Yesterday was Turkey Day. Woohoo! A day we commemorate by stuffing ourselves silly and then passing out in front of a football game surrounded by family. I’m sure we do it just like our Pilgrim ancestors hundreds of years ago. Way to keep the tradition going! But I kid, it doesn’t matter how you celebrate Thanksgiving just so long as you have a few key elements.

1. Good Family
2. Good Friends
3. Good Food
4. A Thankful Heart that acknowledges God for all of the blessings in your life.

Mix all those things up in a bowl then stuff them into a turkey. Bake at 450°F reducing heat after 20 minutes to 335°F, cook for 4-6 hours and then serve to the ones you love and care about.
If you got a recipe like that, then you can add into it a good football game or wrestling match or nascar race or a nice nap and everything will be gravy.

The reality of Thanksgiving begins back in the fall of 1621. The pilgrims struggled when they arrived in the “New World” and were blessed to have the Native Americans teach them how to use the land to their advantage. In commemoration of the first harvest, they celebrated with a day of feasting. The Native Americans were invited in order to acknowledge their important contribution to the harvest as well as to thank them for their help.

So today we celebrate by gathering together our family and friends for the purpose of praising and thanking God for our blessings and for a “good harvest” by giving into Gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins. Fun isn’t it! :D. George Washington described this day when he signed the proclamation marking it a National Holiday on October 3, 1789 as a day “to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.” It is fitting that a holiday created and designed for the sole purpose of thanking Almighty God for our blessings is getting passed over as an afterthought to its more profitable sister-holiday, Christmas. Now don’t get me started on Christmas, I realize it has equal if not greater Christian significance. However, for the most part, that significance gets more and more faint every year due to the capitalistic efforts of the US Corporation. Since Thanksgiving doesn’t seem to have the potential to be nearly as profitable in this country as Christmas, companies are trying to play it down and get us to forget the importance of this holiday. Because of this, the light of Thanksgiving becomes more and more dim each year.

I walked into Walmart the day after Halloween, that’s right, November 1st and do you know what I saw? Right in the entry way, there was a giant Christmas tree. All decorated with wrapped gifts underneath. Immediately in front of me was a huge temporary holiday section filled with everything Christmas. I actually had to ask where to find the Thanksgiving section; which had been relegated to one little aisle in the back by the housewares. It saddens me that we the people of the United States of America are allowing this day set aside to thank God to be pushed aside by capitalism and commercialism. I guess it fits though, all we have left to do now is to force the Native Americans off of “our” land. That is assuming of course that we are able to break the grip of the almighty tryptophan comma and get off the couch.

I hope everyone had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!

Yesterday as I sat on my computer doing what I do all day long… nothing, I received an IM from my swedish strawberry, Alexandra. It was an all too familiar link to YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?blahblahblah). My initial reaction was, ‘ughhh, YOUTUBE?!’. As we are all too well aware, a mysterious YouTube link instills in us a sense of wonder and mystery and begs our mouse to follow it. So I gave in and clicked.

Now you must understand that few people are bigger cat freaks than I am (in reality this statement is probably far from true) but Alexandra is one of those who definately surpasses me in this regard. The week before she sent me this link, we spent a few hours talking online; I say talking but really I spent that time accepting downloads through msn messenger from her. Every one was a picture of a cat doing something crazy and/or ridiculous and most had “cute” and/or “witty” captions attached to them in various “cute” and/or “witty” fonts [FYI most of these now reside in an album in my Photo Gallery; Also visit http://www.lolcats.com/]. Go ahead and take a minute to check these pics out so that you will better understand the YouTube link below.

Ok, back? Good. I hope you enjoyed the pics. I certainly did. Anywho, I click on the link and what I saw was amazing. I mean really, it was amazing. However, I was perplexed; I mean who has the time to put something like that together? And what’s worse is that there are several companion pieces that go along with this one. But I guess that is what the internet has become, an unbounded, infinite world for the masses to waste their time looking at porn, illegally downloading anything and everything, buying trinkets we don’t need and can’t afford, trying to find “the one” or maybe a quickie from a stranger, playing games, showing off bizarre talents for video editing and above all… BLOGGING! [ADDITION: ok so another way to waste your time on the internet was just handed to me by the amazing Ryan Johnson... you apparently can spend your time to translate the ENTIRE bible into 'cute cat' english -> Cat Bible Translation]

Seriously though, I laughed, then watched it again and laughed harder… So without further ado, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu333ZX_IQs&feature=related

Enjoy.

Thank you for visiting!

I apologize for the smell but hey, you’re in a tank full of chimps. So deal with it.

I am in the process of transferring GrigglyBear.com to The ChimpTank. I am trying to sort and upload over 3,000 of my photos (hopefully I can at least cut that number in half due to duplicates) so that everyone can see them and make comments and what not.

As time goes on, I may allow my friends and others to have accounts that will allow y’all to contribute more than just comments to my site. If any one is interested, please contact me and let me know.

As far as contact info goes, check out the contact page for more info.