Tarte de Mesjours Update

As I mentioned last time, I was eagerly awaiting notification of my visite medicale and worried that, because this is CDS season, it could take a long, long while. Well, I got a letter at New School just this past Monday from the OFII/ANAEM/OMI/Please stop changing your name why don't you? in my casier. I quickly tore it open only to see a letter about the timbres I would have to pay for plus a map. That's great you're telling me the money I have to pay plus where you're located, but how about what day and time I'm supposed to be at your office? Duh. So, I called that same day, but it was clearly the old number that had since changed and so then I sent an email which bounced back. When Tuesday morning rolled around and I got a break from teaching, I sent off another email and later that morning when I went to go back to the site to call them as well, their "handy dandy" France map with all the contact info wasn't working on not one, but two comps at the school because they didn't have some plugin that I didn't have the right to download and there was nowhere else on the site itself or the internet to find the contact info, believe me I tried! You're thinking I should have written down the number when I got the email except that I didn't have a pen handy because I forgot my trousse down at the primary school and was at the college and was about to have class. Fin bref, I managed to FINALLY have a look at lunch at a comp that had the plugin and wrote down the number and called that afternoon.

Good thing I did call! Turns out they forgot to put in the convocation telling me when my med. visit was. Yeah, that's right, forgot! Oh, France. So, the lady was very nice and said that was definitely not supposed to happen and told me I have my visite this Thurs(as in tomorrow) at 9 AM. So I luckily had the time to notify my teachers I won't be there Thurs morn. I don't know how long my visite will take, but in any case, afterwards I'm headed straight to the Dreaded Prefecture to give them the OFII form so I can get my recepisse because my carte expires tomorrow!! Talk about pile freakin poil! It's that time of the year again, folks, so please croisez those doigts for me that everything goes ok!

Kitty Wranglin etc.

So it's been 2 weeks since I posted. Whoops-a-daisy! Whoops-a-daisy? Did I really just write that? Does that make anyone else think of that scene from Notting Hill? Anyways, I just wanted to FINALLY post the video(s) of my appart that I've been meaning to film/post since foreeeeever. I 've been in this apt since Feb, that's 8 whole months! Time really does fly. I still am so glad I left the colocdom when I did even if it means I've had to dip(or in the case of this month: plunge) into my decouvert pool several of those 8 months...sidenote, is it the end of October yet? Money issues aside, getting back into the swing of things here in Rennes and at school hasn't been too much of a challenge so far. My scheduling was annoying, yes, but I knew it would be like that, so at least it wasn't a surprise like last year. It was actually even more complicated this year as I have more hours at New School than last year which meant that I was only able to work a couple hours at Old School(ie just with the CPs, not the GS.) This is because the extra time I had to fulfill was filled by teaching 2 hours of grammar to bilingual 8th graders. Let me just say, gramer sux. That being said, I'm doing what I can and will get what needs to be done done, but I'm hoping next year to have any extra hours used teaching bilingual 2.5-11 year olds aka not college kids! On verra. At least my group is small(11 kids), motivated and generally nice and I can't say it's not interesting to hear their life stories about how they came to be bilingual, trilingual, etc. Ca donne envie, quoi!

In about 2 or 3 weeks, I'll start with my classes with the university students on Wednesdays which will be good for the bank account, but I will miss my free Wednesdays. Quoique I haven't been really even able to sleep in (kitten's fault) and I've oftentimes had errands to do and by errands, I clearly mean crops to grow on farmville, so it's not thaaaat big of a deal to go back to work there afteral, I suppose. Speaking of work, I have yet to receive my carte de sejour "salarie" because I haven't had a convocation for my visite medicale yet! My current CDS expires...next week! Yikers! I guess this means another trip to the dreaded Prefecture to try and get a recepisse whilst I await the visite. I was hoping to not have everything be so last minute, but I am not in the least bit surprised. Lets just hope the OFII hasn't lost my dossier and by lost, I clearly mean jete-d in the poubelle! This is not the ideal time either with all the new assistants coming, fin bref, whatev.

