Welcome newcomers! Please introduce yourself
Come on in!
Coffee & Tea under the window, platters of treats on every table
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Newspapers are in their regular spot next to the door
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Please recommend (and unrecommend the Cafe/Lounge from yesterday)
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May the 4’s be with you
Time to tell the stories from yesterday, or previous but memorable Thanksgivings…
Reports from any new recipes you tried (boran2, how was that pumpkin fudge cake? SN, did you bathe your bird?) are always welcome 🙂
I’m working on another little pond-related project, but I’ll be in and out all day.
Memorable Thanksgivings past? Hmm, how about the time when we were kids and we decided that we wanted hamburgers instead of turkey? My mom was more than glad to comply being that there were 5 of us kiddies. As to yesterday, one of my younger brothers takes pride in being uninhibited. Of course he felt no remorse in reminding some of those family members seated around the table about embarassing moments from long ago. My father, saying nothing, was clearly perturbed. But alas, this brother is his favorite child, so why stop him. Thankfully, my mom does not tend to favor one over the others. So goes another family holiday. But generally it was enjoyable.
But what about the cake???? 🙂
It was good even though I inadvertently left out the liqeur. I’m actually going to make it again, the “complete” recipe, for next week for a friend’s birthday. I have a photo which I can post later. Yes, there I was in the midst of my family taking photos of a cake for my blog friends. 😉
Ah, but did you admit to your family that you needed those photos for your blog friends?
I think I’m going to try that recipe soon.
Interestingly, the question never came up. 😉
LOL Can’t wait to see the pic!
before the wife returns and makes me hit the “honey do” list.
Anybody have any ideas for a “cat ladder”? #1 on the list.
Erm, if the cat needs a ladder, should it really be climbing trees?
Ladder to get to the roof so they can climb in the window to avoid the dogs. I’m putting a cat door in the window now. My smarter half is concerned that the felines are getting older and can’t make the jump.
Heck, I think I’d even be jumping on the roof if the one on the right came charging at me! Poor kitties!
I’m starting to wake up.
Mister has my computer open and has been pricing replacement CPUs and motherboards. Even though what I had is almost 3 years old, we’re going to have to replace the parts in order to get my documents back. Otherwise, getting into the hard-drive is more problematic.
And more problems are not needed this week.
I just realized that we were in something pretty close to a bubble yesterday. Our daughter called in the late afternoon. But that’s the only non-us family contact we had. His mom told him she wanted to spend the day with us, but she never came over (it’s just through the kitchen door) and we saw her go off with one of the nephews. And no one in my family called. And I was just to pooped to make calls myself.
That must be why it was such a relaxing day.
I think this fake cold is clearing up — but I still sound a little thick. And I’m not thinking as clearly as usual.
I’ve built about three or four computers over the past few months using this motherboard. It’s not the newest and snazziest but it’s only $90 for the mobo/CPU combination and does a fine job, and I’m very happy with Newegg’s customer service.
I hope you get to feeling better. I’m a bit under the weather myself today. It’s raining here in Seattle but that means the rain is washing away the stagnant air we’ve had for the past week or so. The bluest skies you’ve ever seen have NOT been in Seattle the past few days.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Is that an AMD type motherboard? Because I’m kind of off AMD right now. This one that just went out was AMD and I suspect it’s because the chip is so hot. That might be hooey, but I think I’m going back to Intel for the next one.
We got into the files, so I’m spending the evening backing them up. Luckily, I just got a DVD writer/player (I don’t think there will be more than 25 gigs of data) . . . .
Personally I like buying AMD processors. I think your worries about them running hot are ill-founded. Any chip in that performance class is going to need to be cooled. As long as you’re not trying to overclock it into oblivion you should be OK.
If you’re determined to buy Intel, you might take a look at Newegg’s combo packages page (there’s a link to it on the page I gave you the link to). There are some other combo boards in that general price range, and I think a few of them are Intel-based. Personally, one of the reasons I buy AMD is because of Intel’s sponsorship of things like Trusted Computing — and by extension to remind Intel that they’re not the only fish in the pond. It’s not a hard-and-fast thing, but there it is.
