Hello everyone!
slo - So sorry about your accident. Prepare yourself, though, 'cause that is going to be one unending joke!

Oh well, those things happen.
Karen - glad you had some good quality time with your friend. I just realized that Christmas is only 3 weeks away!

I have not bought a thing yet!
Well, I want to share some good news. Sorry if this post gets long -
Part 1 - After 21 years of working part-time DH and I finally decided it was time for me to go back to working full-time. We really need the money, I've been working at least 40 hours between two jobs for about six months anway and it has worked with the boys so we just decided it was time. Where I work you have to request to go full-time and wait. And it usually takes 3-6 months for them to do anything about it. Well, I asked back on the 10th of November which was a Friday. When I walked in on Monday, the 13th, the manager had all my paperwork ready. He said he had been waiting long enough for me to go full-time and he wasn't going to take a chance of me changing my mind! Then, the day after Thanksgiving I found out that he didn't just put me in for full-time he put me in for a promotion as well. I am now a full-time Customer Service Manager and I'm really happy about it! It is a key carrying position but right now I don't want the extra responsibility of having store keys and they have enough coverage with the regular store managers so it's not an issue.
Part 2 - I WON A CRUISE! A guy that comes into our store regularly was opening a new hair salon about two weeks ago. So I went by to get my hair trimmed on opening day. And everyone that got a haircut that day was entered into a drawing for lots of prizes. And I won the grand prize - a three night cruise for two to the bahamas on Carnival.
And Part 3 - (I saved the best for last!) - I have been very stressed since the elections on November 7th. The elections had a big impact on our family. The sheriff (who DH worked for) was not re-elected. It was an unbelievably close finish, only 98 votes seperated the winner and the loser. So then we had to wait for all the provisional ballots to be counted and certified and that took until the 17th. Then a recount was requested and we didn't get the results of that until 5:00 the night before Thanksgiving! No one ever thought our then-sheriff would lose but he did! Which means that everyone had to reapply for their jobs. Because of all the delays it's been super stressful because the new sheriff could not interview anyone or even take applications until the whole voting process was over. It's been a waiting game since the election not knowing if DH was going to have a job or not!
Announcements were made at 5:00 p.m Friday night as to who was being kept on and who wasn't and DH STILL HAS A JOB!
The new sheriff, however, is doing some restructuring. Instead of having a major as second in command he is going to have four captains that will each have their own section and then together those four will share the rank of second in command. There is a Patrol Captain, an Investigations Captain, an Administration Captain and a Captain of Narcotics and Special Investigations. DH has been promoted to Captain of Narcotics and Special Investigations! He will be sworn in at 9 this morning! (The new sheriff has to swear everyone in.) DH is soooooo excited about this! He's waited a long time to move up like this. And he is thrilled with the other three captains. They've all known each other for many years, they all respect each other and they all get along great together.
Sorry if my post is long but I wanted to share all my good news with you guys!