Here’s a fun game for the holidays, providing you like Superman and the show Seinfeld, for that matter.  I read an interesting little blurb in the paper the other day about how Jerry Seinfeld is a huge fan of Superman.  So much so that there is a reference or an image of the “Man of Steel” in every episode of Seinfeld.  So this holiday season, while your turkey is cooking, digesting, or being cleaned up for you by your guests (how do you think I found the time to write this post on Thanksgiving Day?), pop in a few old episodes of Seinfeld and try to pinpoint the Superman allusion.

This is the post you were expecting today.  Happy Thanksgiving!  My mother, my grandmother, my uncle, and I got together on this fine day for our nonstandard (read: restaurant) meal, followed by pumpkin and apple pie at home.  My brother and nephew always spend this day with Alex’s relatives on his mom’s side, so they didn’t join us.  Not a big gathering as you can see, so there is not much to say unlike my fellow blogger Jamiahsh.  As such, I will just say thank you God for my family, my job, my friends, and my salvation through Jesus who died on the cross for my sin.  Now I will end with a couple of Thanksgiving videos I pulled from Godtube.  They are sort of related to the theme of my site too, as they involve kids.  Enjoy!

[godtube]https://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=e7a4e540c5408f9820be[/godtube]

[godtube]https://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=63b7e045fc2964c6ed23[/godtube]

Let’s see… I got up around 8.30 for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and to bring the long table and chairs down to set up.  That is my job, set the table and chairs up… kind of easy… get it done and over with (then again, I have to haul them up later).  Parade time:  floats, large helium balloons (including the new Smurf balloon), marching bands (including a band made up of senior citizens… kind of neat).  But my favorite part as always (big surprise, right)… the casts of Broadway shows performing songs.  Featured this year, last year’s big Tony winner, In the Heights; the revival of South Pacific (another possible musical I have been considering bringing to the committee’s attention); a new stage production of Irving Berlin’s immortal White Christmas; The Little Mermaid; and the coming revival of Hair.

Around 10 o’clock the family started gathering.  One little one was sick (having 7 children at a gathering, isn’t it usual to have one down).  At 11.45, the chronically late members of the family showed up.  I was surprised because if anything they are usually 15 minutes late.  Those members you need to tell that dinner starts a half hour before it actually does.  Chad entered and had hair down the front of his pants.  I asked where the hair came from.  His response led to my response of “That’s what SHE said.”  A case of inneuendosis.

So the feast was delcious as always.  Turkey, ham, delicious dressing, masked potatoes, noodles, pie, pie, pie (apple, cheery, pumpkin and more on the way tonight).  The only problem being the dead phone line.  It sounds like there is a phone off the hook or the person who called last did not hang up.  So I could not call to wish Happy Thanksgiving to friends.

This is one to be appreciated by spy show enthusiasts everywhere.  Apparently someone in Italy was caught with a gun disguised as a cell phone.  Read on:

A 28 year old man was arrested by the Italian police in a Naples suburb. He was caught with a gun disguised as a phone. The phone gun – complete with a dummy display – holds four .22 bullets. The phone transformed into a gun by sliding the keypad section.The stubby antenna is the barrel, and a touch on a particular key fires a bullet. A gun disguised as a mobile phone, the Cool gun! A police spokesman said: ‘This is the first time such a weapon has been seized and shows the sophistication that the crime syndicates are turning to.

Article with pictures and video can be found at this Likecool.com link.  Well, since the video is hosted at youtube, why don’t I just post it here:

Oh, and happy Thanksgiving!  I think among the important things like my family and Jesus Christ’s free gift to me, I can be thankful this was found half a world from me and not here… 😮

Many things to be thankful for. Good Friends, family, wonderful daughters, decent health, and a decent steady job. The job of course means food on the table ect.

But there are times I don’t feel like giving thanks. I just want to hide out for a few months until this winter holiday season is over. Feeling kind of like Scrooge and “People that go about with Merry Christmas on their lips should be boiled in their Christmas pudding and buried with stake of holly through their hearts.” I’m not sure if that is an exact quote from the book, but it was very close to what I heard in at least one movie.

