Holy crap, I haven’t posted in a month. Sorry for partying.

The good news is: its the first week after Thanksgiving. Holiday season is now officially in full swing! And we all survived Thanksgiving.

I’ll be the first (well maybe the last, since I’m the youngest grandchild in the family) to say: my family is not normal. Not in any way. We celebrate in very nontraditional ways. And we like it.

My grandmother usually stands up and starts some long winded speech about how 1) she might not be here next year 2) we all need to say something we’re thankful for. I think she finally realized she isn’t going to die, so that tradition has been spared…only to have been replaced with a ceremonial singing of some sort of patriotic songs. And this is at 6pm, because everyone has been drinking too much to get dinner ready quickly. My cousin Rob is always picked to say grace at Thanksgiving dinner (our only sit down dinner of the year). I don’t know why. We aren’t a particularly religious family, but I guess we have to say it anyway. And I guess we pick Rob because he’s a doctor (and therefore closer to god)? That’s the only reason I can think of. And it’s illogical. Much like the rest of my family’s antics. This year, we added a new tradition in place of grace: thanks and unthanks. Things we are unthankful for.

Things we are unthankful for:

-The Phillies didn’t win the World Series

-The Canadian Dollar is now even with the American Dollar

-Our accountant got arrested for embezzling so we all need a new one.

This probably seems wrong to everyone else on the planet. The only thing that’s wrong is the food gets cold before we eat because we talk too much.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday, with much to be thankful (and unthankful) for.

The first time I ever failed a test was in 4th grade. I just could not wrap my head around fractions. Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions by hand? My 9 year old brain didn’t understand it, and I probably even thought “when will I EVER use this again?”

13 years later while studying for the GRE exam, of course.

I don’t know what this type of math (sans calculator) has anything to do with my ability to perform in graduate school. Why do I need to know how to multiply fractions? Why must they test my ability to multiply decimals by hand?

When I’m stressed out or procrastinating I tend to try new recipes. I decided on soft pretzels this time because…well, I don’t really know. I like carbs.

Taking the advice of a twitter pal, I used the Smitten Kitchen’s Recipe, and assumed I would fail. I’ve never been able to bake anything successfully in my life. I don’t understand baking, I don’t understand the difference between baking soda and baking powder (what the hell do they do?), and I hate hate hate hate measuring. However with Mary’s watchful eye, these pretzels turned into a success. Warm, crispy, delicious carby pretzels. They never made it to the Oktoberfest party I attended because I ate them all. And then two days later, we made them again.

Baking and studying do not bring out my best photography skills. At least I remembered to take pictures.