Today will be an at home day. It is gloomy and damp, leftover from yesterday’s rain. I overdid it yesterday so need to rest muh leg. And dust. And do a load of laundry. I don’t need to prep anything for tomorrow. Maybe I will make a pumpkin pie. The excitement of the day is getting the annual furnace check up.
Flyboy I go through a dozen eggs a week.
Howdy, folks. Again it’s Wednesday before I get to the MMP. I’m not used to being this busy!
Things are going well at the glass factory. I like the team and we gained a lot of momentum in the past few days. After lots of talking and planning the first week, I was anxious to start getting my hands dirty.
I may or may not be back after the holiday. They haven’t decided what to do with me yet. It’ll be either two weeks back here, or two weeks in the Phoenix area. I’m torn, because I’d like to continue with this project, but traveling to Phoenix would be so much easier. I might even drive instead of fly if I get assigned there. Either way, it’s two weeks pay, so yay.
Three of us are flying home today. One has a 9am flight, another at 11am, and then me - 4:57 pm.
Uber service seemed pretty spotty around the hotel, so I decided to take the sure thing and ride with the others in the rental car. Currently I’m waiting to be served breakfast at a restaurant at the Charlotte airport, a full eight hours before my scheduled flight. I don’t really mind; hopefully I’ll find somewhere to sit and read or play on my phone after breakfast. I’d rather be here way too early than stress about being on time. The airport is obviously pretty busy, but not insanely so. Yet.
I’ve never much cared for the tart, sour taste of cranberries. I used to like the canned stuff (probably because it’s loaded with sugar), but I can take it or leave it these days.
Mrs W said she picked up some stuff for turkey day, so I’m in for a feast of some sort tomorrow. If all goes well, I’ll be snoring away in my own bed my midnight. Wish me luck!
Mornin’ everyone.
It’s 47F and cloudy this morning and will become partly cloudy this afternoon. There is a slight chance of a rain shower, and the high temp is expected to be 51F.
Someone up the thread mentioned they disliked turkey. Preach it, sister! I, too, dislike turkey. To add further heresy to the mix, I could take or leave Thanksgiving. After my parents divorced, we typically spent Thanksgiving at a family friend’s house, and while in high school, I wasn’t even home. I spent every year near San Francisco participating in the Pacific Region YMCA High School Conference. It was a blast, and all these many, many years later, I count those years as some of my best Thanksgiving times.
All that being said, I realize it means much to others, so keep those thoughts to myself (IRL) and participate in the family Thanksgiving. T-giving was at MiL’s place for many years, but then I started hosting. We always had extra people around the table: our friends and friends of the kids. And I prepared the traditional fixings, eating little to no turkey and focusing on the sides. Besides, with all the cooking, I don’t have much of an appetite by the time I sit down to eat. In recent years, my daughter and son-in-law hosted Thanksgiving, but now that they’re in Missouri, it’s back to me. I thought about making something different for Thanksgiving, but my husband made unhappy noises because he views Thanksgiving as a vehicle for gravy. He LUUUUUUURRRRRRVVVVVVEEEEEEES gravy.
So, tomorrow, there will be turkey, gravy, mashed taters, asparagus, stuffing and dressing, and whatever my son brings along. I like asparagus. It’s easy to prepare and no fuss. Also, I’d like something that cuts the richness of the rest of the food. I’m not feeling green beans this year. Also, as a surprise for my husband, I plan to make deviled aigs. I have to do it early and hide them, or he’ll eat them all before my son arrives, lol!
Speaking of Thanksgiving food prep, I cannot for the life of me find Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage. There might be some at the Fred Meyer a few miles down the road, and I will ask my husband to pick it up. The Safeway is less than a mile from me and is out. I checked again this morning.
