One reason Ed likes us to make Thanksgiving dinner at home is because then he gets to eat leftovers. Well Clare did load us up with stuff to bring home and Ed was eating it and by the time I got to it, there was only a 2 inch square of turkey left so I had it. Meanwhile, Ed still hasn’t had his full turkey fix so I ordered a cooked one from Publix and we’ll have it next weekend and have invited Nadine and Mickey, who couldn’t join us on Thanksgiving. I’ll lay a guilt trip on them – I’m Greek, I know how.

I’ll bake sweet potatoes – I don’t do ultra sweet. Straight out of the oven and maybe mashed with a little butter is just fine. We always have a Greek salad. Nadine grew up in Cairo (the one in Egypt) and then French Canada. She likes ethnic. Maybe I’ll call Matt, Clare’s son, for a couple of his recipes but, as we all know, if they are involved, I won’t do them.

Our computer is not out of the woods. Ed left a message for our computer guy but he hasn’t called and now it’s Sunday. We have Vista (the Microsoft Windows program from Hell) that divides users and you can’t trade data unless you know A LOT and we don’t. Ed’s screen has shifted and the Start/Options button is not there so if he has logged on to his side, the only way to shut down is just to turn the computer off. My side works fine because I have lived a clean life (sort of) and the spirits love me.

Also Ed’s soundblaster has to be reloaded and the drivers are available on line but he didn’t know, from a list of a hundred, which ones to get. Till then we have no sound on YouTube, etc. So we called Nadine’s referral who will come at 8 a.m. Monday. I am so weary of people not getting back to us, it was refreshing to talk with someone who called us back within an hour of our message left on Saturday, and made the date.

On other matters, Avatar, the much admired movie taking place on another planet (where, in my opinion, it belongs) was on TV last night and it played in the background while I did other things. Someone, I think it was the writer, Willa Cather, once said there are no new plots. I believe her. Avatar is a mishmash of clichés from the old West -- Indians pouncing on settlers, the beasts they ride galloping like horses and flying, the brave white man (the human here), who falls in love with the exotic native or blue thing, who, however, has our features, albeit somewhat elongated. The terrain is jungle-like, the natives look like blue Indians. The gimmicks are fine, but gimmicks are not a story. The made up language sounds like island gibberish from Jon Hall/Dorothy Lamour South Seas epics. “Me Loki, you Kawana?” (I made that up, but you get the idea.) The humor writer and trenchant essayist and reviewer, Robert Benchley, got up and walked out of such a movie way back when, muttering, me Bobbie, me sick, me leave now (or something like that). I like sci fi but prefer the way Star Trek: The Next Generation handled things. And if you are going to have intimacy issues, then I prefer Data, the Star Trek robot who longs to be human. Come to think of it … well, never mind.

I’ve Googled several things I want to read and can’t because I don’t know how to enlarge the 6 point type and I can’t transfer the stuff to Word where I can do this because many things that come up on Google are coded to prevent that. Maybe the computer guy can do something.

xx, Teal