Progress report... We're back in Jamul, after an epic drive in the behemoth. The traffic in the Los Angeles area was particularly harrowing, messed up from the flooding and the Saturday night crazies and drunks. I'm so very glad to be finished driving that monster!
The animals were, of course, ecstatic to see the two of us return. We suspect they thought themselves abandoned. Jahaur, in particular was just beside himself with joy when he first spotted Debbie :)
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Friday, December 12, 2014
Progress report...
Progress report... Yesterday was one very busy day! First of all, we unpacked most of the truck – bazillions of boxes are now strewn throughout our house, which we've now renamed “Chaos Manor”. Debbie has unpacked some clothes and some of the kitchen stuff, but the rest is all still packed – just off the truck. This morning I'll haul in about 25 remaining boxes, heavy ones that I didn't feel up to late yesterday. Then I'll back the truck up to the barn and offload some tools and other things that we'll store in the barn – probably an hour's work. By noon we'll have the truck completely empty. Tomorrow morning before dawn we'll be on the road for the final trip down to Jamul.
The rest of the day today we'll be “cat-proofing” the two rooms that will have cats in them (the cattery for seven of the cats, and our bedroom for Jahaur, our Savannah cat). That will feel like a vacation after yesterday's push :)
Yesterday morning we got a phone call from Bruce N., one of the realtors who helped us find our Paradise home. He and his wife (June) have become friends. They live in Avon, the next town south. Bruce called to see if we were moving in, and to extend an offer we instantly accepted: to bring us our supper late yesterday afternoon. We'd been thinking we'd run and get some fast food or something like that – we knew we'd be tired and dirty and in no mood to spend more than 10 seconds preparing a meal. The thought of someone delivering a meal to us was ... enticing. We expected them to deliver some sort of takeout meal, but instead they came in bearing two large trays with a homemade spinach/pear/avocado salad (wonderful!), a loaf of fresh homemade bread (we ate the whole thing within two hours), a cheesy chicken and vegetable casserole over rice (oh, those carbs tasted so good!), and brownies for dessert. I don't have the words for how wonderful that dinner was. It was absolutely the perfect thing for us at that moment.
Another new friend (and my neighbor to the north), Tim D., spent 9 hours between Wednesday and Thursday moving about 100 cubic yards of rich, black topsoil from next to our barn to the west end of our “garden”. This is the soil that was excavated to make the foundation for our barn. The builders just piled it all up next to the barn, but that left it right on a field that Tim wants to run alfalfa on (we've let him use it so that we don't have two acres of weeds there – and he can use the hay for his horses). My barn builder let us rent his giant loader (the front scoop holds 1.5 cubic yards) and Tim spent many years operating one, so he did the actual work. He moved all that topsoil, plus smaller piles of rock and road base, then roughly leveled the field to get ready for the spring plowing. Yesterday afternoon Tim finished the job. He'll be planting alfalfa in the spring.
There was lots of progress on the barn yesterday as well. The masons finished putting in the rock along the bottom four feet or so of the barn. They won't be able to clean and seal it until spring, so it's not looking as good now as it will then – but it looks pretty darned good even now! The plumber came and installed the boiler. One minor setback: the gas line we buried isn't holding pressure. One of the three joints must be leaking. He and the builder will be working on that this morning. Unless there's some disaster, they should have that fixed, and next week we'll get it inspected – and then the barn will have heat. Woo hoo! And (finally!) the garage door installers showed up and started that process. They'll be finished with the door today. It won't be long now until we have a finished and usable barn...
The rest of the day today we'll be “cat-proofing” the two rooms that will have cats in them (the cattery for seven of the cats, and our bedroom for Jahaur, our Savannah cat). That will feel like a vacation after yesterday's push :)
Yesterday morning we got a phone call from Bruce N., one of the realtors who helped us find our Paradise home. He and his wife (June) have become friends. They live in Avon, the next town south. Bruce called to see if we were moving in, and to extend an offer we instantly accepted: to bring us our supper late yesterday afternoon. We'd been thinking we'd run and get some fast food or something like that – we knew we'd be tired and dirty and in no mood to spend more than 10 seconds preparing a meal. The thought of someone delivering a meal to us was ... enticing. We expected them to deliver some sort of takeout meal, but instead they came in bearing two large trays with a homemade spinach/pear/avocado salad (wonderful!), a loaf of fresh homemade bread (we ate the whole thing within two hours), a cheesy chicken and vegetable casserole over rice (oh, those carbs tasted so good!), and brownies for dessert. I don't have the words for how wonderful that dinner was. It was absolutely the perfect thing for us at that moment.