Good luck with getting your computer put back together. It’s not like rebuilding a ’64 Studebaker or anything, but it can still be a pain in the neck.
Morning to all. We are having Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, so no stories to tell. I haven’t been in for a long time, so I thought I’d stop by.
Good to see you! Will the dinner be at your house? Or is traveling involved?
And what will you have? And what time? And how many will be there?
Hi!
Hi Katie, sorry to hear about your computer problems.
Dinner is at our house, just the three of us, plus my mother-in-law, and my brother (up from NC). We’ll have a fine meal of a large turkey breast(honey-thyme brined, a new recipe), mashed potatoes, carrots, stuffing, and sweet potato pie. I’m aiming to have a late afternoon, (4-ish) meal. Andrew will try a little of everything. I’m shooting for a little stress as possible.
How was your turkey day?
I’ve been hearing so much about this brined process. I didn’t dare try it for the first time on a holiday. But I think I’m going to experiment with it sometime in Febuary or so.
It sounds like you have a nice group. I’m completely in favor of low stress holiday. We had just the two of us in our own little bubble. It was a very nice day — we did everything at our own pace, the way we like it.
Since we made a 20 pound turkey, we’ve got plenty of leftovers!
How was the first week back?
It was good.
The students were very sweet. I have never had these kids in my classes, but most of the classes (4 out of 5) planned a welcome back celebration. Everything from a mix cd, to cake, to egg rolls, and a big banner. I was very touched.
The adults, however, are another thing. My principal grunted good morning my way on Monday, but couldn’t manage a “welcome back.”
Uh-oh, my phone just rang. Friends are coming by in a couple of hours, Guess I better do my grocery shopping now. See you later.
Your students sound great, but I’m sorry that the adults aren’t so enthusiastic! Why is it that most principals are grouchy?
I think that his general grouchiness towards me has something to do with the grievance I filed against him last year and won. A co-worker just left my house and he was telling us that he has met with this guy’s bad side. The crazy thing about that is that they were fraternity brothers in college.
I have other theories, but they border on slander, if not true.
Had a good talk with my niece the teacher — she actually was able to switch schools this year to her neighborhood school so she can walk to/from work! She’s really happy about it — it’s also the same school her youngest daughter attends, so they walk together in the morning, and by the time they reach school my niece has gathered a crowd of about 15 kids. 🙂 (She’s pretty popular anyway — her rep is that she’s tough but fair.) The school’s a tough one to get into; teachers pretty much leave only by retiring or dying (her words, not mine). When her older daughter’s 4th grade teacher decided to retire, she sent my niece an email so she could apply. 🙂
My niece teaches 4th grade — in her old school she occasionally had to teach a combination 4th/5th class, which she handled well (of course), but it’s much easier to concentrate on one grade at a time…
That’s so cool that your niece is able to walk to school with her daughter. What a great way to start the day.
Um, remember that cherry Coke salad recipe I posted?
Here it is Friday and it still hasn’t set up.
The problem, as near as I can figure, is that if you use four 15-oz cans of cherries, you get a lot more liquid than you do if you use three 20-oz cans. In the past I think we accounted for that by using a six-oz box of Jell-O instead of a 3-oz box, but this time, what can I say, I scrwed up.
So if you tried making the cherry Coke salad, my apologies. I’m going to see if I can salvage it today with some Jedi kitchen tricks (mostly by folding the partially-set salad we have now into freshly made Jell-O) because them cherries and pecans are expensive, but dangit, I want me some cherry Coke salad!
I apparently can’t even spell “screwed up” properly. Talk about meta-screwing up :).
and my husband cleaned the kitchen up while my daughter and I watched a movie, I didn’t even know he was doing it until the movie was over. Wonderful lazy holiday weekend from here, tons to eat. Happy Thanksgiving everybody.
Good Morning All,
I remember a Thanksgiving about a hundred years ago when I was 7 or 8 years old. Mother, Daddy and I went to the “home” town to be with the aunts, uncles and cousins for T-Day.
