Thanksgiving Desserts

James and I will be leaving for my mom's Wednesday afternoon to celebrate Thanksgiving. In addition to the three pies my mom is making (three different versions of pumpkin pie), my aunt is bringing pie, my uncle is bringing pumpkin chocolate chip bread, and I am bringing chocolate cake. Oh, yes....and there will be some turkey, too. :)

Raking leaves is a bitch.

Since this past Sunday was the first nice day on the weekend in awhile, I decided that it was finally time for me to rake the leaves. Since our recent move, this has become a neccessity, as there are lots of lovely trees surrounding us. From noon to 5 yesterday, I raked leaves into piles.....about 20 large piles. I then proceeded to bag all the leaves. My neighbor helped out a bit, but she had to go because her mom was visting from out of town. My roommate was also out of town, so this was pretty much a solo task. When all was said and done, 22 39-gallon bags of leaves were tightly packed.

And now my back, my left knee, my shoulders and the inside of my thumbs hurt (I have two raw blisters on the inside of my thumbs from raking so much.....yes, I was wearing gloves). I left one last large pile for my roommate to take care of. I just didn't have it in me to do it.

Ann Arbor

I went to Ann Arbor this past weekend to visit my friend, Melissa. It was a good time. Ann Arbor is a lively, liberal college town....it reminded me of Bloomington except that it's bigger (the town, not the campus....I think the University has less students and a bit smaller campus, actually). A few highlights from the trip:

• Students were randomly singing Christmas carols downtown.
• We went to a restaurant to eat burritos and drink some margaritas and after 15 minutes of being there, the entire restaurant was bombarded by an enormous group (50 or more) of very loud students. We left because we couldn't hear each other talking.
• On Saturday, we bumped into a gay rights rally march. It was a pretty good sized march despite the gross weather.
• It snowed the entire time I was there.
• Melissa and I made cake.....it turned out ok.
• We repotted her jade plant because it was looking very sad. She said it is perky, now! Yay!

I got back Sunday evening and took Monday off to run errands. It was a good long weekend.

Getting All Healthy!

So, I decided that I should go to the doctor last week because I've had a few things bothering me. Nothing major, but noticeable. First up, my bum ankle. If you read my blog regularly, you know that I sprained my ankle this past summer (in July). I have sprained ankles in the past and have never needed to go in to see someone, but this sprain was different. It was more severe of a sprain and here I am in November and it's still bothering me.

So, I saw a physician today about it. He says my range of motion in that ankle is -3. Apparently that's not good because it should be at 15 or 16. I have no idea what that means except that he recommended physical therapy to get my tip-top so the injury doesn't impair me in the future. So, I have a physical therapy appointment next week and they will show me what I need to do to get my ankle feeling better.

Obama, Our Next President

This is so amazing. I'm overcome with excitement and joy. It's still sinking in. I'm SO incredibly happy!!!