If you’re in the US, you’re probably staring down a frozen turkey and not being thankful for it. If you’re not in the US, be thankful for that: half of our government is evil whack jobs and we’re going to be dealing with leftover bird for at least a week. (Favorite turkey moment still: WKRP’s “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”)
So what have you been up to lately?
My DH and I have been in charge of the turkey since we brined one a few years ago. The current plan is to start the brining this afternoon, then schlep the works down to my MIL’s house and cook it there – which will be within 5 minutes of our actual dining site. There will be a passel of folks, so we have a bird and additional breast. I also pulled out a smaller turkey breast I’d had in the freezer for a while, and I looked up a recipe for slow cooker turkey breast. It’s percolating for an hour now and is starting to smell good.
On the crafty side, I’ve been making microwavable soup bowl cozies. It requires making sure everything is cotton, but other than that, is pretty straight forward. My plan is to stuff them in my suitcase for my visit to family next weekend.
And a friend has cried uncle on a crochet project I had helped her start. She’s going to bring over the pieces and get me to finish it for her. Should be interesting.
Happy Thanksgiving to all the US arghers! and happy Wednesday to the rest of you! Hope you have a great day!
WKRP link:
https://youtu.be/BGFtV6-ALoQ
Happy Thanksgiving to those in the US
I was at the library at the weekend and found the book Don’t Look Down on the shelf. I know until recently they didn’t have any of the Crusie & Mayer novels. I’m about halfway through and I love this book. Jenny you write fantastic children. Pepper is just adorable. It made me want to listen to Welcome to Temptation again, because I love the scenes with Sophie and Dillie, but it was probably not wise to do this whilst out walking alone. A woman on her own laughing as she walks down the street did raise a few eyebrows.
Oh, good, I’m glad it holds up. Thank you.
I’m listening to the unabridged audio of Don’t Look Down for the umteenth time. It never gets old!
Yesterday I visited a grocery store for the first time since surgery October 1st and went to the dentist’s too! My half happy is that I don’t have to do anything for Thanksgiving (only half because my husband is doing everything for a secondary Thanksgiving on Friday — I wish I could help).
Somehow, I’ve fallen out of the routine of posting here, so I’m working my way back to you (babe). Oops, sorry, that “babe” just came out.
In Portugal, a turkey is called a Peru. Which cracks me up, I confess. What other foodstuff sharing the name of a country in one place shares the name of another country in another? In Turkey, a turkey is a Hindi, because Turks mistakenly thought they came from India.
The more you know.
We’re having a traditional dinner with all the fixings with friends on Saturday (some of the friends work – Thursday is after all not a holiday here) and I’m making a bourbon pecan pie and roasted thin-sliced sweet potatoes from the Smitten Kitchen. Another fun Portugal fact: sweet potatoes are a huge crop here, and the Portuguese are justifiably proud of the quality of their sweet potatoes.
Just a font of information here. Glad to be back.
We are still quarantined, so cancelled our plans for a big meal and family visit. My partner suggested Chinese takeout and I am thrilled. It makes me wonder why I suffer through prepping a big meal that I don’t even like… Once my dad passes in the unforseen future I will probably never do it again. So I give thanks for no turkey. I strongly dislike turkey.
Also, my partner sorta kinda proposed. He wants to get married for sensible practical reasons. We have been committed for years, so this would just making it legal. I am coming around to the idea. I am somewhat anti marriage (just for myself, it has nothing to do with him, he is great) and I find that I want an engagement ring if we do this, which is sort of weirding me out about myself because it’s surprising. I am definitely anti-big spendy diamond markers of my taken status. So I will be working on figuring out my emotions about all that. And what a wedding would look like for us if we go that route…
I’ve been anti-legal marriage since I discovered that laws about marriage CHANGE from one state to another–not just countries! Then in college I read a lot about the history of women’s rights and coverture and got even more anti-legal marriage. (It’s amazing how it scares men off when you explain this.) It always cheers me to find I’m not the only one.
