It's a good thing that kid is cute...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all survived your respective gatherings. The Leblanc division survived intact. I am doing ok. However I may have gotten a stomach bug from my nephew. As I said above, good thing he's cute...I'll put out the call for a casserole or two if I'm laid up with this. Right now a cup of coffee and a bottle of gatorade seem to have improved things immensely.

I'll be seeing my oncologist and the good folks at Sloan Kettering this week to find out how my life will be made better with chemicals (aka a chemo regimen). I can't wait.

Thanksgiving at the Friedman's was every bit the food orgy promised. Everyone made it there safe and sound. I think the Friedman/Tehrani contingent had the most stressful trip. Mixing connecting flights from Little Rock with a 10 month old with diarrhea is one of the ultimate tests of marital vows. This was my first time seeing the little spud and he is, as promised by the photos, ridiculously cute. Unfortunately his condition made him a little cranky. His poor Mom and Dad had to cart him around almost continuously.

I managed to put in some really good couch time and worked on a sweater I've been knitting on and off for two years. I call it the cable nightmare. I will finish it, I will finish it... Sam put in some couch time too watching Spongebob. Katie hauled her brood off to the ski store multiple times. We used the neighbors house for the price of walking their dogs. In an effort not to neglect them we walked the pups so much those dogs will remember this holiday ever after as the Thanksgiving Death March. They will cower whenever they see my Dad and whimper, "no mas! no mas!" Guilt overwhelmed many and the treadmill in the basement was in continuous use. I was not one of the guilty.

You wondering about that 3 Mile Island comment in the last post? Ted and I usually hollow out a well in our mashed potatoes, fill it with gravy, cap it with more potatoes and simulate a reactor core meltdown. Ted was too busy shoveling food into his pie hole to be bothered this year. My reactor core breach was delicious.

That other comment about the association between caramel corn and trash bags? Several years ago Doug undertook an afternooon project of making caramel corn from his mother's recipe. Apparently the recipe is only good if you make it in bulk. Doug made a Sam's Club quantity of this stuff. There was no bowl big enough to put it in, hence a small trash bag was employed. My mother was miffed at the time because she was on a diet. She stood in the kitchen with one hand in the bag putting fistfuls into the front of her turtleneck. "Goddamned you Doug!" she snapped as she carted away her haul to go watch football.

Now, of course many of us being physicians at the house we have rationalized this "snack" as a healthful, whole grain bowel cleansing regimen.

And now, a few things for which I am grateful this season:

I am not dead. Hey, it sucks to have the cancer back but it could have killed me a long time ago. I still got plenty of fight left in me.

A really cute little nephew, even if he was a big poop machine. We all have our moments.

Portable DVD players and headphones. You parents know what I'm talkin' about.

Regularly spaced rest areas on I-90.

Gummy worms, the perfect car snack.

The invention of the cocktail (this season's was the Brandy Alexander).

That's all for now. My cousin Susan has suggested I report on the history of child labor and the making of fruit cakes at the Friedman house. I think that's a winner. See you next time.

Beth