Tryptophan Bonanza
2003-11-28, 9:07 a.m.

Another basically successful Thanksgiving. And the first one in OUR house. *big ol' grin* My second attempt at turkey-making this year, also a success. I did the vogue thing of brining this time, and I think it worked magic. Oh, and I kinda accidentally-on-purpose roasted the sucker upside-down, which turned out to be the right thing to do. I had just set it in as it seemed it should, which was breast-down [insert bad sex joke here]. I won't go into cooking-show detail, but suffice to say, it was yummy. H's feature veggie dish was a super-good polenta lasagna with a chipoltle/red pepper/tomato sauce. Extra sauce will be featured in other recipes, not to mention as a condiment. Hil also mentioned that it would be a fine soup, as she was tasting it by the spoonful from a small bowl. I may not be a fantastic cook, but I've certainly got a handle on promoting food experimentation in our home.

Anyway, we held a quiet contest to see which one of our parents, H's dad or my dad, would fall asleep first-- an act of great kudos to the chefs. H's dad won, being a fan of the naps in general. A lot of good the nap did, since he turffed our side lawn trying to back down our curvy driveway. You might note the lack of female participants in the 'parent' category. H's is in India, so she has an excuse (though she did call to say hi- she only got cut off due to bad connection 3 times, which I imagine is good when you're calling during a holiday from 1/2 way around the planet). But my mom? She lives in the next town up. And she and her husband Frodo (I call him that - no, not to his face, silly - because he has nine fingers) decided that they're rather go to a Chinese buffet. !?!?! I guess they're feeling anti-social, but even so... it's Thanksgiving, for Joshua's sake. You know, the day when family gets together to carb up and chat? We were kind of affronted that they even considered it, let alone that they went and did it. We managed a strong 'whatever' attitude to the whole thing and let it slide, however. People have their problems, ya know? I'm all for the concept that if you can't be around people for some reason, don't. Unless it gets chronic, wherein it becomes time for outside intervention (see: trip to Columbus and my dad). I'm amazed that I'm even remotely sane, given my genetic makeup.

Thank goodness H's sister moved, because we inherited from them the former family dining table, which, with three leaves, sat ten people comfortably. It will also, one day, make a fine gaming table in the basement.

Oh lucky me! I get to work today. It's going to be a slow-ass, boring day, too. Maybe I can get some reading done; I've got a few issues of Scientific American that I've barely tapped. I just can't help feeling that this will be a day mostly wasted. Oh well. It could be worse-- it could be a difficult day. *knock knock*

Alas, it's almost 945am and H still sleeps. I've been up since about 730am and have already taken a shower, eaten a bagel, made tea, and written most of a journal entry. We were going to spend a nice, quiet morning together but at this point we'll be lucky to share an hour. Sigh. Well, at least I should be home a little early tonight. We were considering taking the kids to see Elf. I was thinking during dinner last eve, quite randomly, that I'd like to have Will Ferrel over to the house just so he could do his Harry Carey bit. It never ceases to make me laugh.

Okay, time to go nudge H into Wakey World; I want a morning.

-- End Transmission --