Update On Many Things

Monday I had the building inspector out to our house to examine our screened in porch. He said that even though he can not determine what caused the joists to pull away from the beam, they should not have been merely nailed to the support beam. To him that is reason enough for the contractor to come back and fix it.

So he is sending him a letter telling him as much. I guess we will see what happens now.

Yesterday I had a prenatal check-up. Everything is going well. Managed to gain 5 pounds in the past 3 weeks... oh joy.

And on to Thanksgiving...

Today I am trying to scrounge up dress up clothes for the kids to wear to Thanksgiving dinner at my SIL's house. Not actual dress up clothes in the sense that my children mean, though I am thinking that might be really fun to have goblins, bees, cowboys and the like at the Thanksgiving table.

Dinner is always an interesting affair at her house, both because of the foods that will be served which bear no resemblance to their original forms and the conversations. All our vegetables will be cooked into unrecognizable oblivion, smothered in Velveeta, ritz crackers or some other not-really-a-food item, but that is nice because who really likes vegetables anyway.

Our cranberry sauce will still be shaped like the can, which is nice because we can use the can grooves as the markings to cut our cranberry sauce into perfect disk shapes. The gravy will come out of a can or jar, which is nice because it will contain artificial colors, flavors, and MSG, and I don't think we get enough of those in our diet regularly.

The turkey will have been cooked a really long time, but that is okay because if you only turn the oven up to 150 degrees it takes a long time to cook, and it really is nice because it is like playing Russian roulette... will we or will we not come down with salmonella, e-coli, or some other generic food poisoning from eating food improperly handled.

And the kids will eat in a separate room, which is nice because who wants to spend time with them while they are eating.

And then there are the engaging conversations to partake in. We will talk about homeschooling and how damaging it is, how kids need to go to school and socialize, and hear about the latest case where some "homeschooling" family abused their kids, ofcourse it will all be qualified with "well not that you are like this". But it is nice because I will be able to practice my deep breathing relaxation techniques and going to my happy place while I nod and smile and try not to say any one of the offensive things that are struggling to come out of my mouth.

If I am lucky someone might decide to quiz my children on something they think the kids should know. But if I am even luckier, my children will be too distracted by the huge television playing completely inappropriate tv shows the entire time we are there. But that is nice because I don't think my children are exposed to enough gratuitous sex and violence.

And we'll talk about how small and thin my baby is and how I really should have given her formula. And how I have hopefully come to my senses and will give the new baby formula and cereal from one month on.

And when the blood starts oozing out of my mouth from biting my tongue, that will mean it is time for pie! bought at the grocery store, with whipped cream on the top that comes out of a squirt can. Yum, pie! in it's hermetically sealed package ladened with preservatives.

And you want to know the scary thing about it? My family would probably be even more fun.

Anyone else have such fun-filled family times awaiting them tomorrow, or am I the only lucky one ;-)