The junkie cat has been shot up, and both cats have been fed, and I am going back to bed. YAY days off. (sorry Tom).

Oh Matt, how'd your poor mom destroy a store-bought? What happened with your brownies?

Something about the oven timing. She checked for doneness with a toothpick and all seemed well, but after refrigeration she tried to cut it and it was all runny inside.

I think the problem with my brownie layer was a combo of the gas oven and a smaller, deeper pan, making the bottom burn while the top seemed fine. But the mint frosting layer used the same recipe that's worked fine since 1990 (no cooking involved), so I suspect a curse.

Last night I had a dream about my nearest and dearest cousin being beaten by her boyfriend (not the kind British real-life one) and trying to talk me down from retaliating. Not sure where that came from, as yesterday wasn't exactly full of unexpressed aggression, and that cousin is the most capable and self-sufficient of all my relatives.

Damn! I wish I'd remembered Darkovercon, since now that my Mom is living near Philly I can combine pleasure and filial duty and perhaps justify the long car trip. Not this year, but next....

Oh, and I just came across this Greenpeace commercial "Oh my God, they killed Squiddy!" It almost makes me like Greenpeace again:

[link]

I am at work. They've already said, "Anybody want to go home?" Which, of course, means that in a couple of hours, when all our customers have finished sleeping off their Thanksgiving comas, we'll be swamped.

Whee.

Of course, I may be wrong, and I may have a wonderful day of surfing fic sites ahead of me.

The house awakens slowly. Lori and I have watched the animated Tick, done the dishes, made a frittata, had a piece of pie, walked the dogs and showered. Polgara got up did exercises and what not. Allyson has had her first cigarette.

Ah. mornings in the mountains.

Also, WRT GA: I can't decide if I love the idea of Addison and Karev or if I HATE HATE HATE it.

Goddamned Time Warner. I never loved Adelphia, but I also never had this much cable reception and internet connection problems.

Internet went down in the middle of the night too. At least that came back. Cable's even worse off than it was last night.

I kinda wanted to wake up in a good mood today.

I am now depressed. As part of the "slow day at work" thing, I Googled news of my hometown in rural Southwestern Pennsylvania and discovered that due to the disregard of the local coal mines, one of the loveliest homes in the county needs to be demolished due to subsidance. Streams and springs are being shut off and old houses all over the region are collapsing. But the coal mine is the biggest employer, so people don't like to make a fuss.

I remember when we sold the coal rights under our farm. Now I'm wondering if the house I grew up in is also in danger and if the spring that supported the farm for nearly 200 years has been shut off. It's the typical story of huge company ignoring regulations that inconvenience them. There's even a quote from the manager of the local mines about how historic preservation is overblown and isn't the local economy more important anyway?

I knew I'd never go back to live, but I always thought it was going to be there if I wanted to go back and look.

Hey Tom! We were talking about your excellent pre-eating/post-eating t-day meal photos from last year.

Did you see this year's picture?