Monday Monday 11.26.2007

Hi All,

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and a good Black Friday.

As can be expected with Holiday travel, our trip to Albany International last Tuesday didn't exactly work out. I had a direct flight from Baltimore to Albany, while Maggie had to travel from Detroit to Albany via Washington Reagan. My flight got in with no issue, but Maggie's flight leaving Detroit was late and caused her to miss the connection in Washington. Her only option was to take an available seat on a Syracuse flight later that evening. Soooo. . .she traveled to Syracuse, jumped in a car, and drove to Hartford, NY arriving somewhere around 3AM. She could have stayed over in Syracuse I'm sure, but with holiday traffic and such it was better to just get her home before the Wednesday traffic picked up.

That being said, we had a wonderful turkey day. My Aunt Pam prepared the Thanksgiving meal at her house and we ventured up there at about 12:30 for a 1:00 meal. To make a long story short, my aunt made dinner, we ate it, we played games, we talked, we laughed, we went home fat and happy trying to fall asleep early to prepare for the Black Friday ahead. To make a long story longer, my mother indulged in the White Zin a little too much making us all wonder whether or not she would make it to JC Penny in the morning.

We do have a little Black Friday tradition in my family that we started on or around the year 2000. Every Black Friday, JC Penny gives out a Mickey Mouse holiday snow globe. Of course this is a tiny piece of garbage, but it is this tiny piece of garbage that gets us up at the crack ass of dawn every year! This year, we (my mother included) left the house at 3:30 AM. We hit Pennies, Sears, Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, and Wal-Mart. We also wanted to shop at Kohls and Bestbuy, but their lines simply weren't worth their deals. Maggie and I managed a few good deals on gifts and a few good deals on household appliances needed for our new house (that we close on in less than two weeks).


I also brought Maggie to the storied Hartford Town Tavern - a true highlight in everyone's Thanksgiving Day Plans. Genny Lights dangling from the ceiling and a lot of drunken Hartford Central Alumni. . .

Happy Black Monday!
Ryan