still not comparable to the Thanksgivings I remember and I missed not having Michelle and the girls around.  I suppose that's what happens when kids grow up and have a life and family of their own and mom lives so far away ... damnit.

However, Friday we took a drive through the Texas countryside to a small town outside of Tyler.  Of course there was a mission to our madness and I'll share that in a moment, but first I'll share the wonders of living in the wide open state of Texas.

There is never a shortage of animals in this great state.  Driving along, you will be dazzled by various four-legged creatures such as cows, horses, llamas, deer, camels ...

*Camels?? Did she say camels??*

That was pretty much my reaction, too, but there they were. Out in the middle of a field, in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between Tyler and Dallas ... a crop (Herd? Bevy? Bunch? Whatever more than one camel is called) of camels. Single-humped, large footed, camels, wandering around, grazing (or whatever camels do).

I knew they raised a variety of animals in this state but that one was a real surprise. I just wonder if they export them ... and to where.

So, back to the reason for our drive. 

Here she is, the newest member of the family ... seven week old Annie:

And yes, her feet really are that big!

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting weak?

Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they already know there is not enough?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle it comes in?

Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?

Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

Whose idea was it to put an "S" in the word "lisp"?

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?

How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?

Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table, you always manage to knock something else over?

In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

After all, isn't this what it's really all about?

Happy Thanksgiving, Little Ones ...

I love you.

Has anyone else noticed, or paid attention to, the number of commercials on television that promote prescription drugs?  It seems to be a thriving business.  And the most advertised drugs are either for a.) a sleep disorder, which tells me that there are a gazillion people out there not sleeping, or b.) Male enhancement, which seems to be a huge business (uh, sorry … no pun intended).

I love the disclaimers for side effects that these companies are required to disclose. The sleeping aids may cause dizziness, drowsiness or (and this may come as a shock) … Sleep!  Hmmm … wonder if the FDA knew about this when they approved the drug. 

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we’ll be going over to Tom’s nephew’s house.  I suppose the good part is that I won’t have to spend the day cooking and cleaning while everybody else sits around and enjoys themselves … which is what I learned over the summer with our BBQ get-togethers.  I did all of the cooking & cleaning and not once, with the exception of one person, did anybody offer to help.  No “Can I bring anything?”… No “Can I help cook?” or “Hey, you did all the cooking, let us clean up!” … not even “Can we help clean up?”

Our “little” Angel-dog came home from the vet yesterday after having her female reproductive organs ripped out and spending the night there (okay, they weren’t actually “ripped” out but I know from experience that that’s exactly what it feels like).  We also had her micro-chipped and now I have to wonder … how do you know if there really is a micro-chip in there?

It’s amazing that this year is almost gone.  December is almost here and along with it, all of the parties, the food, the presents … everything that makes the end of the year so much fun.  Tom has to travel to the different jobsites and regional offices for their Christmas parties and he actually let me know the date of the main office party here (far enough in advance that I have time to plan … I usually find out these things a day or two before they happen).  Now the real test will be to see if he remembers my birthday! 

I’ll get back to ya on that one.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.  More than birthdays, more than Christmas, more than Easter or Halloween or Secretary's Day or any of the hundreds of other holidays celebrated around the world.

Thanksgiving has always been about being together, family and friends, strangers and soon-to-be-friends. It's not about presents, it's not about who can out-give who, it's not even really about food and who can fall asleep first after gorging themselves on the twenty-foot buffet and fifty pound turkey.

I remember the Thanksgivings where there was always room for "one more" no matter how broke we were or how small the turkey was; I remember the Thanksgivings of playing street football and running through the brisk Autumn air, our noses and ears turning red, our fingers so stiff and cold we dropped the football more often than we caught it; I remember laughing with the abandon of a child as we jumped into the piles of leaves, knowing full well that we were going to have to rake them up the next day.

I wish I could instill the same happiness and feelings of love and warmth that those Thanksgivings invoke in me on the people around me now.  Even though I know it will be a nice day, there's an emptiness in my heart, a little hole that wants so much to bring back those Thanksgivings of years ago.

