if you ask for a dove, you might get a pigeon

I haven't posted for a while and Shannon complained about it today. The problem is that most of my days have been uneventful.

For instance today I:

• Fed breakfast to some stressed out teenagers at the end of the semester.
• Had an e-mail argument with a school teacher.
• Drove to the seminary building twice through the day, 3 times including class this morning. I kept forgetting papers to complete some reports to finish up the semester.
• Filled up the gas tank in the van.
• Caught up on some business paperwork.
• Carpooled kids home from school.
• Warmed up leftovers for dinner. This is the third night with the same pot of soup. I have a very tolerant family.
• Walked with Melanie to visit a neighbor this evening.
• Right now I'm watching the finale of "So You Think You Can Dance". So far, it's the highlight of my day.
• Looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

There have been some events happening around here, though. We did have Thanksgiving, and we did give thanks.

There were three other people at our table, but I snapped a horrible picture of all three of them. And of course we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

I painted a few Christmas windows. It was not nearly as fun as it should have been. Shannon couldn't paint with me this year. It was all utility painting . . . all alone . . . no fun, no gossiping, no catching up on family news, no laughing at crazy clients and/or people passing by. Just lonely, lonely painting. Shannon - imagine the weird silence of the dirt testing lab, and multiply that by 5 days. Don't let it happen again, k?

One client asked me for a full Christmas message "Nothing washed down. No 'happy holidays' or 'seasons greetings'. I want a full Merry Christmas and Peace on Earth! . . . with a dove!"

I don't really know what characteristics differentiate a dove and a pigeon, but there is a white bird of some sort on the door.

I did a little bit of hiking with some friends at South Mountain.

I took on some hosting duties for an evening out at the temple lights, celebrated our neice's missionary farewell, went to the temple with Dave and Brady, cheered Dave on in the Electric Light Parade, put up our tree, and sent out a few Christmas cards. All in all, it has been a good month, but it was mostly full of busy, but boring tasks - cleaning closets, collection calls, sorting tax receipts etc. I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks still being full of busy-ness, but hopefully less boring.