The one in which I provide you with a very dull but seemingly obligatory update

I don't know why I have such an automatic guilty reaction to update posts-- my own, specifically. While I enjoy hearing details of all of your day-to-day lives, I feel dirty, somehow, writing about mine, as though I should be writing about something grander, like big ideas or weird comical overheard conversations.

But, nonetheless, here goes....

I am actually back in Home Town for the Canadian Thanksgiving Long Weekend. It is actually the first Thanksgiving I've spent at home in seven such holidays, which is actually something I am extremely grateful for. Furthermore, my younger sister (and her fantastic pug!) managed to take a quick jaunt back home, so the entire family is together, which is rare for any holiday outside of Christmas. My grandparents and aunt & uncle are coming to dinner tomorrow, too. The Duke is also spending his first holiday with my family *insert ominous music here*. It's just a quick visit, as we managed to find a ride at the last minute with a friend-- but it feels a lot more like Thanksgiving in a smaller town with coloured leaves underfoot and a fire in the fireplace, somehow.

Happy Turkey Day to my fellow Canadians! Hope you can find the time to do a little self-reflection about the good things in life between mouthfuls.

Another important Canadian tradition that has just begun? The hockey season! Two stellar Canadian rivalries on Hockey Night in Canada tonight (Canucks vs. Flames, which is an iconic battle in my day-to-day life, and Leafs vs. Canadians). I'm not generally exceedingly caught up in sports, for the most part (could be because I am so spectacularly clumsy), but hockey is my exception. I grew up collecting hockey cards and crushing on Pavel Bure, and, outside of a brief drop in interest in my mid/late teens, still get pretty involved. I actually just put together my CBC hockey pool team-- true to real life, they made a salary cap within each person's team.

A few other smatterings of news...
The good news-- I had a Wii surprisingly delivered to my doorstep on Thursday! After trying desperately to find out why I never got my money back, I received a call from the HQ of Future Shop saying that, as a result of my complaint to the Better Business Bureau, they had jumped through a bunch of hoops to find me an extra Wii, and would be refunding my shipping fee. A few weeks late, granted, and it is admittedly a little disconcerting that it took the intervention of a 3rd party for the to give me the item I had paid for... but still a pleasant surprise, nonetheless. Maybe my bad luck with big companies is changing!

The somewhat bad news-- Someone ripped out all the fantastic mushrooms from my front lawn. At first, I thought it may have been my landlady, for aesthetic reasons. Then I discovered that fly agaric mushrooms are apparently valued for their hallucinogenic properties (they aren't Magic Mushrooms, per se, but a close substitute), which makes me wonder if they may have been plundered.
On a somewhat related tangent, I once accidentally bought a half-drank bottle of rubbing alcohol. People will do some sketchy things for a buzz.

Lastly, I just wanted to say an honest thank you for the very genuine responses to my last post. It ended up being a little emotionally draining, but cathartic, to write, and I am touched that it inspired such responses from you.