#3008 pdin 27 be thankful and have gratitude

my autumn art "quilt"

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate. I don't really think of this holiday in terms of pilgrims and the native people they displaced. I don't harbor childhood fantasies of white English settlers and brown indigenous people peacefully gathered around a table laden with turkey and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pies. Instead, I think of it as a bit of time off work. I think of it as a time to gather with family and friends to have a nice meal and enjoy each other's company. Daily gratitude is part of my routine, so it's not hard to think of all the things that make me feel like I have a blessed life. 

A quick note about the little autumn art quilt above. This came out of a prompt by Jill the Artist to celebrate the season with things that make you feel autumn vibes and gratitude. There are a couple of leaves and an acorn. Those things remind me of Red Butte Garden. There is a tree with falling leaves which represents my neighborhood. There's a red cup of coffee in the upper left corner paying homage to Starbucks and their holiday season red cup. There's a football with the words Go Utes and the red U for the University of Utah football season. There's a pie because, well, pie (!), and there is a wee family of three to represent me with my menfolk. 

Have a wonderful day! Do what makes you happy today: rest, read, enjoy your garden, have yummy snacks, and remember, I LOVE YOU!

#3003 pdin 22 it seems like pickles are having a moment

 

my art

For Thanksgiving, I volunteered to bring some appetizers and wine. Scrolling through Pinterest is a good way to get ideas and find recipes because I don't want to just bring any old ranch dip, even though it's a classic and nearly everyone likes it. 

What I noticed is there appears to be a new trend, not just in dips, although it's there, too. Pickles are having a moment. All of these photos are from the internet.

cheese bread with pickles

dill pickle dip

pickle pasta salad

pickle pizza

The cheesy bread and the pizza are particularly offensive to me.

I do not like pickles, and I don't think I ever have. I don't like the taste of dill, either. I don't like cucumbers. When I was pregnant, I could smell cucumbers from far away. In the office, someone would have cucumbers on their salad or as a crunchy snack, and the smell made me low-key nauseous. The aversion isn't quite as strong anymore, but I still don't like the smell of cucumbers or pickles. If one of those items touches my food, I consider the food contaminated. (hahahaha...no, really)

Needless to say, I will NOT be bringing a pickle-related appetizer to the Thanksgiving feast. I think I've settled on a mini meat and cheese board and a spicy pepper jelly over cream cheese. I'll also bring a few bottles of wine and a pecan pie from Trader Joe's. I love pecan pie, although no one else in my house does. I know there are other people on MT's side of the family who will enjoy the pecan pie with me, and then I don't have a whole pie here at home. That's dangerous for me because I will eat the whole pie. 

Here's to a pickle-free holiday!

#2869 my Thanksgiving weekend

Would you look at that? The Thanksgiving weekend is over, and now Christmas is less than a month away. This year has flown by for me.

It was road trip time again. My work shut down around noon on Wednesday, so MT and I hit the road by about 2:00, heading once more for Northern California. We had nice weather and a smooth drive to our halfway point destination of Winnemucca, NV. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. It smelled weird in the lobby that night. We've stayed there before, and it is a nice enough place, but it was weirdly smelly that day.

I will mention that I was an anxiety-ridden basket case when we left. I hated leaving T behind on a holiday. I felt like a terrible mother and it really bothered me. On top of that, I was just totally stressed out by everything that's going on with my aunt, moving her, closing up the house, just all of it. I had an anxiety attack as we were starting out. I was crying pretty hard, and struggled to calm down enough to  catch my breath. I considered taking an anti-anxiety pill, but the medicine puts me right to sleep, and I didn't think that was fair to MT. The stress had an affect on my health the first couple of days of the week, too, in the form of a migraine headache and severe stomach pain. I was a mess. I hadn't been eating (VERY unusual for me,) and my body systems were all jacked up. 

Fortunately, I did pull myself together and I was good until we got to Winnemucca. We had dinner at a mid-century casino that reeked of stale, decades-old cigarette smoke. The food was okay, but I was glad to finish the meal and get back to the stinky motel. I climbed in bed, but I just laid there with my eyes open while MT deeply snoozed. I gave in and took the anti-anxiety pill. It did the job, and I got some good sleep. I felt way better in the morning, even though the sky was dropping down chunky rain which briefly turned to snow. We got through the rain and snow, and as we headed over Donner Pass, the sky was clear. 

