Just wanted to wish a happy birthday to my longtime pal, Stuart Wexler. We've been friends as long as I can remember, even used to ride our bikes to the Rt.1 flea market to pick up comic books on Sunday mornings (when there WAS a Rt.1 flea market...now it's a Loew's multiplex) but every year I forget his birthday, and I have to admit, this year was much the same. But thanks to Loraine D. for sending out her annual reminder email (as usual, way too late in the day for me to pretend that I remembered in the first place), I'm not totally blowing it. However, instead of making the pathetic 10:25 PM half apology, half happy birthday call this year, I'm posting it here, on my blog, for all the world (or at least a couple visitors)(and Stu)) to see...

So again, happy whatever birthday it is for you, hope this one's the best, and here's to many more years of life in the Stubaru's engine...

Good Guys 27, Bulldogs 0.

It doesn't make up for the Mets and Jets, but it comes pretty close...

As you probably know, the only official day off in The Seems for all Seemsian personnel is Ice Cream Sunday. That’s when the famous Skeleton Crew takes over operations so that all the regular employees can take a break and enjoy the festivities.

On the other hand, Thanksgiving is not an official holiday in The Seems, but this year I put in a request to take the day off cause I knew a lot of people were coming to my house. I had off from school, of course, but my request to be off from Fixing was denied, because I’m one of the newest Fixers, so other people got priority. That was ok – I just had to wear my Blinker – but I also had to be very careful not to consume too much tryptophan and fall asleep on the couch. Tryptophan is the stuff that’s in turkey that makes you so tired after you eat it. I also think that eating three pounds of mashed potatoes and two apple pies can help in the "making you tired process" (assuming there’s no Glitch in Sleep!!), but that’s just my theory.

Anyway, Thanksgiving at my house was definitely fun. Benjamin put on his Turkey shirt from Target and my Mom and Dad cooked. My grandparents came over (my Mom’s parents), and Cousins Warren and Arthur and two of my Dad’s weird professor friends from Rutgers – Professor Baxter and Professor Pompis. Everything was going fine except for when my Mom got into an argument with my cousins about football. My cousins wanted to watch the game but Mom didn’t want to turn on the TV because she said it was lame of them to be so anti-social on a "family holiday," but my cousins said that not watching the Lions and the Cowboys and whoever they were playing on Thanksgiving was “un-American” and then it really got bad...mostly because my Dad agreed with them.

Mom got upset and almost threw gravy at him and then my Cousins decided to start drinking beer and then they started farting at the table and then their wives got really pissed and then one of them left. Me and Benjamin were just giving thanks, of course, for being off from school and as long as no one farted directly on me, I was pretty happy. And once the food actually hit the table, all was forgiven and we totally chowed down. I of course ate way too much of everything, which I admit was very irresponsible, but Natalie Drane is nothing if not a good cook, and how many times a year to you get to eat stuffing? I'm sure the Powers That Be understand why I crashed so hard on the couch.

Eventually, everyone went home and my Mom yelled at my Dad again and he smartly just sat there and took his lumps, while Me and B hid upstairs and avoided ours. Then we went to bed...

Like I said, it was a great Thanksgiving.

Dear Friends,

I would like to apologize to everyone for the last series of “Blogs” posted by my brother Benjamin. I was away at a sleepover at my friend Connell Hutkin’s house, and I accidentally left on my computer.

For those of you who have little brothers and sisters, you probably understand. They are kind of like lice – even if you cut your hair and get that special shampoo, it’s still not a 100% guarantee that they will go away. I’ve decided to keep up the so-called “Benjamin Blog” just so that people can fully understand the pain and obnoxiousness that I must deal with on a daily basis. Benjamin is not a bad little brother – in fact on some days during the year I almost like him – but he is also a mischievous little monster, who if left to his own devices would probably like to take over the world – as you can see from his Blog.

And we thought The Tide was scary.

That said, I am very happy to be back and I apologize for this misunderstanding. For those of you who have been emailing that they like Benjamin’s Blog and want him to continue, please stop. Benjamin has a lot of friends already and we don’t need to encourage him any further.

I just wanted to make this official statement. And now we return to our regularly scheduled Blog…

If I could change the world to be a better way it would all be in charge by little brothers and sisters instead of older brothers and sisters and then there would be no problems and then we would spend all our money on like candy and stuff and big league chew instead of like wars and gas and milk.

In my world I would be like the president and Percy and Georgiana would be like the army and we would have a car and we would go to New Brunswick and eat at Old Man Rafferty’s and Toys R Us would be open all night and then we would go there and build a racing set.

In my world Becker would be like a slave and have to wait on me and sleep in a doghouse in the backyard. But if he was good, he could come in if it was really cold.