Yeah yeah yeah, Pilgrims on a boat, Indians, whatever. Just pass me some of the damn pumpkin pie.

Happy Thanksgiving, yo.

The good news: Our pal The Snidge will be in Chi-town this weekend, so she, me, headcase and hopefully Ms. Kaffy will be hooking up for some mad silliness in the big city (or in G.I, if I can help it; I told Snidge I would give her a personal tour of the infamous Gary without sending her home in a body bag.)

The not-so-good: Does anyone know where Sheri of Angsty fame went? I must've missed when she said she was taking down or relocating her blog, because she ain't where she's supposed to be, and I miss her!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course I voted today, but unlike the other horror stories I've been reading, it took me about 10 minutes from start to finish. Sorry, yo. As punishment, I'll be manning the courthouse tonight, calling in results to the desk, and I've already been warned it's going to be a loooong night. Oh, and as an afterthought, the market didn't get over 10,224 yesterday, so if the legend's true? Kerry t'is.

Meanwhile, you know how I was going to cover the 10th anniversary of that plane crash Sunday? Following is a letter I received from one of the survivors:

Last night was spent trying to get the crib in reasonable shape for White Mamba, who has blown into town for the weekend to visit family. Didn't quite get there -- he's horrified by the amount of cat hair up in here -- but that hasn't stopped him from making my life hell. Par example, this morning? In my room, standing over my bed, repeating "Starbucks. Starbucks. Starbucks. Starbucks ..." until I woke up. Then? He took a picture of me as I woke up. Then? He put on my bra.

I laughed until I peed. No, seriously.

She heard it today, y'all: Tests came back sparkly clean of any kind of cells that ain't supposed to be there! So go show her some big ol' love!

Bit the bullet yesterday and realized that even if I plan on losing weight -- which I do ... eventually -- wearing a bra that's too small in the cup size? Not hot. So, went to Kohls and got a lovely taupe Maidenform that boosts and, more importantly, COVERS the girls, yet doesn't look like something Mother wears. Huzzah, yo.

The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent either working all day Saturday (with a trip to Customs in between to pick up my pomegranate and pear oil and a housewarming gift for a coworker) and running errands with Greta, who I wanted to strangle by the end of the night. See, Greta's one of those who gets something in her head and doesn't let go of it easily. Par example, tonight we were scanning in old family photos so that she could send them to her sister. She'd scanned something previously and adjusted the sharpness on it, which I'm sure worked fine -- for the one photo. But then when we went to scan in the rest of them, the ONLY way to correct them was to sharpen them, not any other tricks because, well, she'd sharpened the ONE and it worked fine. At one point, she grabbed the mouse out of my hand, and I stormed out of the room like, "Oh. my. GOD. I'm in NEWSPAPERS. I've worked on publications where we've had to do layout BY FREAKIN' HAND. Shut up and let me do what I need to do." Well, everything's fine, and she even learned a thing or two about gerry-rigging photos that have been through the mill.

Oh, and for those starting their holiday shopping, I'm going to be putting on eBay a set of blown-glass candlesticks that no longer fit with the vibe of the crib. I no longer have the artist's tag for them (bought them, like, two years ago), but they were crafted by a Kentucky artist. They're pink and sage green, and they're shaped like lillies, but they twist around each other. They're very pretty -- I'm just sick of them. I'm going to put a "Buy it now" price of $65 on them, which is what I paid, but if anyone's interested, drop me a line, and I'll show you a photo before I do it.

Had me a visitor this morning, and everything's just fine on all levels -- well, as fine as it ever is on some of them, anyway, but the rest? Let's just say I'm not wound up tight anymore, if you know what I'm sayin', Holmes. Heh.

Going to watch the Cubs unceremoniously give up their Wild Card hopes today. Drunken posting later.

Thanks to the powers who be at the ol' P-T, I will NOT be on Chicago public radio station WBEZ's Eight Forty Eight segment tomorrow; they said it would be more appropriate for a staffer to do it, because staffers have beats (or something much closer to beats) than I have. I would also be remiss by leaving out that upper management? Was a little afraid that I would say something that I perhaps shouldn't, like "fuck" or "vagina" or some other word that could no doubt fly out of my mouth without my realizing it.

