some things i am grateful for today:

1. Candy cane Oreos. I repeat: candy cane Oreos.
   
2. Having asked the professor for an extension until the end of the term on the paper that would otherwise be due next Wednesday, and received his counter-offer of an extension until the end of the term with a loss of ten points, I successfully counter-countered with a suggestion of an extension until November 28 (that is, two weeks instead of three) for full credit, and that this would be "fair" to my classmates (the suggestion that giving me three weeks would be unfair to them seems pretty harsh to me, because I don't think it's fair that I should have to meet the same deadlines as everyone else so soon after my father just died - and yes, I know in the Real World stuff happens and you maybe lose a bonus or something if someone else has to pick up your slack following a Major Life Event, but I'm not asking someone else to hand in the paper for me, am I, and let's face it, grad school isn't exactly the Real World, is it; but on the other hand, I suppose I could take an incomplete and get a different assignment altogether with a different deadline, so maybe the ten points was what I was going to have to pay to be able to get this course out of my fucking way this semester and be done with it - anyway) because we'd all have had the same time to work on the thing, really, only their semesters went straight through and mine had a two-week hole in it.
   
3. The next time I see my orthodontist he expects to take the invisalign attachments off my teeth, which means my teeth will be smooth again (and, non-trivially, much easier to clean) for the first time in aaages.
   
4. He's been having a tough week, but I ♥ my Gentleman Caller. :-)