Besides school and the usual paperwork shuffle, I've been spending a lot of time kitty wrangling. Owen is a bully and Sienna has had it jusque la and is fighting back and it's getting old. I never expected them to be snuggle buddies or anything, but a bit of tolerance would be nice. I'm hoping it will change as he grows up and maybe after he gets his, cough, man parts removed? Only time will tell. For now I'm running around the appart like a crazy woman trying to get him out of everything he's getting into. Let me just say it is hard for such an organized person as myself to deal with a kitten causing a mess in every.single.room. Yes, he finds a way! He is sleeping in the kitchen on work nights, but I might do a test next week to see if I sleep through the night ok with him roaming free. Cats are hard work sometimes! I think that's it from me, folks, but I wish you a happy Friday and a tres soon!

Previously on Leah en France Part Trois...

Not to waste any time explaining why I was gone, here's what you missed:

February

I moved in here.

March

I have no idea what happened in March. There aren't any holidays, this month blows, nuff said. Haha!

April

My parents came here. We also went there and there.

May

I had my Cremaillere and dressed up as her. Also, I worked maybe 2 days because of all of the jours feries.

June

I got very anxious to be done teaching these guys.

July

When in France, I went here, here and there. Then, once back in the US in early July, I went here to visit with family and friends after a 13 year lapse!

August

I got one of these. His name is Owen. Stay tuned to see what happens with these two.

In other news, I missed my freakin blogiversary! It's been 3 years, can you believe it? Apparently I've posted just 165 times, so that's an average of 55 times per year. However, we all know I've sucked at posting these past 7.5 months and then the first year I wasn't thaaaat post-y, so I highly doubt the average is so perfectly spread out. Anyhoo, no excuses, I'm the only one to blame for not keeping a written record of my vie. That being said, I really don't know how posting is going to go this year. I really would like to get back into it, but I might be just as busy as last year socially and workwise. I've been given 2 more hours at New School so that they can sponsor my CDS(long story, but it needed to be done because of regulations), but as of yet, I'm not sure what I will be doing for those 2 extra hours since all the teaching time has been filled up. I might have to surveille the kids or some shiz like that which is all fine and dandy, but I had worked it out so that I could have one afternoon off, so I'm hoping whatever the directrice has me doing will be either before or after school or during lunch hours. On verra. I also have yet to hear from the directeur of Old School which is sort of my fault because I kind of partir-ed like a voleur this summer, but to my credit, I did call his portable last week and have yet to hear from him. I'll have to call again this week at the school itself and see what the dilly is. If they don't need me, it could mean 2 afternoons off and also, one less job to have to lesson plan for and worry about, but it's also less money(well, the same amount as last year, but I was going to make more with those 2 extra hrs.) So, I'm sort of torn. Basically, if they still need me, I'll do it and if they don't, I don't plan on getting something to take its place.

The rentree is tomorrow...ahhhh! It's kind of scary to think about working with all those little ankle biters again. It'll be easier than last year just due to having last year's experience, but there are always things that will change and new kids and teachers. We actually have a lot of new people coming in! There's a new lady in maternelle to replace the collegue who retired last year. There's also a new stagiaire working with one of the CE2 teachers, but I probably won't see her very much unless I have that class the day she teaches. Then, there are 2 new people taking over another CE2 class and a new CM1 prof. This is all because we had a split level CE2/CM1 class last year because there weren't enough kids to have a full class of each level. Well, the person who taught that was just a sub essentially. Then, this year since we had enough kids to separate that split level CE2/CM1 into 2 different classes, we had to get 2 new teachers or in our case, 3 new teachers. So, that's already 5 new people. Plus, we need a new aid to work with one of the kids in maternelle who needs to have their own personal helper. And, we also have 2 new teachers in the International Program for the bilingual and high level English students. So, 8 newbies all together once everything takes shape! It'll be interesting. Tomorrow, almost all of those peepz should be there minus the International profs who will prob be at the College/Lycee meetings. I have to be completely honest and say that I am kind of dreading all those meetings because a)I really don't like small talk and I still kind of feel like the new girl b)so much of the info at the meetings is not for me since I don't really collab with any of the profs, more like work alongside them if that makes sense and 3)I could be sleeping. Tear.