But how fucking cool is it that I was even considered!?!?! EXTREMELY FUCKING, that's how.

I mean, I was doing working (shut-UP, Amy) on a transportation story today when all of a sudden in my e-mail arrives this note from an editor at WBEZ telling me to call her. I did, and she said they were going to be featuring NWI in that particular show, and would I be interested in talking about the important issues in NWI? She said she'd seen my byline quite a bit and thought I'd be a good source, especially since I'm a woman. Instead, however, they chose Shidy, who's made me SWEAR I won't listen to her. I promised her I probably wouldn't even be awake by then, so no worries. But that was, like, really cool. First yesterday, then today!?!? It's been a pretty good week, if I do say so myself.

Of course, now if I could just get laid ...

Surprise, yo! I was going to wait until my six-month anniversary on the 23rd to trot out this here new skin, but once Joelle showed me the mock-up, I totally couldn't resist. And once again, I gave her a set of retarded instructions (well, at least they were slightly less retarded than last time -- she had something to run with, at least), and then she came up with the rest. She's brilliant, and I lurve her mad genius.

And hey, if you're still digging the other skin, party on with it. It's your eyes, man. But I'm going to be digging this one for awhile.

Poi Dog Pondering is playing two nights at the Double Door Sept. 4 and 5. Who wants to go with me!?!?!?

Mer is here, safe and sound, except tonight? We've put down a bottle of Yellowtail and watched the movie Bully which, if you haven't seen it, is excellent. A highlight from just 3 seconds ago?

So, if you go over to both Brazilian Whores' links, you'll notice that a) one of them has COMPLETELY taken her blog down and b) the others are using a Blogger template. Who's your daddy NOW, putas!?!?! HA. It should be noted, though, that when I translated their blog (using Google's translator this time, not the retarded one I used last night), one of them made it very clear that their "logo will be pretty soon." So any of y'all who have either a Moxie design or some other design that's brightly colored and girlie, beware, because these bitches will hork it from you.

In happier news, three four more people have joined us up here in Chez Broad: Kalisah at Confessions of the Overdressed, Whitters at Polyester Bride, and TIMMY! over at Fountain of Pee and Amy over at Psycho Babble. Welcome, y'all.

It's official, yo: On July 31 -- that would be one week from Saturday -- Meridith will be arriving at 1:23 p.m. to O'Hare from LaGuardia, and this? Is going to be fucking great. Now, having lived with Rebecca for 2 months and two weeks longer than she can handle, she says she'll be perfectly happy just sitting her ass on the couch drinking and doing nothing, but I had three words for her: LAKE. COUNTY. FAIR. And that's all it took. "4-H!?!? Ohmigod! The last time I saw live cows was in the Old Country! Bwaaaaaaaahahahahahaha!" [Note: Have I mentioned that Mer spent four years living in a Slovenian Gypsy village? I could've sworn I did, but I can't seem to find anything about it. But yeah, she went there because she wasn't ready to hold a 9-to-5 and she was interested in charitable missions. Once there, she ended up marrying a Gypsy, who she eventually divorced once they got back to the States.][Sidenote: Ohmigod, this toothpaste commercial was just on in the other room, and I could've SWORN the woman said "When I saw pink in the STINK ..." Whoa. Where's MY brain!?!?!]

Anyway, it's going to be a blast. Now, I just have to clean the crib ...

In my mailbox today:

Squeeeeeeee!

Just got off the phone with mama Kerry, and she and the little bean are doing just fine -- he's having a little problem with jaundice and may have to go under the "suntan lamp," as Randy called it, but otherwise, he's doing everything babies are supposed to do.

Gots more people to welcome up here in Chez Broad: Chris in D.C. who's been chased up the Potomac by cows and Sheri over in K.C., who lists me as "kick ass." Woo! And note to Sheri: I happen to know personally one of K.C.'s most famous personalities: Lurlene, the Trailer Court Queen. She's excellent friends withmy former boss, and she's cool. as. hell. We've drank together on several occasions. It's a beautiful thing.