Happy Thanksgiving!

I'll post some news while Kevin preps the bird. After that I have to get the potatoes ready and straighten up the house for the Doll and her dog, who should arrive around 4.

We were all up and out in time for the start of the football game, which our team won by an overwhelming margin. They were up 35-0 at the half, so they stopped stopping the clock on plays and just let it run continuously for the entire second half. Nobody scored after they did that.

But the big news was the naked boy who ran across the field between the first two quarters! He ran across, had some trouble getting into his shorts, and then finally gave up and scaled the high fence, shorts in hand. A cop commenced pursuit, although he hit a little rough spot at the top of the fence, but did make it over, and, perhaps with backup, apprehended the poor kid in the woods behind the field. Turns out the boy was one of E's friends from last year! I hope he won't get into too much trouble. He really didn't disrupt the game, and other than the cop who had to climb the fence, noone was ever in any danger.

Anyway, my unfortunate news seems to center around Wilbur. Yesterday morning he started hopping around, only using three feet when he walked, and not really wanting to go up and down the stairs to the yard, or to jump the three inch high gate to get into his pen. I googled "limping pomeranian" and discovered that there is a trait common to many small, especially ill-bred dogs, called 'luxating patella.' His symptoms and his profile fit the description perfectly so although Kevin is trying to blame it on a slip on the stairs in the morning (and I hope he is right), we may be looking at more of a problem. The good news is that it may be correctable and is not life-threatening. The bad news is that correction means surgery, it is often bilateral when present, and dogs with this condition are more prone to develop arthritis. Just great. He's lucky he is so cute. And with Baxter coming over later, I hope that he won't get himself overly excited. (as if)

Anyway, we'll get him to the vet when it's feasible. I suspect that my favorite vet, and the only one I'd trust to make the diagnosis, is probably off for the weekend. And that will give it time to heal if it's going to. It isn't broken, because it's intermittent limping.

And so that will be a new expense, on top of Christmas and on top of the plane tickets I just purchased for Brian and myself to fly to Florida in April. They dropped from over $400 to under $300 so I decided to snatch them up. But last year I paid $250 total, this year with taxes they came to about $322 apiece. But I didn't know what the airlines would do, and I figured at best I'd save $100 and at worst I could end up losing much more. So I went ahead and reserved our seats. We'll fly out of Newark on Tuesday after Easter and fly back in the following Sunday. Kevin will get his own tickets using miles, and Megan will fly down with the team.

And in other news, the holiday season is now upon us. I am going to call for a Charlie Brown Christmas this year, which means don't expect glamorous gifts from our household! The kids will have to deal with it, Brian's Christmas present for the next four years will be his continuing high school education! And Megan's will be the car she is going to get without having to contribute much of her own money, even though she complains that she is going to get the "old Explorer." How many people get a car for free when they turn 17? And now, I have lost all focus due to constant nags and requests from the kitchen, where Kevin is just putting the turkey in but wants us all to come in immediately and cut up potatoes for five people, so we can have them ready two hours in advance and he can sit and drink beer. Happy Thanksgiving!