In reality, all I need to do is set up my classroom with new material, decorate the door, update some of the posters and set up my schedule. Last year, I spent the first 2 days of school setting up my schedule and it was a lot of waiting and then running around like a crazy monkey from classroom to classroom and during recess trying to track down teachers and get them to choose a time slot. Some were easy, but most were a pain in the A. There were some that were difficult just to juggle all the things their class had going on (recess, gym, choir, catechese, International English class, wine tasting, cheese sniffing, etc) and then there were those that really weren't willing to compromise for no good reason. Although, while I'd love to get the scheduling done before the kids come back (ie Thursday), in a way it does make sense to have one full week with the kids so I can have all of the classes in one go rather than miss out on Mon and Tues classes this week. I guess I'll find out tomorrow or Tues or Thurs or Fri for that matter! I just want to get the beginning over with and ease right back on in to teaching, this before stuff is no fun. I also am looking forward to the next vaca, not gonna lie.

In terms of the future, the plan is set for a couple more years in France. The school is sponsoring my CDS and all that is left to do is have my visite medicale and then pop on over to the Prefecture(I say that dripping with sarcasm, has anyone in history ever popped on over to the Prefecture?) The whole process has gone relatively smoothly(so far) except for the little blip with the hours which cost us some time, however it was probably for the better because had we known this earlier and had the Labor Dept given the OK, I would've probably been gone when my medical visit was scheduled which I'm sure would be fun to reschedule....NOT. So as it stands, I'm waiting to get a med visit scheduled sometime soon(as my CDS expires at the end of Sept), then go to the Pref for my CDS(well, my recepisse, but whatev) and I will have a CDD for 2 years(summer pay, woohoo!) and a CDI at the University where I teach 3 hrs per week. But, I am waiting for something to go wrong, so I will be holding my breath until I get that laminated carte in my mains! I think that is it from me, I'd better be off, I've got some kitties to wrangle!

Bisous,

Crazy Cat Lady aka Leah en France

Appart Hunting 101...Agence Style

So, I know a few of you specifically are interested to know more about apt hunting en France. As someone who is currently going through this, I deem myself capable of informing the masses(and by masses I mean the 2 or 3 of you reading this.) So, here she goes:

I was looking for a T1 bis or a T2. T1 bis can have an alcove so that you could put a curtain or divider up and separate your chambre. T2 has a chambre separee. Lesson 1 of apt hunting: The proprio can call an apt a T1 bis a partir du moment ou la cuisine est separee, so be careful, T1 bis doesn't always mean it has a renforcement for your lit! I technically started my search three months before I wanted to move. I signed up with Seloger, Logic Immo, My local newspaper, Leboncoin, Vivastreet and Pap to get email notifications of available apts and then checked the sites occasionally on my own as well. However, there was little to nothing available at that time, so I didn't actually head to the agencies until 2 months before I wanted to move. I went to 3 agencies at that point and it was pretty evident that there was very little available because 2 months ahead of time was "too early." I think it's definitely worth it, though, to go to several places and see if there even is anything available. I found that online, it sometimes says the date that apparts are dispos, but not all that often, so it's always good to go into the actual agencies. Lesson 2: If you see something online that interests you, go to the agency in person and ask about it. I did that for one place I thought looked great and it wasn't available, but I ended up having 4 visits with that agency qd-mm, so you never know.

Due to Xmas vacation, I didn't get to head out to more agencies until early January. At that point aka 2 weeks ago, I went to 2 agencies that had nothing and then the third had something that was maybe interesting, so I arranged a visit for that same week on Wednesday. Then, I went to an agency that a friend had used and I scheduled 2 more appts for that Wednesday. I also arranged for 3 visits with another agency(where I liked the apt, but it wasn't available anymore) for that following Thursday and I brought along a friend. Lesson 3: Always try to have at least a second opinion! Well, that ended up only being 2 visits because the 3rd apt's proprio decided to sell. So, that first week, I had 5 visits total and only 1 apt that interested me out of all of them. The next week, I arranged for 2 visits on the Tuesday and again had that same friend come(that was the apt in the quartier des putes!) On Wednesday, I had previously arranged for a revisit(you can do that!) of the apt I liked from the prior week, but I got a call on Tuesday night saying the agency had to cancel the revisit because the apt had been rented that day. Lesson 4: If you like something, do NOT hesitate. This apt did have a few questionable factors such as only containing a kitchen sink, but I later learned not to be surprised by a cuisine non-equipee. Tant pis, someone else got a reasonably-priced apt in the quartier I wanted, I knew it just meant something better would come along.

