I refer you here.
Cake is out of the oven, cooling - the house smells quite yummy. 
The lasagne is assembled and is refrigerated till I bake it tomorrow. Kitchen is tidied and the dishwasher is running. I need to haul out the vacuum cleaner - Ziva will immediately run and hide because she’s a wuss.
So productive, and I’m not even wearing an apron and heels and pearls! 
Afternoon! OKC had another earthquake on Monday. Fun!
Work has been a little nuts for a couple of days but the presentation went well today and I get to take a little road trip tomorrow and get out of the office.
{{taxi}}
This morning I went to get my morning coffee at Starbucks and I pulled up to the drive through window to pay and they said the woman in front of me had paid for it. Made me smile and made my day so I paid for the person in line behind me.
Back to the day long conference call for me. fcm can I get a piece of cake please?
No fair. I’ve already got you confused with June Cleaver in my mind. 
BTW, Vinnie woke me at 2:40 this morning. I think he imagined there was a k.i.t.t.y in the yard.:rolleyes:
Well, My low-carb resolution rebounded on me yesterday and I ate like a starving person all day. I was up 4 pounds on our semi-reliable scales this morning. :eek:
I’ll try to behave myself today.
I really hope our Mazda comes home today. We had a new transmission put in it this summer, as you may recall. Wifey has complained about it shifting roughly ever since. Well, it went back to the transmission shop, under warranty, 10 days ago. Friday they told us there was something wrong with it, Duh! :rolleyes:, and they were going to rebuild it. I want our little car back. I hate driving the old pickup around. It has cancer of the paint and of the exhaust system and I can’t see behind me worth a damn.
Time to go be productive. Ta!
Swampy, is your recipe for jambalaya on the blog? I thought mine waas but I couldn’t find either one.
Sorry, Bumba, but there’s no way I could be Mrs. Cleaver - I don’t speak jive. But I just finished running the vacuum - I even moved furniture and found a metric butt-ton of cat toys! The carpet does need to be shampooed, but not today. Picking up the big chunks is quite enough for now.
mmmmmmmm, sure you can have some cake - c’mon over! It’s yellow cake with milk chocolate frosting. Very yum!
Idiot Scruffy is whining - she seems to think she needs to be fed. Sorry, mutt - 2 more hours. Stoopit time change. Speaking of food, I didn’t have lunch. That would explain why I’m hongree… I’m thinking last night’s leftover chickie would taste good about now, with the sweet N.O.T. fries. yeah, that works.
Moooooooooom, do you have contact information for those Amish-grown turkeys you mentioned a couple weeks ago?
**BBBobbio **- I saw the sign on Loveville Rd between Busy Corner Rd and Rt 235. If I remember correctly, it was closer to Busy Corner, not too far from the auction barn. Sorry I can’t be more specific, but it’s not like I can get a phone number…
emphasis mine the dog can hear you type? :dubious:
Sticks and Scones, I am sorry your day sucks. I hope it gets better.
The “blurg” explanation makes perfect sense. The only reason I didn’t figure it out for myself is because I can usually only manage an “urg” on waking.
So, my dear friend, who fell off the face of the Earth and I had to threaten with calling her parents or telling the police to do a wellness check on her, has finally resurfaced on Facebook. She just quit her job - the job that was so stressful, it apparently put her in the hospital twice with stress related stomach problems.
Which, she never told me about. And now she’s sighing about her Lost Love, the guy who promised her everything and then decided that, no, he was going to sell all he owned, move to California, and run around with an extremely accomplished, beautiful woman who travels, thinks monogamy is stupid, and never wants to settle down.
I am currently taking the line of “I love you, I’m thrilled to hear from you, what can I do for you?”, because if I get in her face and shake my finger at her, she’s just as likely to disappear again. Honestly, though, I kind of want to smack her.
In the meantime, the puppy is sick - her energy is extremely low, she’s not eating, she’s clingy, and when I took her temp, it was actually below average. So, I’ve got her bundled up in a blanket, I’ve been spoon feeding her soup when she’ll take it, and I’m half an inch from calling the vet. (Except, she’s done similar ‘sick puppy is sick’ stuff at least three times before and recovered the next day.)
{{{taxi}}} hope the zoloft helps and hope everything goes well with the non-cancerous tumor. I forgot to say that earlier.
I am bored. I am sittin’ at an “event”, which is irkspeak for when we get to go set up a display and [del]bother[/del] tell folks about our services. It’s slooooooow. I have talked to all of five people in three hours. Half an hour to go. I’s also hongry.
On the plus side, the IGA sto’ has ground chuck in ten pound packages for ten bucks. Ground chuck a dollah a pound. Soon as I can get outta here Ima go buy me some.
Beastloaf, mac & cheese, cabbage and cornbread for dindin.
Bumba I haven’t posted a jambalaya recipe. I think Rebo may have though. I could be wrong. I mean, it had to happen sooner or later right?
Hey taxi, I’m sending good thoughts to you.
So, the usual holiday bullshit has started. Sigh…
Long story, short: Hubby doesn’t want to go to my sister’s because we have to work the next day. MiL has not exactly offered to host and keeps asking what we’re doing.
So, this means I’m freakin’ expected to work all that week and clean and cook and clean again for Thanksgiving. Go to work on Friday, and spend my weekend prepping to leave for a weeks worth of training before the buttcrack of dawn on the following Monday. In other words, who cares if I get any rest; it’s all about everyone else, right? :mad: Just like the last three years in a row.
God, I know that sounds petty, but I’m really tired of being expected to do this and still catching shit from my mother because now she has to CHOOSE who to spend Thanksgiving with. :rolleyes:I really don’t care if she doesn’t come to my house. I really don’t want to host. I really don’t like turkey.