My friend Yvonne’s the same. She and her long-term partner finally took out a civil partnership last year, which is now legal here for straight as well as gay couples.
I am not into marriage either. However it does come with certain theoretically positive legal connotations such as being next of kin in health and inheritance and pension and insurance situations, etc. So in the right circs it absolutely makes sense. And if you want shiny jewelry and/or a honking big party to commemorate, why not. The one thing that i absolutely hate is when women change their last names, because patriarchy! Uggh.
Yeah, it makes a bunch of things easier legally, and the partner has a very difficult family member that he wants to circumvent giving me trouble should anything happen to him. I don’t know what I would do about my last name. Honestly, I am not a fan of mine, and my father’s family is not great, but it is such a hassle to change it…
Here in California, the *only* time it’s not a hassle to change one’s surname is on marriage. I was happy to ditch the surname that started with Y in favor one one that starts with C. 🙂
All that legal stuff … it can save a lot of heartache at bad times. The paperwork my sister and her wife had to do in order to protect each other’s interests (in property, healthcare, etc) before their marriage was recognized in their state … voluminous and expensive.
Our best friends lived together for 35 years. All big purchases (house, car, etc – those that require a contract to buy) are jointly owned. Then at age 60, he had a triple by-pass (he looked incrediblely fit – but family has bad cholesterol) and they discovered there might be some legal issues if they weren’t married despite thinking they had covered all the legal bases. So on one of their annual trips to Hawaii they got married and told us they weren’t telling anyone else because it felt too weird. Within one (count it, ONE) week they had wedding rings, an engagement ring for her and told absolutely everyone they knew that they had gotten married. So don’t feel too strange about wanting an engagement ring.
The friend I started my shop with 22 years ago had been with her partner for 25 years or so. When he got cancer, they discovered there were a whole bunch of legal issues about her rights if they weren’t married, so they snuck off and made it official. I think they told people and had a small party a year later, when he was doing better. As far as I can tell, many years later, that piece of paper hasn’t made any difference to their relationship.
You can have an engagement ring without going the diamond route. My middle sister wanted a nice sapphire instead. Very pretty and way less money.
Oh, I would definitely be nontraditional and reasonably priced. I just never thought I would want one at all… And I really don’t like a lot of the way our culture treats the rings. And weddings, etc. I worked in the wedding industry for a while and swore to never go there…
Gratulations on the decision anti-turkey! Why eat something you don’t like at all just for the sake of tradition (coming from a European without such a strong tradition, so it’s easy to ask).
And gratulations on the proposal even if you’re conflicted about the idea of marriage 🙂
As with the turkey-tradition you are not obliged to follow a trodden route, so why not think about how you’d dream up your wedding regardless of what society expects (or is it our current Instagram culture?). We were married long ago – before Instagram for sure – but nowadays (in my ripe old age), I’d certainly do something completely different to what seems “in”. Same with the wedding ring – why does it have to be a diamond ring?
Just curious – very curious (where I’m from, very simply bands of gold are the tradition and I never got the fascination with diamonds for engagement/wedding rings, I’d always pick something less costly/more practical for everyday use).
Is this one of those traditions like the turkey that are hard to shake off?
I think jeweled wedding rings are a relatively new tradition (unless it’s regional) because until I was up in my 30s (I’m 68 now) wedding rings were plain gold, with engagement rings usually diamond solitaires, but at the discretion of the engaged people could be different. In the social circles I observed, only women wore wedding rings because it was assumed that men, even those with desk jobs, were likely to be using tools which made ring-wearing dangerous. Women only wore their engagement rings when dressing up.
Then it changed, and men started wearing wedding rings (which actually has led to some injuries in people I know who didn’t remember to take them off when they should have) and both sexes began to wear jeweled wedding rings. I remember the first wedding ring with diamonds that I saw: 1971, my high school choir director and his wife had had their wedding rings designed for them with three diamonds. They were both musicians, so no tool-danger, and the rings were beautiful. But it was years before I saw another.
