My wife's siblings are in town, so we went over last night and ended up leaving without saying goodbye (the family is in a mess due to their father's untimely death last year at this time). That was great.

Got up this AM and Max the Wonder Corgi was not feeling well, had swollen lymph nodes. I took him in and the vet said "most likely lymphoma. we'll do a biopsy but he's probably only got about 2 weeks"

Poor little guy. He's my best friend, human or non-human, hands-down.

The only bright side is spending a nice day with my (non-dysfunctional) family cooking three turkeys outside, drinking Rumplemintz, shooting skeet and playing euchre all day at my grandma's house.

Drinking and shooting guns, now THAT'S the way to spend a holiday!

Enjoying my last bit of peace and quiet before the long holiday weekend craziness begins! :D

Just watching the HVAC guys rolling along on our heating upgrade http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/off-topic-discussion/266201-once-again-were-going-green-greenbacks-time-its-heat.html
while they crank the country station. I had to chuckle, the owner asked if the radio was too loud. They'd be happy to turn it down but it does cover up a lot of the cussing (they're a bunch of old Navy boiler guys). :)

Looking forward to family, good food and good drink tomorrow. Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and safe travels to those doing so!

Mike, so sorry to hear of your loss - sounds like you & your cousin had a kick arse kind of relationship.

Ma is - stable. Not sure how much to attribute to the new chemo working, the steroids pushing back the swelling, or unknown alien forces. Visited her oncologist today, and collectively decided that it's worth another round of chemo just in case. That'll happen Friday, then a week later (stars aligning/aliens cooperating/etc) we'll do another MRI to see what is going on in her head.

Less good news is that she's running a fever. 99.5 when you're on mega-steroids is a big deal - drugs tend to hold down the fever, and mask the symptoms of infection. So a chest x-ray was taken and bodily fluid samples collected to check for infection. Day to day, hour by hour......

All systems are go for one hell of a party on Sunday. Now over 20 people confirmed, including surprise visit by 'cousins' from California that is being kept a secret from Ma. Trying to figure out how much of the Ma & Ed junk food in the fridge we can jettison to make room for actual food that starts getting cooked tonight. Heading down to DC to pick up a smoker from a dear friend so twin of Darling Wife can smoke Ma a turkey when he gets here Saturday, and buying about a paycheck's worth of groceries between now and then.

Gotta get wheel chair ramps built, four guest beds worth of bedding washed, AC out of the kitchen window, and figure out a plan for keeping 7 cats and 2 dogs from running loose since a couple of the guests are seriously allergic to pet dander.

Oh - and just for fun, one of the little details I noticed while in the factory in Malaysia last week has resulted in a stop ship on a critical to revenue product. And a potential recall of every box of this flavor shipped in the past three years. Oops!

You know, if you'd just get rid of that pesky little habit called "sleeping" you'd have plenty of time to get all the stuff done!:D

Don't assume that hasn't been considered! If I did (and could afford :P) drugs, me thinks meth would be me friend!

After the Turkey dinner recreation over at Stimpy's place. Now THAT'S the way ya do it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv8DQxXe7k4

I'm stuck in a motel in Eau Claire for the next day or two. That's due to our "beautiful" weather right now...then, once everything gets plowed out, I'll still be up here...still working on our "Re-purposing Project" for our older transmitter.

Stay warm folks...the Weather Folks are predicting -2° (F) for the next or two with winds and blowing snow. We have 11" so far and back home, there's over 16" being blown around.

How's everyone else doing in their neighborhoods today? :D ;)

We call it "cold" here (means the sun isn't out ALL day). Kinda gray and blowy. Going to a remote location to change out some batteries in a truck (4 hours of driving for 20 minutes of work). Almost done with my buddy's water damage restoration on his crib. Pipes are all replaced, drywall's done, bath fixtures installed and both baths are textured and painted, 99% of the mess has been hauled off and just texturing/painting of the ceilings and living room to finish.

My youngest son moved into his own place yesterday so now I get to finish his old room into my audio visual room. Install raised flooring, texture and paint one long wall, remove an old window to install a pocket door and general "spiffy up". Sounds good eh? My wife and "foster" (long story) daughter are already making noises about her moving from the guest room into that room. Sigh. Means they'll win and I'll still be watching TV on the back porch.

OK, so Saturday they forecast 2-4" in central CT and we got less than a coating of icy, sleety crap. Last night the forecast was for 0.5-1" of icy, sleety crap and I woke up this morning (to a text message from school that it was canceled today) to find 5" on the ground and it's still going :mad: . Fortunately of my 8 snowplowing accounts (already paid for my plow and snowblowers, now it's for beer and play money http://benzobsession.com/phpbb/image...et/biggrin.gif ), 6 of them are retired and don't have to get out first thing in the morning. Otherwise I'd be sucking wind trying to get them done before getting into work at 7.

If the white stuff didn't mean greenbacks I'd probably be more pissed. :blink:

The HVAC guys are slowly making progress with the heat conversion. The one thing about the individual space furnaces is that they are so efficient they don't generate enough stack temperature to evaporate the condensate (only get to 130*) so they're running the condensate from most of the individual units to its own trap and pump and pumping it out through the main drain. Not entirely unexpected, but misunderstood. At least we are still gaining clearance height in the majority of the locations.

Since we finally have some snow cover, might take the kids up to Forest Park (MA) to the Bright Nights Holiday light display tonight. http://www.brightnights.org/index.html
http://www.brightnights.org/tour/04s...pringfield.jpg

http://www.brightnights.org/tour/08v...ges/bridge.gif

http://www.brightnights.org/tour/09b...ges/barney.gif

Nice displays! Reminds me that I have to get the Van up and running to take the kidlettes around to our local X-mas Lights Display in Riverside Park...over two million bulbs and and a handful of gadgets to stir the imagination (Flame-throwing dragon...timed propane gas bursts that are lit at the right time and PROPER DISTANCE!!!)

All of this for nothing more than a simple "canned-good" donation to the local food pantries.

BTW: If you're reading this, please take the time to remember the less fortunate this season between the holidays...it has been a rough year for alot of folks and where appropriate, I know that there are a few of us that can "spend" the time and effort to make an "unknown" happy by simply giving a "night's out" worth of food/clothing to make their lives a bit more bareable (sp?)...

I've got an appointment this afternoon to go see a 300D. :D

The sun came out! Woohoo! My lawn was like a sopping wet sponge this morning.

i want to go to Seussland......Swamp, sounds like you have your day well in hand. I am very grateful to see the sun today it hasn't been out in 6 freaking weeks and this is not good for someone from Florida....I thought it was Tuedsay until I plugged into the Forum.

Great point, mg! We've been working through our local Social Services department throughout this holiday season and plan to continue to do so throughout the year. As much as we have our favorite national charities we wanted to try our best to make a difference on the local level this year. The nice thing about it is everything goes to the family in need. There is no overhead. SS gives us a needs list, we pick up the needs, drop them off with SS and they deliver them.