Awards

Hope that the U.S. Pixies had a good Thanksgiving! Congratulations on the many things we are thankful for, including: family; sleeper cars; vintage Nancy Drew; bloggy meet-ups; parades; feasty food; volunteering; finally getting an oven; teen offspring who crack a smile; crafts; wedding anniversaries; the generosity of friends; cats; books; and beautiful snow.

Elevated Risk of Mullet Award to Amy, who laments: "My purse is heavier than my diaper bag."

Style Award to Redzils, for her whine/antiwhine discourse on the merits of this year’s Thanksgiving companions, concluding: "Overall, still a victory."

Old Skool Award to Sue, who complains that pantyhose should be outlawed.

Condolances, Hugs, and your choice of chocolate cake or pumpkin pie to Pixies suffering from: missing family during the holiday; overcrowded familial conditions with incoming relatives; pneumonia and/or headaches and/or other illnesses; funky smells in car and/or home; relatives who are difficult for whatever reason (no talking; too much talking; etc.); messy homes; broken or missing appliances; bureaucracy; work pressures; and etc.

See you next week, when the delightful Madeleine will host!

Thanksgiving Edition

Yes, the holiday season is officially here! So, we're rolling out the festivities early this week, to accomodate all the thankfulness and whininess.

Stuff I'm thankful for: My wonderful beloved, daughter, and son. Ze zany catz -- quirks and all. Two dogs who think I am a goddess just because I feed them. Sisters. Friends. That it's a small world. My fabulous aunt and equally fabulous aunt-in-law, and sweet mother-in-law. Son's girlfriend, whom we all adore. The internets. The cat rescue lady we know, who is giving me a free rabbit cage. The airline's good policies about disability accomodations.

Other stuff: Why a rabbit cage? Well, my SIL has 2 rabbits and no cage, so her house is their litter box and they are chewing everything in sight. Beloved took today off to ferry his sister around to deal with various legal / financial matters around her dementia. Tomorrow, she flies to her aunt's house for a week or so, which is an anti-whine for sure. Maybe not so much for the fabulous aunt-in-law.

Daughter can't come home for Thanksgiving because her marching band has to play at the big game on Saturday. But son and his girlfriend will be over, and I'm getting ready for the cook-a-thon! And if daughter's band wins this for the home team (bands, as everyone knows, are the most important factor in college football), they will go to the Rose Bowl! And march in the parade!

Finally, teh fireplacing cancer sucks. A talented young woman we know is sitting out this semester (and marching band season) because she's having chemo. Her fireplacing cancer is, thankfully, reasonably treatable. Anyway, daughter and her best friend and other friends and some moms and their church and some music people are conspiring, and we're gonna make a quilt. Take that, fireplacing cancer!


OK, Pixies -- have at it! Prizes, as always, for Style, Mullet, and Old Skool. Special prizes for other special whines and antiwhines. Passing the sinful appetizers.
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ETA: Whining open through Thursday; prizes Friday. Happy Thanksgiving!

Awards!

First of all, this is a week deserving of more than chocolate. Yes, it is a donut week -- so enjoy! And thanks, Dr. Corndog, for your timeless masterpiece on donuts.

Group Hug Award to Purple Kangaroo, who is struggling with a big long list of lousy stuff, including (but not limited to) not driving and not having enough help. PK, the Pixies love you, and we’re all here for you.

"Fireplace That" Award to Sue, who had to see Dr. Grumpy, because her headache decided to make an encore appearance, and she cannot blog about it because it is insufficiently cheerful news for the self-appointed blog monitor at her church. Cluesticks, again, for the buttinsky parishioner.

By overwhelming popular vote, the Style Award goes this week to Liz, for her song, "Lost that busy feeling." Esperanza was the first to generously offer send some of her busy-ness right over.

Elevated Risk of Mullet Awards to Margalit, for "Lysistrata Home Game" (thanks, Amy, for the nomination); and to Redzils, whose careful research led her to realize her home is actually a "garret."

The Old Skool Award to Esperanza, whose ECI person managed to make her feel incompetent, when we are certain she meant just the opposite and was struggling for any suggestions to make. The parents among us are nodding and recalling when that happened to us, one setting or another.

Happy Dance Award to Klee, whose demon child was moved to another classroom.

Spousal Angst Award to CCW, with a complimentary visit from the Cluestick Posse. Also, scritches to cute little Lefty, the new member of the family.

"Baby Get Well" Award to JenR, whose little one has hand/foot/mouth illness – the name of which is enough to make a Pixie shudder in horror, as if the sickness and ER visit were not enough already.

"Thanks, Mom" Award to Amy, whose parental unit is flipping out and thinks Amy should abandon her own family and cook for Mom. This award comes with a special Early-Bird Ribbon for Amy’s Mom, who is starting the holiday family guilt-fest at a stunning pace.

Lifetime Achievement Award (fluid division) to Margalit’s darned cat.

Congratulations to Pixies with substantial anti-whines, including: getting Blogger to post; having someone pick up the phone and answer questions; good baby checkups; not having to shovel even though there is snow; approval of partial disability; writing and delivering something that rocks the place!; children back on the straight and narrow; kittens!; that feeling of solidarity that comes from everyone else being broke, too; good sleep; babies learning to sleep themselves!; wheelchair shopping carts; remembering whines past, and reveling in the fact they are in the past; dedicated hardworking kids; leaves getting raked; sick clouds eventually going away; falling in love with the wee one; and, a personal favorite of ours, getting past the double-barreled complaints from the grandparents about major baby decisions. Yay!