I always loved these trips and since I’m an only-child I loved having all the family around.
It had been unseasonably warm for Ohio in that particular late November so I took only my galoshes along….no boots.
Dinner with the gang was fabulous as usual. We kids ate at a small table in the livingroom because of lack of room at the main table partially, but mostly we loved having our own space. My favorite cousin was two years younger than me but she was older than me in spirit. We got along great!!
Dinner passed. The men went out on the porch for a smoke and the ladies did the clean up, everyone chatting away and laughing.
About 7:00 that evening, my cuz and I discovered that it had started snowing!!! Yeaaaaa!! We were so excited. Huge white flakes drifting down. The giant pines by the driveway were already covered in snow. It was soooooo quiet outside.
Well!!! This meant only one thing!! We, my cuz and I HAD to go sledding. We HAD to! So she wrapped up in boots and hats and multiple coats and mittens. I did the same except I only had galoshes. Ooooops!! Didn’t even slow me down though.
We hopped on those sleds and flew down the terraced yard right INTO those heavily laden pine boughs.
Yep, you guessed it. We got royally dumped on! We came out from under the boughs laughing hysterically. I had more snow in my shoes that there was under the sled. It was wonderful!
We only “did” the hill once that evening, but I vowed I would never go to the home-town without my boots ever again…..no matter what time of year it was.
What a nice memory of Thanksgiving!
Well, yesterday’s gathering with family was very good. Once again, we took the easy way out and did not attempt the popcorn stuffing. We aimed dinner for earlier in the day, and then we went out to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which is very good, even though there were huge subplot complications they left out to make the story fit in one movie (Goblet of Fire is the longest of the HP books). Then we went back to my sister’s house for pumpkin pie, apple crisp and hot tea.
Today I’m going to a science fiction convention, the Darkover Grand Council for the rest of the weekend, to hang out with friends, listen to music, maybe attend a panel or two, and officially usher in the Christmas season by the traditional large-group sing of the Hallelujuh Chorus around the hotel pool at midnight Saturday.
Sounds like a good time. We saw HP earlier in the week, and thought it was great but noticed that they had to leave a lot of it out.
Movies need “links”! So we could click and go to the subplot.
Here you go: http://www.Harrypotter.com or the IMDB entry. And the book info can be found here.
Okay, anybody care to join me in some nice peppermint schnaps? Umm, it’s virtual though, ’cause I’m still at work. Bottoms up!
Sure…I’m trying to work too, but I am SO unmotivated! …Must write diabetes article, now, grrr…
some hot cocoa to put it in…ahhhh, yummy…. 🙂
Hi everyone, my dinner at Black angus last night turned out to be very nice…there were 9 of us, 2 were vacationing at the colorado river..and could not be there.
The dinner was very good, huge plates with all the fixings and seconds available but only one taker, my son 25. I could barely make a dent in my plate, due to my ‘small plate’ approach to eating which has reduced my intake to a much smaller amount than heretofore.
One small almost glitch, while I celebrate holidays with ex (children’s father you know), I don’t like to sit next to him, and for a few minutes it looked like I would have to since others took their seats before me and finally had to have them all shove over one seat.
Only bad thing, no left overs, so I guess I will have to make a small turkey next week to satisfy my urges.
so I promised the spouse I’d make a turkey breast sometime after he’s back to work, so we’d be able to have hot turkey sandwiches. That would give me the opportunity to make the wild rice and cranberry stuffing recipe that saw online too. 🙂
Sometimes it’s tough cooking when there’s just the two of us…one of the things I enjoyed when we were living with his folks was the opportunity to cook for a group… 🙂
I was going to post this at Keres’ dairy, which is here, with all the wonderful Muscovy ducks. But I wanted to make you sorry for eating all those poor defenseless turkeys. <snark>
The fellow in front looks exactly like the “watch goose” that prevented us from climbing Ben Nevis on our honeymoon. I can hear him still. He made believers of us. We slowly turned around and walked back down again.
Whew! That was close!
