Karl, I nominate this

Keep on keeping on, my dears. May we be lights in the darkness and shoulders for each other to lean on for many years to come.

I am sorry to hear about loved ones who say terrible things. It comes from a twisted up place, I think.

Two years sober and the brushing of hair daily is something to be proud of. Much effort has gone into that progress. I salute you.

In other news I have stuffed myself with goodies and spent another Thanksgiving with the folks.

I am very happy that DH's brother is NOT staying on the couch tonight because he does not shower often enough to please me. There would have been a lot of laundry erasing the memory of that visit. No doubt I am petty about B.O., but jeez dude. It's not like you have to hike a mile to the river and chop a hole through the ice to get water.

I am having cranberry relish this morning for breakfast, AIFG!

Alls well that ends well I guess. I can pull mac out of a mood (that I presumably put him into) faster than anyone else in the family and he gives me the smiles.

That is huge. Things went well with the boys being here for Thanksgiving. They both helped me cook and clean up, and they played basketball together and showed each other various memes on their phones. They are so different and have every sibling stereotypical conflict imaginable. It may help that they don't see each other as often. I did pointedly ask grandma to try and not ask #1 son so many "what the hell are you doing with your life" questions. He is 25 and knows by now what grandma's hopes and dreams for him include. All in all it was a delightful day.

From this twitter thread: Please show me pictures of weird stuff in your parents house, I think we have a successor to Belinda: [link]

At least it's traded those cymbals it was killing everyone with in the Stephen King story for a banana, which is presumably less dangerous.

I'm sorry your friend was an asshat, Strix.

I had pie for breakfast, and my tree is up (if not decorated). So I'm calling today a success. Also, the green extension cord thing I got to plug my tree lights into (I can't plug one set into the next) has a hook on the end that fits my artificial tree limbs perfectly. I was planning on MacGyvering something with wire, and now I don't have to. I love it when commercial design actually makes things easier than expected. And I also love that my spell check accepts "MacGyvering" as a word.

Sparky, so sorry about your uncle. Sending all the hugs to everyone, esp. your mom.

Strix, what everyone said. The work you've done and the person you are now isn't hers to knock down.

Sick & exhausted here. Yuck.

I have ventured out for cold medicine and milk, and just had a slice of apple pie, so sick day Black Friday is going well.

Funny story: my mother has an old TV, so it's square, which means things get cut off the sides sometimes. The other night, she asked me what was up with the ads for LACK FRIDA.

Ugh, I have a headache that won't quit. Today I have already done 30 minutes of work (blech) and now I need to finish dishes from yesterday, do some homework, start switching decorations over from fall to Christmas, and do a bit of online shopping. Over the weekend I plan to start on addressing holiday cards, do more crafting for Kelly's wedding, and sleep as much as possible.

Made agreement with family that we are only doing $30 gifts this year, except for mac.

I think I spent all I can for the next couple of weeks. car stereo & install was $361. Getting up early saved me enough to get it connected to the steering wheel controls which adds more safety for mac. Still, that's a chunk of change.

Seeing the everything 50% signs in Old Navy was too tempting, so I dropped over $100 there.

Then two little stops at BB&B for a new duvet cover, and B&N for Pops. Those two together came in under $50 since I also hit sales at both.

Done for the day/week.