Sigh, I’m turning into such a cranky bitch, and I hate that about me. Oh, I don’t show it. I smile and put on a good show, but inside I’m just seething the whole damn time. This isn’t good for me.
Taters, I know it sounds overly simple, but say no. Let the chips fall where they may. If someone gives you lip, say the following:
“I love you very much and want to spend time with you, but if I agree to hold Thanksgiving here, I will spend the entire week working full time and then coming home to clean all evening. This will turn me into an angry bitch. I do not want to be an angry bitch, and I don’t want you or anyone else to experience me as an angry bitch. So, even if it means I don’t get to see you at all, or we all eat Chinese food out of paper cartons at a public park, I am not hosting Thanksgiving.”
I’ve done this maybe three times in my life, and it is unbelievably liberating. It also lets other people off the hook when they realize they can say “no, because I’ll end up being an angry bitch”.
Besides, you might just have your best Thanksgiving ever, hanging out with your family at a public park, eating Chinese food out of a carton.
**phouka, **I really wish I could just say no. However, I just can’t. My kids would get it, they really would. My husband wouldn’t. He always throws out the fact the moms won’t be around forever, blah-blah-blah.
The other thing that sucks is that my Dad and stepmom won’t come because my mother drives them up (and everyone else) up the wall. So, although they finally moved up here several years ago, I’ve gotten to spend exactly three damn holidays with them because of my mother.
The worst part of all this and Christmas too, is the fucking guilt trips everyone lays on me if I express any notion of changing things a bit.
**Taters **- alternate plan. Don’t go crazy with the cleaning. Assign a dish to everyone. Assign an after-dinner chore to everyone. Let them all know in advance. If they don’t like it, they don’t have to come and you can eat PB&J in your jammies.
I’m just going to shut up now about my holidays.
I would love to do as you suggest, FCM. In fact, I have flat tried to do that in the past, especially the clean up part. What I got was, “yeah, we’ll get to those dishes”, and no one ever did. So, I was stuck with even worse clean-up.
Because I don’t want to start anything or ruin anybody’s day, I keep the dismay to myself and just clean it up. I hate that about me.
Yes, I agree with this. Or get food from a local caterer. 
Or something like that. For what it’s worth, I hate the holidays, too. Too much family angst and drama.
Well just to keep my day rolling right along, I stopped to get my oil changed and using my groupon and the dude accidentally squirted me in the eye with grease when he was lubricating the door hinges. :smack:
Just got a call from **BBBobbio **- he and **VWife **are headed to their old homestead in NC - it was burglarized. :eek: They did catch the guys, but still, TVCTPBO has struck big time! 
I can’t find a jambalaya recipe in the blog, so here 'tis:
JAMBALAYA
What you need:
approximately 1 lb. boneless chicken breast, cubed
1 lb. andouille sausage, cubed (or smoked sausage)
1 large green bell pepper, diced
2-3 stalks celery, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
1 lb. rice
1 small can tomato paste
approximately 64 oz. chicken stock
15 oz can diced tomatoes (optional)
salt and pepper
1/2 to1 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
1/2 to1 tsp cajun seasoning (to taste)
STEP 1: heat 1 tablespoon lard, if you have it, vegetable oil if you dont. Season chicken and sausage with salt and pepper. Add to hot oil and brown.
STEP 2: remove chicken and sausage from pan, but leave the juices in the pan. Add garlic, pepper, celery, and onion. DO NOT BROWN! Cook until translucent. remove from pan.
STEP 3: Put chicken and sausage back in pan, making sure it fully covers the bottom. Layer peppers, onions, celery, and garlic on top. If you are adding chopped tomatoes, add them now. Pour rice on top and spread it out so that it forms an even layer. In a separate dish, combine tomato paste and some of the broth and blend. Add to pan, as well as the remaining broth. DO NOT STIR!!!
STEP 4: Season! Add cayenne pepper and cajun seasoning to taste. Keep in mind that the cajun seasoning does have cayenne pepper in it.
STEP 5: Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Let simmer, covered, for about an hour. DO NOT STIR!!! It is done when the rice is tender. You can tell when most of the broth is gone. If there is little or no broth left and the rice isn’t done, add some more broth. DO NOT STIR!!!
NOTES:
-if you can’t get andouille sausage, you can use a good smoked sausage, preferably with pork
-it is very important that you don’t stir this after you add the rice and broth. If you do, the rice rises to the top and does not cook completely…you will have crunchy jambalaya
-it is also good to use a large stockpot with a heavy bottom, so the chicken and sausage doesn’t burn.
(This makes a ton!!!)
You can put shrimp in there too!
I know you really just want to vent, Taters, and advice may not be helpful, but since your husband seems to be the one who really wants Thanksgiving at your house, can you work out a compromise with him? OK, we’ll have it here, but we’re going to have X (ham, lasagna, something else that you all enjoy that’s less work, involving fewer side dishes) instead of turkey. And is there room for store-bought assistance if not sticky’s suggestion of catering? Pick up the pies and a couple side dishes so you only have to make the main course? Feel free to ignore all advice and just vent, too. We’ve all been there.
Pretty good news from the tumor specialist. He thinks it’s a hemangioma (Who knew those could be deep in your muscle? One of my friends’ triplets has one on her forehead.), which means it’s not at all dangerous. But since it is causing pain, it is worth getting out. So surgery is scheduled for the 21st. Outpatient, short recovery, and no real restrictions on activity although he said I shouldn’t go canoeing right away. Which is not a big problem in Minnesota in late November! The problem is that these can be hard to fully remove so it could come back. That’s not a big deal since it’s not life-threatening, but it would mean more surgery if the pain comes back.
Thanks for the hugs.