Thanksgiving, Skanksgiving

The night before Thanksgiving, Jeff and Lillian came up and knocked on our door to give us a cinnamon apple bundt cake they got us :)

And then, before we knew it, Thanksgiving had arrived—even here in L'il Trenton, where dey ain't always all dat much to be fhankful for, homie.

Dinner was at my parents' house, as usual. And, on our way out of our parking lot to head over, our new neighbors The Jamaicans came barreling through at about 96 miles per hour in the wrong lane.

So, Kitten and I both threw our arms up in a crystal clear "what gives?" to which they responded by giving us the finger.

If it had been pretty much any other day except Thanksgiving, we probably would have turned around and had it out with them. But we decided to let it go.

Meanwhile, Aunt Lois had texted me earlier in the day to ask that I take lots of pictures and send them to her.

So, ask and ye shall receive...

Just look at those award-winning shots.

I accidentally snapped a few pics with people in them too, though they aren't nearly as good...

I love how our family dinners look like U.N. summit meetings these days...

Here's Riley and Hannah; and Cole and my mom (and Angie's arm)...

Kelly, Steve, my dad, Laura, and Matt were around somewhere too... at least allegedly.

Later that night when we got back home, we heard a crazy amount of commotion out in the parking lot around 10:10—which was odd, since the noise ordinance goes into effect at 10:00 sharp.

So, what kind of low-rent ass-bags would wait until after 10:00 to start producing intolerable levels of noise, you might ask?

Well, that's easy: It was the visiting relatives of our old-new neighbor "Hood Rat"—or, as Athennia was quick to dub them, "The Rat Pack."

Imagine, if you will, that you've only lived here for maybe six weeks...

...and, you already had the cops called on you in your first hour here because your behavior was so atrocious even as you were moving in...

...and so now, you're going to allow your relatives to conduct themselves like this...

I bluffed and told them I'd called the cops, even though I hadn't.

So? Then there were none.

That's right, little roaches: Scurry home.

The next day was of course lower-class America's favorite holiday, Black Friday.

Our neighbor Barnyard (Ruth) made out like a bandit...

But I'll concede that she'll be able to build one hell of a fort with all that bedding!

Then our mailman gave us the usual service with a smile...

And then The Rat Pack returned! Check out how Bluey on the right is walking and scratching himself like he's either rocking a full diaper or a burning case of syphilis...

Yesterday we decided to splurge on Chinese food for dinner, since it felt like it had been awhile...

...and then Kitten and I watched Super Mario Bros. (the 1993 film with Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo), because that felt like it had been awhile as well.

Tonight, we cheated and ordered a pizza from Bambino's; and Kitten and I are about to sit down and watch Strange Days from 1995, because it comes right before Super Mario Bros. in my movie collection, I haven't seen it since I was in high school, and Kitten hasn't seen it ever.

So... yeah.

We're about to watch that; but you get to watch Odin make biscuits on Riley's lap!

And, of course we have some cat pics for you.

Here's Penny pornographically flaunting herself in the hopes that that will make dinner come any faster than it otherwise would...

Then we have this other little runt—and she's holding Lucky...

I woke up one day last week to see this...

...and then I saw it even better with the light on...

Then Penny made a fort...

Meanwhile, Athennia tried to tom-sawyer Odin into whitewashing the dishes...

Odin decided that washing the dishes was less fun than he'd imagined it would be; and he called a family meeting about it.

Nobody showed; so he and Penny declared that they're going rogue to live their lives as gangsters...

Imagine our surprise when—after telling us not to bother waiting up for them later—they were each home before sundown.

Then, suddenly it all made sense...

The bad attitudes...

The rebellious behavior...

Let's hope our little furballs can turn things around before it's too late.