I have been married for 25 years and I never wear my rings anymore. I practiced karate for a few years in my forties and I got into the habit of leaving them off which really annoys my husband…
Actually, it’s also a trend to just get a tattoo on your ring finger. I know someone with her wedding date there, and someone else with a Celtic design. It’s rather lovely, but I am needle adverse.
If I remember my history correctly, it was in the 1950s when diamonds really came into fashion. Debeirs or however you spell the name for those diamond people, were suffering financially and launched a massive add campaign, aka Marilyn Monroe singing diamonds are a girl’s best friend… Before that there was a lot more variety in engagement rings, not stone specific. Wedding gowns changed too. At first it was just the bride’s best dress. Then wedding gowns were blue at the turn of the century. Then white. Women actually made their dresses from their soldier sweethearts parachutes that they brought back from the war because it was the only silk available. That I find very cool, btw. How that morphed into the current circus proportions, I have no idea. Maybe with the advent of lab produced diamonds? It’s so easy now to get large, flawless, perfectly matched stones. At least people don’t have to die for them in a dark hole somewhere anymore…
But the bridezilla culture is very off-putting to me. Probably part of my reluctantly.
One can buy lab grown diamonds too.
During COVID I stopped wearing my engagement and twenty five years rings. Only wore my wedding band. Starting to wear them more but am liking the simple band only. Wearing my mum’s gold band on my right hand occasionally. Lived together for a few years before we married, very low key wedding. Didn’t want children either. Having granddaughters is so much fun.
I gave my daughter in law my mother in law’s gold wedding band on Monday night. Both son and DIL were very pleased to have his grandma’s wedding ring.
I stopped wearing rings too. All the disinfectant and sanitizer… And like you, I don’t want kids but have a passel of nieces and nephews to spoil
I’m anti-marriage (for me), too, but that’s because I never want to be trapped again, which comes down to who you’re in the box with. It sounds like your partner is a good fit for you to share a box, and it definitely has good legal implications, so I’d say go for it. It really depends the partner, I think, and you’ve definitely time-tested the relationship.
And writing this, I’ve just realized that reason I have hesitated to comment on Jennifer’s romantic journey is because the idiot who does’t appreciate her reminds me so strongly of my ex-husband, delighted to have me around when he wanted to talk, pleased because of the things I did for him, not interested in an equal partnership at all. Thank your lucky stars he said he wasn’t interested, Jennifer. Do not give him any more gifts because that’s not a relationship, you actually get things in return in a relationship. Took me years to learn that.
I won’t say congratulations but…how delightful nonetheless! I also am not a diamonds fan so for my first marriage I had an amethyst for an engagement ring; for the second, we didn’t bother with an engagement ring but we chose wedding bands together (despite my to-be husband asking me in the jewellery store if he had to wear his every day – actually since I told him ‘yes’, he then got real interested in the design of the bands). Jewellery is definitely a good incentive for getting married; the second is – presents! Make sure everyone gives you one, especially all those people you gave wedding presents to. Shallow reasons for getting married aside, for myself personally, just that extra bit of public declaration of commitment was a good thing.
Three months after we started dating, long before he proposed, my now-husband took a trip to Australia for a friend’s wedding. While there he bought a couple of opals. Fast-forward and one of those was set in my engagement ring. 🙂
Thanks! It’s more about shifting my perception of myself, I guess, than anything else. I have been “nope” about marriage for so long.
Miss Manners once said that a couple who did not want to have others buy their sterling, i.e., gifts, were too immature to get married.
Saving on bureaucracy and paper work … v sensible reason to get married since you are already committed. Congratulations.
