Poem for Thursday

Thanksgiving
By Ralph Waldo Emerson

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

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My kids had a half-day of school, so I didn't get a lot accomplished on Wednesday -- by the time I finished reading the paper, buying the SPP Scottish sheep farm for myself and Adam, figuring out where I saved last year's holiday address label file, talking to the vet (who said that if Rosie's appetite had returned, she was probably fine through Thanksgiving...and her appetite has returned with a vengeance), and talking to my doctor (who said my liver on the ultrasound was normal, huzzah!), Adam was already home. Both kids were in and out during the afternoon playing with friends. I still don't have printed address labels, but I haven't bought stamps either, so I need to do both next week! I had no time to fiddle with photos either, so here are some older pics from Seneca Creek State Park a couple of weeks ago...

















Musically, this week's were my favorite episodes of both Glee and Eastwick, though I remain utterly unmoved by the characters on the former -- there are the ones I don't like very much, and the ones I totally can't stand, with the ones I like best (Mercedes, Artie) getting very little air time, and the ones who most make me want to smash something (Terri) doing the same stupid things over and over. Spoilers: Then there's Puck, who one minute seems far more mature than Quinn even deserves and the next acts like an incomprehensible moron...I have read certain viewers squeeing about how we're supposed to like these characters because they're so flawed and real, but this is joke-real, with everyone behaving either badly or ridiculously so when the next episode comes along and makes him or her look like a jerk, we feel like everyone has it coming.

So the fact that Kurt is sad because he can't get the most popular boy in the school is supposed to excuse him acting like an asshole to Rachel, and jerking Quinn around is supposed to be okay because she's jerking Finn and Puck around, and Will is getting what he deserves because he's an oblivious moron? There's a mean-spiritedness toward everyone that isn't amusing to me at all. Yes, the "Imagine" number was inspiring and beautifully done, and "Papa Don't Preach" was absolutely made for Quinn, but Good Sue vs. Evil Sue is getting very tiresome, and I find myself relieved any time Emma and Ken are not around. If my kids didn't like the show (they say "fail" every five minutes -- I think the students on Glee are actually nastier to each other than the popular kids at their schools), I am not sure I'd still be watching.

As for Eastwick, I still can't warm up to Joanna, but Roxie more than makes up for that, and I'm so glad Penny is playing a bigger role though I'm also sad because how far can it go with so few episodes left? My big accidental revelation, though, is that the guy playing Jamie, Jack Huston, is Anjelica's nephew, John's grandson! How did I not know that! Spoilers: I'm sorry that I found this out the same day that his character crossed one of my personal lines -- trying to kill Darryl for what Darryl did to his mother is excusable, but testing magical poison on an animal, then killing an innocent woman (which he had to know was a risk in Darryl's bed, why not put it in his shoes or on his clothing?) -- no way, Jamie must go. Even if Darryl is the devil, I can forgive him for a lot just because he keeps striking out with Roxie -- when she said in the preview that she thought she was going to have sex with Darryl, I thought that was in a letting-go-of-dead-lovers, living-wild sense, and I like that instead it's her reiterating a prophecy about which she's decidedly ambivalent.

As much as I love watching Paul Gross make out, I hope none of the women succumb to his charms in the short weeks left to this series. Though better him than the insipid Will...man, I hope Joanna comes to her senses and dates her hot replacement, since she seems incapable of defining herself outside a relationship, a crush, or some other situation vis a vis a man, even though she has more female friends than anyone else. I heartily approve of the music at Darryl's party ("Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," "Call Me") and of the necklace he gives Roxie, though I also really appreciated her speech about how honesty and integrity are so much more important to her than fame and acclaim. I don't think these three would have to kill Darryl because they're all so much stronger than the women in any previous Witches of Eastwick incarnation.

Happy Thanksgiving!