Hope you all have a wonderful, happy, love-filled, not-ridiculously-fattening day.

PS: Here’s a little funny from Carly!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Ingredients:
1 whole turkey
1 large lemon, cut into halves
salt and pepper to taste
butter or olive oil, whichever you prefer

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Rub butter or oil over the skin of the turkey until it is completely coated.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and any other seasonings you prefer.

Run your fingers under the skin to gently separate it from the breast meat;

Slide lemon halves under the skin with the peel side up, one on each side.
This way the juice from the lemon will release into the breasts.

Cover and bake for 30-45 minutes. Remove cover and continue to roast until juices run clear,
basting every 15-20 minutes.

If you’ve followed these steps correctly, your turkey should look like the one in the picture below.

Bon Appetit!

Tonight, I will miss out, though, because Bruce and I are out of town. And that’s okay, since it’s a rerun. But you can bet I’ll be tuning in in three weeks. After last week’s, how could I not?

It wasn’t that I loved every minute of last week’s episode, but oh, the parts I loved I REALLY loved. Mike Chang singing? OMG! His relationship with his father? Great. His relationship with his mother? FABULOUS! When he started teaching her how to dance, I teared up.

I loved Kurt getting over his competition with Blaine and giving him flowers. (Blaine is freaking adorable…but oh, do I wish they wouldn’t dress him quite so crazily!) I loved Britney’s number in the gym. Loved the tension between Kurt and Rachel. Loved that we didn’t see much of Sue who’s become such an annoying caricature. Loved Emma’s backstory. Loved the tenderness between her and Schuster. Love seeing Bieste get more screen time. Loved the football players having to dance. Loved the touch of realism in this episode, when they went for emotions and warm humor rather than cheap laughs. Loved the Dreamgirls sequence with Mercedes playing the part of Effie.

But here’s the problem–other than that song, I absolutely hated every minute Mercedes was on the screen. What on earth have they done with this character?!? She has always been a diva, but there was something likable about her too. But last week she was just a spoiled, raving, arrogant b***h.

It’s one thing to be arrogant and cocky if you’ve got the talent to back it up. And she does, for the most part. But in that West Side Story audition, she just didn’t. The writers can’t make the audience believe Mercedes got screwed over unless she really was better than Rachel…and she just wasn’t. Rachel saying she was didn’t make it true.

Not only that, the whole storyline is pretty ridiculous. Anybody who knows high school theater (and oh, do I ever!) knows it’s NOT just about the singing. Kids trying out for a play have to READ LINES too. Rachel has been a broadway/acting nut since episode one. Mercedes never has. So how ridiculous is it to think that being able to act wouldn’t have any impact whatsoever on who gets the lead? Not to mention the fact that Rachel has a great range and can sing soprano–and Maria has some super-high, lovely soprano songs. While Mercedes is an alto-belter who almost certainly can’t hit those notes and has the wrong voice for it, anyway.

But enough about the technical stuff re who deserves this fictional role in this fictional play in this fictional show…hahaha! I just wish Mercedes weren’t always so damn jealous that she turns into a raving, spiteful beeyotch. She’s beautiful and talented and I loved her relationship with Sam that they were just hinting at last year. But just as she was turning into this really cool, well-rounded character, the writers went back to the same-old-same-old diva-I’m-better-than-Rachel-so-why-doesn’t-anybody-know-it-but-me routine.

Rachel’s a diva, but she’s such an airheaded idiot about it, there’s rarely any angry, vengeful spite in it. Mercedes…well, she’s just become nasty.

Anybody else agree?

So now to the fun part:

BUT THAT’S CLEARLY NOT ENOUGH, SO …

AND ONE MORE!

Hope you have a very happy birthday, Janelle! Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do!
Love you!

So sorry I didn’t post a winner this morning–I raced from the signing up to Pennsylvania for a family wedding, and just got home about an hour ago.

Anyway, the winner of my Friday Jungle Madness box of books is:

Comment # 73: Melissa/welachild

Congrats Melissa! Drop me a line to author @ lesliekelly . com (no spaces) with your snail mail addy so I can get your books out to you.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Leslie is unavailable to update the blog today but rest assured, winners will be picked and posted when she gets home! In the meantime, a joke for you:

A butcher was waiting for closing time and was concerned that he had one last chicken in his counter and he didnt want to leave for the next day….
He was just about to close his doors when a woman came in and asked if he had any chickens..the butcher showed her the chicken and she looked at it and after weighing it she asked him if he had a larger one?

“Sure” said the butcher and went into the freezer , put some weights in the cavity of the bird, came out and put on the scale.

“Fine ” said the woman,”I’ll take BOTH of them.”

That’s a classic.

2. My older books, SOLITARY MAN, THE RIGHT CHOICE, and PERFECT PARTNERS are now in ALL eBook formats (not just Kindle!) Click HERE for links to each book page (which has links to the stores!)

3. Are you on Goodreads? PenguinUSA / Berkley is giving away 25 ARC’s of SERENDIPITY! Click HERE to enter for a chance to win!

And at last, today’s CONTEST!

$25 AMAZON GIFT CARD up for grabs so you can order yourselves books, ebooks or other things on Amazon! (

Comment for a chance to win! What’s on your mind today?

A $20 gift card for Amazon or Barnes & Noble to one lucky commenter! What are your plans for the first full weekend of spring?