When it comes to engagement rings, there are So… so many options now a days. Doesn’t have to be diamond, doesn’t have to be expensive, but since you’re getting married you should have something nice that suits your personality as sign of your commitment. For a good variety you could just put engagement rings search into etsy
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the U.S.! I am excited to be on my way to the first Thanksgiving in my niece and NIL’s new house. We will all be very thankful they survived their move and that we are all healthy enough to celebrate together this year. My sister went up to Milwaukee last night to help get a jump on the cooking and cleaning and I will join them this afternoon. We’re hoping that we’ve divided up the cooking enough that nobody will feel overwhelmed. I feel rather guilty that all I am providing is the cranberry sauce and the vegetable recipe, but I am sure that I will be able to make up for that in the pot washing department. I am confident that since this is a relatively small group, we can get everyone to pitch in.
Special thanks to whoever recommended Jackie Lau. I really enjoyed Donut Fall in Love. I have read a lot of romances set in the food biz in the last few years and find most of them too “meh” to mention. This one was far better than average and had a light touch without glossing over the difficulties too much. I wish my library owned her other titles so I could see if I enjoy them as much.
I’ve just been dealing with a wobble about my semi-retirement: usual guilt stuff. Back on track now. Still sorting out the allotment and garden: dug out the finished compost heap at the plot this morning and started a new one with material I’d bussed over from the garden, since the bin here is full. Also catching up on my gardening magazines, so I can add any important information to the gardening notes I’m updating. It’s all taking ages, though I’m being as fast as I can.
Also still on call for the roses book, which is rather frustrating – the author’s insisting on obfuscating the text, and my replacement seems to be too exhausted to fight back. She’s the boss, so I have to yield in the end.
I am off today in preparation for working tomorrow through, probably, Monday, or maybe longer than that since (grrr) next week’s schedule won’t be out until Friday. I am probably getting a fresh-killed turkey today from my friend’s son and grandson (they’re killing today) but who knows when I’ll have time to roast it. Not on a day I work, that’s for sure. I hope to collect some retired friends to eat with me when I do, but mostly I just want a turkey. I can’t eat the frozen grocery store turkeys that are available all the time because they’re all injected with something to make them “juicy” which includes things I’m allergic to.
I admit to finding people’s difficulty with roasting turkey incomprehensible because (before all commercial turkeys were routinely “pre-basted”) my mother’s and my allergies meant that we ate turkey as often as we ate beef. We only bothered to make dressing and gravy for special occasions, though.
I think that people are intimidated by the hype surrounding the ‘perfect’ turkey, plus the challenge of adding flavor to a relatively bland meat.
Also, it’s time consuming. But you are right, roasting anything is pretty easy. It’s timing everything else that gives me fits.
I was planning on working today but A) work is dead slow (I’ve made less than 30 cents in the 20 minutes I’ve been logged into work) and B) the vet assistant who made up Toodles antibiotics shorted me on it and she really needs it so if they don’t have any patients from my town today we have to go pick it up. Sigh.
One damn thing after another.
Nothing but good times ahead.
I did read Shane and the Hitwoman and loved it. That was a big plus this week. Thanks for the mayhem and the aligator, Bob.
alligator.
Sigh again.
Don’t worry about the alligator. Blame your keyboard. My keyboard, which is comfortable for my hands, tends not to believe that I mean it when I hit a key twice for a double letter. (I learned to type on a manual Remington in 1962, and have been using a keyboard and touch-typing ever since, know perfectly well that I spell correctly on the fly — if ‘burd’ doesn’t spell bird, what does is spell?
Re turkeys and Thanksgiving, here’s a favorite clip from The West Wing (Soft on Turkeys): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luTzmLiVC4I
As god is my witness I hadn’t thought it through that (real, taxonomic order Galliformes) turkeys can’t be pardoned. Must have been distracted by the homo sapiens kind.
Today PBS in my area was repeating a documentary about turkeys that I had missed when it came out ten years or so ago. I don’t know if they were doing it with a little sly nature-loving twinkle in their eye, but it is a lovely documentary about a man who becomes mother to a flock of wild turkeys in Florida. He narrates the re-created experience — a thoughtful, intelligent series of comments about what he learned, and felt, and experienced with these remarkable birds. So touching.
