My blog is wearing a new dress. I got to choose between an A-line, an empire waist and a sari.  I’m going for comfort, though, because I’m past 30 and I don’t have to put up with that crap anymore.

It’s all cleaned up on the side and I have a new way to display photos which I’ll work on figuring out soon.

I know the comments are too light (Thanks Betsy!) , so Karen will probably be fixing that soon.

This flu is slowly killing me with the aches and clamminess. I continue to change blankets and sheets because my icky sick sweat is all over them and I’m pretty sure a nice family of badgers has taken up residence in my hair because looks like a hot mess. They’re leaving crumbs everywhere, though, and I might have to give them an eviction notice. Since I have enough hair for ten people you can only imagine how attractive that looks.

Just look at the pretty new format. It looks much better than my current condition.

Just in time for Thanksgiving.

Happy Assimilated Culture Turkey Day!

I’ve come to some realizations…

My feet are big but my sons are bigger now and that somehow comforts me.

This time of year I crave a clove cigarette and some hot apple cider but I know the clove cigarette will burn my lungs and not really be as tasty as I want it to be.

The reason I didn’t join NaBloShoeMo is that I felt guilty about buying more shoes because, for the love of grape jelly, I already had at least 30 pair from last year.

That didn’t stop me from buying them this last year and consider photographing them. I could be talked into that.
A cold turkey sandwich on wheat bread with some tomato isn’t on the menu soon enough. Come on, Thanksgiving!

When I consider baking cookies and taking some to my hairdresser because I see her each week makes me a total hair whore.

It’s been sixteen years since I got my braces off and I still run my tongue over my teeth when a student tells me they just got theirs off.

I won’t ever stop caring for and loving the students who cross my path. It’s worth it to give my heart to them.

My daughter will owe less than twenty grand in loans after college and that number seems kinda reasonable.

If I watch The Philadelphia Story I can’t help but say, “My, she was yar” about anything beautiful. I do this for about three weeks.

Getting me through some rough times…

…excellent black tea from Teavana.

…coveting these pretty shoes.

…drooling over this camera with that lens and this flash.

…hugs from my not so little boys.

…anticipating a commissioned painting from this artist.

…re-reading this little gem.

…watching this series that completed my 7 year set.

…listening to this song, even the Ben Folds version.

…reading your words from yesterday’s sad, sad post.

Thanks.

While you’re sitting there frustrated at me and throwing tennis balls at my head, rest assured: I’m switching servers and hosting sites to better serve you.

Anything for you. Yes, you.

That other place I’m writing is temporary, but for the next week or so I’m guest posting over here. It’s my first “guest post” so I need to know, what should I ask to be paid? If I were housesitting I could easily get $50 a day. Help me out here and tell me what a good asking price is, please?

The first post is up. You can load the page and comment easily and everything.

Anything for you.

Whew! Monthlong blogging has left me…well… full of all sorts of titles that I haven’t been able to use. Some of them come to me in a moment and are then GONE like the frosted cookies at the office Christmas party. Other times, I remember to write them down and keep a list. I do the same thing for my screen name when I get a chance to chat. My favorite one of late was “McOMG”. I tickle myself endlessly when I have time on my hands.

And time? Well, I have that now that all my papers and projects are done for the semester. Time for… mojito recipes. So far, I’ve loved the one that the Foolish Skeptic left yesterday. One question: are you sure it’s brown sugar?

I went straight to the top and found some great ideas here but the problem is that now I’m going to buy every flavor rum they have available just to try them all. Only three shopping days left! Until Mallory comes home! And I have a designated driver! Now, I have a word of caution for those under the age of 21 when you go to that site: just lie. Tell them you’re 21. How would they know? It does make me wonder, however, what anyone who is under 21 is doing reading my site. I’m just a boring old lady who dreams of lemon scented Pledge, longs for a Dyson, and wonders why anyone in their right mind could possibly want to buy a chocolate fountain to have and keep and clean.

With all my free time (read: sitting on my fat ass and surfing the Internet for gift baskets for Mallory during her final exams) I found something that was so amusing that Mason and I stayed up 2 hours past his bedtime playing with it. And I’ve come up with an idea, too.

But, I’m not going to tell you yet. It has something to do with money. And Christmas. And helping people out. I even have the ‘people’ in mind. I’ll tell you later.

For now, I have to give a shout out to a couple of really cool people. One of them is Melissa who sent me Kona coffee. From Hawaii. I know! That’s the noise I made, too! On a whim, she also decided to send me some Chocolate covered Macadamia Nuts.

Officially and decidedly, I love Melissa.

I don’t want to forget to mention that the person who won the coffee from yours truly has also been named and I haven’t yet had the chance to congratulate Kathy from “Where’s The Mute Button?” for the Peet’s coffee that is en route to her home from me. Kathy offered me a choice in sending her a gift. She wanted to donate money to a student at my school in need instead of getting the coffee. Since I wanted her to have the coffee, too, we came up with a compromise: she gets one of the three bags offered and the rest of the money will go toward a gift to a student for Christmas.

Bless. Her. Heart.

I loved that idea. It gave me warm fuzzies and brought a tear to my eye and made me sob uncontrollably for about 5 minutes. The embarrassing kind. Where I do that intake of air and sound like I’ve got a bad case of hiccups. Still, it made me happy to hear that she had that great idea.

Unabashedly and audaciously, I love Kathy.

Finally, Holly from Culture Captioning has contacted me about something called Bada Beans. Her e-mail was cuddly and winsome, so I agreed. She knew I liked and reviewed coffee and her sheepish e-mail subject line elicited a snort: Typical “can I send you stuff” request. Our exchange had me asking to test out a mansion, but darn the luck. The last one had already been sent out. I’m going to let it slide this time because she then agreed to send me some Bubble Chocolate. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Flagrantly and brazenly, I love Holly.

All this love stuff has made me lightheaded because I can’t believe what I’m going to do. First, I’m going to make you wait until tomorrow. You’ll be sure to come back, right? There might be some Bubble Chocolate in it for you.