Another new friend (and my neighbor to the north), Tim D., spent 9 hours between Wednesday and Thursday moving about 100 cubic yards of rich, black topsoil from next to our barn to the west end of our “garden”. This is the soil that was excavated to make the foundation for our barn. The builders just piled it all up next to the barn, but that left it right on a field that Tim wants to run alfalfa on (we've let him use it so that we don't have two acres of weeds there – and he can use the hay for his horses). My barn builder let us rent his giant loader (the front scoop holds 1.5 cubic yards) and Tim spent many years operating one, so he did the actual work. He moved all that topsoil, plus smaller piles of rock and road base, then roughly leveled the field to get ready for the spring plowing. Yesterday afternoon Tim finished the job. He'll be planting alfalfa in the spring.
There was lots of progress on the barn yesterday as well. The masons finished putting in the rock along the bottom four feet or so of the barn. They won't be able to clean and seal it until spring, so it's not looking as good now as it will then – but it looks pretty darned good even now! The plumber came and installed the boiler. One minor setback: the gas line we buried isn't holding pressure. One of the three joints must be leaking. He and the builder will be working on that this morning. Unless there's some disaster, they should have that fixed, and next week we'll get it inspected – and then the barn will have heat. Woo hoo! And (finally!) the garage door installers showed up and started that process. They'll be finished with the door today. It won't be long now until we have a finished and usable barn...
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Progress report...
Progress report... We made a good dent in the truck's load yesterday, and in particular brought in all the really heavy stuff. Our small army showed up last night, as promised, and made very short work of carrying our 400 lb. bed up to the second floor. The Questar gas folks showed up yesterday as well, and we planned out how to connect the barn to the natural gas line. This could happen as early as tomorrow, but I'm betting it will really be next week.
We also took delivery of some new furniture, but with a less-than-wonderful delivery experience. We paid the vendor (a furniture manufacturer in North Carolina) for “concierge” service, wherein a team of people was to bring in the furniture and unpack it. Instead, we got a surly truck driver who refused to step foot in our house or to wait while we unpacked and inspected our furniture – and one box was very badly damaged. After the driver left, we unpacked the furniture (a couch, wide chair, and footstool) and it was all in fine shape, so all was ok in the end. Debbie gave an earful of discontented feedback to the shipper and the furniture place, though – made her feel much better :)
Today will be the “day of the boxes”. I expect to make approximately 42,982 trips back-and-forth to the truck...
We also took delivery of some new furniture, but with a less-than-wonderful delivery experience. We paid the vendor (a furniture manufacturer in North Carolina) for “concierge” service, wherein a team of people was to bring in the furniture and unpack it. Instead, we got a surly truck driver who refused to step foot in our house or to wait while we unpacked and inspected our furniture – and one box was very badly damaged. After the driver left, we unpacked the furniture (a couch, wide chair, and footstool) and it was all in fine shape, so all was ok in the end. Debbie gave an earful of discontented feedback to the shipper and the furniture place, though – made her feel much better :)
Today will be the “day of the boxes”. I expect to make approximately 42,982 trips back-and-forth to the truck...
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Progress report...
Progress report... We did in fact make it to Paradise last night (though not until 1 am!), and this morning we've started unloading the truck. We had a few very minor mishaps on the way up, but nothing major. The biggest annoyance was discovering that the truck was speed-limited to 67 mph (through a governor sort of mechanism). When you're cruising on 700 miles of road with speed limits between 70 and 80 mph, this is darned annoying – and, of course, it made the trip considerably longer. The load on the truck appears to have arrived in fine shape. A few boxes tumbled a bit, but so far we see zero damage of any kind. For the heavy stuff in the truck, a small army of local men are showing up early this evening (after their work) to give us a hand. I love this place!
Monday, December 8, 2014
Progress report: we did it!
Progress report: we did it! Debbie and I put in a marathon effort today, and managed to completely finish loading the truck. That means we're on the road tomorrow, heading for Utah with me driving the behemoth truck and Debbie driving our little FJ. We should pull into Paradise late tomorrow night. Woo hoo!
(Belated) progress report...
