We had a nice Thanksgiving visit with family in Northwestern Ohio. Mom is doing well; she's even looking at replacing her landline telephone with a cellular phone to reduce the cost and call her children daily to "check in." We also visited my my sister and her family. A tour of my nephew's recently-purchased fixer-upper house was included. The house needs plenty of work everywhere you look. He had already hired a new roof installed on the 900-square-foot place. Now there's painting, flooring, wiring, plumbing, and all the other "ings" needed to make the place livable. It'll be a great place for a young bachelor… a little house on a big lot with a view of the Maumee River! Really grand. Near the road, on his property, is an ancient inn — the main structure was apparently built in about 1900. The roof is completely shot but the walls are ceramic block. Restoration will mean huge amounts of labor but it could be worth it. He'd like to use it as a sort of club for his friends and himself. I could see it being renovated into a guest house and rented out. Either way, the residence takes precedence and the bank dictates it must be in livable/salable condition within six months. Once completed I believe he'll see a big return on his investment some day. In the mean time it will be a great place to live.

Friday morning Missy was in a grouchy mood. Instead of simply yowling in protest over having me stuff a tablet into her mouth she hissed and aggressively bit my hand! She had never bitten me so hard before; I could feel one of her lower teeth hooked beneath the skin of my right palm, at the base of my index finger. One of her upper teeth penetrated, though not so deeply, the back of my hand. I didn't punish her. I did get the pill into her. The wound has become infected as I feared it would. (Cat bites usually do get infected.) Today (Saturday) she took her medicine without trouble and I've got an appointment to get my hand looked after. It will probably involve antibiotics and a tetanus booster injection. She's still a "good ol' cat" but this was reminder she's also a sharp-toothed force to be reckoned with!

Sweetie and I did a couple of errands Friday morning (after the bite). Then we headed to the observatory where we installed plastic sheeting over the office windows on the inside. I'm hoping the sheets will help the room heater keep the office above freezing this winter. Good timing on the effort… it got down to 28 degrees (F) or so last night! We headed home via state route instead of freeway and had a very nice afternoon. I made dinner –baked spaghetti– and we later watched a DVD of the comedy movie Knocked Up. It's a sex comedy and tells the story of the maturation (over nine months) of a very immature guy as the woman he got pregnant deals with her situation. Very funny with a good base story but for adult audiences only due to adult situations, nudity, and loads and loads of foul language.

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