What is this, Horseville? 'Cause I'm surrounded by naysayers. Wordplay!

1. I hate printers. I have a daily sparring match with the one in my office. I think it forgets how to be a printer every night.

2. I hope all my fellow Americans had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday. I know I did, except for the getting stuck in Chicago traffic for three hours. But, I was hitting the city at rush hour Wednesday night, so I really only have myself to blame. My sister and I used our down time to make a list of all the different state license plates we saw (28 + Ontario) and attempted to find a decent radio station. We did, however, learn (to her horror) that there is such a thing as flying snakes.

Random story regarding my extended family. Apparently two of my uncles aren't speaking to each other after an event that occurred back during the summer. We had a cookout for my Grandparent's anniversary (and because my grandpa suffers from ever progressing dementia). The uncle who hosted the event has a dog, a pit bull, named Rufus, who is just a complete sweetheart. A second uncle asked if it would be OK to bring his dog, Walker, a labradoodle, a curly-haired, adorable, idiot, over. Uncle #1 OKed it, but said they would have to keep an eye on him. And they did. As long as Walker was on his leash, he and Rufus got along great. It was only when Walker was off his leash that he got a little over-excited. Note, we're talking about the labradoodle, not the pit bull here. But on a whole they got along pretty well.

Well, one of my cousins, daughter of Uncle #3, who is a complete princess, but I'm not going to get into that here, decided she'd go get her dog and bring him over. Her dog, Yogi, is a French Bulldog. So, quite a bit smaller than the other two. Well, the second she set him down, Yogi goes after Rufus. Rufus, understandably so, I think, bites Yogi. He drew blood, but Yogi is fine. My family had left by this point, so everything I know is second hand. But apparently there was much yelling and Uncle #3 blaming Uncle #1 aaaaand... now they aren't speaking.

This just supports my belief that we may graduate from high school, but we never leave it behind.

3. Saw Deathly Hallows and looooooooved it. I've only read the book once (when it first came out), so I feel a great desire to read it again now. Though, I think this may be the first time that I like a movie version better than the book. It may even unseat PoA as my favorite HP movie. The only downside is that it's so serious, it doesn't lend itself well to multiple viewings.

It's a beautiful film and I loved everything about it. I also cried like a freaking baby at Hedwig and Dobby's deaths, just like I did when reading the book. So, obviously afterwards I had to go watch this:

Go here for the better quality version (with captions!) that I couldn't embed.

4. Another year of NaNo fail. I was moving along pretty well for the first half of the month. Then I got occupied by other things and generally lost heart with the story. I need to do some more research so I can get more comfortable with my story. I should also probably decide on the rules for the universe I'm creating. :/

5. What is everyone watching right now?

My Can't Miss TV Schedule includes Community, The Vampire Diaries, and The Walking Dead. I'm going to attempt to pick up Jyuui Dolittle. Maybe I can get through the first episode this time? Secret Garden also looks promising. At some point I need to go ahead and watch the Liar Game and Nodame Cantabile movies. Crap! I need to watch Unubore Deka as well.

Better hurry up so I can include these in my year-end drama countdown!

Guys, I finally just had to drop My Fair Lady. I made it through episode ten and just couldn't force myself to watch another episode. I really, really, really wanted to like it. I thought the main cast was great and I can't wait to see them in other things. Yoon Eun Hye should have waited longer for her drama comeback if this was all that was available. Granted, I don't find Yoon Sang Hyun very attractive, but he is a decent actor and did what he could with the role. I've also started The Return of Iljimae and am loving it and Jung Il Woo. I also thought Moon Chae Wong was great in Painter of the Wind and I hope she gets a lead role soon. She totally deserves it.

Having read the recaps at dramabeans, I don't think I'm missing anything.

I'm also going to pick up You Are Beautiful since everyone on my flist is going crazy for it. It looks like fun.

That'll have to wait though, since I'm off to a wedding this weekend. Hopefully it'll stop pouring down rain. Enough is enough, weather.

I had to buy a new dress because I didn't really like anything I currently have. I found one which, even though it was petite, was still too long in the sleeves. So I did some rudimentary shortening of them. I have to wear a cardigan over it (not really a problem in October) because I just tucked it into the back of the dress. I just liked the cut and the front detailing so much I wanted it to work.

Random, but I'd really like to finally do a picspam for picspammy, I just don't know WHAT.

A few years ago my parents built a new house. It is in one of the newer subdivisions that kept popping up around the outskirts of the city when everyone was building houses they couldn't actually afford. This being Illinois, the majority of the land was former corn/soybean fields. So, flat with no trees.

Now there are trees, but they are still wee little baby trees. Not enough to attract many birds beyond finches, sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, and mourning doves (who are just too stupid to realize there isn't any food for them). There aren't any squirrels, but what there are plenty of are rabbits. Rabbits that like to eat everyone's freshly purchased shrubs and flowers.

The rabbits are my parents' nemesis. As one of the first houses to do major landscaping the first year the rabbits hit them pretty hard. They even ate the holly bushes and those thick prickly leaves can't be tasty. It's better now that other people have gardens. The destruction is more spread out.

In an effort to keep the bunnies at bay, my father sprays the garden with something that smells like fox urine. They've filled in initial attempts at bunny nests beneath the boxwoods. And yet, there still must be some kind of draw to our yard. When I came home yesterday evening for the Easter weekend, my mom immediately led me over to the kidney bean shaped garden bed. And there, snuggled in a little hole beneath the roots of the dormant cottoneaster, were two little baby rabbits.

( Click here for devious cuteness )

My apologies for the quality of the photograph. It was dusk, so I used my flash and it totally blew out the picture. I went out this morning to get another one, but they were gone. Either Momma Rabbit wised up and moved them to a more secluded nest (they were completely exposed in their current location) or they were out looking for food. I'm going to check again tonight.