Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Julianna Banana

This week, my future granddaughter is Julianna Banana (yes it rhymes).

From Jen's email with this week's size descriptor:

You're at the halfway mark — congratulations! Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (The way your baby is measured changes now.) He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (although some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

I forking forgot my camera (dagrabbit) so took the cell phone photo up top of Jen's baby bump. As you can see, she is quickly moving from baby bump to baby belly. She looked wonderful and served up quite a Thanksgiving spread. Mike's brother Tim and sister-in-law Stacy was also there along with their two teens. The food was incredible and there was lots of laughter and love served with the turkey and all the fixings. Last night when I crawled into bed in Jen and Mike's guest room, I was still feeling stuffed. Token was very well behaved and spent most of our visit there going from lap to lap -- his favorite thing!

Jen sent me home with the turkey carcass. I'm looking forward to making turkey rice soup from the leftovers.

Friday Sunset

Sunshine on the coast today. There is a controlled burn up at the top of Cape Lookout that makes it sorta look like a volcano. The red glow up there at night is spooky but I've not figured out how to photograph at night with my camera. Tis the time of year for controlled burns, now that we've had some good-sized soaking rains, the burn prohibition has been lifted.


The next photo is of tonight's sunset as seen from the deck. The sun has moved a lot further south and is almost clearing the trees from this angle. You can see some of the smoke drifting north above the spit from the controlled burn.


The last picture is of the sunset from the breakfast room. That room has the least obstructed view of the bay and the sunset has cleared the trees when viewed from it.


My future grandbaby is now Baby Avocado. From Thursday's email:

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length . Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too.

Jen finds out if Baby Avocado has a stem or not November 18th. She's currently 16 weeks and has begun to wear maternity pants. I expect by Thanksgiving, she'll have started to wear maternity tops also. By then, she will be 20 weeks along and halfway there.

Jen and Mike have invited me to celebrate Thanksgiving with them again this year -- twill be their first Thanksgiving at their new house. I'm looking forward to the celebration. Mike's brother and sister-in-law will be there along with Tim and Stacy's two teens and they are all a lot of fun to be with. The food will be magnificent based on previous Thanksgivings. Jen should be showing a lot more by that day and I'm looking forward to teaching Baby Avocado how to kick on command.

Saturday Sunset

This was Saturday's sunset.

Thanksgiving Day I had a horrible headache by the time I arrived at Jen and Mike's. It was great seeing them and her brother-in-law and his wife and their teens again. It reminded me that I had spent last Thanksgiving with all of them at the time share up in Seaside and what fun that day was.

The food was cooking and smelled wonderful. The more wonderful it smelled the queasier I got. When I ended up visiting the porcelain goddess, I knew that I was going to have to leave.

Before dinner.

The first Thanksgiving Dinner that Jen had prepared.

Big sigh.

Jen was so understanding but I still felt like the Worst. Mom. Ever. I promised her I would come back Sunday and we would celebrate with leftovers.

I stopped ralphing about 30 minutes before I got home. Didn't feel like eating anything the rest of the night. Friday felt better -- headache still there but not any where near as bad and by Saturday it was just a slight twinge over my left eye.

Sunday I was supposed to meet up with my boss, the Really Big Guy, as he vacations a wee bit south of me every Thanksgiving week. He and his wife were my very first visitors after I moved into this place last year. We were planning on a same time next year visit but I called and left a voice mail explaining that I was going to have to cancel our visit.

Sunday I drove to Mike and Jen's and had a great time. We looked at kitchens in a magazine and ate and talked about the type of house they want to buy and what areas. She sent me home with a buttload of leftovers, including the bird carcass and reassurances that I was not the Worst. Mom. Ever.

I'm gonna make turkey rice soup -- a post-Thanksgiving tradition. Think thanksgiving dinner in a soup. Yummy yummy -- and with all that fantabulous herb under the skin turkey, and the yukon gold smashed potatoes with cream cheese and sour cream mashed into them, and the green been casserole (with added roasted garlic), and all the other mah-vah-lous things that Jen fixed in the soup -- this year's turkey rice soup is bound to be a winner.

Sun, Monday and tonight's sunsets were not. They were gray and cloud filled. Fingers and toes crossed for color to go with the clear (and very cold) weather ahead. Gotta bunch of firewood stacked up next to the stove and am wearing layers. Ran into town today and picked up a new coffee maker (mine died) and warm socks. A cold dry air mass is headed this way -- weather dood says no chance of snow since it is dry air but it is gonna be cold enough to snow if that air wasn't dry. Same type of arctic air that brought us snow last December. All the cold and none of the eye candy. Brrr.

You Can Get Anything You Want

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant*.

I'm headed to Jen's for Thanksgiving but that won't prevent me from enjoying one of my favorite turkey day traditions:



Arlo Guthrie -- Alice's Restaurant.

*waiting for it to come around on the gui-tar again

Hoping you and yours have a great Thanksgiving.

Odds and Ends

Another gray day at the peaceful retreat on the bay. But -- there was no wind blowing and we warmed up into the 50's today. Insert mental image of me doing a modified version of the Snoopy Happy Dance here.

Drove into town and ran errands. All the color has been stripped off the trees by last week's winds and I can see snow on the highest mountain tops. I drove over the Coast Range yesterday and noticed snow at the summit (1500 feet) but the roads were clear. It wasn't a lot of snow but... tis the time of year when weather and road conditions have to be checked before heading out.

Weather dood says the snow levels should stay above the 1500 foot level this week -- a good thing since I have to go over the range to get to Jen's on Thanksgiving. A total role reversal for us this year -- Jen is cooking Thanksgiving Dinner (her first year doing so) and her brother and sister in law and their teens will also be there. Jen promised to send me home with lotsa leftovers.

I love the day after Thanksgiving dive into leftovers. Turkey rice soup (turkey, stuffing, veggies, gravy, yams - basically most of the Thanksgiving leftovers and then add some rice). Open faced turkey sandwiches with gravy and cranberries. Not even going to get started on the desserts (laughing). I've always loved cooking Thanksgiving dinner knowing I will have all those leftovers to play with.

One of my landlord's cats has taken to hanging out on the deck railing near the rose that tries to eat the stairs. She is gorgeous and appears to be in a turf war with Bailey cat. Bailey tries to avoid I-you-me (unsure of spelling) after their cat fight on the deck last week.

Bailey used my taking this photo as her opportunity to streak past us and run inside the open front door (laughing). I'm sure they will eventually work out a resolution.

Black Friday

Spend Thanksgiving with my oldest daughter, her husband, brother-in-law, sister-in-law and their family. They were staying in the family timeshare in Seaside, about an hour north of me. We had a wonderful, wonderful time and I was reminded of all that I am thankful for.



Steely Dan - Black Friday.

I'm not doing any shopping this Black Friday. Still minding my nickles and dimes and will do most of my shopping online and have the store ship the gift to my loved ones.

Pictures of the bride, the groom, and the perpetual skip bo game.

Turkey Day

It is not Turkey Day unless Alice's Restaurant is playing.

Happy Thanksgiving.

This Is So Me At Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, referred to by many as Turkey Day.

It is always wise to be prepared, to know what lays ahead, and prepare accordingly. This is my idea of the perfect version of a public service announcement, courtesy of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (who produced this for radio back in the 90's).

Listen and learn why Skippy is my favorite 'roo. Then head over to his place and check out the Sheryl Crow Thanksgiving.