Or, how I spent my Thanksgiving Day.

First things first, I didn’t have anything close to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. First at just before Noon, my youngest and I had bison chili. Not your normal fair at all for Thanksgiving. My youngest had kennel duty at school for the afternoon, so we needed to get to Fort Wayne early in the afternoon. Fun stuff for a Thanksgiving day. I would assume that this is the norm for students in a Vet Tech program.

While in Fort Wayne, my daughter and I caught the 3d Disney Movie “A Christmas Carol”. First things first, The 3D for this show was awesome. I’m a very big fan of Dickens “A Christmas Carol” There are many movie versions of this story and I’ve enjoyed most of them.

First No Spoiler if you know the story. There will be spoilers later.

They kept the main story of “A Christmas Carol”. All of the important aspects of the story. The animation was very well done and the characters were well maintained. For periods of time, I actually forgot that this was an animated movie. As I said earlier, I really liked the 3D effects. Most of them were well done to make the movie have depth. A few made you feel like you were in it. There were also a few that looked like they were just done because they could. I would have rather had those cut out, but I guess that is what some people expect in a 3D movie. Main result, if you like the Dickens’ story, you will like this story. If you like 3D animation, you will probably like the show. I would definitely pay the extra amount to see the 3D version.

******************* Spoilers Follow ***************

I wondered how this would work out. I didn’t see the necessity of doing this story in 3D or as an animated movie. I’ve been wondering about that since I first saw the theater trailers. I had many reservations before I went to see it. I was pleased that they did not destroy the story. Now for picking and praising. First, I thought the characters were very well done. The initial 3D effect at the start of the movie hooked me from the beginning. I liked the candle effect in front of the window. Other effects I liked were the snowflakes, flying over/through London and the Ghost of Christmas Past.

I liked the way the effects were used during the Ghost of Christmas Present was wonderful. Actually, I was impressed by this vision of the ghostly visitations. It was also a very good way to use the 3D effects. Not many complaints through the first two ghosts, except may the ‘rocket’ effect at the end of the Ghost of Christmas Past’s visit. One of my first problems with 3D for 3D only.

My biggest problem with the movie were the 3D for 3D only. While the initial tour of London was almost there, the tour of historical London is a great way to set the movie. I next noticed it at the end of the Ghost of Christmas Past. There were one or two times during the Ghost of Christmas Present’s visit, but they didn’t bother me nearly as much. But during the scenes with the Ghost of Christmas future, it seemed like these 3D effects were overwhelming. In fact they added quite a bit to the story to get these 3D effects in. That is the only reason I can think of that they added the Death Coach chase and the shrinking of Scrooge. Parts of the movie were really not needed and if they lasted much longer, I think the movie could have been ruined for me. Without the 3D, I don’t think I would have liked that part at all. I am, of course, a Dickens’ fan and I don’t think you need to add to an already wonderful story.

A little turkey day humor

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Ode to Thanksgiving

To our national birds
The American Eagle
The Thanksgiving Turkey
May one give us peace in all our states
And the other a piece for all our plates

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Thanksgiving Divorce

A man in Phoenix calls his son in New York the day before Thanksgiving and says,”I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough.

“Pop, what are you talking about?” the son screams. We can’t stand the sight of each other any longer,” the father says. “We’re sick of each other, and I’m sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her.”

Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. “Like heck they’re getting divorced,” she shouts, “I’ll take care of this,”

She calls Phoenix immediately, and screams at her father, “You are NOT getting divorced. Don’t do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back, and we’ll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don’t do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?” and hangs up.

The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. “Okay,” he says, “they’re coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own way.”

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Stuffed Turkey

Baby Bruno was sitting in his grandmother’s kitchen,
watching her prepare the Thanksgiving meal.

“What are you doing?” Bruno asked.

“Oh, I’m just stuffing the turkey,” his grandmother replied.

“That’s cool!” Bruno said.
“Are you going to hang it next to the deer?”

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The Turkey Popped Out of the Oven

The Turkey popped out of the oven
and rocketed in to the air;
It knocked every plate off the table
and partly demolished a chair.
It ricocheted into a corner
and burst with a deafening boom,
Then splattered all over the kitchen,
completely obscuring the room.
It stuck to the walls and the windows,
it totally coated the floor,
There was turkey attached to the ceiling,
where there had never been turkey before..
It blanketed every appliance,
it smeared every saucer and bowl;
There wasn’t a way I could stop it;
that turkey was out of control.
I scraped and I scraped with displeasure
and thought with chagrin as I mopped,
That I would never again stuff a turkey
with popcorn that hadn’t been popped.
written by Jack Prelutsky

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HAPPY

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THANKSGIVING!

I am thankful every day for all that I have, but today is an excuse to  feast in celebration of our thankfulness.  Here’s to hoping you have a safe and happy holiday!

I’m not quite sure what I will be doing on Thanksgiving except driving to Ft. Wayne in the afternoon so my youngest can take care of her kennel duty. I will be picking her up tomorrow afternoon and then driving back on Thursday. I’m not sure yet what I will have for dinner on Thanksgiving.