Back from tackling the post-Thanksgiving shopping crowds, and boy, am I Bushed! (Meaning I must be an idiot for daring to go out there!) Was actually quite successful; pretty much set for sweaters for the fall/winter (and with the rainy season finally upon us, just in time), got the new GameBoy system I wanted (my old one is just about worn out) and some great non-violent toys for the assorted toy drives…then while I was in one of the stores, the spouse looked at the ad for Fry’s and they had a super deal on the satellite radio system he/we wanted, so we made a trip over there as well. Well, that was his idea not mine so he had to go in the store with me there — I was nice and let him relax at my two other stops.
Tonight we plan to go to downtown San Jose for the tree lighting and opening of “Christmas in the Park” — I need to go charge my camera battery in case I want to get pictures.
Let’s see — Thanksgiving stories…
Only one I can think of is from about 17-18 years ago. It was the spouse’s first Thanksgiving with my family, before he was the spouse (just “the boyfriend du jour” in my family). We were gathered around the table, all 20 or so of us, so my sister was scrambling for chairs. She had some wooden folding chairs, fortunately. However, one chair was a bit…unstable.
I was sitting at the table, next to “the boyfriend du jour”, eating and chatting with the family, when I heard a “Whoops!” and a clunk. I turn my head…and he was missing. I look down, and he was lying on the floor staring up at me! That pretty much ended all hope of serious conversation at the table… He got up, and my sister somehow found another chair for him to sit on. That chair was subsequently retired. We still joke around that the chair was his “initiation” into the family… 🙂
Hi,
Just a heads-up that due to the intrusion of off-line life over the past few days I won’t be able to post a Jazz Jam this week. I’ll be back with one next week, though.
Hope everyone had a great holiday!
– K.P.
We’ll be looking forward to next week’s edition-hope you had a good holiday!
Just got back from Thanksgiving the Sequel. Went to Cincinnati to visit with Jim’s side of the family. It was a perfectly nice time, except that it’s six hours of boring driving.
Did get a nice sunset though.
Hi Andi!
I’m glad you had some fun and that you got the great sunset.
Things are still pretty quiet around here. Although I did go out to get stuff done to my hair and eyebrows. I think I lost about 10 pounds through that process.
And found out that all old ladies wear track suits now.
We need to have a chat about imprecise language because without more details I have no choice but to try to imagine how you might look with no eyebrows and a purple and pink mohawk.
The old ladies I hang out with — the moms — have never had a track suit on in their lives so it may be limited to old ladies in Kansas.
And I think that’s fine. Really. I like that picture.
I’ll take your word on the old lady fashion thing. All I know is that is how the 5 old ladies at this place dressed.
of the mohawk?
Wonderful photo!! Looks so Ohio! I love the silos. Glad you’re back safe. Thanks for the pic!
though I’m sure you can get the same shot in lots of places in ohio but not between my house and cincy — since we pretty well go from the ohio state line right into the cincy exurbs.
So how was your tempeh? Did you grill it?
Nope, still in the refrigerator. I took a tofu burger patty to my friends for my dinner. Here’s a pic. Click to enlarge. The plate next to mine belongs to a norman human being enjoying a fantastic meal. Plates are the same size. Darn perspective!
Going Clockwise:
I am actually hungry for fish. Those are words I never thought I’d speak. Gooserock, the main chef in this house, will be back tomorrow.
and but hardly anyone is going to see it in this cafe. You have to put it up again. Please.
BTW, your plate looks like some really funny parody of the seder plate at a Passover meal.
So, the absinthe lady is back…
We really should come up with a name for her. Any suggestions?
It should be artsy and tres European.
Maybe Giselle? Clarise? Brigitte? Veronique? Zoe?
That’s my mom-in-law’s name!
I look at her and think, “Monique”…yeah, that’s it…
as in the movie Veronika Voss, is my vote.
(If you don’t aren’t famililar with the movie, it’s by Fassbinder and here’s the plot summary: Rosel Zech stars in this Fassbinder drama as Veronika Voss, a faded 40’s movie star haunted by an alleged fling with Goebbels, who, ten years after the war’s end has become a morphine addict.)