Thanksgiving is just nine days away, and we're about halfway through our intensive pre-feast stomach-stretching regimen. (You have to prepare for these things properly, or there's no way you're going to be able to eat three full helpings and then wolf down a complete pie.) For the foreign viewers who may be unfamiliar with this nifty little holiday, Thanksgiving is the annual occasion on which we pause to reflect on all those things for which we are grateful-- say, iPods, Jaguar, Ellen Feiss, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, etc. And to express our thanks to the Universe at large for these incredible gifts that make life so divine, we then eat twice our body weight in stuffing. Hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

Anyway, down here at the AtAT compound we're thankful that we're soap jockeys by trade and not investigative reporters, because we missed something big yesterday. We're also thankful that our viewers can pick up the slack when we're going at things half-assed because we need to watch Angel a second time to properly digest all the gratuitous Sweeps Month stunts. (Lilah in pigtails and a red bra? Cordy and Connor in a pre-Apocalypse hook-up? Man, we're thankful for November.) Anyway, here's the what: after we mentioned the interesting lack of an Apple retail presence in the Seattle area yesterday, at least a dozen faithful viewers (of which William Vogel was the first) forwarded us a couple of open positions from Apple's web site: namely, a store manager and a Mac Genius needed in Bellevue, Washington.

Ask and ye shall receive, right? According to MapQuest, Bellevue is less than fifteen minutes from Redmond, meaning that this Apple store is setting up shop in the backyard of the Beast itself. Well, whaddaya know? Looks like ol' Steve really isn't chicken after all. And so, all you Pacific Northwesterners who have been steadily complaining about your lack of an Apple store for the past year and a half, suddenly you have something to be super-thankful for come next Thursday: impending retail wackiness. (And, and for the record, Hawaii? As if you don't have enough to be thankful for, you can also toss the Apple Store Honolulu on the pile.)

These job postings are very new, we're told, so don't expect the stores to open anytime soon. Take, for example, the flagship Chicago store on Michigan Avenue, which was formally announced by Apple way back in May of last year. Not only is it still not open for business, but it also currently looks like this. (Photos by David Dahl, as linked over at MacNN.) Heck, who needs a roof, right?

Meanwhile, those of you living near operational Apple retail stores have another little something to give thanks for next Thursday: while the stores will all be closed on Thanksgiving itself so that customers and staff alike might gorge themselves with the utmost efficiency, on Friday the 29th those stores are back open for business-- and there's a stockingful of holiday cheer for everyone who attends. We're talking free gifts, "special values," an iMac giveaway, and even artsy wrapping paper. Ooooo. The festivities run until midnight but don't start until six PM... which should give you just about enough time to drag your bloated, overfed carcass out of bed and down to the mall. Why, this is all working out just grand!