Bogieblog

Thanksgiving Day 2010

The first thing I had to do was go to the store to get a 40 watt light bulb for the range hood. The light bulb chose 7:30 Wednesday night to die and untimely death (untimely for me - that is probably only the second bulb we have used in the 21 years we have been here). Fortunately the local Shaws was open for a portion of the day and it had appliance bulbs, so I didn't have to cook in the (relative) dark.

WS worked on getting snacks made; sheese and crackers and pepperoni, shrimp and cocktail sauce, chips and dip, peanuts etc. He also mixed up some spiced eggnog with a bit of the Captain. I seasoned the turkey and put it in the oven shortly after noon. The cheesy mashed pototoes had been made the night before and put in the crock pot crock for refrigeration. I stuck the taters back in the heating portion about 1 and set them on low. I also premade two casserole dishes full of green bean casserole.

Guests started arriving about 12:30 - shortly before the start of the football game (NE Patriots vs Detroit Lions). SIL brought the Black Forst Pecan Pie. Jimmy showed up next, then WS's nephew, then Karen (who brought brownies and raisin bars).

We had plenty of good conversation while watching the game. The Patriots won so that set everyone in a good mood (except WS who took a dislike to the Patriots way back in the '80's). The turkey got done a little early so I got it out to "rest" and shoved the grean beans and rolls into the oven.

Everything turned out well and it was quiet for a while as everyone dug into their meal. We were all stuffed so we had to "rest" a while before going after the deserts. We had the second game on the TV, but had the sound turned down and had music on the stereo as background noise to the conversation.

Somewhere between 7 and 7:30, it was time to pull out the ice cream and whipped cream to go with the pie. The pie was awesom (SIL was disappointed because the crust was a bit overdone and hard - I just added a touch of water and nuked mine for a short time - it turned out nicely warm and with a soft crust).

The house started cooling off (the oven was no longer going) so I started a fire in the wood stove (I loves me a good fire!). Any other day the woodstove would have blazed all day, but I didn't want the guests to overheat between it and the oven.

The last guest left around 9:30. WS and I just kind of laid there in a stupor before finally calling it a night and going to bed.

Today the cleanup begins. However, I did use paper plates so there are just a few less dishes (that leaves more room in the dish drainer). But the cleanup is a small price to pay for the great day we had yesterday.

We had good food, good entertainment and even better company for Thanksgiving. We hope you had the same!

Thanksgiving 2010

We are thankful for so many things; our Family and Friends, our health, our pets, our jobs (especially in these days),that we live in a freee nation and that there aremen and women that are willing to defend our nation.

 We hope everyone has a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Thanksgiving Plans

WS's brother that lives in NH is leaving soon for an extended business outing (could be a year or two). Being as how he will be leaving sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas (at last check), we decided to have them over for Thanksgiving.

This is a huge change for us. Normally we take it as a day to lounge around, maybe get some work done, then go visit family and friends. If Jimmy has no place to go, we invite him over. Sometimes we have hamsteaks for dinner, sometimes I get a turkey breast, Sometimes we go over to BIL and SIL's for dinner. I think one year we had frozen pizzas for Thanksgiving dinner (I may be getting that confuse with Christmas though).

This year we are actually doing an organized dinner. I got an honest to God real live (er, dead) turkey and will be cooking it up. I'll be making mashed potatoes (mixed with a few sweet potatoes), gravy, rolls, and green bean casserole. There will be some homemade cranberry sauce for putting over the turkey if people so wish. We will have shrimp as well as chips and dip for appetizers (we have several bags of shrimp in the freezer from a sale earlier this year).

SIL has volunteered to make a Black Chery Pecan Pie - a recipe that was in the paper a couple of weeks ago that I had cut out as something to try for the holidays - you go SIL!

The four of us can do some eating, but I figure there will be massive leftovers - unless of course Jimmy shows up, and we don't know if WS's nephew is joining us - then I may have to prepare a couple of pizzas to keep them from starving to death :)

Buffy has nothing on me (besides about 36 more people she is serving).

On the Road Again

Not me - WS has been on the road quite a bit the last several weeks. He has spent at least one night a week (if not two) at a motel to reduce the driving. He has also left at 2:30 AM and gotten back home after 7:00 PM several times each week. Two out of the last 3 weekends, he has worked on the road on Saturday. Even the days he has been in the office, he has stayed late trying to catch up with stuff that he couldn't get to while on the road. He thought he would have to go to a New York job this week and spend one or two nights, but now he's not so sure. He may instead, do an early leave / late to home day in Burlington Vermont.

It confuseds the cats, dogs and Birdie. Me? I have to do less cleaning (dishes and otherwise) and it has helped get my exercise routine on track. However, I know he never wanted to be a road person, but is doing what needs to be done. It wears on him but hopefully this flurry of activity will wind down soon for the winter.

The good news is that his company has been getting contracts so they have work to do!

Hoarding?

I was cleaning off the top of the microwave last weekend and marveled at all the stuff that I could fit on it; vitamins and asperin for dogs, a basket of birdseed and water cups for birdie, bird identification books, pad of paper and pen, reading glasses, coupon box, the camera, binoculars (there is another, smaller set in the basket) and a few other odds and ends.