Though disappointed by the loss of the apt I liked so much, I continued on and scheduled 3 more appts for the following Thurs and 3 for the following Fri, these both ended up being only 2 visits each because those 2 apts had current locataires in them, so the agency didn't have the keys and had to get their approval, but of course, they didn't call the agency back. Oh well. So, the apts on Thursday, I had that same friend come again(this means she did 6 visits out of a total of 11 and I'm really glad for it.) The apts on Thursday were nice enough and located in the centre historique, but one was cher and the other was on the 5th(!!) floor with no elevator. Which brings me to Lesson 5: Know what your criteres de recherche are. If you know(like me) you're lazy, don't even waste time seeing something that's up 5 flights with no elevator. I should have listened to myself and not bothered, I can't imagine moving in and carrying furniture and boxes up 5 flights or even carrying my heavy weekly groceries or my heavy school bag. Although, Lesson 6: Don't rule an apt out just for one small thing. Know your deal breakers of course, but see things even if the photos look ugly for example(case in point: the first apt I liked looked very moche sur les photos, but ended up a lot better in person.)

Which brings me to Fridays visits. I saw one apt in the quartier I wanted, but there wasn't a separate bedroom or a way to separate the living room to make a bedroom and this was one of my deal breakers. I gave it a chance even though I saw it said T1 and usually that just means the piece de vie is one big room, but it just didn't do it for me. Then, the other apt I saw, I was wary of the quartier, but though it's not located exactly where I'd want, it at least had more of a neighborhood than the one in the quartier des putes aka Ho Hood. It met all my criteres plus more and was really nice. And, my big news, I've dropped off a dossier for this apt and as soon as I can get 3 quittances de loyer from my proprio this week as well as a garant all I'll need to do is wait. I even got the proprio to baisse the prix by 2o euros. Lesson 7: Don't rule out an apt that's at the maximum of your price range or slightly over it. As you can tell from my experience, negociating can be had. If you find it expensive, let peepz know! Lesson 8: If you notice an apt you like that could do with a paint job or new tapisserie, ask the agency if it's already set to happen and if not, if they could ask the proprio to do so. It maybe won't happen, but it's always worth a try.

For my dossier, I needed:*

1 copy of my CDS

3 last quittances de loyer

3 last bulletins de salaire

2 last avis d'imposition**

1 RIB

1 garant and all their papiers

1 attestation d'assurance multirisques habitation (in order to get the cles)

*They also asked for a livret de famille, but I explained how I was 'mercan and they didn't have a problem. Btw, they could also ask for your contrat de travail, this agency just happened not to.

**I'm sure if you only have 0 or 1 of these, you could also explain the situation and they would be understanding.

So, now it's a waiting game, on verra if my dossier will be accepted, but the apt is pretty sweet, so I hope so. I'll fill you in on it more once I know if it's a yay or nay!

Grippe-ness

So, I am home with the grippe. It started yesterday before work, but at that point, I thought it was just a mix of lack of sleep, a stuffy bus ride and cigarette smoke at 8 AM. I knew I wasn't doing too well when, at the end of the afternoon, I absolutely had to give my whole class sitting down because standing up was too uncomfortable. I told my kids I was sick so they had to be quiet-this is one of the few times that they will (for once) voluntarily behave. I went home after school and laid around until bedtime when no sleeping was to be had. I was shivering cold, so I put on 4 layers of tops, 2 pairs of socks, slippers and at one point also had my jacket wrapped around me. I knew I would just get hot during the night, but I couldn't do otherwise. Well, I just couldn't get comfortable, I was cold, had a headache, had courbatures, was overall not doing well. However, I went to school anyways because I thought I would try to just get through the day and make it to tomorrow when I only have to work 2 hours. I guess I forgot how if in the states you come in when you're sick, you're a trooper, but in France, you're an evil, germ-spreader infecting everyone else around you. Once the teachers found out I was sick with a grippe, they said I really should head home. Obviously so I get better, but also so I don't infect them or the kids! In the end, they were right that it wasn't that smart to be there when I was in that state, so I talked to the directrice and she gave me the green light to go home.

