So I thought having the week off would be great. Boy was I wrong. I get more rest at the office. At least here there were no people to bug me with questions that simple common sense could have answered. I have learned that common sense is a rare commodity in the human race.

Saturday I got my yellow belt. Mark went to watch me test. Spending 3 hours of boredom only to see my 5 minutes of fame sure made me feel good. Spent the rest of the day doing a bit of cleaning and preparing the shopping list for Thanksgiving. Sunday I did a minor bit of cleaning and a major bit of sleeping. One day I will have to expound on the wonder of sleeping for hours and hours. Sometimes I wish I could go back to my teen years and the days of sleeping so much I would miss and entire 24 hours of the world around me. It was wonderful. The older I get, the more I love sleeping, the less I seem to be able to get. Baically I woke up long enough to put the groceries away and make a list of the things I needed to actually go to the store for. Should be fun. I haven't seen the inside of a grocery store in months. I despise shopping of any sort. The internet is the best place to shop. I can do it in my underwear and not even brush my hair. No traffic, no "special" people, no annoying clerks with their movement gears set at slow and slower, and no old ladies blocking aisles while they summon the ability to make a friggin decision.

Monday I slept in, cleaned some more, did the final shopping, ran off to physical therapy and my first class as a yellow belt. Physical therapy went well as usual. Kickboxing had a problem. One of the first things I get to learn is falling. Essentially you hurl your body at the ground in one of four prescribed methods. The idea is to do it properly so it does not hurt. Umm, well, this takes practice. First thing I learned is that my shoulder is not ready to be hurled at the ground in two of the methods. How did I learn such a thing so quickly you ask? Simple, I hurled my body to the ground and an intense pain went through my shoulder, arm, and neck. I figure this is a one time thing. Being the brilliant person I am I decide to give it a couple or three more tries. So, as my Mom says. "She has to learn things the hard way". I spent the next 45 minutes working on the two falls I could do and feelling the growing, pulsating pain in my shoulder telling me the swelling will be impressive by the time I get home. Most of the time I say pain is just weakness leaving the body. I think I need a secondary saying. Something like pain is your bodies way of informing you that you are stupid and it will make you pay.

Tuesday I slept in. Starting to see a pattern here? Shoulder was not happy, which was making me unhappy and of course I had to spread the joy :o). It was also pie day number one. My first unsupervised adventure into making pies useing Mom's recipe's. If they don't taste good I will die. Made two apple pies. Dang near stopped after peeling a few apples and headed out to Bed, Bath, & Beyond to buy and apple corer/peeler. It took me forever just to get the apples peeled, cut, and flavored. I can see why people prefer to buy pies rather than make them from scratch. Scratch may taste better but who on earth would do this all the time?!? Mark came home, told me that days act of idiocy by the morons at his office and ran off to rehearsal. Moxie Rox has added something like 26 new songs to their list and are trying to get them all down before the show at Fibber McGee's, December 27.

Wednesday I freaked out. I had a ton of cleaning to do, two more pies to make, a run to Hickory Farms, an appointment with the orthopod, physical therapy and my Mom would be arriving around dinner time. So the first thing I did was nothing. Then I took apple pie number two to the office for the guys who were stuck there during the shut down. What they didn't know is they were my testers. I didn't want to go feeding people at my house an unknown so who better to use for a food poisoning check then co-workers :o). All was well, smiles all around, and nobody puked. Life is good, pies are a go. Ran home and began the pies, ran off mid-pie to the orthopods, back to pies, stuff in oven, run to Hickory Farms, cancel physical therapy appointment, finish pies, inform Mark I have earned sushi for dinner and he is the one to buy it. Orthopod is happy with my progress. She says I will probably take two or three more months to heal though. She is under the silly idea I am active, hard to tie down, and use my arms a lot. Ok, so she's right. All pies came out well but one. The one that didn't come out well still tasted damn good though. It just didn't set up right so it was more like lemon soup than pie. So, I used a spoon instead of a fork to eat it.

I decided Hickory Farms needed a whole paragraph of its own. Where I grew up Hickory Farms was a treat. A VERY tasty treat. I could live on the beef stick and cheesballs alone for months. You waited all year for Hickory Farms. The store would show up in the mall a week or two before Thanksgiving and be gone by New Years Day. You had to get all you could while it was available. When I moved up to the Bay Area and discovered they have stores in malls here all year long I was in heaven! Woohoo! Hickory Farms whenever I wanted it. Man, this city livin' might be ok after all. Any place that has Hickory Farms all year can't be all bad ya'know. It only took me a few months to get to a point of ot even wanting to look at the stuff. Now I am back to waiting faithfully all year for my Hickory Farms. This year I splurged. I bought the large beef stick and three different cheeses. Now all I have to do is wait for my Christmas See's Candy box of nuts n' chews and my year will be complete.

On to Thursday and the adventures of Thanksgiving. I wake up to the sounds of some serious pain and it isn't me. Fifteen minutes later I am in the truck driving Mark to the Good Samaritan emergency room where he is given two shots, and perscribed three bottles of pills. I am freaking out. I got a bird that needs to be stuffed and put in the oven. Call Mom, who accuses Mark of faking and says she is sure we are at Denny's having breakfast so I can get out of getting the bird in the oven. Thank goodness for Moms. She got the bird all stuffed and in the oven for me. Now I am all off schedule though and it is gonna get worse. I am freaked enough about cooking my first Thanksgiving meal for 12 to 15 people and now my perfectly planned schedule is out the window. Turns out Mark is having some kind of serious muscle spasm thing that hurts like hell. I remember when he had to take me to the ER for the same thing and hurts like hell is quite an understatment. Problem is they sent him home with a perscription for three bottles of pills, it is Thanksgiving Day, and I need to find an open pharmacy before the shots wear off. I also still have several side dishes and appetizers to prepare. I call around and the nearest open pharmacy is a Walgreens 15 miles away. I jump on the bike and break land speed records getting there. The only open pharmacy for 15 miles, I should have known would be packed and badly under staffed. I spent more time in line then I did getting there and back. I figure give them the perscriptions, wander around store for 20 minutes trying not to do any impulse buying, pick up drugs, go home. BZZZZT! Wrong! They tell me it is gonna be one and a half to two hours. Did I mention I am in a really crappy part of San Jose where being a white girl on an expensive, pretty, motorcycle is not exactly ideal? Home I go to get the side dishes prepared. Side dishes mostly ready and back to the pharmacy in Timbuktu for more fun with the mentally challenged. You ever get the impression some people are exactly in their place in life? Finally everything is going well, on schedule, Mark is drugged and I am feeding him alcohol to give it an extra kick. I am thinking I might even get a shower. Well, it was a thought. Guests started arriving and now I am stuck with my unshowered look.

The good news is it went great. The food was just like I remembered it when I was a kid. Everyone seemed to like it and all had a good time. I also now know the limit on dinner parties. I almost ran out of plates and serving dishes! It was great having my Mom and all of our friends.

Friday Mom went with Tina, our neighbor from across the street, to the Harvest Festival craft show at the convention center and I cleaned up after Thanksgiving. It only took four loads in the dishwasher and all was done. Mark was still quite uncomfortable and could only sit up for a few minutes at a time before it hurt too much. I finally got my shower much to everyone's pleasure.

Saturday we all laid around all day. Mom and I went to the craft store on Union for a bit but didn't see much. Sunday I slept in, woke up to see Mom off, and have spent this day dreading going to work tomorrow.

REMINDER: Moxie Rox will be playing at Fibber McGee's in Sunnyvale, Friday, December 27.