 

That is when I came across the saddest thing I have probably ever saved because it might be useful some day:

 

No, I don't know what got into me when I decided to save the 20+ year old ice cream scoop that lost its plastic handle. I just thought that surely that scoop would be useful for something and it would be frugal of me to save it for that occassion.

I finally managed to convince myself to put it in the recycle bin. I wonder if this is a sign that I will become one of those sad "hoarders" when I reach advanced age.

What is the saddest thing that you have saved because it might be useful some day?

Veterans Day

I meant to post a short Thank-you to Veterans on the 11th. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance as WS was gone part of the week and I had to take care of his chores and my chores before heading to work.I was going to put the flag out, until I realized that WS hadn't had a chance to put the flag holder back on the side of the house (taken off, obviously, when we replaced the siding).

I was feeling irritated that I hadn't managed to do either of those two things when I left for work. Then, during some training on the new ERP version that will be deployed at work, I said something to the Rep about being bummed that I couldn't put out the flag. His response was "Why? What day is it?"

I was flabbergasted. This guy was in his late 50's (at least), there had been mention of Veteran's Day doings, Services and specials (like free breakfasts for Vets) all week on radio and TV. And this guy had no idea what day it was. Younger people I expect that from (they tend not to pay as much attention to news, in my experience), not those of my age and older.

Well, anyway, to all those currently serving, and those who served before, Thank You for taking up the responsibility for protecting our country. And, I want to say, that I have always been remiss by not pointing out that Cop Car and HH served in the Guards, many moons ago (my Mother really did wear Army boots - and if you understand that, youve given away your age). CC has a post up with pictures from those days.

Observations from the Past Month

It has been a month at the new job and here are a few of my observations:

• It's great only having to gas up once a week because I only do 52 miles per day, round trip, instead of 80 (minimum)!
• I've been walking at lunchtime since the millyard has such great sidewalks and part of my walk is along the river. Lots of people like to walk that area too, it seems. my normal walk is a route a little over a mile, but I also do an alternate route that is about 1.5 miles.
• It's kind of weird not getting any kind of paycheck. I've had electronic deposit at all my jobs since the mid '90's, but have always gotten something on paper. Now I have to look up online to see how much was deposited in my account (it varies each time as the benefits are added to the mix - in a couple of checks, it should stabilize). I always thought it was a huge waste for me to get an entire piece of paper just to show me what the deductions were and what the deposit was - so I'm not complaining, it just takes getting used to.
• It sometimes sucks being the new person in a really busy place - I don't know enough to help at some of the stuff they need, and people don't have time to teach me (and still others are trying to take up their vacation time before they lose it, so aren't around).
• Some brands of ERP software have a lot less functionallity than ERP software I was using in 2000. The really sad part is that we are updating to the latest version and everyone is so excited because it is a huge leap forward from the version that is currently being used. Hopefully the rep is taking notes on what I would like added in future releases!
• It is odd, yet nice that I don't have to leave the house at 4:40 in the morning to avoid the traffic. At the same time, my new route to work has less passing zones so if I get behind a nervous Nellie (doing 10 MPH under the speed limit), I am really, really screwed!
• The dogs aren't very flexible when it comes to feeding time; they were just adjusting to getting up later (5 AM vs 3:30) when the time change hit - now they want to be fed at 4.
• I finally decided that I can no longer use the change in schedule as an excuse to avoid working out. This week I worked out 3 of the mornings before going to work. Now I just have to keep it going.

See, I actually can post something other than, "Well, duh, it was a week and nothing really happened."

Blah, Blah, Blah

This has been one of those blah weeks; nothing interesting happening, no good pictures and nothing to talk about (after all, I did do a brief post on the elections earlier, so no need to re-hash it).

I have been surprised that two amaryllis that I never let go dormant after last winter, and placed out on the deck last spring, have been fine with temps down to the high 20's. This is what they looked like last weekend:

 

I was surprised as I thought that you weren't supposed to let the bulbs get to less than 40 degrees when dormant, so I figured they were pretty tender. Apparently that assumption was incorrect.

However, after a couple mornings in the low 20's, and very heavy frosts (windshield scraping heavy frosts), they finally look really sad out on the deck (as do the peppers out in the unheated greenhouse).

I have never been able to store the bulbs for dormancy (hence, my not letting them die back after blooming last winter), so I'm not sure what I will do with them now. If I had room in the fridge, I would put them in there a while, then bring them back out to see if they would come back to bloom in the spring, but I already take up one entire drawer with vegetable seeds, so don't really have the room. Any suggestions from you guys would be appreciated.

I'm off to peruse other people's blogs so maybe I'll get some inspiration there. If not, have a great weekend and I'll try to do better next time.

The End of Silly Season - For Now

Went and voted last night and had the momentary thought of "WooHoo, no more political adds, debates or profiles on the news." Then I realized that there would be at least 3 weeks of "analyzing" why the elections went the way they did (for local, state and national), so my euphoria was short lived. Hopefully after all the analyzing, we will get at least a month's worth of relatively political free airwaves (TV, radio, phone surveys and web content) before the next campaign season starts.