I had a really really good Thanksgiving. It was the sort of Thanksgiving that made it very difficult to say goodbye to my siblings, that rushing out the door, I really wish I could stay longer, I'm really sad that you live far away feeling. I am terrible with goodbyes in general. But this time, it was particularly hard to drive home.

It was also difficult because my niece was taking with her the game that I had become obsessed with during the pre-Thankgiving meal festivities. It's called Zooreka and it's by the makers of Cranium. My sister warned me that it would become addictive and two or three rounds into the game, I was already shrieking "banana me!" every time someone rolled the dice. It was seriously the best fun I had all week. I am going to hunt down a copy for myself but the real problem lies with the fact that you need four people to play. It's sort of the joy and sadness of board games--they bring together many people but you need many people in order to play them. If only they created a feature on the Dyson that allowed it to free-think and roll dice...

You may have noticed a small button on my side bar that states "Passionate Blog" (go ahead, scroll down and look towards the left. See it? Okay, come back up and read the rest of the post. See, I knew you had to go look for it if I mentioned it. I studied medical anthropology back in college and whenever the professor was speaking about a body part during a lecture, everyone ended up touching that feature. She would be discussing mandibles and everyone would end up massaging their jaw. Or talking about the pectoralis major muscle and everyone would end up massaging their breasts. Wait. No. That wasn't medical anthropology class. Scratch that last example).

Anyway, if you click on the Passionate Blog button, it takes you to Magpie Girl's Small is Beautiful Manifesto which is this: "We believe stories are valuable, no matter how many people read them. We believe following your passion is more important that watching your sitemeter. We believe in the handmade, the first try, the small start, and the good effort. We believe that small is beautiful." It is such a beautiful sentiment and one that I can stand behind. I think all the big achievements begin with the small start and the good effort. If you believe this too, please go over and place the button on your blog and let Magpie Girl know that you're standing behind the manifesto.

Speaking of blogs, mine has been giving people a headache as of late--hopefully only the technical end of it and not the actual words and ideas. Many people have reported that when they try to open my blog using Internet Explorer or click through to comment from Bloglines (I'm assuming also through Internet Explorer?) they are getting an error message, the blog isn't loading, or the screen is freezing. None of these are good options. The problem seemed to be in the Technorati code I had on the blog which I removed. If you are still having trouble viewing my blog, will you let me know by sending an email? In other words, if you're currently reading in bloglines and you normally have trouble when you try to click through to comment, test it out today and let me know if it's now working for you. Thank you to everyone who gave me the heads up since it wasn't happening on my computer.

Lastly, I'm just finishing up placing the next few book tours in place, but we have a bunch of authors participating--Karen Fowler for The Jane Austen Book Club, Sara Gruen for Water for Elephants, Tertia for So Close, Jenna for The Empty Picture Frame, and Beth Kohl for Embryo Culture. I'm still waiting to hear back from a few more authors and take everyone's time needs into account. So...list should be up soon.

And now the blogs:

I loved Becky's Gotcha Day story at Are We There Yet? I always end up bawling when I read a Gotcha Day post because there is something so incredibly moving about the idea of having your entire life change for the better in a second of time. It is obviously more moving when you've followed the story ahead of time, known how much the person was longing to be a parent, as well as followed the story afterwards, reading how much joy the person feels now. Adoption is an amazing thing--not just for the people it can bring together and the love that can form where there was empty space, but the magic of watching a family slide into place.

Thwarted Repeatedly had been going through life, enjoying the fact that IVF #2 worked when the shitty comments started rolling in. Her post chronicles two situations. In the first someone asked her wife who the father was and Gold Star writes: "Seriously, I know I shouldn't be shocked that people are going to ask the question in this way, but I can't help it. Unmindfulness makes my skin crawl - it's pretty much the ONE THING we owe each other as human beings. And while I'm at it, I'll add that I feel the same way when I meet someone who acts awkward when they find out I'm gay, presumably because they don't know any/many gay people. Not only does this endlessly irritate me (who doesn't know any gay people? leprechauns? cave-dwellers?), but I instantly have a low opinion of this person, and they have to work to make it up to me." The other, a deeper cut, came from E's grandmother who asked why she didn't just adopt if they were going to use GS's eggs. I think people lose sight of the bigger picture--that a baby is about to come into a family. There will be new life and growth to that generation. Many of us have had the judgmental why asked of us, but I think Gold Star writes about those moments eloquently.

Watson has an end-of-pregnancy (read: quite similar to the drunken love fests that happen after a few beers) post about the blogosphere as she waits for the twins to arrive. She writes: "I was a female prisoner on Alcatraz, and for some reason I had legions of friends on 'the outside' (as we hardened criminals like to say) whom I had never met. They were all women and we communicated via a carrier pigeon I cleverly named Pidgey. I would send messages on a little piece of paper attached to her ankle, and she would fly to the shore of San Francisco Bay and reach all of my friends. My friends would then all write wonderfully supportive missives back to me, also attached to Pidgey's tiny little bird ankle." Her dreams are exactly what I love about the blogosphere--a life crisis can make you feel imprisoned, stifled, confused, alienated. Everyone needs a Pidgey and Watson needs these babies out of her. Go over and give her a lot of good thoughts since it looks like the c-section might be scheduled for this week.

Lastly, this brief post from Here We Go Again cracked me up. And sometimes, you just need to end on a funny note.

And, thank you to Tubelessstl for letting me know--Karen from Naked Ovary has posted!

The Christmas music has started at our local station. I'll be making candy this weekend, listening to 'O Holy Night and dreaming of sparkle lights. Oh, and before you click away, if my blog is loading better now, let me know. And if this post just made your computer freeze...well, let me know too once you reboot.