Hmm. No. I don't think I can do this. After my last huge beefcake disappointment (the first "Thor" movie), I'm just not sure that I can commit to something like that.

It was from this awful, vapid commercial for paint, a couple of years ago- it was on ALL THE TIME, here in Boise! The typical, obviously wealthy, good-looking 20-something couple, disagreeing on color schemes for their McMansion. Ugh.

"I like bright colors. Like beige!"

Uh, shock? Horror?

I dunno...how clean's the ceiling? ;)

And wait a minute- the stuffing! WHERE DID THE STUFFING GO?! He threw it up in the air, but less than HALF appears to have come back to earth...ceiling stuffing...?

Might be. Or else she may have been a Russian spy. You just never know. ;)

*Hee hee* Only 12 guns? God, you must be a Coastal....

Someday (like, when I get my oven fixed!), I am sooo gonna invite all of you over for Thanksgiving. Seriously.

This makes me want to kidnap your grandma, and leave them to their own devices. My own grandmothers have passed on- I'd be delighted to borrow yours. (And feed her a meal she DOESN'T have to cook herself!)

Jesus. Your family, other than you grandmother, SUCKS.

Thanks! That Safety Lecture is exactly the reason why I did it so early (the boys are 10 and 7)- it pissed me off, and still does, that *I* had to be the one on the defensive all of the time.

I didn't wait for that- those kinds of changes are too damned slow-moving. After this was first publicized, I actually sat my boys down and we talked, for a very, very long time. Why wait until they're teens? And hell, will there even be a sex ed class for them here, by the time they're that age? (I doubt it. I'm in…

At the time, they were still just Boxing Day sales- not yet with added crazy. (That came later.) But the prices were just stunningly low, for the times, and it wasn't but a few years down the line that people brought the crazy into it, to get that one last item...large groups of shoppers + small quantities of loss…

I know! Just found out about this extravaganza this morning, and have already made a date with Mr. Tractor for it! :D

Nope! And the farther south of the border you go, the more blank looks you get, when you mention it. As I moved, bit by bit, I found that south of Seattle, few people knew; by the time I got to Portland, it was an open-mouthed "Whuh?" I'm in Boise, these days, and NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW what I'm talking about, except…

Either variety: "EWWWWW!"

I hate to say it, but- I think Black Friday is the cheap American knockoff of your Boxing Day. When I was a kid, growing up on the Canadian border, we'd see the ads for the crazy sales for Boxing Day (I still remember reeling over the idea of a VCR for $5 in the late '80's, at a retailer in Vancouver- WILD stuff!).…

You're a really, really good person. They'll appreciate that, so much.

Don't forget the folks at nursing homes and assisted living places, too. When I worked medical dietary cooking in hospitals and the like, our personal faves were gifts of cookies and candy- the kinds that we didn't produce ourselves! So break out the Danish butters and the fudge- we were ALL about it! :)