“A Christmas Carol” is not about the day of Thanksgiving, but it takes place on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing day (set in London, so they have that). There are a few holiday shows that deal with Thanksgiving. There is a Peanuts (Charlie Brown/Snoopy) Thanksgiving show, of course. I think they covered every major holiday.

But the one I am thinking of, most people would agree that it is a Christmas Story, but it starts on Thanksgiving day. That favorite holiday classic “Miracle on 34th Street”. I’m partial to the 1947 version, but the 1994 version isn’t too bad. There were a few made for TV versions that were not quite up to either theater version. Drunk Santa on Parade float replaced by the real article for the annual Thanksgiving parade. The start of the Christmas Shopping season.

Hmm, now I know with both the Christmas Carol and Miracle on 34th street, the commercialization of Christmas has been going on a long time. Scrooge complained about people spending more than they could afford just to make merry on one day. Of course the whole Santa being against the commercialization in 34th street was again showing it for what it was.

This Friday is known as Black Friday. A day when retail stores finally see a profit (I’m skeptical on that, but I just spend the money).

Well for me, I don’t do that much. A few nice gifts and that’s about it. I try not to break the bank (do that too much during the rest of the year).

So I guess for me and from me, I wish you the best this Holiday season. From Thanksgiving day to New Years Day, there are Holidays a plenty for those of all faiths, or no faiths. The very best to you and yours. To those reading this blog who have lost a special someone, may you find some peace and hope amid the additional stress this season puts on you.

On the cover of our extremely late newspaper this evening (inserts for Black Friday sales, but really the store did not get their supply until after 6.30) there was an article detailing various peoples mishaps in the kitchen.  Invariably, this causes my mind to wander to two incidents that I have heard tell about time and again.  They both involve the culinary artistry of my father (who is back to his old self again and we can all be thankful for that).  Apparently, long ago either when I was a wee lad or not even born, he ATTEMPTED to cook goulash.  I say attempted because he began by putting the uncooked macaroni along with the meat and other ingredients into a pot of not boiling water.  I guess he was going for the goulash soup.

On another occasion while serving as Assistant Scoutmaster of my brother’s Boy Scout troop, he attempted to cook spaghetti on a camping excursion.  What the boys eventually were about to consume was a pasty substance that only the Scoutmaster himself would sample.

I think from then on, my mother was the gourmet and dad was left to the everyday hamburger, grilled cheese and the like.

So from all of us to all of you, may you have a blessed Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, blessings, and a day void of cooking disasters.  BTW, taylhis, what time did your paper arrive at your doorstep?

Looking for something original for your Thanksgiving gathering? Try Jones’ holiday sodas.  As far back as 2003, the soda gurus have bottled tasty concoctions such as turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes and butter, cranberry, green bean casserole, and fruitcake sodas.  I’m not sure if any local stores carry the seasonal treats, but I do know of at least one store that carries the traditional Jones pure sugar cane sodas.  Enough to keep you going all day long.  For Christmas, the company also offers a gift pack featuring such delectable delights as sugar plum, christmas tree, egg nog, and christmas ham flavors.  For our Jewish friends, chocolate coins, apple sauce, latke, and jelly doughnut flavors will delight during the season of light.

Or maybe the Jones bottling company should make a deal with Disney to have their holiday sodas join the sodas of the world display at EPCOT.

I still like toys, especially the radio control type. I have a small helicopter but the rechargeable battery will no longer hold a charge. It was a nice little toy that I could fly around the house. Kind of miss being able to fly it around.

I’ve had larger flying toys, but they generally required a lot of room to be able to run. Some needed very good weather to fly. Very calm winds were essential, or you could not control the aircraft. Some like kites required a decent breeze to fly. Powered or un-powered, these were a little escapes from gravity. Fun toys

At one time I knew someone who flew a plane. I went up in a small plane a couple of times. It was a great experience. I was also able to fly a few times in commercial aircraft. This was not as fun as the small plane, you just couldn’t see the as much out the windows.

