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I'm grateful for entertainment.

en·ter·tain·ment

2) something affording pleasure, diversion, or amusement, esp. a performance of some kind: The highlight of the ball was an elaborate entertainment.

LaVor didn't find the following news clip very entertaining but I did. I'm not quite sure what it is about "Janice" that I find so entertaining. Is it her accent? Is it her enthusiasm for baseball? Is it the quick "Go Giants!" that she threw in at the very end? I don't know but it sure kept me amused.

I also think this little dude is quite the entertainer.

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I'm thankful for dogs.

It's expected that in the next few weeks or even days, my family will have to put down our dog that we've had for almost 14 years. I've mentioned him before.

Indy Doo no longer looks this young and handsome. He's now an old man with a white beard, is on the verge of being completely blind and is having a hard time roaming the backyard. It's difficult to see him like that.

I'm especially grateful for the companionship, protection and love that he's provided over his lifetime. Do I dare mention that I used to sleep on the kitchen floor with him, while he was recovering from being hit by a car?

He bit people, even snapped at LaVor once. Do I also dare mention that I took the dog's side and LaVor and I got in a huge fight about it? To make a long story short, Indy had bit people in the past, I warned LaVor not to try and pet him, he tried, Indy snapped at him, LaVor got mad, I defended the dog because I had warned him, we didn't talk for a couple days, now we're married.

So thank you, Indiana, for being the best Christmas present ever. I cried when I got you and I'll cry when I have to let you go.

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I'm grateful for cake.

Some people work with clay, others chalk, some even cameras. I've never considered myself artistic but I suppose cake is my medium.

Cakes was my favorite class in school, as I think I've mentioned before. Being able to take flour, sugar, eggs and butter and make it look like this → is pretty amazing.

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I'm thankful for banners and balloons.

LaVor was gone all week on a business trip and it sucked. We missed him so much!

But when the banner and balloons went up, we knew it was almost time for him to come home. And home, he is.

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I'm grateful for America.

The Government may not always make decisions that I agree with, we may be the most overweight country and everyone else in the world may hate us but I'm proud to be an American.

I'd take the issues in our country over any other countries, in a heartbeat. We're still the land of the free and home of the brave.

Now let's play ball.

Perhaps A Piece Of Heaven

I think I've had a churro once or twice in my lifetime. And I'm not sure why that number isn't higher. How can you go wrong with fried dough, drenched in cinnamon and sugar?

For some reason, we're getting a free viewing of the Cooking Channel right now. Saturday morning, they had a show on that featured Rick Bayless and one of his restaurants, XOCO. They shared one of his Tortas that instantly got my mouth watering (the Ahogada to be exact). As if the Torta didn't look good enough, they had to feature his homemade churros and hot chocolate. Rick explained that they make their hot chocolate with ganache and we all know how I feel about ganache! If that's not heavenly, I'm not sure what is.


These two items alone, I believe, are worth a trip to Chicago. Even perhaps a layover.

Trick or Treat

We waited 31 days to celebrate and now it has come and gone.

Everyone came over last night to enjoy some dinner and Halloween festivities. Before you could enter, you needed to guess the number of "seeds" in the "pumpkin" (white chocolate chips in an orange balloon). Once in, we gobbled up some Cincinnati chili and chicken tortilla soup. After dinner, the winner of the guessing game was revealed...HC with a guess of 26! Total number of seeds was 27.

The kids played for a bit and orange rice crispy treats were eaten. Before we headed to the neighbors for a quick candy consumption, the brave guests dipped their hands into a mysterious bowl of goop.

Growing up, a Sunday activity we would play was "Haunted House". Now that I think of it, it wasn't the best way to keep the Sabbath day holy but we weren't fighting so that was good. We would put a blanket over the end of the hallway so it was dark and turned that 20 feet into a Haunted House. One thing we always did was make a bowl of goop that we had to put our hands in. The goop from last night consisted of grapes, maraschino cherries & juice, cheese, flour, spaghetti, ketchup and mayonnaise. Amy won that game too, guessing 4 of the correct items.

I originally wanted to dress The Lime up as a Lion but that fell through last week. The next costume idea was a Garden Gnome.

At one point last night, he did have red suspenders on. And surprisingly, he didn't rip the beard to shreds.

I'm sad it's time to take the decorations down, especially because I don't have any Thanksgiving ones to put up. But in just 3 short weeks, Christmas decorations will be coming out of the wazoo!