thxgiving aught-6

Another year, another Thanksgiving feast. All was well as usual. Here are a few poorly-taken pictures of my table "sidepiece":

(Click for larger images)



I call it a sidepiece because it wasn't in the center. Since no one was sitting at that end of the table anyway, I figured it made more sense to set up the cornucopia there. I went asymmetrical with the candles and other stuff too.

Since all but two people requested a vacation day for Friday (and I would have too, if I'd had any vacation days left), my boss decided to close the office. That's fine; I worked the day after Thanksgiving my first year there, and the phone hardly rang, and UPS doesn't ship that day anyhow. Ironically, since I'm doing more customer service and invoice duties now, a day with no phone calls and no shipping would've been an ideal time to catch up on my graphics work, but oh well. I hate having to go to bed early on a holiday. I stopped shopping on Black Friday years ago because I can't stand the traffic (both automobile and pedestrian). My parents and I are going to visit my grandma, who has been living in a nursing home ever since she had a stroke last year.

In spite of the impression I give that food is my favorite part of Thanksgiving, I do still take time out of the day to remember what I'm thankful for. Here's what comes to mind this year:
I'm thankful for...

• Hodgkin's in remission
  
• a job with health insurance
  
• my workplace becoming smoke-free on December 7th whether my boss likes it or not ;)
  
• my parents
  
• playing the piano
  
• 11/7 restoring Tom's (and my) faith in Ohio :D
  
• my friends, all of them, here in Cleveland and elsewhere -- and I don't want to play favorites, but I've grown particularly close to Stu & Laurie in the last few years. I love you guys.

Oh, and one last thing: just to ruin everyone's Thanksgiving, I'll debunk the myth about tryptophan and turkey. What makes people tired is more likely the large quantities of food, not the tryptophan.