Brennan's Blog

Thanksgiving 2006

Ah, it's that time of year again. The relatives come over early, to help you cook dinner, Aunt Edna watches the "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" with the kids on her lap, while the whole family sits around telling of their stories from the past year, and how grateful they are to have such a wonderful family as they do.

(Cue Record Screech)

Then you wake up. It's 9am, you've got the relatives coming over at 2pm, you need to take a shower, cook dinner and tidy up the house, all in 5 hours, at which time the nieces and nephews will be chasing each other around the house, and Uncle Bill and your husband stand in the kitchen talking about the football game, getting in the way of your food preparation. Your mother-in-law stands by like a hawk telling you how she thinks you should be cooking your mashed potatoes, yet offering no physical help. Aunt Edna sits in the living room, asleep for the last 45 minutes, in front of the tv, while Aunt Clarice sits telling your distraught mother about the odd shaped object that has been growing on her foot for the last 6 months.

Still, in the midst of all of the chaos, remember to be thankful. Thankful that your mother is sitting inside listening to your husband's aunt. Thankful that those nieces and nephews are running around the house. Thankful for your mother-in-law, no matter how annoying, that she is still here for you and your husband. Thankful that your husband is standing in the kitchen laughing and talking with Uncle Bill. Thankful that your family is around you, and they are safe and sound. When you all sit down at the table to eat, take a minute to look around at your family, and realize how truly grateful, you are.

And please remember all of our troops, who won't be home this year to spend Thanksgiving with their families, while they are in harms way, defending our freedoms and protecting our nation overseas.

You may realize you have more to be Thankful for, than you realize.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, from my family to yours.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm tired of spammers. Most people are, and to fix that, most email providers have set up spam filters to catch the little buggers. BUT, spammers have become smarter. There was a time when the subject of a spam email was "Viagra 1 for 1" or "Free Vacation for You". The spam filters looked for common words and subjects, then moved them to your 'Spam" folder. Easy. Well, now spammers use subjects like "hi it's Murray", "Re: Tom's New Car" or "Re: My new Dog". By using a combination of mispellings and misleading subject lines that appear to be responses to your emails, many times spam mail gets through.

For example, I opened one entitled "Re: Family Vacation Photos" that was in my Inbox. I opened it to find links to an online pharmacy and cheap drugs. Another entitled "hey its Murray" gave me stock prices that it suggested I purchase. Notice how they used a mixture of capital and lowercase letters to give the look of a "personal" friendly email. I'm just plain sick of all of the spam.

Sorry, but I had to blow off steam.

Several. I live Carlos Mencia, Robin Williams, Chris Rock, Jeff Foxworthy and others. I guess it really depends on what kind of comedy I'm in the mood for at the moment.

Here's my answer for Vox's question of the day:

My method of calculating a tip:

Take 10% of the price, then divide that by half. Add the 10% and the other 5% together. For better service, better tips.

Yep. I'm back. I cleared out the entire blog (with exception of friends/neighbors list), deleted the posts, changed the template, updated my profile and am starting fresh. Lately I've been setting new goals for myself, am trying to exercise and live healthier and update more often. I'm starting anew.