So Thanksgiving, of course, is a day to give thanks. This year wasn’t the best, but it did have some things to be thankful for.

There was an addition to my family when my 3rd daughter got married, and so I now have a 3rd son in the family.

During that time my second daughter and her family came up to Ohio to attend the wedding. I was able to schedule some time off and take them back to Florida. So I was able to spend some time with the part of the family I see the least.

My youngest started college and is doing well at school.

I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with my oldest daughter this year.

And I have some wonderful friends who have been a comfort for the lousy times of this year.

Have a Happy and Save Thanksgiving.

I believe we are now in our fourth week of rehearsals and still in the modified crampness that is the Huber’s costume shop.  BUT, we get the stage tomorrow night… HOORAH!!!!! Tonight, we put everything together… blocking and lines, the whole show start to finish.  Not too bad.  Travis was very pleased with our efforts.  One piece of advice was some of the casts dancing around on stage… which is always difficult the first couple times through… especially when it is a non-musical, non-dancing production.  However, this comment did not apply to me for obvious reasons that will be made quite clear when you come see the show the weekends of December 11 & 18..

Personally, I am quite pleased with my evilness so far.  I constantly hear references to “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and Scrooge… I still think Mr. Potter is even more sinister.  I have one line that I just love and cast members have commented on my delivery.  However, I need to look at my long passages.  I get on a devilish roll and then blank out on a line, but I AM OFF BOOK!

Still needs work but once we get on the stage it will all come to greatness!  And the Village Players NEW website is up and running… so check it out..  Although, I need to point out that on the online ticket ordering, only the first weekend is up…. something which Webman and I discovered   A small glitch I forgot to mention to the director.  Oh, Travis….

I almost forgot to mention the lovely drive home in the fine London fog that has only gotten worse as I make my way to watch the hilarious I Love You, Man.  Good luck with the drive in the morning or the delay whichever comes your way.

My almost 10-year-old daughter has a friend I’ll call Kathy.  Kathy has been over to our house to play with my daughter for years, and we’ve never really had much of a problem.  We’ve noticed lately that Kathy isn’t as well behaved as our daughter’s other friends, and she also is not as tolerant of my daughter’s younger siblings.  Yesterday, Kathy spent about 6 hours with our family, and it was a fun yet tiring day.  It was one of the few times we’ve had an extra kid around and I’ve noticed extra chaos and strife; usually the extra kid(s) blend right in and sometimes even help out with the little ones.  We took Kathy to the mall which is about 20 miles away, and we ate a Mexican buffet, bought the kids candy at the $ store, and took the kids to the pet store.

Kathy’s mother was supposed to come at 6, and since the kids had a late lunch, we were waiting to feed our kids until Kathy was picked up.  Kathy’s mother was late, and the kids got hungry, so we tried to stretch our planned dinner for 4 kids into one for 5.  It didn’t really work, there was some squabbling about food, and Kathy’s mother finally showed up around 6:25.  On her way out, I called to Kathy who has asthma, “Do you have everything?  Do you have your inhaler?”  To which she responded, “I still haven’t found my inhaler.”  (like she had told me she was missing it, but she hadn’t!)  I unlocked the car for her to look in there, and I went up to her mother’s car and explained that this is the first I had heard about the missing inhaler.  Her mother was extremely rude to me.  We didn’t find the inhaler, and they left, and I vented to my husband because I don’t like when people are upset with me!  He was sure that I had misunderstood; that Kathy’s mom was upset with Kathy for losing her inhaler.  After all, if her mother had told me at any time that Kathy has a tendency to lose her inhaler, she could have asked me to keep a special eye on it, and I would have!  But not one word was said – I only know about the inhaler because I’ve seen  her carry it; it was never explained to me.

So then today, our cell phone had some missed calls, and they were Kathy’s mom.  When my husband called her back, he was sure she had called because they had found the inhaler.  No such luck.  The frantic phone calls were Kathy’s mom asking if we had found it yet and informing us (quite rudely) that if we did not find it, we would owe her $47 for a new one.  So my husband, now knowing that I had NOT overreacted to the rudeness last night, calls the mexican restaurant, and sure enough, they have it.  He called Kathy’s mom, who basically told us we would have to drive back out the twenty miles each way to get it.  But it’s Thanksgiving week, we have 4 kids, and my husband works during the day.  So she hung up on my husband, and now I’m upset and writing a blog post about it.  Here’s the pickle:

Kathy is the real victim here.  Her mother is mad at her and her friends and their family, and her mother’s erratic behavior is going to isolate her daughter.  As it is, Kathy calls our house about 20 times every weekend and is pushy about being invited over – it’s hard not to feel like our house might be the only place to where she gets invited.  But as a parent, I did not like the negative influence I saw Kathy having on my younger children yesterday, and that was before any conflict was had with her mother.  My daughter’s birthday party is coming up, and I feel badly for both Kathy and my daughter if she isn’t invited.  On the other hand, I feel this is more than just a parental conflict that can be overlooked for the sake of the kids.  I feel a little bit taken advantage of – after all, we invited Kathy to spend the day with our family, and her presence did incur some minor costs.  Nothing I would have thought twice about, until I was given flak about our fun day… and I’m 95% sure we told her mother we’d be heading out to the mall ahead of time also, so it wasn’t as if it came out of left field!  Also, my husband and I are concerned about what Kathy’s mom might hold us liable for should we have any further incidents with Kathy at our house or in our care.