It is still colorful, mellow autumn in Northern California. The trees wore brilliant colors, and the sun had that muted golden quality that makes fall the best season. 

We arrived in Dixon in the late afternoon on Thursday. We took Uncle Lee and Aunt Mary out for Thanksgiving dinner. About the only place that was open in town was Denny's, so that's where we went. It was a good place to go because it wasn't too busy or loud, and they have a pretty big menu. None of us ordered typical Thanksgiving fare. Mary had a cheeseburger, Lee had bacon and eggs, MT had salmon, and I chicken fried steak that I ordered from the 55+ menu. (!!) No shame...it was exactly the right size portion for me. Lee and I had pecan pie for dessert. MT had pumpkin pie, and Mary passed on pie. 

We were at the house all day on Friday. The house is something of a family museum. My dad's family moved to Dixon from Oklahoma in 1948. Most of my grandma's family came along, or were already there. She had seven brothers, I think. My grandparents bought an old schoolhouse, and their four children along with my grandma's parents lived there. My aunt Mary never moved out. She's lived there since she was four years old. My uncle Dewey, who passed away in July, moved back to Dixon from Idaho when his mom (my grandma) died in the 1980s. The place has layers of history. Lots of stuff came in, but not all that much went out. It's kind of overwhelming to go in there and see all of it. 

Uncle Lee is doing his best to get things ready to move. My aunt's caretaker was really helpful with getting Mary's clothes sorted into clothes to take and clothes to donate. There are thousands of photos in the house, and Mary wants to take all of them, lol. I took the photos of my family, and Lee gathered the photos of his family. There are still gobs of photos that are going with Mary to her new home. 

I documented every room in the house and all of the outbuildings by taking photos. I took over 300 photos of the property, inside and out. MT and I "secured the castle" by making sure all the windows are secure, installing new locks where they were needed, and putting things that were out in the yard into the buildings to be locked up. MT was incredibly helpful, kind, and patient this weekend. I'm really thankful for everything he did and is doing for my side of the family.

MT and I left around 3:00 on Saturday afternoon, heading back to Winnemucca for the night. We got there between 7:30 and 8:00, I think. We stayed at the same Holiday Inn Express. It was not stinky anymore. Maybe they had painted or used some funky cleaner on Wednesday, but all of that odor was gone and it was nice again. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant that is attached to the hotel. It was pretty good. The margarita was quite tasty. We slept great.

This morning we got on the road around 9:00. We stopped at my favorite coffee house in Nevada, which happens to be in Battle Mountain. I had a pecan pie latte and it was awesome. We stopped for a quick bite to eat in Wells, then got home between 3:30 and 4:00. Mostly we have been in a horizontal position this afternoon. I laid on the couch, covered in dogs, and had Harry Potter on the TV. MT was stretched out on the bed. I didn't snooze, but it sure felt good to just lay there. (lie there?)

I expect the next five days to be pretty intense. For one thing, work will be extremely busy. I am planning on 10+ hour days Monday through Friday. In addition, I will be making sure the assisted living place has all the paperwork they need for Mary to move in on Dec. 4. I also have a few other paperwork things to do regarding the house in Dixon next week. On Friday night, I'll be flying back to Dixon. Next weekend, Lizzie and I are driving Mary to her new place in the Prescott, AZ area. 

