"Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed."

~Mark Twain

It's that time of year where we all go around the table and tell everyone what we're thankful for. It's been hectic and stressful but all things considered, I've had a pretty good year. Here are some of the many things I'm thankful for:

My Mom
As you all know, my mom had a double lung transplant in July. She is at home and doing as well as she can be. I'm very thankful to have at least a decade more Thanksgivings to spend with her.

My brother-in-law Mike
Mike was deployed to Iraq about a year ago. On November 10th, he returned home. When you hear about all of the bombings and other horror stories, I'm so thankful that he is home and safe again.

My family
We've had a trying year. We're all still speaking and are closer for sticking this year's events out together. And for the first time in several years, we haven't attended a family funeral. I'm very thankful for that.

My job
Not only do I have a job, but I had the opportunity to get a couple of licenses to further my career. It took a lot of time and energy to pass the Series 7 & 66 but I got it done. Now I just have to figure out what to do now that I have it behind me. I'm thankful that I have choices.

My friends
With the year I've had, my friends have kept me going. I know I've been a terrible friend. I haven't been good about staying in contact with people, returning calls or stopping by as often as I should. I'm thankful that so many people have stuck by my side.

I hope you and your families have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.

important investment information

I received this email today and it made me smile. Happy Monday everyone!

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today but, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling, you will have received $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401- Keg. A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. Which means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon! Makes you proud to be an American!

november is coffee month

Recently, I've been obsessed with coffee. More specifically, good coffee.

I strongly dislike the coffee at my office so I went on a caffiene hiatus. Poor decision. Only thing that happened is that I was tired and crabby...not a good thing since a woman in my department is out on maternity leave.

To solve the bad coffee at work problem, I decided on this:

Now I get delicious coffee whenever the heck I want it! It makes the work week go by a just little smoother.

Then my sister had to go out and get herself one of these:

If there's anything I'm a sucker for, it's shiny things. Not to mention this makes a stellar cup of joe. Our good friends over at Linens N Things decided to go out of business, so they're having sales on everything. One of those beautiful machines now lives in my kitchen. I spent WAY too much money on it (even with the 20% off) but so far I love, love, love it.

we did the mash...

We did the monster mash. And may the record reflect that it was a graveyard smash.

Yes, I'm still alive. I took a couple weeks off after the big test. Now I'm gearing up to study for smaller test. With any luck, that one will only take a couple weeks of studying.

Here's what I did this weekend:

Saturday night I attended a stellar Halloween party. I was a dust bunny. My costume: bunny ears, dirty white shirt, grey pants and a swiffer. Yeah, it's kinda lame. I know that :)

Sunday can pretty much be summed up with the following: Hangover = 2, Theresa = 0

I took today and tomorrow off.

Today I went and got my drivers licence renewed and picked up some much needed groceries.

Tomorrow I'll be casting my vote for this guy:

Then I'll go to Starbucks and get some free coffee. After that, I'm meeting my sister for lunch at Famous Daves in Uptown. Tomorrow afternoon I'll make my way home to do some laundry and get ready for the rest of the week.