well, since nobody’s actually working today….

…I’ll not work either. We get off at 3, but I think I’m the only one who has even attempted to get anything work-related done. The receptionist is carrying on this very loud phone conversation with a family member right this minute, and has already been in my office for an eon. Telling me about her troubles. Okay, the poor thing DOES have some very weird and disturbing health issues going on – she’s the one who has been coming in so sick she can barely function – and does have a family history of serious illness – but, duuuuude, I’m kind of tired of hearing about it. I’ve seriously started trying to avoid going out to her area unless she’s on the phone and I can dash though and grab what I need and vanish before being cornered again. Luckily she’s always on the phone.

I actually saw her in the grocery store a few days ago, and was so desperate to get away before she saw me and I had to ask how she was feeling and then end up hearing about all her symptoms for half an hour that I dashed out without most of the things I’d come to the store for to begin with.

I’ve been reminded of House, where the patient has some bizarre illness and a bunch of unrelated symptoms and they think it’s one thing so they treat that but it isn’t that thing and the treatment makes the patient worse and then they figure out that it’s some completely other thing that they kind of stumble on by accident and they jerk the patient back to life as they’re slipping through Death’s Door. I’ve started several times to say, "wow, this is just like every episode of House I’ve seen!! I hope they figure it out before you DIE!!!" but was afraid she’d be insulted.

And I do feel bad for my seeming lack of empathy. I do hope she’s okay and there’s nothing serious wrong. I just wish she’d quit whining, and she’s a whiner about everything so that makes it harder to feel a lot of empathy for her weird illness. She’s a world-class whiner about absolutely everything, and has actually been told by the dean that she needs to stop heaving sighs in front of the students when she’s called upon to do a little work. Work that obviously is interfering with her whining and talking on the phone to her family.

OoooOooo, somebody needs a break! And I’m just about to get one, lucky for me. I do keep reminding myself daily that at least I’m out of the college of ed. And I DO still like my job very much. But I guess the honeymoon had to be over some time.

So, I’m going home early and cooking. I cooked all last night, and Baker B was like, "Wait – – why do you have to cook AGAIN???" Well, because everything I cooked last night was a trial run. Except the onion bread which WAS supposed to be the real thing, but the dough mysteriously went wrong and wouldn’t rise so I have to try it again tonight. Since we are (STILL) ovenless, I’m putting it together and freezing it and then cooking it at the parents’ tomorrow morning. I hope that will work. I don’t think I’d ever be forgiven for an Onion Bread-less Thanksgiving. I am also going to take a loaf of cranberry bread that I can do in the bread machine, but I had to test it out last night since I wanted to try a new one that sounded better than the one in the bread machine book. And it was very good, luckily. I also was going to take some cranberry sauce because for some reason I’ve stockpiled a ton of cranberries and want to use them. SO I tried a recipe that sounded great, that has horseradish and dijon mustard. Jezebel Cranberry Sauce, amusingly. Not so amusingly, it was AWFUL. It called for prepared horseradish, and I bought horseradish that didn’t say prepared but was in a very cute little round gourmet-type jar. Later I saw something that said "prepared horseradish" in the cheese section, of all things, but by then I was tired of being in the store and irritated by the 320,699 shoppers with their overloaded carts in my way, and I didn’t check the second jar to see if it looked different than the cute gourmet one I bought. So I’m guessing that was the problem. The sauce just tasted like a big heaping spoonful of horseradish.

And usually I bring desert but can’t cook anything in the oven so I think I’ll make some truffles. Easy to make, although hard to make pretty, and waaaaaaaaaaay too good. Just so we’ll have some chocolate, because I’ve never gotten over that terrible thanksgiving where THERE WAS NO CHOCOLATE ANYTHING.

So, that’s my plan. We’re going to the parents, and taking Edgar and Cayce with us. Stella gets to stay home and enjoy some peace. This Thanksgiving will be a little strange because we usually stay two nights, but this year we’re going to Baker B’s Mom’s House on Friday night. Saturday Baker B went down there and raked leaves for six hours and now there are several thousand bags of leaves that have to be taken to the dump. Which is only open till one on Saturdays and is probably 20 minutes from her house and her truck is teeny so it will take a number of trips. So we’re thinking we better get down there the night before. And she hasn’t seen the kittens either.

And speaking of kittens:

But wait. I must preface this with …. that tub was just scrubbed!!! Seriously, I’d cleaned the tub THAT DAY, and it has streaks. It sure doesn’t look dirty in person – thank you, flash!!! But it’s so cute I have to post it anyhow. Edgar got in the tub with his mouse and went to sleep. That’s something you can’t recreate later after you’ve scrubbed the stupid tub again and gotten what you missed. So:

Actually Edgar looks a little dirty too, and he certainly isn’t dirty. We’ll just say it’s the weird lighting. And our bathroom has really weird lighting.

And kittens playing:

And I have to get back to at least making an effort to work –