I recommend it unless you are in the midst of cooking one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4LrW52NIeY
Like everyone, I have a lot to do to get ready for tomorrow. Thanksgiving is at our house (15 of us). And I’ll be recruiting the help of the hubby and kids.
I’m one scene away from finishing final edits on the Christmas book. Yay! Jenny – is it possible to announce it on release day (December 6th)?
December 6 is a Monday, so sure. Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays are the only days something’s always scheduled, so unless somebody else has grabbed the spot, you’re always good on Mondays.
Great! Thank you! How do I get my book info to you?
You e-mail me at jennycrusie@gmail.com and include:
Your username here on Argh
The name and title on the book
Your blurb/whatever you want to say about the book
Links to website/more info
Links to buy.
Thank you!
I’m on my own for the holiday (last year I had the housemate, but she has moved out to be with a new love, so I’m back to my usual solitude). That’s fine with me, because I work the shop on both Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, and it is nice to have a day of quiet first. I usually make Cornish hens, but this year I realized I had some duck in the freezer than needed to be eaten, so I’m making that instead, along with a bunch of roasted veggies so I’ll have leftovers and not have to cook after my busy days.
In retirement my husband takes me to all the cool places. Like yesterday we went to a metal recycling business with a promise of grocery shopping after. At the recycling center we drove up to a scale that weighs the truck, then off to unload and back to the scale where they calculate the difference and pay you for the junk. We did the same thing in the seventies when we had to buy coal for the stove, but in reverse, weigh the truck then get the coal again weigh the truck and pay them. Then off we went grocery shopping which really wasn’t a nightmare at all.
I so remember that WKRP episode anytime it’s mentioned we break up in fits of laughter.
I’m thinking about podcasting. No, I have no idea why, I don’t even listen to podcasts. Of course, I didn’t read romance novels before I started writing them and that turned out to be a good thing. I also have an awful voice, so that could be a problem. And aside from assuming it would be about writing craft, I don’t know what I’d talk about.
Obviously this needs more thought, but it did seem right to put it on Working Wednesday.
A podcast is a huge time commitment, and you’ll also probably need a good-size rolodex of guests, at least some of whom aren’t there to flog the Latest Work. Though you need a Theme as well. A couple of hundred related subjects for individual episodes.
Ideally you could use a partner for the dialogue.
Don’t let me discourage you; I’d be there listening every time.
Au contraire–you have a great, engaging, tonal voice! Please check out your Popcorn Dialogues.
Thinking is work. Don’t sell yourself short. 🙂
I don’t like turkey. Or stuffing. Or cranberry. Or pumpkin pie. Or….
Yeah, I drove my poor grandmother nuts because the only thing I would eat on Tday was mashed potatoes, peas, and gravy. These days I go Chinese. But that’s pretty American too, no?
Whatever’s on your menu, hope it’s delicious!
I love stuffing and gravy, so I compromise by including turkey in the stuff along with celery and onion. That way I’m eating turkey and vegetables, too, while still getting my dressing and gravy fix. I’m thinking about adding spinach and bok choy, this year. You have to be very careful adding stuff to a fave, but the bok chop crunches just fine and the green tops should go in without too much difference. Spinach plus the dark bok chow tops may be a bridge too far. I’m having Thanksgiving next week so I have plenty of time to think about this. I am just not up for it this week.
We’re clearly having turkey in some form, since my brother asked me to get the dressing ingredients. I also came up with veggies, our stepcousin is bringing dessert, our vegan tenant is doing Brussels sprouts in the Instant Pot and she says she has an IP recipe for cranberry sauce, too. I am now wondering whether it’s anything like the Rootitoot cranberry sauce recipe, which I have been wanting to make.
Have a wonderful day, everyone.
Cranberry sauce is actually super easy. I make it every year now because I like it so much better than the canned stuff. One bag of berries, one cup of sugar, one cup of water. Boil till they pop and chill. I add orange juice and peel to cut the bitterness.
