Thanksgiving fun!

Yesterday, my dog slipped out the door as I was trying to go somewhere. I tracked her down and eventually found her at my next-door neighbors' cabin (their cabin isn't visible from mine, so quit making fun of how difficult it was to find her :P). She was playing catch with my neighbors and their two dogs. I was worried at first, thinking Stormy was terrorizing their dogs or something, but no, they were all having fun. The neighbors offered to play with her for a little longer and let her get out some energy, then take her home afterward. I started to say that was a good idea, but before I had finished my sentence, Stormy and their bigger dog, Ernie, apparently got into a spat over the tennis ball, and they started going for each others' throats, teeth bared and snarling.

Needless to say, Stormy didn't end up staying. I drove her home and started to leave... and then I realized that her ears were bleeding. First thing I checked was whether it was bites or head injury (I was pretty sure it was bites, but I wanted to be sure). The ears weren't torn all the way through, fortunately, but Stormy didn't like it when I cleaned the blood off at all. So my poor puppy has ouchies on her ears. I wonder if I should go visit the neighbors and see how Ernie is holding up.

I had a pretty good Thanksgiving. It was my job to make the pumpkin pie and creamed spinach, and to my surprise and delight, they actually both turned out really well, despite the fact that I couldn't get hold of any ginger for the pie. (Both Safeway and Fred Meyer were completely sold out, and I didn't feel like bothering to go all the way across town to check Wal-mart when I don't like ginger that much anymore anyway.) My friends Trevor, Blake, and Rob and I all put together the dinner, and two girls, Steph and Lydia, both of whom I'm not very familiar with, stopped by for a short amount of time too. After eating, we watched V for Vendetta (which I thought was a kind of disturbing movie, to be honest, though I can't say I regret watching it) and then played a board game that had something to do with being a dork. It was a really fun game. I kind of wish I remembered the name.

Someone mentioned that it was virtually impossible to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon. And of course, being the Lint Monkey that I am, I had to try it. They warned me that it sucks the moisture out of your mouth really fast. Being the genius I am, I thought if I swallowed it really fast, it wouldn't be too bad. ...Yeah, BAD plan! It got stuck in my throat. I had to vomit, but nothing was going anywhere. I couldn't inhale, I could hardly cough, I couldn't talk, and I could barely exhale. I seriously thought for a moment I was going to die or something. I darn near threw up in the trash can (which they had placed right at my feet before getting out the cinnamon), only I couldn't because my throat refused to work. I think I still have cinnamon stuck in my nose. It was probably the most physically painful experience of the last... several weeks, at least. Quite a bit worse than that concussion I gave myself. Holy cow! Moral of the story, if you try to eat a tablespoon of cinnamon all at once, DON'T try to swallow it really fast. In fact, maybe don't even try it. I used to love cinnamon. Now, I think I'm never going to eat anything with cinnamon in it ever again. I couldn't even say, "OW IT HURTS!" for several minutes. Sheesh!

...Yep. I'm my siblings' sister.