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Recap of Thanksgiving through now.

We had Thanksgiving, which is my favorite holiday. I love the food, the parade, the black Friday newspaper. Everything. I just love it. We had a decent time, although this year was spent at a restaurant. It's never quite right to me at a restaurant. Nick's grandma didn't want to cook, so she wanted to go out to eat, even though I offered to cook. I "live too far away". It's 10 miles. Whatever. All in all it was more pleasant than I had anticipated it being, primarily because when we arrived at the restaurant, Nick's normally cranky and cantankerous Grandmother, was hitting the bottle and was half in the bag. Yes, folks the wine was flowing at Grandma's end of the table, causing me to rename the holiday "Drunksgiving". To be honest, Grandma is much more pleasant after a couple drinks. She works at a church, and in the 19 years I've known her, I've never even seen her sip an alcoholic beverage. I thought I had to be drinking to make her tolerable, but turns out she's fine if I'm sober and she's drunk. My liver thanks her. ;)

I went out shopping with Nick's cousin Kim and her daughter Jessica at midnight on Thanksgiving. I'll never do that again. Toys R Us is a mob scene and those people are nuts. I only went because Nick's aunt Bonnie wanted Zhu Zhu hamsters for her grandkids. We didn't get any, so we went to another store, and ended up shopping until about 6:00am the next morning, going out to breakfast and I got home at 7:00am. I had an all night shopping binge. Weird. As I was coming home, I noticed a slight scratch in my throat...

I came home, took a nap for a few hours, and got up to do a little more shopping. I wanted a new tv for the bedroom since our old one is 14 years old and has started making people look orange until it warms up for about 15 minutes. We found a nice 32" Sony Bravia for $379.99 which was the same as Best Buy had as a door buster, so we bought that, a wall mount, some HD cables, and headed to the GAP and bought me some uber-soft, comfy pajamas. It's good I bought these things, because massive illness ensued and I spent the next week and a half laying in bed in my new pajamas watching tv.

I ended up with what I like to affectionately call the "hotdog flu" mainly because Nick mostly wanted to offer to make me hotdogs while I was dying in bed. Literally too sick to get up and make my own food, I was sort of at his mercy. I was on bedrest from black Friday evening, and all weekend. I called in sick Monday, came in Tuesday and Wednesday to spread disease, then Thursday I took a turn for the worse. I felt awful. Fever, terrible cough, horrible headache, sinus issues, body aches that made me want to die. I actually slept through my alarm on Thursday, and called in and took a half day off to sleep. When I went in, it was clear I shouldn't have and I asked to take Friday off. I'm SOOOOOO glad I did.

Thursday night we had been invited to a VIP party for the reopening of Anemoni Sushi. It was the first time this person had extended an invitation to us, and we didn't want to turn them down, so I went even though I was dying with the hotdog flu. I took a nice disco nap after work so I would be somewhat awake for it. It started at 8:00, and we arrived at around 8:10. We ate drank and were merry, and I schmoozed with Sven Sundgaard our local weatherman. The food was good, and the people were very nice, so a good time was had by all, and we were really glad we went....until we left and got out to my car. The driver's side window had been smashed out, and they stole all my stuff. My GPS, iPhone FM transmitter/car charger, my iPod monster cable, and some other assorted things were all gone. They apparently took my canvas Trader Joe's bag to steal my things in. I'm such a conscientious victim to have provided my own bag for their convenience. So needless to say, it ruined a fairly nice evening. The driver's side window had been smashed, and glass was everywhere. The temp was about 20 degrees, so the 25 minute car ride home was REALLY cold. Ugh. Got home, put on my jammies, took some Robutussin and went to bed. (On a side note, if you get robbed in the city of Minneapolis, you have to fill out your own police report online. I wonder if I'm supposed to be pounding the pavement looking for my stolen property, too. Probably. I've always thought the Minneapolis police are lackeys.)

I woke up at 4:00am the next morning BURNING UP! (and if you know me, you know I'm ALWAYS cold) I was SO hot. I took off my jammies, and was laying in bed, in just my underwear. (black thong, since you asked) I was so sick. I'll spare you the details of specifically what happened, but we'll just say my stomach didn't feel well. I used my iphone to google window replacement companies from my bed, called and arranged it, and spent the rest of the day hoping I'd just die and be at peace. Here we are almost two weeks after the start of this illness, and I've still got a cough and runny nose, but I'm a LOT better. I think I'm going to make it, after all.

Sweet Potato "Crap" Recipe

Sweet Potato Casserole

1 large can sweet potatoes drained & mashed

1/2 stick of melted butter

2 eggs beaten

3/4c white sugar (but I only use about 1/3c because I think it gets too sweet)

2 tbsp cornstarch

1c milk

Dash of cinnamon

Mix all together well, bake in a greased casserole at 350* for 20 minutes. Remove, and add topping.

Topping

1c corn flakes

1/2c brown sugar

1/2 stick of butter

1/2c coconut

1/2c chopped nuts (I use pecans)

Heat and stir together to mix well. Take topping and sprinkle over the casserole. Return to the oven to bake for 20 more minutes. Enjoy!