Thursday of course was Thanksgiving, where we give thanks we live in a God Fearing violent nation, instead of some libertine European nanny state where the pleasures of the flesh are easier to come by than guns. We went to my sister and partner's in Buffalo, with the usual assortment of alternative types, the only thing really missing was green bean casserole with Durkee's fried onions on top. debacle was supposed to bring it, but he stiffed us, again. Mrs. Ha had clinicals the next day, so we couldn't spend the night. We ended up hitting the dewpoint driving through the swamps, the fog was very thick, and I had a hard time explaining why fog happens to ten year old (my thermodynamics is rusty).

As a kid, we went into the dark hills of northwest PA for Thanksgiving, as my parent's hometown is there. They had cable TV in the 70's, probably even earlier, since reception is terrible with all the hills. But, they only had about 4 channels, one of which was a camera pointed at a clock, and sometimes a blackboard. When the best thing to do on a Thanksgiving morning was watch the Macy's parade on black and white TV, you know you were bored.

Friday we had plans to go out and see some jambands, including a high school friend, so after I dropped the kids off at my parents and tried to network my dads 98 laptop with no cdrom drive (yeah, tricky), I had a few precious hours to myself (since Mrs. Ha was still sticking people with needles). I folded laundry, WOOOT.

The laundry folding was actually nice, as I was able to catch up on some BBC shows I've seen mentioned here. One was an Avengers with Diana Riggs, Dead Man's Treasure, nice for the classic sportscars, but a severe lack of sword cane action. The other was the first Doctor starring Billie Piper, who I find to be quite scrumptious.

Later we went out, and had to park in a parking garage a few blocks from the club (the St Paul area is much more gentrified than it was 20 years ago), missed my friends band by 20 minutes, and chatted with co-workers and old friends, though not very much as I didn't feel like yelling over the PA. Considering I had one beer, and couldn't dance, I had a nice time. I did sway from side to side slowly and creakily.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, unseasonably warm and sunny. Irish_girl and her kids stopped by for a while. Mrs. Ha and Irish_girl went to a dance class, so I told the girls to call me if tan emergency happened and went outside. I started celebrating our global warming induced weather by starting the snowthrower, nothing like a choking cloud of 2 stroke fumes to make you feel like a part of nature. Next up was gutter cleaning on the garage, raking and depooping the yard, planting grass seed on half the vegetable garden and pruning a few limbs off the overhanding maple tree. Our backyard is almost always shaded by the maple tree and garage, maybe this fall I'll be able to hack back enough limbs to get grass growing back there.

Saturday afternoon I tried a bottle of Lagunitas Brown Shugga.
It was good, with a malty taste and a pleasantly bitter hoppy aftertaste. I did catch a mild buzz from it, and when I checked the label, I saw it was 9.9% alcohol. Whoa. Many thanks!

We watched about half of Spike Lee's School Daze, but just didn't get into it. I liked Crooklyn and Jungle Fever better.

Sunday was a mercifully quiet day, Mrs. Ha and I walked to the alternative section of town and had a nice lunch outside. I was able to change all five windshield wiper blades, they all have easy to change bayonet fixtures.

Five years ago I was frantically running cable and cat5 through our old house to our bedroom in preparation for spending a weekend in bed, with frozen peas nestled in my groin. Now that I have WiFi, and will be getting Dish in the bedroom, I no longer need wires threatening to decapitate me in my closet, and tackying up the bathroom. So, I took them all down. I still need to plug up the hivehole, and call the Dish company to finish their install.

I'm getting a new mobile, Tracfone had a deal where it was cheaper to buy a new phone with 120 minutes than add 30 minutes to my ancient one. I hate losing the 30 minutes I have on it, OTOH, I might enjoy a phone with a more than 3 hours standby time. Mrs. Ha will be getting a new one too, she's about outgrown Tracfone, a regular service might be cheaper.

Tonight is ten year old's Exposition, on Suffrage and Abolitionism. I should psyche myself up to be social with all the other parents.