Condolences to Pixies with whines ranging from the medical to the emotional to the family to inadequate public accommodations. Thanks for playing, and see you next week!

November Madness

Welcome, Pixies, to the Whiner's Ball! This edition is brought to you by the Muzak people and catalog retailers everywhere, whose fine holiday products will be wringing your last nerve for the next 6 weeks. Ho. Ho. Ho!

Antiwhine: We had a great weekend visiting daughter! It was Dads' Weekend at the U, and her marching band assured a victory at the home game, with the able assistance of the band's Dancing Dads. With only 2 hours of professional dance training, several dozen middle-aged dads marched bravely onto the field before 46,000 fans and performed to the Elvis hit, "Hunka Hunka Burning Love," with arms, midsections, and legs going every which-way. The crowd was breathless, particularly the spousal sector, which is still collapsing into giggles at the memory. Good sports, those dads.

Whine: My SIL, age 50, now has been officially diagnosed with early dementia and is apparently going downhill fast. She needs a conservatorship, and the doctor called my beloved on Saturday night to say SIL cannot live independently. She also cannot stay here; the last time she did was a 24/7 rolling disaster. Please think good thoughts for my beloved, and for SIL's first husband, who is helping out; there is really nobody else.

Antiwhine: Annika got to go home! Woo-hoo!

Antiwhine: Cats! Except the one who keeps pooping in the bathtub. And the one who thinks tearing up the carpet in front of a door is the same as saying "Open Sesame."


Let 'er rip, Pixies! What's the news this week? Prizes for Old Skool, Style, and Elevated Risk of Mullet. Passing the chocolate, and I'm pretty sure Liz is ready to saddle up the Cluestick Posse, should the need arise.

Late breaking awards.

Sorry for the delay, Pixies. This week was kicking my butt.

The Style Award goes to kathy a. for:

in recount news,
the major blues involve clothing.

new wind is blowing.

Hurray for shiny new jackets. Marching Band dads dancing to Elvis, babies that sleep, potential for “Actual Impact” from the work you do, roofs that shed water, lingering paperwork vanquished, and the approval of temporary ‘long term’ disability status.

Great Pixie sympathy to everyone dealing with aching hands and aching heads, full time “part time” jobs (note: plural), friends’ grief, wee bairns with Bodily Fluid Issues, babies that don’t sleep, demon-possessed students, terminal exhaustion, and kitty fight club.

The Elevated Risk of Mullet Award goes to liz for: “Anti-whine: I had occasion to quote They Live today. Always a good thing when you can say, ‘I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum.’”

If we cant be liz when we grow up, we are at least drafting her, as kathy a suggests, for “for Chief of the Cluestick Posse. She has what it takes.”

The Old Skool Award, along with clothespins for family noses, goes to Neighbor Lady and the dead thing loose in her house. We hope the dead thing is… less smelly? Gone? Something? soon.

Thanks for your patience. Next week's whining will be hosted by the fabulous kathy a!

Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Hi, Pixies!

I hope you are enjoying the lack of political frenzy in the media, and the fall weather.

What aren't you enjoying? Let the whining commence!

Awards!

Congratulations and condolences to Pixies on the outcomes of the various electoral races close to your hearts. Thanks to all who joined in the special edition whining!

Special kudos to Liz, who was an election volunteer dynamo! Liz also wins the Style Award for her election tribute to Tom Leherer, "Anxiously."

On to the free-range whines. Our grand national experiment showed definitively that a nail-biting election does not reduce the general stress levels in participating households.

Hugs, love, and much Pixie sympathy to Margalit, whose teen daughter is having big fat problems, and PK, who is struggling with an "interesting" and previously undiagnosed condition.

Elevated Risk of Mullet Awards (Cat Division) to Sue ["My guess is there would be blood, and it wouldn't be the cat's."] and Liz ["The cat will say, as my sister used to, ‘Someone's going to end up crying...and it's not going to be me.’"] for their profound wisdom on the subject of cat care.

Elevated Risk of Mullet (Bug Division) to Redzils, for describing her new BUGZOOKA. But the joy is bittersweet, because Redzils also wins the Please Puppy, Get Well Award, having landed back in the hospital.

Old Skool / Hi Tech Award to JenR, for a spectacular feat of data deletion. Yeeps. Glad it is recoverable.

Old Skool / Baboo Award to Esperanza, who was chocolate-deprived for days until scientific experimentation disclosed that Baboo’s sleep problems were unrelated to the chocolate that Mama so desperately needs.

Boundaries Award to Sue, along with the services of the Cluestick Posse, for folks [a] not understanding why 60 hours of work can’t get done in 20, and [b] checking her personal blog for appropriate levels of cheerfulness at all times.

Moral Dilemma Award to Madeleine, who got popped for a moving violation and has the misfortune of being guilty as sin, along with half the other drivers at that intersection.

"Drat you, stoopid time change" Award to all affected Pixies, and extra rations of caffeine for those in need.

Thanks for playing! See you next week, when Redzils is our gracious host.

Early Edition: Free Range Whining

Election Whining continues below.

W/AW: Adventures in administering pills to cats led to some tensions in the household. Beloved learned that cats may not cooperate just because you lovingly cook chicken liver and tuck the pill inside. Cats conferred and decided humans bearing chicken liver are untrustworthy, although 3 of 4 cats ate the liver anyway when the pill was crushed up.

What's up with you?

Special Edition: Election Whining

Whine: This endless campaign season has worn my nerves badly.

Antiwhine: VOTE NOVEMBER 4, if you haven't already!

Apologies to our Canadian pals, who have probably been inflicted with more info about our elections than they wanted.