i've let too much time elapse between posts for the second time since moving. do we sense a pattern? i just haven't been in to much of a mood to write. things have been going good but, as i said before, the environment in our current "home" doesn't lend itself to any kind of creativity. we are working & moving ever closer to getting into an apartment. money is pretty much the only issue at this point. i've thought of following the lead of some other bloggers who've added a paypal link for "donations" for their projects or needs, but i'm not sure if i will. mainly because i don't want to feel like i'm begging but also because i don't think enough people read my blog to do any good. i don't know... we'll see. i finally got word that i "officially" have a job. unfortunatly, the waited until their training classes were full & i have to wait another 2 weeks to start. chad, you were right about the company. how weird is that? i did delete your comment tho... just on the off chance that i decide to VERY vaguely describe something that happens there. i don't want to join the leagues of folks who've lost their job because of blogging. we had a pretty good thanksgiving in kc. we went down to the plaza at about 4:30 so we'd be sure to get good parking & be able to get in a restaurant before the lighting of the "plaza lights". we had dinner at o'dowds. it's an irish style pub. i had irish stew with soda bread & it was so yummy! J went with the burger & he said it was really good. i love the decor & feel of o'dowds. it's dark & cozy with lots of heavy wood & deep fabrics, exactly how i'd expect a real irish pub to be. after dinner, we walked around a bit & then spent a good 45 mintues in line for coffee. by 6 or 6:30, the plaza was packed with people. we then walked down closer to where we were told the fireworks were going to be shot off. at 7:00, they turned on all the christmas lights in the plaza. this was really cool. we waited another 1/2 hour for the fireworks... which weren't so cool. personally, i think it would have been really awesome if they'd done the fireworks right after the flipped on the lights. the wait for the fireworks made it kind of anti-climactic. they were nice but could have been better. anyway, the lighting of the plaza lights was pretty groovy. J & i are going to go back down in a little bit, after all the stores & bars are closed, to get some pics with no/less people. if i can ever get my photoblog to cooperate, i'll post pics of lights, among other things we've seen lately. we had a really nice indian-summer saturday today. on a whim, i googled kansas state parks. one of the closest ones to us is hillsdale lake (about 25 miles or so). so, we took a nice little drive out there. it's a really pretty, good-sized lake. we drove & walked around, took lots of pictures. on the way out, we decided we were hungry. i thought we'd have to drive a good ways back towards kansas city before we found a restaurant. as we drove back through the town of hillsdale, we saw a sign for "hillsdale bank bbq". with the windows open, we could smell the yummy bbq smell & decided to check it out. i'm so glad we did! the building was originally a bank (hence the name) which was built in 1906. the bank didn't make it thru the great depression & was either a home or storage until the couple that run the restaurant bought it. when they needed more seating, they added an old train caboose (which we ate in). all this info was told to us by the woman who owns the restaurant with her husband. the food was really great. we couldn't leave without a bottle of their homemade sauce. after all the conversation & the history lesson, the woman was nice enough to give us a couple of homemade brownies as well. her husband had taken our order & told us that the rootbeer they served is made in the next town down the highway & we could take that road to the next highway & make a big circle back to kc. so we cruised on down to louisburg to the louisburg cider mill. they make their own cider, cider donuts and, of course, soda. i managed to pass on the apple butter... barely... but did get some blackberry syrup for my mom. we also tried the apple cider donuts. yummy! J got some apple cider as well. i'm thinking i might have a little glass right now. well, J decided to take a nap before we go down to take some pics of the plaza lights & it's almost time for me to wake him up. hopefully i'll find the time to write more frequently again. and hopefully i'll be able to get some pics up on the photoblog soon. i'm hoping that if i use J's laptop instead of my mac, that'll solve the problem. i hope everyone had a good thanksgiving!