Thanksgiving Weekend 2012

It was a three-day work week this week, which gave way to a Thanksgiving Day weekend. On Thanksgiving Day at the folks' house, it was XMas for my younger niece, who is going to Japan next month. After the Thanksgiving meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, sage dressing with gravy and corn, my niece got her presents from under the XMas tree, set up the weekend before just for her.

My gift came from Von's in West Lafayette: A set of four hardback notebook journals, each with covers in patterns of iridescent blue, and one of those plush dolls of various microbial life. The one I chose was of the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) that makes both beer and bread. It was nice and soft; the other members of the family could not stop petting and cuddling it.

That gift came from a day trip to Purdue University the weekend before. I wanted to get in one trip before the current governor of my state becomes the president of Purdue, whereupon I do not want to set foot on campus. I learned from observation how the Pharos system of print job management works at Purdue's main library: You have to log in at a release station, some that is not now done at the Bracken Library. It will take getting used to if it is ever set up at the Bracken.

After Thanksgiving Day I get the day off on Friday. I sent that mostly shopping, not for gifts, but for groceries, which I have been running out of. One of the things I bought was a Hostess Holiday Fruit Cake. One will likely never see this again, since Hostess is really, truly going out of business. No more fruit cake that is more fruit than cake and would last a thousand years if left untouched.

Friday evening I brought out the small XMas tree and set it up in the living room. One of the bulbs was burned out, so I replaced it with a bulb with a red tip. It turned out to be a blinky, and it is making the top half of the tree blink on and off.