When I got home this morning, I took my flu meds and went right to bed and that's pretty much where I've been since. It has done me worlds of good and though I am still sick, I do feel better. I think I'm actually going to go to the apt visits I had scheduled for tonight because I don't know when I'll be able to reschedule otherwise and I really need to make a decision by the end of this week. The only apt I've liked so far will be my apt of choice when I resee it tomorrow if neither of these that I'm seeing tonight are goodies. But, I'd still like to feel like I've explored my options as much as possible in 2 weeks' time. So, seeing these apts today will mean I'll have seen 7 apts total which I think is a fair number, although it doesn't exactly feel as such when 3 of the 5 I've seen so far have been immediate no, no, nos. Oh well. Hopefully 1 of the 2 today will be a yes, yes, yes. Although, a couple copines told me that the apt building(the 2 apts are in the same building) is in the quartier des putes. Umm, Rennes even has a quartier des putes? That's news to me! I knew there was an area where the drag queens hang, but I didn't know there was a whole quartier for the prostitues! On that note, I'm off!

Warning: blog post is longer than it appears

So, I've gotten a few requests(hi Crystal and Emma!) for a blog post and hordes(over statement of 2009) of people asking me where the F I've been. Umm, doing stuff? Duh. I can't really say what I've been doing, I barely remember what I did yesterday! That's not true. I checked and my last post was from Dec 1st. Wowza. I know I had soirees up the wazoo all through December, went to the K&K 200th episode bash in Paris, had tons of lesson planning to do, then was sick, then got ready to go home for xmas break, then was home and was busy watching Food Network all the live long day, then I got back on NYE, got thrown into a soiree hosted at my apt but thrown by my amis because I didn't get back til 17h, then I slept a lot because I was all jet lagged-ed and then again with the tons of lesson planning and adding in test correcting, then this week has been apt hunting and that little(understatement of 2009) summary should bring you up to speed! To tell you the truth, I didn't really think that much about blogging or when I did, I just didn't have anything that great to share. And we allll know how well-written I like to keep my posts...or not.

What you should know:

-It was great fun at K&K's 200 episode and I am now officially "Intern Leah." I think that just means I'm supposed to do stuff for them and get paid in M&Ms. I'll gladly take it...as long as by M&Ms, they clearly mean mojitos and margaritas! Je deconne. Yeah, twas fun, met some bloggas(hi Andromeda and ASL!), stayed with my fave Canadian bloguesse(is there a word to distinguish female bloggers because I feel like there should be), saw the ksam and the kkarina and had some rhum-rhums finally. Yay!

-Home was awesome. I was so happy to see my family and be back home. And it snowed! The morning after I got back. I freaking love waking up to a beautiful, white, untouched layer of snow on the ground. It continued to snow throughout the day as well. I heart snow. I have a pic above that I took at like 7 AM or whatever heinous hour the jet-lagged me got up at. Oh and for the first time in a long time, I gave into jetlag and ended up going to bed super early and rising with the roosters(if we lived on a farm which we don't so don't ask why I said that) which was one of the worst ideas EVER because it threw me off schedule for the first 5 days or so.

Xmas eve was at my house and my mom and I made some delish wassail, olive garlic cheese dip(recipe below if I remember), Kariner-beaner's stuffing, roasted chicken with a white wine sauce and veg, eclair cake, apple crumble and other delices. It was so good, but we were SO fullll by the end. Don't worry, I still managed to shove my face with eclair cake at the end. Don't get me started on that...I might still be full from everything I ate over the Christmas hols. I don't believe in resolutions, but I do plan on getting back into faire-ing some sport in the near future which is much needed! Anyway, all in all a good time and I didn't feel ready to leave at all after just 12 days. I think I was spoiled by spending 6 weeks over the summer, those 12 days just flew by! Luckily, I was sent out in style by landing a spot in business class because I arrived so late at the airport due to traffic and there were no more economy seats. I got a seat that reclined, tons of legroom, real silverware and plates, a comfy blanket and the best part!!, a privacy screen so I could pretend the person next to me didn't exist. That was sa-weet. I actually got to sleep more than my usual little snippets of 5 mins at a time before my head jerks up because I'm so effing uncomfortable. I know this because I missed breakfast! I was a little bitter about it at the time, but it turned out ok because I got a bit of food on my London-Paris flight. Yes, I had a connection. I miss Air India's direct flights, but I actually got to sleep for once, so it didn't seem too long. Then later, per usual, I slept like a bebe on the train...that thing rocks me to sleep, I swear!

