In other news...

In vaguely chronological order:

1) Thanksgiving was very nice. Went to my mom's, where all was well in order (not traditionally done in years past). Mrs. Skinny suddenly lost her voice the day before, so she was a little hard to communicate with (keep the smart remarks to yourself.) I made mini corn muffins instead of corn bread - partly so there would be leftovers to freeze. We ate them before they got frozen.

2) Post-thanksgiving visitors. Mrs' best friend and Best Friend's Husband arrived from the deep South (Wash, DC area. Look, from my end of the universe, anything south of Bayonne, NJ is below the Mason-Dixon line.) We had a lovely visit with them, marred only by the miserable storm that hit Sunday. We also had lunch with our newest neighbors across the street, and she made a fabulous cholent. I will not attempt to explain cholent here - it requires its own post. The kids played together nicely, even so far as them shifting to our house towards the end of the afternoon. Can't remember why, but we needed to be home, so they came with us. Nice to have neighbors you like.

3) Part of the weekend's catching up included the viewing of a newly-purchased DVD copy of Harry Potter III, where Harry battles the vicious Clubber Lang and succeeds in saving his father from the Evil Emperor and finding the good in him while discovering he has a sister.

Don't laugh - I think that would have made a better film. This is Mrs' favorite of the five HP books, and frankly, they didn't do it justice. The whole purpose of the book in continuing to develop the presence of Voldemort in Harry's life was glossed over, and the whole thing felt like a bunch of vaguely interconnected skits. Look, I know there's a lot to cover, but I think they dropped the ball on this one.

4) Everybody seems to be sick at one point or another. The aforementioned laryngitis has finally cleared up, only to be followed last night when oldest had a major ear problem. It's not like her to be up all night, but boy was she ever last night. Every hour coming out & complaining her ear hurt, in a way that's not like her. Mrs. actually let her go downstairs at 2:30 AM & watch a video to distract her. Off to the sawbones today, and big surprise, she has an ear infection. Dunno how any of us managed on the three hours of sleep we got, but she dropped off tonight in less than five minutes. Uncharacteristic, but understandable.

So, that's the Cliff's Notes version of the last two weeks.