If I could have one more day with the people I've lost, it would be a Thanksgiving day. 

I know I can't, of course.  But I can give thanks that I had them for the short time I did ... and I can make my heart happy in the thought that they too remember the days of football and leaves, the Autumn chill, the laughter ... and the love.

Have I mentioned that Tom's son is moving from New York to Texas?  And the other son is moving from Texas to Colorado? Of course, it's a known fact that Michelle wants to move out of Vegas and hopeully that will happen someday.  It's kind of like musical chairs with our kids ... we never know where they may be at one time or the other.

Anyway, the one son is currently in the process of moving to Texas and is looking for a house. His wife and 2-year old son are still in New York until their house there closes escrow.  In the meantime, they fly out here every few weeks which is what they're doing this weekend.

And they need a babysitter so the "adults" can go on a house-hunting-preschool-daycare-excursion.  Which will explain my absence over the next four days as we are leaving this afternoon for Austin.

When Tom asked me if I wanted to go someplace for the weekend, I said "Sure!" Little did I know it wasn't for a romantic, four-day getaway.

Well, the interview yesterday went well.  I left with the feeling that they would make an offer, so when they called last night at 6:30 it wasn't a huge surprise.  It seems to be a good company ... family owned, mid-size as far as number of employees and average contract amount, medical benefits (no 401K or retirement plans), decent salary for the area ... commute sucks (figure at least an hour each way with traffic) and they want me to start now. Today. Yesterday if possible.

Several years ago ... let's say about four years because that's what it was ... after I left the restaurant business and before I moved to Maine, I interviewed with a small contractor in Fresno.  It was a family owned business, decent salary, etc., etc., and after much deliberation, weighing the pros and cons, convincing myself if was the right thing to do in spite of serious reservations, I took the job.

It was the worst employment decision I've ever made.  I stayed there a year.  It was one of the most miserable years I can remember. When it was over, I promised myself I would never again dismiss my initial feelings and when my intuition knocked me upside the head with a resounding "RUN the other way ... NOW!", I would pay attention.

Luckily I'm not in the same position I was when I took the job in Fresno.  At that time, I needed a job and there were no options.

Last night after a lengthy discussion with Tom (and finally hearing some of the answers I've needed to hear), weighing all of the options, and realizing that if I was feeling so hesitant there must be a reason, I called them back and turned down the offer.

In my old age, I've realized that it's not only when opportunity knocks that you need to pay attention.  It's also when intuition slaps you that you need to look both ways before crossing that street because the dog coming down the street just may be a Greyhound ...

BUS.

Yeah, yeah, yeah ... I'm still here.

Kids are gone ... they were actually only in the area for three days (long drive for such a short stay, in my opinion ... but then that's exactly what that is. My opinion). At least I got to spend one whole day with Michelle, The Monkey and The Bean.  They went to the zoo on Friday, we all met for dinner Friday night, and they took off Saturday morning.

Short and sweet.  And I miss them already.  Someday, maybe, either we'll live closer or my son-in-law will agree to take a handful of sedatives so we can get him on a plane. Yeah. Right.

Anyway, they are back home and things are back to normal around here. 

I finally reactivated my resume on Monster and have received a few phone calls.  Unfortunately, most of them are looking for Controller positions, which I never want to do again ... one of those "been-there-done-that-thanks-but-no-thanks-I'll-pass-thank-you-very-much" type jobs.  At this point in life, I just don't want the headaches and sleepless nights that go along with a top management position.  One person full of stress in the house is quite enough.

Worker-bee is just fine with me.  And I have an interview today for just such a position.  They actually called me to interview for Controller and when I told them that I, truthfully, had no desire to do that again, they said they had just fired the AP person that morning ... would I be interested in that?  Wull, sho-ore! Maybe.

Of course my main concern is benefits.  Salary isn't too much of an issue but if they don't offer any benefits, it doesn't matter how much they want to pay.  And then there's the commute, since I really have no idea where I'm going yet!  I suppose I should look at Mapquest or Google ... The drive alone may determine the outcome.

I'll leave a trail of breadcrumbs and if you don't hear from me soon, someone please come find me!