Thanksgiving is in the books, and it went pretty well for everyone involved, even the cats. The stray that we've been calling Tiger now has a new home, and a new name, Ozzy. He stayed in our garage for a couple weeks altogether, which I felt bad about because he really wanted some attention and meowed just outside the kitchen door a lot. But he was filling out and seemed much better. Laura got Thomas to agree to take him, on the condition we could get him checked out before we did. So on Tuesday I took him to the vet and he got some shots and checked out for feline leukemia and FIV. Clean bill of health, except for just a few fleas and some ear mites, which we got a treatment for. So he was all set, and we started letting him into the house a bit after that. Which Iris and Ruby hated. But anyway, we got things all set to take him with us to Pennsylvania. We left town on Wednesday (I took the day off so we could leave early) with the cat carrier placed on top of the cedar chest (which we're also unloading on Laura!) in the very packed van. Alex drove us all the way to the state line, so 90 good minutes of driving there. Tiger/Ozzy did not like the carrier. He spent the entire 8 hours on the road yowling every few seconds, sometimes while sprawled on his back. We tried putting a small litter pan in there with him just in case but he turned that over and scattered it all right quick, same with the water dish when we stopped. So we were glad to get there. Laura's friend Jen from Chicago was visiting her as well. We had pizza upon arrival, then a few rounds of King of Tokyo. Thursday we did the standard turkey & everything else dinner, and then Christmas. We got Thomas a copy of Azul, which everyone loved and we played over and over again for the next couple days. Laura got some wine from Tippy Creek. I got some work gloves and a new spatula for the grill, Beth got some jewelry, Alex got a GameStop gift card, Nat got some makeup stuff and Missy some art stuff. And Ozzy got a new home. He seemed to be settling in pretty well. Friday we all went out to see "Ralph Breaks the Internet" which we all liked a lot, then went out to dinner at a hibachi restaurant and billed it to Mom. We made some plans for the Arizona trip next year to scatter Dad's ashes, and played more Azul. Saturday, we took everyone out for breakfast at Eat 'n Park before hitting the road again. With much more space in the van without the cedar chest, and much quieter without an unhappy cat. We had to leave Saturday, because Alex had work on Sunday.....while he was at work, I went to FW to visit Mom since I hadn't seen her in a while because I've had such a cold. Not much out of her this time. She wouldn't get out of the chair she was in, and didn't act like she recognized me. Visiting her is getting harder and harder, she just doesn't interact in any real way any more. Laura thinks I go visit her more often than I need to, which might be true, but I still want to see her.

Natalie’s birthday is coming up, and of all things she has asked if she can get her last name changed to Knight for her birthday. So I went in to ask the attorney that helped us with the guardianship, and asked about formally adopting her at the same time. We’d never pursued it before because we weren’t sure how her bioparents would react, but the attorney thinks it should be a slam dunk since there’s been no contact for the past 3 years. So we have an appointment to get the adoption process started around the end of the month….The kids had their first snow day (actually an ice day) on Thursday this week. So, e-learning!... Friday was a busy day for Beth, since she had to get Alex to work by 4:00 and Missy to church (Missy was gone all this weekend at ICYC) by 5:30 (which she found out via a phone call at 5:10, was supposed to be 5:00) then load up and haul everything to a craft show in Columbia City for setup, which had to be done before 7:30. Alex wound up having to walk home after he got out of work. Saturday Beth sold soup at the ‘Yuletide Treasures’ craft show in Columbia City. That show was almost an afterthought for her, she signed up a few weeks ago because she had just heard about it and had time available. So we went, and we sold a ton of soup. Brought in $640 in proceeds, which I think is the most ever except for last year’s Wawasee craft show. It was heavily enough trafficked that we sold out of the soala soup (she had brought 13 jars) in about an hour and 45 minutes. Of course, that was one that she had for samples and everyone remarked on how great it smelled as they passed by, whether they stopped or not…. Sunday Natalie invited a friend of hers to church with us.

Today I basically just relaxed, since yesterday was the annual Veterans Half Marathon. I finished the race in 2:13:06, which is my slowest time of the 5 times I’ve run it, but today was also by far the coldest and windiest it has been for this race, and I’ve had a bad cold for over a week. I came really close to tapping out before mile 4 was done, because we had been running into the wind a lot up to that point. But I did plod on and finish, with only walking up a couple hills near the end. Trey and Justin from work also ran this year, Trey finished about 15 minutes ahead of me and Justin finished about 45 seconds behind me. I had no idea he was that close. The race was very arduous, and I’ve never been so glad to be done with a race before. But I now have a complete 5-year set of finishers medals, and I am done with it….I took Iris to the vet this week, since she has had some sort of lump on her chest for a little while now. Beth and I just noticed it at around the same time, no idea how long it’s been there but it must have gotten there relatively quickly. So we were concerned enough to bring her in. She almost shredded my hand trying to get her in the carrying case, so she went in a tote instead. The vet did a needle aspiration, but there was no infection and no tumor, so we’re not really sure what it is other than some sort of cyst, and all we can do is keep an eye on it and bring her in again if it gets worse….speaking of cats, one has shown up at our house. He appears to be a stray, or more precisely I think he was abandoned around here somewhere. He can't be more than 6 or 8 months old, if that, and he is not afraid of people and likes attention. He's also starving, and practically skeletal. We kept him inside since it was getting so cold, and started feeding him. I tried to take him to the shelter this week, but they are full up with cats and can’t take any more. Neither can any place that they recommended I try. So for the time being ‘Tiger’ is going to live in the garage until we can either get Iris and Ruby to accept him (they are NOT having that) or find somewhere else to take him. Laura has indicated a willingness to take him if nobody else will and we can bring him with us for Thanksgiving....Beth and the girls and I did some geocaching in Winona Lake this afternoon. Found a couple on and around the trails, but didn't find one of them out in the woods. Might have been buried in leaves, though....

Beth had another soup show yesterday, the one at the Brethren Church. It was about the same as last year, a very successful show but modest. She sold about $460 worth of soup over the course of the day which was definitely worthwhile. More so than the Tippy Creek show even.