So do I let my daughter invite her to the birthday party?  Should I say anything to my daughter about this conflict?  Do I pay any bills I might get from Kathy’s mom for gas, etc?  It’s just a shame this had to happen; my daughter has plenty of friends whose parents are on the same page with us; we take their kids out all the time without incident, and they even usually say ‘thank you!’.  I honestly don’t feel like we did anything out of the ordinary here…  Should I have gotten a babysitter and driven the 40 miles to get the inhaler myself?  Honestly, if I had done that though, I might have THROWN it at her when I got back!

I really don’t, but try singing this blog post title to the tune of “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”, just for laughs.  And for further amusement, here is a picture of the customized cupcake cars, which of course come complete with candy caps for the contraptions’ captains!

All joking aside, thankfully I don’t know anyone who could or would blow $25,000 on one of these, now that is just a waste.  The title of the article I found this in was intriguing, “9 Extravagant Holiday Gifts”, but honestly, I didn’t find much amusement beyond the cupcake cars; maybe you’ll disagree when you click on the link above.

So after mass tonight, I took two lovely, entertaining young girls to watch me niece in her elementary school’s production (not program as the director informed us before the curtain rose… the distinction is the mere formality of budget) of Mulan, Jr. I was really impressed by the entire production, the set design and costuming (for nearly 80 3rd-5th or is it 4th-6th grade… WOW!) was very well conceived especially for an elementary school show.  The backdrop was a very impressive painting depicting Chinese mountain scenery.  But the costumes were one of the highlights of the show.  I’m not sure how many tailors were used but we were informed that they were all handmade.

For such a young cast, I was really impressed by some of the performers.  My favorite was the evil leader of the Huns, Shan Yu.  A tall, imposing figure dressed in black with his small entourage.  His voice was also quite commanding.

I also though that the young lady portraying Mulan had a very nice voice.

I must have been trying too hard to locate Elizabeth, but I still think the costuming was so well done that it was difficult to spot her.  Taylor actually pointed her out to me.  Oh, yeah… that’s her in the purple robe!

There were also some miscues that were not entirely the cast’s fault.  A few times the miked performers were not heard because the sound tech failed to have them on.  However, one young man must have been delayed in his entrance because I heard someone on stage whisper, “Where’s …?”  Ah, the magic of live children’s theatre.  Overall, I really thought it was adorable and Taylor and Sammie seemed to enjoy themselves which made it even more worthwhile.  Plus, they even brought a gift for our star.  The Huber Opera House was filled to capacity (well… the main level) which was something I had not seen since St. Louis.  I guess it is true what they say about audiences with children on stage, but 80!!!

I also got a very early Christmas present.  A blast from the past, actually.  I know someone in my family had the Parker Brothers Six Million Dollar Man board game.  I knew as soon as I saw the box that I had played it years ago.  LOVE IT… THANKS! Plus we had time to play a quick game or three before the night ended.

WOO HOO!!!!  Game day party that seemed like a pre-Thanksgiving feast.  I certainly ate like it was a feast… well, just call it another holiday!  But OSU has now defeated the dreaded “Team from the North” six years in a row with an awesome 21-10 victory including an end zone interception turned TD on the Wolvies first series!  Now.. outright Big Ten Champs off to Pasadena on New Years Day!

Joshua, whom I was mildly surprised to see at the house, was anxiously awaiting kickoff time.  At half-time, I challenged him to a good ol’ game of the ORIGINAL Donkey Kong (not the newfangled Super Mario endless array, but the original quarter munching variety… on the Wii).  I surprisingly defeated him.  After that, we saw little of the 13 year old (so much for the football game).

Then, I learned that Jeff is planning to take Elizabeth to see the new Twilight movie tomorrow after her play wraps.  Honestly, I don’t get the hype… too much, I think.  Maybe, one day I will sit and watch it to see what it’s all about; it looks like a teenage, vampire meets girl with a werewolf best friend love triangle.  I’ll pass.

So, now off to church… then to watch my niece on stage with a couple other little ones.

GO BUCKS!!!!

So, fishing for comments clearly doesn’t work on this blog. The answer about the two dog videos is for one of them the owner offers the treats two different ways, palm up and palm down. The dog turns her head when offered the wrong way. In the other video the hand is offering it the same way every time, so either this dog doesn’t like our current Prez or some other form of training is going on outside of the camera.

Real post coming soon- watch this spot. 😛