(Belated) progress report... I forgot to post one yesterday – we were too busy! The packing is going more slowly than expected, both because there's more stuff to sort through than we thought and because we had several interruptions in our efforts yesterday when friends came to pick up furniture we're giving away. In one case I needed to help deliver it; in several others I needed to help load it up. Inevitably, that all took several hours.
Yesterday, though, we did get our monster log bed loaded onto the truck – and to my surprise, Debbie and I were able to do it all by ourselves. The headboard piece is the largest, weighing around 250 or 300 pounds. Somehow we lugged that outside, up the ramp, and onto the truck. I sure am glad to have that done!
At this point the “only” rooms left to pack are the laundry room and our bedroom (mainly clothes and slide rule books). I'm pretty sure we will not be able to finish that today, which means we can't drive to Utah tomorrow. It looks like Wednesday will be our travel day. Oh, well...
Saturday night we had a lovely dinner with “eg” and her neice. “eg” wanted a ceiling fan motor to make into a potter's wheel, and we delivered that along with a dinner at Dolci's (delicious!). Tonight we're having sushi at Hana's in El Cajon with our friends (and my former colleagues) Aleck L. and Jimmy Y. We'll be ready for that by the day's end!
Yesterday, though, we did get our monster log bed loaded onto the truck – and to my surprise, Debbie and I were able to do it all by ourselves. The headboard piece is the largest, weighing around 250 or 300 pounds. Somehow we lugged that outside, up the ramp, and onto the truck. I sure am glad to have that done!
At this point the “only” rooms left to pack are the laundry room and our bedroom (mainly clothes and slide rule books). I'm pretty sure we will not be able to finish that today, which means we can't drive to Utah tomorrow. It looks like Wednesday will be our travel day. Oh, well...
Saturday night we had a lovely dinner with “eg” and her neice. “eg” wanted a ceiling fan motor to make into a potter's wheel, and we delivered that along with a dinner at Dolci's (delicious!). Tonight we're having sushi at Hana's in El Cajon with our friends (and my former colleagues) Aleck L. and Jimmy Y. We'll be ready for that by the day's end!
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Progress report...
Progress report... We got a lot done on a long, long day yesterday – but not quite as much as I actually expected to get done. Mainly this was because over the years we had squirreled away a huge amount of stuff in our tiny (10' x 12') shared shared office. I worked on it nearly all day, and still didn't finish it – it will take me an hour or so this morning to get the last stuff out. Meanwhile, Debbie gave up on trying to work in the office with me, as there's just not enough room in there. So she started on the kitchen, and managed to pack all the glassware (11 big boxes in all) and got a good start on the rest of the stuff in the kitchen. Today, with any luck at all, we'll finish our storage room and maybe get part of the laundry room as well...
Last night we treated ourselves to sushi at our favorite local spot: Hana Sushi in El Cajon. Wonderful fish, fresh wasabi (if you've never tried this, you should – I detest the green paste normally sold as wasabi, but the fresh stuff is really good), iced green tea (good even without any sugar!) and the great company of the couple that owns the place. We're trying to talk them into opening a branch in Paradise, Utah, but so far with no effect :(
Time to start packing and lugging...
Last night we treated ourselves to sushi at our favorite local spot: Hana Sushi in El Cajon. Wonderful fish, fresh wasabi (if you've never tried this, you should – I detest the green paste normally sold as wasabi, but the fresh stuff is really good), iced green tea (good even without any sugar!) and the great company of the couple that owns the place. We're trying to talk them into opening a branch in Paradise, Utah, but so far with no effect :(
Time to start packing and lugging...
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Progress report...
Progress report... Yesterday we picked up our rental truck – a monster with a 26' long cargo area. Driving it back from Kearney Mesa to Jamul through the rush hour traffic and rain was ... intense. I pulled into our driveway without any problems, then started to turn it around so I could back up to the house. Next thing you know, I'm completely stuck – the rear tires were actually off the ground.
It took me a minute to absorb the situation and see how this happened. The back end includes a lift gate and pull-out ramp. To protect those mechanisms, a pair of “skids” extends down below them. When the truck is on level ground, those skids are about a foot off the ground. When I pulled off my driveway to turn around, the nose of the truck was headed up a hill with perhaps a 15% grade. That brought the skids down to within an inch or so of the pavement. Then when the rear wheels rolled off the pavement, the truck dropped onto those skids – and left the tires an inch off the ground, over the shallow drainage trench just off the pavement. Sheesh!