-I'm on the apt hunt. I've had 5 visits in the past 2 days with 3 different agences and I do have one candidate that is good placement-wise(a bit closer to centreville), c correct au niveau du prix, it's lumineux and has an American salle de bains!!! The major downside is that the kitchen is pas du tout equipee and literally just has the kitchen sink. Isn't there an expression with something about everything but the kitchen sink...this is the opposite, nothing except the kitchen sink. Oh wait, isn't it something about taking everything but the kitchen sink? Then, n-mind, this would be the same. I'm tired. So yeah, that is a big downside because it means money, money, money, money, mo-ney, MO-NEY! But, it might well be worth it. I think I'm going to schedule a revisit tomorrow and hope no one has snatched it up! I have 3 more visits planned for Monday, have emailed a few particuliers and then was thinking of going to another big agence in town tomorrow. I want to be all set by the end of next week. I'm going to be moving in before I know it and I have trop hate, I really do. Thank goodness I'll be moving on a weekend and thank goodness for friends that can borrow their rents' big cars! Also, I'll be on vacation the weekend after, so that should give me plenty of time to get stuff done that I won't have time to do during the week. Yay! Ok, y'all, I's reals tireds, donc I'm gonna go couche myself, but bonne nuit to you all and if I don't blog again soon, just know I really am trying to keep up with your blogs(although jeez you guys write a lot more than me...I had over 2oo posts to read on bloglines after I got back from xmas!) Toodles!

Recipe for delish dip:

1 cup green olives(with pimiento)

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 cup cream cheese

1 garlic clove

Mix olives and cheeses in a food processor until a little bit chunky but not completely smooth. Grate in garlic. Eat copious amounts!

Quadrice Turkey Days

No, I still have no clue what comes after thrice, but then again, I didn't actually try to look it up either. Ah well, quadrice(or fleetine!) works just fine for me! So, last week was the week of Thanksgivings. I have never eaten more than one Thanksgiving meal ever before in America. Ok, that's not entirely true, I guess you could say two meals actually if you count the leftovers the next day! I had one T-giving in the afternoon on Thurs which was arranged by my school. Pretty sweet. A few of my coworkers actually brought in some decorations and made little quizzes for people to answer about the history of Turkey Day that were placed on each table. It made me very thankful to be a part of a pretty awesome program and team. The Frenchies seemed to be willing(except for that guy that got fries) to try the meal(they had an alternative option) and everyone said how much they enjoyed it. An added bonus was discovering I'm now getting even more of a discount than before on my lunches at the school(thank goodness considering I eat there M, T, R&F and it's not cher, but it can add up!)

Thurs night which is the scene of the pics above was a minigiving/thanksmini at Yuri's place. It was nice to do an actual meal on the day of and in someone's home and Yuri had the wonderful idea, so how could we not take her up on it? It was a smaller scale thing because we all were going to another big T-giving the next night...so I bought some English cranberry sauce, made my cornbread mix and made garlic bread. We had escalopes of dinde, mashed potaters, gravy, corn and a broccoli casserole. For dessert, we had brownies and those patisseries you see above. We were only 5.5 people(1 came later hence the half) so, needless to say, not all of those puppies got eaten. No they weren't actual dogs, excuse the dad language! It was a nice, relaxing meal entre amis.

Fri night was a big shindig with about 25 people that was fun, but not really Thanksgiving-y. Plus, I made stuffing, but didn't have time to cook it beforehand and on top of everything, I ended up being extremely late, so the stuffing didn't get cooked enough and wasn't all croustillant like it should be. Tant pis. On Sat, I headed to Fougeres to a T-giving hosted by a coworker and her pacse. I was glad to be invited(we were 15!) and everyone there was very nice, although I realized at one point that though there were two other girls by themselves it was only because their counterparts stayed home and that meant I was the only single person there. Kind of blechy. But, I didn't have time to focus on that because, as you can see...food galore! Real turkey, real cranberries(and even the fake kind with the can rings...love it!), mashed potaters, green bean casserole, 3 kinds of stuffing(I made a second batch of mine and it was properly cooked this time and delish, thanks to Karina for the recipe I've used 2 yrs now!), sweet potaters, green bean casserole, cornbread(with cranberries!) and even biscuits! For dessert, apple pie and yummy pumpkin pah as well! Many laughs were had and games were played. Turned out to be quite a good night! So, voila, there is my "remember the time I had 4 Thanksgivings in 3 days" story. Hope your T-givings were as bons as mine!