It's November 30th, and we've finished our November National Novel Writing Month challenge. And the score is: 1 loser, 1 winner. Giuia: 50,195 words *WINNER* Ken: 30,313 words *loser* That's right. I lost. I bow before the prolific magnificence that is my bride, who rightfully basks in the glory of her achievement. I could offer excuses of how my work schedule has left me depleted and unable to complete my daily writing allotment. How I've been travelling for three out of the four weeks this month. I could say those things, but I won't. Because the Queen has told me I'm not allowed to. Then she stuck her tongue out at me.
Giuia If you want to read the completed (or incomplete) work, well... you probably can't. The objective here was to write quickly, not necessarily to write well. And besides, we may have named a character after you, and we wouldn't want you to get a big head, now would we?

I was having a conversation with one of my British colleagues about Thanksgiving. I told him that I was taking it off, because, hey, we won the war, so I'm celebrating all the American holidays, even if I'm in the Old Country. He wasn't terribly familiar with Thanksgiving, and asked me to explain it. I gave him the 3rd grade version - the starving colonists were brought a bunch of food by some friendly, neighborhood indians, and they all sat around and stuffed themselves in a celebration of thankfulness. From this we derive our annual event of eating too much and passing out in front of college football on the TV. Brit: And in return you gave the natives some beads, cholera, and smallpox? Me: Yes. But we have a whole other holiday to celebrate that. Columbus Day.