The fix was obvious: raise the rear tires, put some rubble under them, and then I'd be fine. My 3 ton garage jack could only lift the truck about an inch, just shy of the distance needed. Any higher and the thing's pressure relief valve just said “no”. Well, really “No f’ing way, dude!”, but that's a detail. So down the hill I went to find me a good old-fashioned bottle jack, a handy thing to have anyway. I found one a half hour away, in Spring Valley – a 12 ton bottle jack with 5" lift capacity. That little thing made short work of raising the truck, and within 15 minutes of arriving home with it, I drove the truck out of the problem. Whew!
The rest of the day yesterday, and so far today, we're packing and loading the truck. Our covered patio is almost finished. We're leaving a lot of that stuff behind, so there wasn't much to do. Debbie's been busy wrapping all our art work with stretchy plastic film, and putting bubble wrap around the edges – she's almost done with that. This is, in general, going much faster than we had imagined it would.
As I'm sure you can imagine, the house now looks like a category 5 hurricane ripped through the interior. The cats are quite disturbed. They don't like new things in general, and at the moment the house seems to be radically changing constantly. The dogs are sleeping – they don't care what's happening, as long as we're there and not upset. They watch us carefully, though, to see if we're unhappy – and if we were, you can be sure they'd be upset too :)
It took me a minute to absorb the situation and see how this happened. The back end includes a lift gate and pull-out ramp. To protect those mechanisms, a pair of “skids” extends down below them. When the truck is on level ground, those skids are about a foot off the ground. When I pulled off my driveway to turn around, the nose of the truck was headed up a hill with perhaps a 15% grade. That brought the skids down to within an inch or so of the pavement. Then when the rear wheels rolled off the pavement, the truck dropped onto those skids – and left the tires an inch off the ground, over the shallow drainage trench just off the pavement. Sheesh!
The fix was obvious: raise the rear tires, put some rubble under them, and then I'd be fine. My 3 ton garage jack could only lift the truck about an inch, just shy of the distance needed. Any higher and the thing's pressure relief valve just said “no”. Well, really “No f’ing way, dude!”, but that's a detail. So down the hill I went to find me a good old-fashioned bottle jack, a handy thing to have anyway. I found one a half hour away, in Spring Valley – a 12 ton bottle jack with 5" lift capacity. That little thing made short work of raising the truck, and within 15 minutes of arriving home with it, I drove the truck out of the problem. Whew!
The rest of the day yesterday, and so far today, we're packing and loading the truck. Our covered patio is almost finished. We're leaving a lot of that stuff behind, so there wasn't much to do. Debbie's been busy wrapping all our art work with stretchy plastic film, and putting bubble wrap around the edges – she's almost done with that. This is, in general, going much faster than we had imagined it would.
As I'm sure you can imagine, the house now looks like a category 5 hurricane ripped through the interior. The cats are quite disturbed. They don't like new things in general, and at the moment the house seems to be radically changing constantly. The dogs are sleeping – they don't care what's happening, as long as we're there and not upset. They watch us carefully, though, to see if we're unhappy – and if we were, you can be sure they'd be upset too :)
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Tamme-Lauri oak in Estonia...
Mo'i update...
Mo'i update... Yesterday Mo'i got chest X-rays and a cardiac ultrasound, and neither of those diagnostics detected anything at all awry. Naturally, the arrhythmia that started us down this path was completely absent. The cardiologist told us that this eliminated all but a few of the possible causes. The remaining possibilities were tumors on the spleen or liver (through some poorly understood mechanism, these can cause arrhythmia) or microscopic cardiac disease that's too small for the diagnostics to pick up. It also could have been some “anomalous” (read “something we don’t understand” event that may or may not repeat itself. The cardiologist saw nothing (even with the previous day's ECG in hand) that was severe enough to be treated. He didn't think the arrhythmia we observed on Monday was severe enough to have caused the lethargic spell we saw. That means that either the lethargy was completely unrelated to the arrhythmia, or that he had a much worse arrhythmia for that period.
Further diagnostics might have been able to detect one of the other possible causes. However, when we queried the cardiologist about treatment for any of those other possibilities, they were all treatments we would not put Mo'i through at this stage (surgery, radiation, etc.). The poor guy has problems we already know about that are not treatable, he's 16 years old, and has little enough time left no matter what we did about his heart. We just couldn't put him through more misery for yet another medical problem. The cardiologist, naturally, would like to have understood what the cause of the problem was – but he did understand that if that didn't lead to treatment, it really didn't matter to us (and certainly not to Mo'i).
