An hour later than they had promised, Apple finally released their post-Thanksgiving deals to the public. Here are a few choice selections from their Black Friday line up.

(P.S. Free shipping no matter how much or how little you buy today!)

Tryptophan…it’s a beautiful thing.

No words could adequately describe my current state, so I’ll let this photo of The Pug speak on my behalf.

Today is the final ordinary day of the year 2007. Once Thanksgiving is officially upon us, all commercial media outlets and front lawns across America will be inundated with holiday cheer. Gas prices, gluttony and capitalism will be on the rise as crazed parents rush to Wal-Mart at 5am for the latest toxic toy.

So I had just gotten out of the shower this morning when I heard a knocking across the hall at my neighbors’ apartment. When my neighbors didn’t answer, the knocking turned to my door. Since I was still dripping wet and not prepared to greet anyone, I just kept getting ready. If it was someone who really needed to see me, they would call. Usually when someone comes around knocking on all the doors in the building, it’s a salesman of some sort. Or, from what television tells me, a serial killer/rapist. A few minutes pass and the knocking returns. I look through the peephole and it’s some woman I had never seen before. Because I am a cautious person, I decide not to answer. Some would call this uncharitable but I call it savvy.

After getting dressed, I went out into my front room where I could hear a woman outside shouting to someone. “Hey! Hey! Excuse me?! Can I ask you a question?!”, she yells. Naturally, I peek through my blinds to see what is going on. It is the same woman who had knocked on my door. The woman appears young yet she is morbidly obese, so it was hard to tell her actual age. She gets the attention of a mousy looking girl across the street. The girl approaches the strange woman, talks for a bit and then leaves. The woman now walks back to perch on my building’s stoop, which happens to be right next to my window (it’s a not quite garden level apartment). After a few more tries at shouting the same question to passersby, the woman has another mousy girl come up to her on the stoop. Because she is sitting about 3 feet outside my window, I can’t help but hear the conversation.

Woman: “Excuse me?! Can I ask you sumthin’?”
Mousy Girl 2: “Yeah…”
Woman: “Do you have any food?”
(at this point I start giggling to myself)
Mousy Girl 2: “Well yeah. My apartment is right across the street.”
Woman: “Can you give me some of your food? I am starving!”
(starving, eh?)
Mousy Girl 2: “Oh sure, sure. Let me go drop my stuff off and get you something right away.”
Woman: “Thank you! Thank you! You are the answer to my prayers!!! Oh thank god!”

a few minutes later…
Mousy Girl 2:“Here are some pretzels. You can have all of them.”
Woman: “Oh thank you so much!”

So here is where things get interesting. The Woman watches as Mousy Girl 2 runs back across the street and into her apartment building. When Mousy Girl 2 is out of site, the Woman dumps the bag of pretzels on the ground and leaves the stoop without eating the food she requested. Why didn’t she eat the food? Why didn’t she take the food with her for later? Why did she go around asking for food? Was it a cover for something else? It was just such a weird series of events. I can’t help but wonder if she does this in other neighborhoods…

Anyway, it was rude of her to litter.

With a score of 211.5, Crystal and Pink took first place in the Half-Arabian Working Cow Horse Open Championship. It was really exciting getting see my horse win a national championship. Now I just need to win one for myself! Someday…

For more information on the Arabian horse visit http://www.arabianhorses.org/

You wouldn’t believe how excited I was when I came upon this page last night. I totally had one of these! The whole web site is dedicated to miniature organs (no, not little livers) and even rates them by how they sound, their design and coolness factor. The Creative Music Maker got 10s across the board. Yeah, my mom knew what was up.

The basic purpose of the Creative Music Maker is to make music with the keys and sing along in the microphone. You could even “broadcast” your voice through a radio. If I recall correctly, there was a small dial on the side of the instrument that would allow you to chose which radio frequency you’d like to use. It also features half-notes! Jawsome!

Fake Edit: I just found one on eBay in mint condition with a Buy It Now price of $79.95! Jeez, that’s a lot. I might have to dig mine out…

So I’m sitting here on my couch trying to figure out a computer problem and I hear a sexy woman’s voice on the T.V. She’s talking about a car and she says, “When you turn your car on, does it return the favor?”. Suddenly the rockin’ guitar part from the Hum song Stars starts playing as they show the sexy woman push down on the accelerator. It was a commercial for Cadillac, so I’m sure you’ll all get to see it at some point this season. But wow…Hum…on a commercial…for a luxury the luxury American vehicle. Either there is a Hum fan working in the ad department, or finally everyone else has figured out just how sexy Hum’s music really is.

Champaign bands represent!

Update: I found the commercial on the Cadillac website. Apparently the sexy woman is Kate Walsh from a show called Grey’s Anatomy. It looks like they are using Stars in all of their commercials.

Click here to watch!

neon paint splashes, banana seats and streamers, peeling the paper off of stubby crayons, clapping erasers, M.A.S.H., cinnamon and sugar soldiers, boxy cars, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese wheels, Donkeylips, Beakman and the Sea Monkies, twirling in dresses, the time step, and new white Keds

Here are a few pictures from my last day in Regina.