If Indians had given the Pilgrims a donkey instead of a turkey, we would all be having a piece of ass this Thanksgiving.

Hope you all have a good one.   

its 12:30am and i finally caught up printing all the shipping labels for today's orders.
time to get 6 hours sleep before it starts all over again...

I, for one, would appreciate the difference.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, if done right. Skip the stupid parade, lay some money on the football games (but almost never watch, since TG football has a long legacy of being incredibly boring, save a few gems like the Dallas-Philly matchup from, gosh, 5 or 6 years ago?), eat 'til happy and spend the rest of the day talking and sharing games with family. It doesn't ask as much as the other year-end milestones*, and that alone is cause to be thankful.
There were some blemishes (chiefly my nephew inducing upheaval mid-dinner in an effort to get laughs), but most of the day went swimmingly. Among other things, I got to see some of the first Assassin's Creed (deathly-overserious game, but my brother-in-law makes it great comedy), snatch a rare win at Cribbage from my mom, and came to learn I'd forgotten an entire verse of the Freakazoid theme song (the 'brain is overloading' one, if you care).
To be honest, I've been kind of depressed lately (a contributing factor to my relative lack of input these days). Rough times at work, seesawing health, a malfunctioning PS3 and the fact that I haven't slept in a bed in over 2 months (don't ask) have kind of taken a toll, and the usual salves have been falling short. But today went a long way to making things seem alright, at least for a while. If this time of year is hostile toward get-togethers, Thanksgiving at least reminds me why we do it so often if we can, and for that the holiday deserves more than to be treated by retailers and advertisers as some unnecessary speed bump en route to the Christmas blitz.

* - I realize those doing the hosting and cooking would disagree, but I'm waxing eloquent here.

That's a great word, haven't heard it before. Dictionary.com's definition: –adverb,
without difficulty; with great success; effortlessly: She passed the exam swimmingly.

Take care of yourself, SP.