Nuts in November

 Well it's November, and that means Thanksgiving is roaring down at us like a herd of wild turkeys and expectations from various people as to who we're going to spend Thanksgiving with, and Tilmani's birthday.

 Poor Tilmani's birthday falls ON Thanksgiving this year, which is going to be kind of awkward for him. I've informed him flat out though that we're going to take a day and we're going to specifically celebrate his birthday, unrelated to the holiday. I've got his presents all bagged and wrapped and in his room (I might have gone slightly overboard, but then, Christmas will probably be completely nuts, so might as well give him an awesome round of gifts before we're all sleep deprived and pulling our hair out.)

 I'll share later what he got, because I don't want him finding out in advance.

 I did finish my Vortex shawl, and it was promptly adopted by MiniMonster, who's currently sleeping under it. This is kinda ok because I need to carefully wash it and try and block it (somehow) before it's ready to show to to the interested party. It didn't come out too badly, it's just definitely not my color. Nice to know Mini likes it though, because I've got leftover yarn and I don't think it's going to explode too many heads if he has something in purple/blue, especially since it's a dark purple blue and not super vibrant and 'in your face'.

In an attempt to try and trade off for the shawl I'm knitting him a shawl afghan from a designer on Ravelry. Dunno if he'll take to it or not though, since it's plainer, more earthy colors (soft green, tan, brown and cream.) (Oh and machine washable.)

Otherwise I do have one of my normal gripes with the universe:

 1: Facebook (and relatives): Facebook, which I kinda already hate, has a new fun virus that we spent two days cleaning off the computer. I didn't even catch it BY GOING to Facebook. I caught it because of those obnoxious emails they send out trying to suck you back in to obsessively checking all the blather and crap people do that you probably didn't care about. I do have to give (very annoyed) props to the designers of said virus. They CLEARLY went through a lot of effort to build this thing, disguising it as an anti virus program in and of itself, and blocking everything except for the request for you to give them money to theoretically fix the virus' on your computer. I can easily imagine a lot of people falling for this and getting in a lot of trouble. Fortunately I wasn't one of them.
 However what I don't need is to get spammed with emails from smug people with crap like "This is How Facebook Tracks You" when I'm not USING Facebook, and the only reason I got on it TO BEGIN WITH was to follow an particular relative who likes to make shit up about people to make themselves look better (and has been caught at it several times.)
 I've got their stuff going to junk mail, I don't update, I don't visit, and I especially don't want to visit right now even to try and delete shit because I don't want to CATCH THE GODDAMN VIRUS AGAIN. There's nothing up there, photos included, that people couldn't just as easily find on my deviantart page anyway, so I'm not loosing any sleep.

2: Gimmiegulls:
  This is a term adopted from Ravelry. It has to do with people who see you with something and demand their share, regardless of whether or not they deserve it. The term especially is used there to apply to people who want you to become their knitting slave for free, but generally applies to the greedy at large. ((Think of the seagulls in Finding Nemo. You'll get it.))
 -Dear Gimmiegulls: Just because I've got something doesn't mean I'm obliged to get/make/otherwise produce one for you.
In fact, to one specific gimmie gull: I got you the goddamn miniature chickadee ornament you were pawing at me for. Was I stupid to do so? Probably. You obviously don't particularly appreciate the gesture, even at a not so bank breaking ten bucks, because after hearing day in and day out how YOU couldn't afford to go spend ten bucks on it even though you wanted it SO bad.... I see you've signed up for an Secret Santa program since I told you I got it. Minimum gift cost is ten bucks.

 ...obviously you could afford THAT.

 I'm going to pretend I didn't notice, then try not to punch through a wall when you tell me in one breath how you want the next thing SO bad, but can't afford it... while shelling out 30$ and up on more stuff for you and your friends. I'm not goddamn blind. I'm just apparently THAT stubbornly determined to pretend you're going to change.  Go me. e_e