I would like to try hang-gliding, a balloon or even a blimp, but these are things that can wait.

Doing a very good job on something, be it job or hobby related. Those are flying to me.

I have other flights of fancy that I can think of. Things that have nothing to do with flying. Watching my girls grow up. Just as much of a high. Helping friends and even people I don’t know can also be a flight of fancy.

The stage, computers, my daughters, family all fuel my flights of fancy. This is were my flying takes me.

Well, it looks like I was somehow able to get a day of work in this week.  Apparently the teacher was gone yesterday too, and they didn’t use the same sub which left the door open for yours truly.  I am writing this post with a headache, so don’t be too surprised if it turns out shorter than normal.

I was able to pick up this day early yesterday afternoon meaning that had I worked yesterday I may not have secured a job for today.  Who knows?  Only one opening slipped past my radar for yesterday (locked when I tried to select it) so I imagine today would have been no better with the selection still being only one district.  The job?  Mentally impaired kids at the school furthest from me at about 13 miles.  I hoped to run into one of my church students here who graced my cabin at summer camp a year ago, and even found myself in the classroom across the hall from his, but as it turned out our paths never crossed.

So what is this sort of classroom like?  Think kids who can barely talk even though some are ten or eleven years old, two of which are wheelchair bound and can’t even feed themselves.  There were seven kids, three aides, and one teacher.  Yes, a ratio of less than two students per teacher; it takes that much energy to work with these kids.  Now these kids were very low-functioning, but that doesn’t mean non-functioning, so there is room for teaching them.  Mostly this is very basic math and simple writing (not all can write though), and a lot of coloring, cutting, and pasting.  Naturally the theme for the reading and writing lesson was- drum roll please- Thanksgiving.  I read them a book parodying The Night Before Christmas, replacing Christmas with Thanksgiving.  Then the kids did a sequencing activity on the book.  The ones who were able to write not only sequenced things from the book, they also had to write about it, a challenge for me to get them to do this.

Mostly the aides ran the class.  This was pretty much my only lesson.  I acted as an aide myself for much of the day which is standard practice as the aides know the routine and what to expect out of their students.  In the afternoon the day ended with an actual Thanksgiving feast.  There was corn, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and turkey- erm, cookies.  No actual turkey- several kids don’t eat meat anyway- but cookies decorated to look like turkeys.  I actually didn’t eat much of anything, and since this was less than two hours after lunch not much was given to the kids, but for them it was supposed to be a learning experience.  A lot of what these kids do is life skills, including cooking.  Last year I subbed in a class like this where the kids folded laundry (gym loaner uniforms).  I did force myself to eat a small slice of pumpkin pie.  There was only once slice left and I didn’t want to start any arguments 😉 .    I also took a cookie home since they were homemade and I didn’t want to offend.  You got me, I have a sweet tooth anyway so I didn’t mind.  One thing that the meal was missing was the thanksgiving part.  I didn’t expect prayer, this being the 21st century in a public school, but the aides didn’t ask what the kids were thankful for.  Maybe that’s too high a level for them, I don’t know.

Well, it looks like my post isn’t short after all, though I do still haved my headache even after taking an allergy pill and a 600mg Tylenol.  Come to think of it, I seem to remember that you don’t take Tylenol for headaches.  Waste of a pill- now where’s my Aleve?

While working today, the boss and I were doing up cheese trays for the holiday.  She asked my opinion on the festivity of her trays.  Some of them were appropriate; however, there were a few of the most attrocious looking things I have ever seen.  They kind of reminded me of some of the place settings of Liswathistan.  One had a pea green, brown, and funky looking orange scheme.  It might have been ok with a more decorative scene on it.  All the trays were covered with alluminum foil so the scheme was effectively hidden.  Diane also informed me that most of the trays had been left over from the previous owners.  Apparently, they did not like them either.  Hard to believe that it took 8-9 years to find them.  They were hidden really well.  I can’t wait to see the trays she plans to use for Christmas cheese trays.  One good thing came of this: I got to sample some hot pepper cheese (YUUUUUMMMY!)