Hey, I was too down about stuff in my earlier post, thanks in part to your posts of the WKRP and West Wing Thanksgiving bits which my husband and I watched together and laughed over.
I’m writing Christmas cards and because the photos on the cards are from my gardens over 2021, there is more to the writing than usual (like, why did I do this?). Plus, several friends have had awful years; the worst case is a friend who lost her 36-year-old son to testicular cancer and has just had her blood cancer doc suddenly dump her after some test results that no one will explain to her. (Yikes!) So, I feel like I’m writing an incredibly personal note to each recipient — and that is exhilarating in an odd way.
When I read about stuff going on with you guys, I’m further energized. I didn’t want and don’t have an engagement ring. I didn’t change my name until I’d been married for more than 30 years. I agree with everyone who says that a marriage is an important contract — furthermore, do yourselves favors and get wills made for yourself and whomever you’re married to. Marriage and wills are about legal contracts which are about how money is handled, plain and simple. Make life easier on yourself.
Yes, definitely get the wills done. As an executor to five family estates, indicate where you want your things to go to, even the most benign item as well as how you want your body to be buried, etc. Four out of five were easy, the fifth has been a trial. If things had been written in the will, things would have been less stressful.
While you’re doing that, be sure that you have your Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form made up — usually done with your doctor. The California version is printed on hot pink paper and, my cousin tells me, ideally should be on your refrigerator door so the EMT’s can’t possibly miss it and will take it with you when they carry you out. It covers resuscitation, how aggressively you want to be treated, whether you are willing to be tube fed and if so, how long, and the disposition of your remains. It will save your relatives and friends endless concern and uncertainty.
https://www.cedars-sinai.org/programs/healthcare-ethics/polst.html
They call them Advance Directives where I’m from. You should also have papers naming a health care surrogate and a backup.
It is still no guarantee that the doctor at the hospital will even read it. If your loved one is in a nursing home and the deterioration isn’t sudden, talk to the head nurse and ask about the best way to guarantee that the loved one’s wishes are followed. They know how to use the system.
And make sure your doctor your hospital and your family have it.
My Wednesday started out with an appointment with my new PCP, FNP Heather H.
I am rilly, rilly healthy for a broken down old man. Or at least, my A1c is down to 5.0 as a result of my diet. She’s letting me back off the Metformin to 25% of what I was taking. She was also impressed with the weight loss. I just beamed, instead of admitting I’d been here before and wanted another 40 pounds before I declare, not “VICTORY!” but “Satisfactory Progress!”
I have blogged about the foods for this week. My toaster oven will not accommodate a full size bird – not even a small one. I might could ‘ve managed a Cornish game hen. Maybe. But it’s just me and I’m working, besides, so I baked two different turkey tenderloins (Shady Brook Farms, meh, and Jennie-O, looks good but I haven’t nibbled yet) and my family’s traditional French Canadian Pork Dressing and two kinds of stuffing. I finished of the last of the pork dressing and the turkey stuffing already. There’s a serving of cornbread stuffing left for tomorrow with the Jennie-O bird. Today, I ate half a family-size Stouffer’s Meat Lovers Lasagna. I’m leaving the other half at work in case the J-bird sucks.
The boss’s Keurig machine just made me a ten ounce cup of decaf coffee, which I sweetened with chocolate flavored stevia drops (I used a dropper full. Counting drops is for Sesame Street) and the last of my half&half. Last Keurig cup, too. So my coffee is blond and sweet, but she’s faking it.
I just cracked up picture The Count with my little stevia bottle: “One. One drop of chocolate sweetener! Ah-ha-ha-ha!” Some people is amused by the simplest things. -Nuclear Training Officer
“picturing The Count. Sheesh.
