Happy Thanksgivings, pilgrim. I've been stuck in traffic for better than three hours with the rest of the schmucks that couldn't leave home earlier than today. The worst part is that there was no reason for the slowdown, simple congestion. no accidents, no construction, just a large volume of cars that couldn't get above 20MPH the entire 60 miles from Tampa to Orlando. Thankfully, I had my GameBoy to help with the longer pauses in which I had nothing to do but watch asphault dry. I am thankful for my GameBoy.

Once we arrived at Toby's timeshare in Vistana, just off SR535 in Kissimmee, we had what amounted to a pleasant thanksgivings dinner. In attendance this year was my family, Denise and Mike, Rich and Toby, Stephanie and her 3 kids, and certified Disney freak Aunt Sharon along with Uncle John and kids Mollie and Billy. Dinner was good, the peace was held, I consider this a successful holiday.

We'll probably go to Disney and the outlet malls for holiday shopping, sometime other than Friday. Friday we will avoid the world and spend the day watching the nieces and nephews. If I'm lucky, I'll get to wash Joseph's mouth out with soap.

Happy birthday Dad. Jim Parker was born Thanksgivings day, 1944. That makes him old. At least older than me, but then that will remain a universal constant for all time. He has been having a more difficult time with this birthday than others in the past. He was supposed to take a weekend off to go with his girlfriend to a bed and breakfast in Pennsylvania, but Arnelle's golden retriever Brandy took a serious turn and was put down. Instead, Arnelle arranged a very quick gathering of 16 of Dad's friends from around town for a surprise dinner at his favorite restaurant, Stassi's, in NPR.

This surprise perked Dad right up. We even managed to up the ante a little by bringing Dad's mom Sara out of her home for dinner. She was in rare form, able to go out, and had a very good night. Grandma getting out really impressed Dad, perked him up even more. It was a great way to celebrate 60 years of helping people out, and he appreciated it.

James and I came back from a 5-2 deficit in Tennis. Having played 2 full sets prior with Dan and Murali, we managed to pull the third match back to 5-5. I was charging after a shot in the back court when I stepped on a rouge tennis ball, giving myself a wonderfully painful sprain. I figure the ball must have rolled forward on a breeze from the previous shot which saw Murali overplaying the ball out of the court. This put the ball in the field of play, and made it a target for my foot. This thing hurts.

I managed to limp back to the office with Dan, but it hurt a lot. I'm pretty sure it's not broken, as I've done this before a year ago playing raquetball, and it feels the same. I also managed to limp my way after work to the bus stop to get to my car.

I've got an aircast and an ice pack waiting for me at home. Elevation and old movies will fill the rest of my evening. My foot is up on a stack of pillows, and I've got Kurosawa's Seven Samuri in the player. And my wonderful wife Denise to take care of me. Hurray.

I like walking to my car at work. Where I work, I have two parking options, park close for $300/yr, or park far away for $30/yr. Last year I chose the far option, initially to save some money. Cheapskate that I am.

However, I quickly realized that I look forward to the walk in the day. It gives me about 10 minutes in both directions to do a bunch of things. I've been known to think up a new recipe for dinner, a new idea for my web site, solve a problem I'd been wrestling at work. Other times I'll just hold up my current book and knock down 10-15 pages, or type an entry on the Sidekick phone. I even simply enjoy the walk for it's own sake, and take in whatever weather were having.

In the morning, it gives me a chance to gather my thoughts and assemble a plan of what I want to acomplish this day. Remember meetings, organize problems, direct people, I can plan it all during this time.

Leaving work is the same thing, reflect on unfinished business, rehash problems I'm engaged in, rethink the solutions I came up with. Best of all I can simply decompress and let the tension of the day go somewhere else.

As soon as I get in my car, I turn on the radio and fill my head with news or sports, and once again my head is engaged with other business. My 10 minute walk is all I get to be by myself, and I like it. It's just enough.

Today is a particularly beautiful day for a walk. The air is cool to the skin and dry. The sky is bright blue, with a glowing red sunset highlighting the cirrus clouds streaking in the sky. And my car is warm from the day, so stepping in takes the slight chill away from my walk. The warmth is a welcome contrast to the cool evening. NPR radio awaits my now relaxed brain.

I put some wadded up paper towels in a mason jar, and watered it so that there is a very thin pool of water on teh bottom. I then put some spagheti squash seeds in a mason jar, between the paper towel and the wall of the jar, so that I can see the seed against the paper through the jar. I sprinkled a few pellets of Osmocote 3 month fertilizer on the top beneath a fold of moist paper towel.

I expect in a week to have germinating seeds, and in a month to have full blown sprouts. I was inspired by a book of projects we bought for Joseph and Sabrina, whose title I cannot remember. If this goes well, I'll be looking for a place to drop off some extra squash in early Februrary.

It turns out that this is actually a simple form of hydroponics, growing plants without soil.