One day at a time. Monday is up first. Wish me well!

~~~

Here's a little bit of art I did tonight. The prompt was fish.

Good night!

xo

 

#2642 Thanksgiving, my way

Today is Thanksgiving, a U.S. holiday in which we traditionally gather with our family to eat foods we might not normally have during other times of the year, like a big ol’ turkey, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberries, mashed potatoes with gravy, and assorted pies. 

I’m happy to tell you that my Thanksgiving did not play out according to this list!

Typically, we go to Idaho to spend Thanksgiving weekend, or at least a couple of nights, with MT’s family. Because of COVID, we have spent the last two years at home. The three of us, (MT, T, and I) are not really lovers traditional Thanksgiving food. I like a turkey sandwich just fine, but to have a slab of turkey along with the sides isn’t a big deal to me or the fellas. I asked T to choose what we would have this year that I could make. Our menu was lasagna and Caesar salad. I added cheesy garlic bread, and for dessert, we had brownie sundaes. It was satisfying and just what we wanted.

I’ve been wanting to take another shot at the lasagna. I wrote a week or so ago about the last lasagna I made that wasn’t up to my expectations. I did better this time. I made a lot of meaty tomato sauce and added more mozzarella cheese, so the dish was saucy and cheesy. It tasted very good to me. There is plenty for T to take home, plus some for MT and I to have another day, too. I carefully put it all away so Mac couldn’t get to it like last time.

Today has been a very pleasant day. I slept in a little, then took a great shower complete with hair washing, leg shaving, and face exfoliating. After taking a good amount of time to thoroughly moisturize my skin (it’s so freaking dry!), I gave myself a face mask. The mask was something I’d received from Ipsy, the little monthly make-up sample bag I get every other month. It was green tea something-something. It was very unappealing looking: green with little black specks. The whole thing looked and kind of smelled like baby poo,

I’m happy to say, though, that the results were worth the ick factor. My skin looks and feels better. I really needed to take the time to give myself this little mini-facial. I also thought my hair looked pretty good today.

After I washed it, I put a little product on it, including a bit of coconut oil on the ends because that is the driest part. I let it dry naturally without touching it, so it wasn’t frizzy and it got curly. I pulled the front hairs back with a clip so they wouldn’t be in the way while I was cooking.

My favorite thing about the day was that we kept it simple and mellow. This morning after breakfast, I drank coffee and read for awhile. I wasn’t rushing around with the food prep since we had such a simple menu. It all came together easily and at the same time (yay!), clean up was easy, and as I said, we were all satisfied.

I’m not going to post a photo of my plate because, frankly, it doesn’t look pretty. I cut the lasagna when it was still hot and it kind of deconstructed on my plate. It tasted wonderful, but looked sloppy. LOL

Now it is about time to take T back to his place. He and MT are watching a movie that I wasn’t interested in. I actually took a little nap, which was great and a little strange to be napping at 8pm. 

No big plans for the rest of the weekend, but I’ll keep myself entertained. I’ll check in with you tomorrow. 

#2470 happy Thanksgiving

Tonight I'm thankful for a day that went pretty much exactly how I wanted. I had a really nice day.

My favorite part of the day was when we took this family picture right before we ate dinner. I set up the selfie timer on my beloved iPhone and gathered the menfolk. Mac was wandering around and when there was about three seconds left on the timer, she jumped up between MT and I for a classic photo bomb.

I hope y'all had a great day! Thanks for checking in :)

#2469 thankful for a four-day weekend

It felt good to leave the office a bit early this afternoon as the Thanksgiving weekend kicks off. I was able to take Mac for a walk over at the park, which overall was nice. When I got home, all flushed from the walk in the brisk pre-winter air, I read for a bit then joined in the book club discussion about the short story collection The Office of Historical Corrections. 

I took T to work, then MT and I watched a movie on Prime called Small Axe: Mangrove. Both of us really liked it.

That's pretty much how I want this weekend to go: eat, read, watch movies, repeat. Maybe a nap here and there. Some chores sprinkled in on Saturday and Sunday will be fine. I haven't taken much vacation time this year, so I'm happy to treat these next four days as a little stay-cation. 

I feel a little warm and fuzzy about it.

#2281 tacos and cheesecake for Thanksgiving

Our little family was planning to go to Pocatello for Thanksgiving. On Wednesday it snowed and snowed here. It was still snowing a lot on Thursday morning. I looked at the road report and saw the words "snow-packed roads" all the way to Idaho. I looked at the weather forecast and saw the words "more snow on the way". I chickened out. I told MT I didn't want to face the treacherous roads for turkey lunch with family. I told him he could go but I couldn't stomach it. He was disappointed (re:angry) and didn't talk to me for a few hours.

In hindsight, I'm sure everything would have been fine. It did eventually stop snowing and the roads seemed well taken care of.  I don't know if it ever snowed in Pocatello. Yesterday morning it felt like the right decision and yesterday afternoon and this morning, it seemed like the wrong decision.

Since I hadn't planned on being home, I didn't have much food in the house. I did have some taco meat in the freezer, so we had tacos for Thanksgiving. It was simple, and damn, they were good. Our contribution to the family Thanksgiving was dessert: a cheesecake from Costco with toppings, so that's what we had for dessert. Tacos and cheesecake are not traditional Thanksgiving food and that's okay.

I spent the day on the couch binge-watching season seven of The West Wing. I started with episode eight and I watched to the end of episode 22. That's 15 episodes to you and me. That is a prodigious amount of TV watching for me, or anyone really. If each episode is around 43 minutes long, that's 645 minutes which is nearly 11 hours of TV viewing. My back kinda hurts from so much sitting yesterday. The West Wing is such a good show, though, I just didn't want to stop, and now it's all done. What will I watch next? Lizzie will tell me :)

Overall, kind of a weird Thanksgiving, but it all worked out, I guess.

Next time I write, which will be on Monday Dec. 2, I'm going to tell you about a couple of movies I recently watched. Have a great weekend!

