To everyone stateside - a very Happy Thanksgiving Day tomorrow.

I'm sure most of you will be busy partaking of the holiday feast with your family and friends. It's a time to reminisce on our blessings. Even though this last year (couple of years, really) has been very difficult for many of us, there are still plenty of blessings to be grateful for. I am grateful for my family, their relative good health, my pets, and all my friends - including all the new friends I've made on DA.

On a lighter, sillier note...

Today my wife was on the phone talking to her dad about numerous little things. It wasn't long before I realized she was trying to help him figure something out. I perked up my ears because I usually get a question aimed in my direction or I ask about it after they hang up. All of a sudden I'm hearing this:

(Disclaimer: Not 100% verbatim as I did not have any kind of recorder with me - though I really wish I had!)

"What did the email say?"

(a little confused) "... a colon and a paranthesis?! That's it?"

(a few moments later) "It's a smiley, Dad. You know, a smile."

(a little indignant) "Yes, you have. I've put them in emails I've sent you. It's means 'smile' - that the person sending it is happy, or smiling, or finds what you sent them funny..."

(a little exasperated) "No, you can't rotate punctuation marks. You read it sideways. When have you ever seen a keyboard that can rotate punctuation marks?!"

"I've even sent you 'raspberries' before - you know, a tongue sticking out... it's a colon and a P."


By this point, I was ROTFLMAO! Even my mother, who has been using computers for a much shorter time than my father in law, knows what a 'smiley' is and what emoticons are. (She may not remember what they are called exactly!)

True evidence, my friends, of the Generation Gap.