Yesterday and today Mo'i seems just fine, behaving in his usual old-age fashion. His appetite is normal, and he's moving around like we're used to seeing. This morning he enjoyed his banana ends as usual, and ate a bonus bowl of food with gusto. We're just going to keep a good eye on him (if a severe arrhythmia shows up, we can detect it ourselves with a stethoscope, and get treatment) and be thankful for each hour we have left...
Further diagnostics might have been able to detect one of the other possible causes. However, when we queried the cardiologist about treatment for any of those other possibilities, they were all treatments we would not put Mo'i through at this stage (surgery, radiation, etc.). The poor guy has problems we already know about that are not treatable, he's 16 years old, and has little enough time left no matter what we did about his heart. We just couldn't put him through more misery for yet another medical problem. The cardiologist, naturally, would like to have understood what the cause of the problem was – but he did understand that if that didn't lead to treatment, it really didn't matter to us (and certainly not to Mo'i).
Yesterday and today Mo'i seems just fine, behaving in his usual old-age fashion. His appetite is normal, and he's moving around like we're used to seeing. This morning he enjoyed his banana ends as usual, and ate a bonus bowl of food with gusto. We're just going to keep a good eye on him (if a severe arrhythmia shows up, we can detect it ourselves with a stethoscope, and get treatment) and be thankful for each hour we have left...
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Progress report...
Progress report... Well, we didn't get much done on the move yesterday. Night before last, Mo'i (our 16 year old male Field Spaniel) was very lethargic – didn't want to eat (major alarm bell with him) and we had to pick him up to get him to go for a walk. Yesterday morning we took him in to see Dr. Wilson at Steele Canyon Veterinary Clinic, and she quickly found an arrhythmia in his heart. I had taken his pulse when we saw his lethargy, and it was 88. Dr. Wilson found it was varying between 88 and 150, randomly – and his heartbeat sounded really weird. She did a quick EKG and found a very odd pattern. Bottom line: we have an appointment with a veterinary cardiologist this afternoon.
Today he's looking better – good appetite and he's eager to go out for a walk. Figures. But the cardiologist has the EKG, and we need to figure out why this happened. There are, we understand, lots of possibilities. They range from very treatable things like potassium imbalances to terminal, like a tumor on the heart. He's very old and already suffering from terminal cancer, so we're not going to do any treatment that would cause him any pain...
Today he's looking better – good appetite and he's eager to go out for a walk. Figures. But the cardiologist has the EKG, and we need to figure out why this happened. There are, we understand, lots of possibilities. They range from very treatable things like potassium imbalances to terminal, like a tumor on the heart. He's very old and already suffering from terminal cancer, so we're not going to do any treatment that would cause him any pain...
Slow programming movement...
Slow programming movement... I didn't even know this was a thing! Reading about it, I see that it's very close to my own notion of the value of careful software craftsmanship. I've likened it to the difference between an old-fashioned (and I thought, nearly extinct!) cabinet-maker, and the modern variety that hires high school kids, trains them for an hour, and uses MDF and modern fasteners that allow for slop and error...
Monday, December 1, 2014
Progress report...
Progress report... Yesterday, we finished cleaning out the stuff we'd stored at our friend's barn. We celebrated that accomplishment with a fine dinner at Descanso Junction Restaurant, with Jimmy and Michelle. Very nice indeed! I also met the new owners of our house yesterday, and went over some “technical” stuff with them. They're an ambitious young couple with big plans for renovation and expansion. We've demanded pictures :)
Today we start on the house, tossing out junk, deciding what we're going to take, and perhaps even some packing...
Today we start on the house, tossing out junk, deciding what we're going to take, and perhaps even some packing...
Music and science...
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Just ran across this commencement address...
Progress report...
Progress report... Well, at least it wasn't hot yesterday :) A sort of standing joke between Debbie and I is that we always move in the hottest, most miserable part of the year. Not this time! We're more likely to suffer frostbite this time than we are to sweat. Even here in Jamul it's quite cool – 48°F as I write.
Yesterday was the first day of the “not so much fun” part of our move. We're going through long-stored stuff, some of it dating back to the '70s. Much of it has been stored in our long-forbearing friend's barn for the past 15 years, and the local rodent population has built the equivalent of Mexico City amongst it. So, as you might imagine, a significant fraction of that long-stored trove is going straight into a dumpster. A significant fraction will be given away, and a remarkably small amount (I'm guessing about 20 cubic feet) will go with us to Utah. Makes us feel pretty stupid about storing all that stuff, but then again, I don't know how we could ever have predicted where our life would take us.