But I forgot to mention instructions from the PCP. We discussed diet limits. I said my calorie limit came from “Calorie Calculator,” the number for my weight and age that would result in losing a pound a week. The carb limit is more arbitrary. The FDA recommends 150 to 300 grams per week, and that 40% of calories consumed be carbs. I said that was too much math, even for me and my spreadsheet, and I’d slowly been raising my limits. Now it’s under 100 grams per day. Arbitrary. We agreed that 1,500 mg of sodium is the max anyone with heart problems should have, then I asked about liquids, and how hard I was finding it to drink 2,000 mL per day. She said 2 liters is a max, not a recommended target. Whew.
I’ve been told 1 liter is the daily minimum (enough to keep your kidneys working nicely), 2 is maximum, aim for 1.5 liter and you’ll be all right even if you miss it by a mug (or a glass or two) more or less.
The dietician also said other liquids count too, like soup and custard or yoghurt.
That’s where I aim. FNP Heather also reminded me that lots of things count as liquids. Ice cream, gelatin, gravy, etc. I knew that. I had some left over store brand jello and cool whip, both past their “compost by” dates. I thought maybe, perhaps, possibly they were fudging on those dates. They weren’t. Bleah!
It’s a great relief not to have to force myself to drink just a little more of whatever.
On that note, I will report that I have eaten 1/3 of the Jennie-O Turkey Tenderloins with diced onion, grated carrots and minced garlic, and can officially grade it as “Better than the Shady Brook Farms meal.” A third is all I can eat for today without exceeding limits, and I left room for a couple of Atkins Chocolate Somethings after I get home.
J-O’s turkey was moist enough that it should make great sandwiches, too.
It’s a workday, but there has been gratifyingly little work. I’ll be signing off with no Outlook reminders pending and only 5 emails in the in-box. None actionable.
Kept myself busy on the Chromebook, writing some new scenes for a novella I want to publish next month. It’s been such a beast, this one.
We are actually hosting tomorrow. The smoked turkey arrived on schedule and has been deconstructed somewhat. Tomorrow if I feel like it I’ll strip the meat off the limbs and let the man carve the breast. I am also doing a couple of vegetable dishes, he’s making mushroom risotto, our friends are bringing dessert & beverages. A fairly low-demand hosting day.
And yet it will probably take me the rest of the four-day weekend to recover. My social stamina is burnt, y’all. 🙂
Marriage is a legal contract. People tend to forget that or not know or think it protects them more than it does. Sometimes it’s better to forgo the legalities and just have a non-legally binding commitment ceremony. Fortuately, these days, it seems to be easier to do what works best for the couple.
Election was certified today in a wonderfully quick meeting. Time to start preparing for the 2022 primary in May! Well, we should have a couple of quiet months. I hope.
I’ll be heading up to my cousin’s for a few hours of overeating. I just had to make some sugared cranberries and some pecan pralines. Her daughters are college and late high school age. The youngest will have some news regarding colleges.
My sister left for my other sister’s early this morning. We had a nice time, a couple of lunches out, dinner at another cousin’s and an art exhibit (Cider Painters of America, works are 3″ x 5″ or less). My sister bought me a beautiful painting by a local artists for my birthday.
So far it’s been a good week.
I’m working on the “I’m outa here” plan which is better than the “don’t resign in a fit of temper’ plan.
I have managed to get a fair amount of mojo back for current job. I’ve had a number of discussions with boss and boss’s boss, and all 3 of us are in a similar mindset; we’re all outa here, but what can we do to change/ fix/ blow up (figuratively) the place before we go. It’s very freeing to not be concerned about getting into trouble, being fired, or caring about what others think (because, outa here) and just doing what I think is right.
Also working on losing weight and exercising. I went to Doc earlier in the year and said ‘help!’ and he suggested appetite suppressants. Wow, such a revelation. The difference in my desire to eat between being on them, and not, is stark. I’d always assumed that my desire for food was psychological. Apparently not!
Calvin Trillen has some wonderful essays arguing for making spaghetti carbonara the traditional Thanksgiving dish.
I’m actually a big Turkey fan and would happily cook two (unstuffed) .