I spent some time on Amazon yesterday ordering crates and whatnot for the pups. Three more wake-ups until we pick them up. Although I’m excited, yesterday I cried as I threw out Polar’s empty med bottles, and when a tuft of his fur drifted towards me from some hidden corner. I have vacuumed many times since he passed on, but those tufts keep popping up everywhere. Damn, and there are the tears again.
sari, not only did I mistakenly haul stuff to my current place from the old place, I left stuff in the crawl space above the attic, and the buyer delivered it to me two months later. It was all my wedding stuff too, so I don’t know how I forgot that!
Moving is chaotic, and stuff happens. As it happens, I feel the need to complete another purge. Crap is building up again, and it’s driving me nuts. I’m looking at all the small kitchen appliances I don’t use that are taking up space, as well as some boxes of my MiL’s stuff that need to go. My husband keeps saying he will go through it, but he never does and it sits there taking space in TWO closets. Drives me nuts. Finally, the garage needs a whole clean out, too. With all my recent expenses, I think I’ll probably do this early spring/late winter. My plan is rent another dumpster and get to dumping. It was so freeing seeing all that stuff go last time.
If I get to move, the only stuff that is coming with me is cookware, dinnerware, my computers, photographs, books (a great many have been purged), the ashes from my dogs, and mementos from the kids. I want to start new at the next place. Maybe the sofa and loveseat I purchased last year, but I doubt it.
I hope your power has been restored, VanGo.
Best get back to work.
getting prepped for the weekend. tomorrow will be turkey, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, corn, and cranberries! mmmmm, cranberries.
with 4 days off i’m contemplating some furniture movement. i have a console/tv stand/shelf thing to give away, if i clear the stuff off of it. it is soooo much easier to just leave it. the room will flow better without it. mostly pretty storage boxes in it.
my plans for the weekend other than the above is reading and sloth.
I’m irking from home today, and NCIS is playing on WEtv. I suddenly dawned on me that if NCIS is on, it’s Wednesday. Wait… Wednesday! That means that the orifice is closing at noon today for the holiday. That means I need to go into town to have some keys made. And the Spousal Unit never got any Sudafed, so I’ll have to swing by Fred Meyer while I’m in town. (It will probably be a zoo.) And Wfiey’s birthday is Friday, so I’ll need to get her a birfday card. And then tomorrow, I need to cook the feast. One of Wifey, RN’s patients and his wife may stop by for a visit. I think he’s the one with the Austin-Healey 3000, so he’ll probably want to see my MGB.
God didn’t make little grey oysters
And nuns don’t hang around in cloisters in the Summertime…
Does anyone put smoked oysters in their turkey stuffing? My mom used to when I was a kid. ISTR not being a fan. Now that I’m older, I wonder if I’d like oyster stuffing? I won’t find out though, because I’m not putting oysters in the stuffing in case I don’t.
My late MIL made oyster stuffing. I always preferred the lowbrow plain stuff.
Not that MIL was a bad cook, but she had a tendency to fancy stuff up, and the fancification wasn’t always an improvement.
I’ll put some dried cranberries in it this year.
My pies are especially beautiful! Very pleased. The brownies are baking and it smells sooooo good in here.
FCD is still sorting thru his brother’s papers to get the info he needs for the least. MIL has eaten today - yay! The sun is out and it’s almost chillage time for me!
The power came back on at about 10:30 last night. It was getting chilly in the house. Now I’m in the shop waiting on the replacement shipment that Fedex screwed up last week. This time its with doggio’s guys. Hopefully it actually arrives. It’s a new battery for my electric back-up power supply. The tracker claims it’s out for delivery.
The old battery would run the TV, modem, router and a lamp for about 3 hours when it was new. 6-7 years later it’ll do the lamp and router for about an hour and a half. Forget the TV.
I wanted to leave early to get home and bake my cheesecake and get a dry brine on the bird for tomorrow.
Hiya, pals. My friend texted this morning. She’s down to smoking 7 cigarettes a day and has bought nicotine gum. She’s very hopeful that this time she’ll be able to quit entirely. She says the upcoming biopsy of her humerus bone is to “DNA sequence the cancer.” She seems upbeat, and I bet she licks the smoking thing, too.
Another old friend texted me that they’re putting down their old dog today. 