~~~~~~

I just updated my 2019 Reading page. I have reached my goal of 60 books this year! I just added five books to the page. Check it out!

#2132 Thanksgiving bloat

Oh my gosh...I tried to keep it mellow with the food, but everything was so delicious and so not-the- norm that I, of course, overdid it.  Linda smoked a turkey on her Traeger grill and it was crazy good. It was juicy and smoky and tender and wonderful. I had a lot of turkey, which is fine. John and Amanda brought over sausage & cheese stuffed mushrooms; Tracy made soft dinner rolls; Kevin and Janet made grits with shrimp and peppers that made me swoon. I think my downfall was the appetizers...I over-indulged there.

I was calm at dessert time. I had a sliver of Linda's key lime pie and a little square of my chocolate cake. My belly is so full it's straining against my jeans.

Fasting tomorrow!!

#2131 Thanksgiving eve in a hotel room in SE Idaho

Greetings from Idaho!

MT drove up early this morning because he was looking at an apartment complex to purchase here in Pocatello (it's a no go for now, I guess). I worked today, then T and I left around 2.  T played car DJ and I had a good couple hours of hip hop music and commentary. It was pretty fun. The drive was fine: not too much traffic and the roads were clear. That might not be the case when we head home on Friday.

We had dinner from my favorite Mexican restaurant here, Mama Inez. It might be the first Mexican restaurant where I ever ate. I remember when I met MT, I told him I didn't like Mexican food, except for fast food like Taco Time. He was horrified. He finally convinced me to go to Mama Inez and I was hooked. They serve an appetizer called cheese crisps. It is fried flour tortilla chips smothered in enchilada sauce and cheese. I love them. I want to have them every time we are in town. So I phoned in an order for everyone, picked it up and took it up to Linda's house. We all chowed down on tasty enchiladas and cheese crisps.

There was a daily specials board at the restaurant. Today's special was nachos for $7.49 and $2 margaritas. $2

After dinner, we sat around chatting, then I helped Linda set up her birthday gift - a Google Home. That is a fun toy.  I'm pretty sure she will really enjoy it.

Now we are at our hotel room. T is watching "The Office" on Netflix on his laptop. MT is reading. Osi has settled into the chair where I put her special blankie. I'm going to go ahead and get ready for bed although I'm pretty sure Osi will wake me up to take her outside. I'm not looking forward to that. It's going to be dang cold at 3 am.  But what else is a pet owner supposed to do?

Good night friends!

PS...we ate some of the chocolate cake I made last night. HOOO BABY.  It was good.

#2130 Tuesday before Thanksgiving

Today was certainly a day with two distinct parts for me. I was sort of blindsided at work with some information that I'm sure I'll process and reflect back on quite a bit. I learned a valuable lesson about trust, the difference between being friendly and actual friendship, and the overall importance of being professional and polite.

When I left work I had a dreadful headache, mostly because I didn't drink nearly enough water and instead had much more caffeine than I needed. When I got home I filled up my glass with ice and water and slurped it down quickly. Almost immediately I felt myself perk up, just like wilty leaves on a plant that needs to be watered. My headache slid away. I put on some music and started my evening.

Tomorrow we'll be leaving for Idaho, so tonight I planned to make a couple of foods to take with me for Thursday's feast. We'll be staying at a hotel, and I didn't want to clutter up Linda's kitchen with my cooking. It's just as easy to make it here and pack it. I made sweet potato casserole a la Ruth's Chris and a chocolate Texas sheet cake (from scratch!) I've never made the cake before. It smells divine and I know the frosting is delicious. I can't even fathom how many WW points the a sliver of the cake would cost. I refuse to even calculate it. The darn thing has about a pound of butter in it. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be amazing. LOL

I also had book club tonight. The book club I'm in holds it's meetings on Twitter. It was sort of challenging to follow along with the discussion and cook at the same time. I'm not great at multi-tasking, but I can do it when needed. For book club we are reading "Refuge" by Terry Tempest Williams. Ms. Williams is a local author and this particular book focuses on the parallels between what was taking place in the author's life in the early 1980's with the rise in the level of Great Salt Lake and what the rising water meant to the migratory bird population at the Migratory Bird Refuge. The pairing may seem unlikely, but she's putting it together and it is pretty fantastic. I've really enjoyed the enjoyed the book so far, as have most of the people in the book club. We will finish it next week.

