Wow!! It's been so long since I've written in here.

Today is Thankgsiving in the U.S., but not here in Canada. My first time NOT celebrating Thanksgiving... well, sort of. I was really worried that I would be depressed thinking that everyone back home was sitting around the Thanksgiving table with me at work all day long. I was just sort of dreading how I was going to handle it all. Panchito thought that I should just take the day off, but the last thing I wanted was to mope around the house all day long, so I just went in to work and was going to just stay busy and let Thanksgiving pass me by.

Well, the people I work for are such amazing people!!! All the other teachers made a huge Thanksgiving feast in my honor, complete with turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, cinnamon rolls and pumpkin pie! They had centerpieces, decorations, and a big card that they all signed. Here are these Canadians who went out of their way to make me feel at home!!! I was almost moved to tears. What an amazing group of people I work with. I had said in a previous blog how much I loved my new job, and now it is absolutely confirmed how much I love it.

I can't believe I've gone so long without posting. I just haven't felt like coming on to Xanga in a while. I have been doing more facebook.

Last weekend we had two friends from the U.S. come visit us. It was great having them.

Work continues to go really well. I was sort of put in my first semi-dilemma today. Next week is Canadian Remembrance Day, which is essentially Veteran's Day. Each year the school does a school-wide assembly and my job is to get together the readings/reflections that the student leaders will read during the assembly. Obviously, being a Catholic school, they wanted something inspirational. I found a piece written by Pope John Paul II (not exactly my favorite person in the world, but he actually wrote some nice stuff on violence and peace). Well, the drama teacher who is helping to put together the assembly felt the piece was too controversial since it says things like "violence is evil" "war belongs to the tragic past, not to the hope of the future" "don't train for war and killing" etc. A lot of our students are from military families, we have faculty who are military, and we have invited vets to the assembly.  I asked around the school, and while many teachers liked the sentiment, they too, felt it was a bit too strongly anti-war. Odd when the writings of one of the most conservative popes in memory is deemed too radical for a... um... oh yeah, CATHOLIC SCHOOL!!! (rolling eyes.... on another somewhat unrelated topic, I wonder how many of those who didn't want the pope's position on this read, would be the first to run to the pope's position had it been me asking to start a gay and lesbian student alliance???). Anywhooooo... the librarian, who I really trust and like, suggested that until I am permanent in the school, and not just a possible one-year-hire, that I find something a little more agreeable. I actually found a really nice poem by Maya Angelou called "When a Great Tree Falls" that deals with the death of good people. I figured that would keep people happy. So I compromised my stand. For this year anyway.

Not much new going on. Cyprian keeps getting better and better each day. The stitches are out, so no more cone/collar for him, which he is delighted about. We still have to keep him from jumping and running for several more weeks, so we bought one of those baby gates to keep him from going up and down the stairs. A couple of times we have left the gate ajar, and he managed to work his way upstairs, so he must be feeling pretty good, but still, we want to follow vet's orders. We will pick him up and put him on the bed with us, then pick him up and put him down so he won't jump up onto the bed. I actually don't think he has yet the ability to jump up that high, so he will meow when he wants up.

The weather here has been turning really cold. Even saw a few snowflakes in the air this past week while I was waiting for the bus. Nothing stuck, but it was awesome to see snowflakes in October.

We were going to go to Toronto for Halloween with Charlie Brown and Pave, but because our savings account was literally depleted for Cyprian's surgery, we had to cancel our plans. I guess Panchito and I will stay home Halloween, watch some scary movies on DVD and hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. On the plus side, we are going to go to Mexico City for Christmas to visit Panchito's family. I'm really excited!!! I have never been to Mexico, nor have I met many of Panchito's relatives, so this will be a great trip. I just told him we will start building back up our savings account AFTER Christmas. It is cheaper to fly through the U.S. than a direct flight from Canada, but again, the specter of bigotry haunts us. Because of Panchito's status in the States, he would need to apply for a U.S. visa even if it is to stop at an American airport to switch planes. UG!

Saw some interesting movies on DVD recently:  "Trick 'r Treat" was one of those movies that had been on the shelf forever before being released direct to DVD. This is usually never a good sign, but this one was actually really well done. It is more creepy-fun than it is scary. It's fun in the way that "Drag Me to Hell" was fun this past summer. It is a series of 4 mini stories tied together as a sort of anthology.

Also saw "Grace" , a small indie horror movie that tries to be a bit of "Rosemary's Baby". Again, not a very scray movie... more gross than anything else. But still, well made and well worth a watch.

Our cat Cyprian had his operation a week ago. From the waist down he now looks like something Frankenstein would dream up. Two large jagged scars on both sides of his hips. He was so drugged up when we brought him home. He has had to be on 6 different meds; several for inflamation and pain, and a couple for his eyes. Apparently, when cats go under anesthesia, they are very prone to their eyes drying out and developing ulcers on their eyes, so we have been giving him meds for that. We also have had to quarrantine him to the hallway. He is now able to walk better, but at night, since we cannot watch him, he has to wear one of those horrible plastic cone pet collar things to keep him from chewing on his stitches. He hates that cone collar, and I hate seeing it on him. But, he has been such a little trooper and hasn't complained too much. The stitches come out next week, so at least we can get that collar off him at nights. Panhcito is here during the days to watch him, so he doesn't have to wear it then. Also, its going to be 4 more weeks before he can start jumping up on furniture again. That will be hard to keep him from trying. He just loves to get up on things.

Thanksgiving is on Monday here in Canada. Canadians don't make a very big deal about Thanksgiving, which kind of sucks, but since it falls in early October, at least it gets celebrated and not lost as the start of the Christmas season like it does in the States. It will also be odd when American Thanksgiving comes in November to be at work that day since it is just another day here in Canada.

I swear, when life decides to shit on you, it shits on you good!

We noticed that our baby Cyprian was having a hard time getting himself onto the bed and the tables and windowsills. Then we noticed he was taking the stairs very cautiously. We took him to the vet last week and they called us with the results of his xrays; turns out he has fractured not one, but BOTH of his hip sockets. I am guessing he did this during one of his death-defying leaps to try and reach the downstairs bedroom windowsill. Sometimes he makes it, and sometimes he doesn't... and when he doesn't he comes crashing down on the floor not graceful like a cat should but like a clumsy puppy dog. And to top it all off, the surgery to fix his fractures is going to cost $2100.00 YES, that would be TWO THOUSAND dollars!!! There goes the last of our savings (and I was just getting it growing again). UG.