She’s a beautiful Weimaraner (the dog, not the friend) whom I got to know when I dog-sat her in her puppyhood. A few years later, I was having dinner with these friends, and the dog was ordered to her bed across the room. Little by little, she oooozed off her bed until just one foot was touching it and she was stretched like Poky almost to the dinner table. She fulfilled the letter of the law, so no warrants were issued.
I’ve had many happy Thanksgivings. When I was married and living in Montana, we extended an open invitation to anyone who had nowhere else to go. One year I cooked for 20 people. But my best Thanksgiving was when my son was four months old and had been very sick and in the hospital. He was released the day before T-Day. We’d already canceled the Thanksgiving feast, and the store was completely out of turkeys and such. I got a ham and a can of yams (no fresh ones) and some green beans. I was so thrilled and relieved to have my baby home that the food tasted wonderful.
Has anybody here made cornbread dressing (stuffing)? If so, any tips or good recipes?
Are the wives coming? I always get a kick out of the husbands and the wives getting together.
Oh, my. If she were younger and less frail, the temptation to mess with the lights would be huge if I were in your shoes. OTOH, a friendly blink-blink at 7:30 every night might be a nice little “Thinking of you!” routine.
Maybe they’re his way of saying hello from the great beyond. He wouldn’t want you crying over his hellos.
pilot, she didn’t even want you to chop celery? Half the fun of Thanksgiving is the prep. YMMV. It sounds like you have a good day planned, though.
VanGo, glad you’ve got the power.
Sari, sorry the tinazidine is causing unpleasant side effects. I hope there’s a different muscle relaxer the doc can Rx. Fingers crossed on the house!
We buy eggs every week, it seems. Usually an 18-pack. The wife loves her some eggs for breakfast, especially my scrambleds.
She’s in the kitchen making the cranberry sauce we’re taking tomorrow. She’s also determined to make a Jell-O mold. Never cared for those and probably haven’t had one since the 50s, but who am I to harsh her mellow? I’ll take the turkey legs and the Jimmy Dean sage sausage out of the freezer tomorrow and make the stock on Friday, which will go in the dressing I’m making for Sunday’s dinner at my youngest son’s house. Holidays have gotten complicated since we moved closer to family.
Made it down to exercise again this morning. HOO-WAH! 
Howdy all. At brothers house with 5 other adults and five dogs (two bloodhounds, two bassets and a French bulldog) so not a quiet house. Will be here through Friday and then head home Saturday. Glad I packed my jacket despite the hot climes I was in.
More later as I adjust. Take care all.
My mom used to make what she called ‘crap salad’. She got the recipe from one of my aunts, who got it out of a women’s magazine in the '50s. As nearly as I can remember, this is it: Dissolve a box of Jell-O lemon and Jell-O lime gelatine in hot water, as if you’re making Jell-O. Mix in diced apples, chopped walnuts, a pint of cottage cheese, and an unremembered amount of Miracle Whip. Put in the fridge to set. The concoction was green in the way Pepto Bismol is pink. Or: If Pepto Bismol were green, it would be the colour of the ‘salad’. First-timers would have to be induced to eating it, but they liked it once they got past how it looked. It always all got eaten.
Maybe I should have said brown oysters since mom used smoked oysters in her stuffing. Also ‘brown oyster’ is another name for phlegm. (I don’t think I have any smoked oysters at the moment, but I do know I have some smoked mussels. If only I could eat them without Goo begging.)
An expensive morning. The furnace blower motor had to be replaced. Thank goodness it died today instead of tomorrow.
My family makes an excellent Jell-o salad. Lime Jell-o, cottage cheese,diced onions, mayo, and walnuts. It is known as Aunt Vera’s Tangy Onion Salad.
Very similar to what my mom made.
Started Typing: 12:30 PM ET
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Today is the 2-year anniversary of my bariatric surgery. 
I’m definitely still working on some stuff, but I’m also definitely much healthier and happier these days…and not lookin’ bad for 52, if I do say so myself!