We got about halfway through our stuff at our friend's barn yesterday, which is faster than I expected that effort to go. We'll be finished up there either late today or tomorrow sometime, and then we start on our house. There's less stuff for us to worry about at the house, as much of what's there that we're not taking with us has already been given away, promised to someone, or the new owners are going to take it. So I think we're actually going to be ready to start packing up the moving truck we're renting by Wednesday or Thursday this week, well ahead of my notional schedule...
Yesterday was the first day of the “not so much fun” part of our move. We're going through long-stored stuff, some of it dating back to the '70s. Much of it has been stored in our long-forbearing friend's barn for the past 15 years, and the local rodent population has built the equivalent of Mexico City amongst it. So, as you might imagine, a significant fraction of that long-stored trove is going straight into a dumpster. A significant fraction will be given away, and a remarkably small amount (I'm guessing about 20 cubic feet) will go with us to Utah. Makes us feel pretty stupid about storing all that stuff, but then again, I don't know how we could ever have predicted where our life would take us.
We got about halfway through our stuff at our friend's barn yesterday, which is faster than I expected that effort to go. We'll be finished up there either late today or tomorrow sometime, and then we start on our house. There's less stuff for us to worry about at the house, as much of what's there that we're not taking with us has already been given away, promised to someone, or the new owners are going to take it. So I think we're actually going to be ready to start packing up the moving truck we're renting by Wednesday or Thursday this week, well ahead of my notional schedule...
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Progress report...
Progress report... We had a nice, relaxed day yesterday, accomplishing exactly nothing. We watched a movie at home, then drove up to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park to watch wildlife, and finished it all off with a delicious dinner at Descanso Junction restaurant.
Early yesterday afternoon I did something that was a lot of fun: I drove Dionecia B. – our friend, house-sitter, and longtime house cleaner – down to Rancho Jamul Auto Care to pick up the RV we've given her. It's been there for months getting a myriad of little problems fixed. At the same time, I signed over ownership to her. Her radiant visage when she picked up the pink slip was something I'll not soon forget. I drove behind her as she drove the RV back to her home, to make sure she made it ok – she did just fine.
Today I begin the “moving out” process: going through everything we own, deciding whether we're going to keep it, toss it away (I have a big dumpster positioned to take the junk), give it away to friends, or set it curbside for anyone who might want it to take. It's amazing how much crap one accumulates after 15 years of living in one place!
Early yesterday afternoon I did something that was a lot of fun: I drove Dionecia B. – our friend, house-sitter, and longtime house cleaner – down to Rancho Jamul Auto Care to pick up the RV we've given her. It's been there for months getting a myriad of little problems fixed. At the same time, I signed over ownership to her. Her radiant visage when she picked up the pink slip was something I'll not soon forget. I drove behind her as she drove the RV back to her home, to make sure she made it ok – she did just fine.
Today I begin the “moving out” process: going through everything we own, deciding whether we're going to keep it, toss it away (I have a big dumpster positioned to take the junk), give it away to friends, or set it curbside for anyone who might want it to take. It's amazing how much crap one accumulates after 15 years of living in one place!
Friday, November 28, 2014
Thanksgiving dinner...
Thanksgiving dinner ... was a wonderful thing! Jim and Michelle had us, Michelle's sister and her husband, and a family friend join them for dinner. They cooked a mostly traditional meal: brined roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, dinner rolls, green beans, sweet potatoes with cinnamon and nuts, cranberry sauce with pomegranate, and pumpkin or cherry pie for dessert. We took some leftovers home with us, and we'll enjoy them a little later today. The food was all great, and there was plenty of it. The wine flowed freely as well :). There was much good cheer, friendly conversation, and story telling. A most pleasant evening, with a group of most pleasant companions...
Thursday, November 27, 2014
One of the many things I am thankful for this year...
One of the many things I am thankful for this year ... is Megan McArdle. Her posts entertain and inform me on an almost daily basis. Here's the conclusion of her post from yesterday:
There is only one way to do Thanksgiving "wrong," and that is to fail to be grateful for the people you are eating it with, and the many other good people of this great nation who are sitting down at other tables. The rest is a sideshow. And don't be afraid to have another helping of that sideshow, with extra gravy on top.You betcha I'm going for that extra gravy, Megan.
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