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4-day weekend
November 29, 2010
My very sweet brother-in-law invited my parents to come join us all at his house for Thanksgiving dinner, and let me tell you, that man can cook. He wouldn�t even hear of anyone bringing anything to contribute�he informed me that this was a planned menu, not a pot-luck.
Of course, this is the guy who not only made a caramel apple pie for dessert; he made the caramel from scratch, too. He gets a little carried away. Not to mention TWO turkeys, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, stuffing, sweet potato souffl�, squash casserole, pumpkin pie, individual pumpkin cheesecakes in the shape of pumpkins, and lots of other goodies. If you got nothing else out of a holiday there, you would get FED.
One glitch--the preparations ran long, and put them about 2 hours behind, which they called to tell us only after we were well on our way. No worries--we cut over to Sturtevant and went to the Wal-Mart. Mom and I had a load of fun poking around in the Christmas decorations and the housewares, gossiping and shopping. Killed the requisite amount of time and then were back on our way to P & E's.
I really think Mom and Dad had a great time, though. In addition to us, P and E invited friends from his work and from her work. And E is working at a Chevy dealer currently, so Daddy got a little �car business shop talk�, which made his day. Mom and E bonded over their shared love of having the entire house "Martha Stewart-Perfect", Mom and P bonded over POPOVERS, of all things, and Dad bonded with the 58-inch TV in the den, the special-recipe Bloody Marys, and the afore-mentioned car dealer talk.
One of the things I�m always thankful for on Thanksgiving is that I don�t have to deal with the crazy shoppers on Friday. Seven years of working at Walmart on �Black Friday� permanently cured me of any urge to venture out to stores on that morning�the craziest day of the year in retail. Let the goofy nutcases run out at two in the morning, fighting crowds and hunting �bargains�--I stay home in bed, cuddled up in my electric blanket, until later in the day.
We did go out around 11:00, though. Spouse was hungry, so we stopped at our favorite little caf� for breakfast, before running a few errands. We stopped at Menard's for a new water filter cartridge, and boy, am I glad we did�I go my Christmas present. I have been wanting a device for reading electronic books, and I�ve put off getting one until they came down in price to under a hundred dollars. Imagine my surprise when I found a nice one for $99.00, with a twenty-dollar rebate (and at the hardware store, yet!). I still hemmed and hawed about it, but Spouse said, �if you want it, we�ll get it and it can be your Christmas�. So I lucked out.
We didn�t really do too much else over the long weekend. We have a local Christmas tree lot that has beautifully made and decorated wreaths, and the weather on Sunday was beautiful, so we did take a drive out to Union Grove, Wisconsin to the Veteran�s Cemetery, to put an evergreen wreath on Spouse�s dad�s grave.
We got to see some of the damage from the tornado that struck that area last Monday, and it looks like they are well on their way to getting it all cleaned up. Crazy weather. When I first moved to Wisconsin in 1979, they never had tornadoes here. Over the years, we started to see them once in a while in the summer. Now, in the past couple of years, we are getting them in January and in November. Really makes you wonder about all the climate change you hear about on the news.
Last night, we tuned in to hear Spouse�s radio broadcast. He sounded great. I am very proud of him. He is in a little bit of trouble with his favorite niece, though. Seems he mentioned her brother on the air, but forgot to mention her. She called to chew him out after the show ended. But he told her that she could come along when we go spend his OTHER prize from the contest�the $100.00 gift certificate to an Italian restaurant on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. She decided that would be an acceptable apology, so they made up.
Reading: Hobby and general, all in one--"Miss Cayley's Adventures"(1899), by Grant Allen. Recommended by the "Redeeming Qualities" vintage book blog, and absolutely delightful. The title character is a wonderful "modern girl", living by her wits and making her way round the world. And the writing style is breezy and fun--and though written by a man, it seems fresher today than anything similar from a woman of the same period: I am glad to say, my letters to the "Daily Telephone" gave satisfaction. My employer wrote, 'You are a born journalist.' I confess this surprised me; for I have always considered myself a truthful person.
Surfing: Miss Cayley and her adventures can be found here.
Listening:Well, last night it was: The Rolling Stones, Styx, Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Roy Orbison, The Traveling Wilburys, Tom Petty, and Cheap Trick. Spouse's set list, in other words.
At Random:
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