(Now you can ID me in the wild… 
)
Fittingly, I had a blood draw this morning. The lab was running 35 minutes behind, and I’ve had better sticks, but I’m glad that appointment is done. I’ll hang onto some low-key stress until I see my A1C, but for the most part I’m in “the die has been cast” mode. Bring on Thanksgiving!!
Before landing at my current place 9 years ago, I moved every 2-4 years. That MO would have continued if it weren’t for the dog: this is a perfect house/yard for her, and when I moved in I decided to stay here for as long as I have her (plus, I will have way more rental options without a pet). But moving regularly – including one cohabitation – definitely helped keep my “stuff” pile on the manageable side. I’d like the next place to actually be a little bigger, so whenever the time comes I shouldn’t have to do much (if any) purging. It’ll be one of my most expensive moves, though, because (a) I’m planning to pay more rent for a bigger place (affecting my deposit) and (b) this time I’ll have a piano (affecting the cost of the movers).
I’ll likely knock off work a little early today: it’s super quiet, plus I have some extra hours. I am very, very glad that I have no plans tonight, and nothing to do tomorrow other than go see my BFFs and eat yummy food. I took Friday off work, and will start (and possibly finish) my holiday decorating before going to a 3:30pm personal training session. After the gym I’ll take Bailey for a walk, and then will happily have nothing to do – other than finish decorating, if needed – until I go back to the gym on Saturday morning.
Yeah…no. 
Weirdo. 
The thermostat is back to 70 today: it’s still cool and breezy outside, but the sun has returned. Shoe and I shall be over here with our flip-flops and smiles… 
Thanks! At the risk of sounding like a tool, I’m not worried about my ability to do the job (and do it well): it’s more the “why did I do this to myself?!” stuff that I need to do some careful thinking about…know what I mean?
Roomie isn’t worried that Spot might have eaten a pill…?
One of my earliest animal ER visits with Bailey was because the ex and I came home from dinner one night to discover that not only had the puppy escaped the baby-gated kitchen, she’d also gotten into my work tote bag and destroyed a bottle of Advil. With no way to tell whether she’d eaten any of them, and with the animal poison control rep being all " 
," off she went for her first stomach pumping.
Seconded!
I’m already planning some rearranging for after the holidays – including moving the LEGO display from the eat-in kitchen to the living room. Priorities! I want to keep things where they are for the holiday decorating, though.
Oh no!! Like you said, better today than tomorrow…but still. Ugh.
A mutual friend, J., called and said she’d talked with C., the friend whose breast cancer metastasized. The reason for the humerus bone biopsy is that they found cancer there. C.'s way of handling news like that is to avoid speculation, hers or anyone else’s, so she gets pretty close-mouthed and refuses to elaborate, but J. got that much out of her.
I’m still hoping for the best. I probably won’t be posting about this again. Thanks again for the support.
All the baking is done. Brownies are cut up and piled on a couple of plates. Pies are covered and waiting. The fridge is organized. The turkey goes in the oven tonight. Dressing and sweet potatoes will be done in the morning. Tonight we’ll feast on leftovers.
Chillage to the max.
Hello, all. It’s been awhile. I’ve been scanning the MMPs but just not posting anything. Today I post! (Big whoop.)
We canceled our annual Thanksgiving camping trip for this year. It’s predicted windy (again!!) and we’re all tired of that shit. Plus, Paul is broken and would be a hazard on uneven ground (torqued leg, pulled groin, all-around busted up). My brewing partner invited me over to their place for dinner, so I’ve been making all the stuff I bought for camping to take there instead. 3 men, 2 women and a starving teenager means plenty is needed. So far this morning I have cranked out Spicy Cranberry Relish, Cranberry-Pineapple Sauce and Cumin-Cured Olives. When da Jungle delivers my peppadews I’m going to stuff them with marinated moz wrapped in speck and/or prosciutto. No idea what L is making, but my relishes and condementia go with anything.
I shall now chill for the nonce. Maybe two nonces.
For the cat servants, Bohemian Catsody.