That's all for tonight. I'm pretty sure I'll be writing from Pocatello tomorrow.  Good night!

#1968 happy Thanksgiving

It's late and Thanksgiving Day is nearly over, but there is still time to say that I hope you all had a wonderful day with family and friends.

MT, T and I stayed home here in SLC and enjoyed a peaceful day. T delivers newspapers and traditionally the Thanksgiving day paper is the largest of the year. T usually gets done with his route around 5 am, but this morning he got home around 8 am.  He has just over 150 papers to deliver and he says they weighed five pounds each. He had to borrow MT's truck to haul them because the advertising inserts made the papers so heavy and bulky that they couldn't fit in his car.

T spent most of the day sleeping. MT was watching Godless on Netflix. I got in a Zumba class this morning before I started cooking. We didn't have traditional Thanksgiving food. We had a chuck roast that was super tender and flavorful (if I say so myself!), mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, a green salad and the sweet potato casserole that is now a staple for the November and December holidays. In December I need to remember to halve the recipe. There's too many sweet potatoes for just the three of us. I also made an extremely chocolate-y chocolate cake and bought a pecan pie from Trader Joe's. I like a little chocolate, but the cake is over-the-top. MT and T loved it (which is why I made it). The pie is for me!

Tonight the three of us went to see Murder on the Orient Express. I had already seen it, but it was a good movie and I was happy to see it again with the boys.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is ON! Tomorrow I am putting all my Christmas music onto my beloved iPhone. I already pulled out my Christmas movies and I hope that I will get through them all, although I kinda doubt I will. We will be putting out our Christmas decorations over the weekend, writing Christmas cards and maybe even doing a little shopping. Why am I so excited about Christmas this year? I don't really know, but I feel it.

#1802 still here

I haven't been doing such a good job of writing lately. Let's see, what's been going on?

Lizzie left early this morning in what I can only say feels like a completely different day from right now. We were together for about 10 days and it was so fun to hang out with her! I was sorry to see her leave, but I'm happy that I'll see her again in just a few weeks for Christmas.

Yesterday was Saturday. We met my BFF LA and her family for lunch at a fun restaurant, The Porcupine Grill. It was great to see LA and her husband and especially their son Caz. I've known Caz since he was in utero and it's wonderful to see what a smart, cool man he has become. Lizzie hadn't seen Caz since he was a baby. How time flies!

On Friday we ran a couple of errands in the morning, then we settled in to binge watch the Gilmore Girls Revival on Netflix. I binge watched all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls starting last winter, I think, and I finished up this year. Lizzie loved GG and was the one who turned me on to it. It was fun to watch the revival with her.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. I don't think we left the house. The day was filled with cooking and snacking and a nice dinner in the evening when T got home from work. MT, Lizzie and I watched the original Star Wars trilogy plus the latest Star Wars film. It was all awesome.

Now you're caught up with my activities over the holiday weekend. Did I mention how much I loved hanging out with my sister over the past week and a half? We had a great time!

Tonight I have been downloading all my photos from the New Orleans vacation. Looking back through all the pics made me happy and excited to tell you more about the trip. I'll be sharing photos soon!

It's time for me to wind down and finish up some laundry before I go to bed. I hope you all had a great weekend!

#1557 thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!

#1556 over the river and through the woods...

Remember that old song?

Over the river and through the woods

To Grandmother's house we go

The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh

Through the white and drifting snow oh!

Today we did our pilgrimage to Linda's house (Grandmother) for Thanksgiving. See what I did there? Thanksgiving, pilgrim(age)?

The horse was my car and yes, there was white and drifting snow. Well, not really drifting so much as coming down in a torrent of gigantic flakes, then rain, then snow. All the while the temperature was falling, causing the roads to ice up and get slushy and utterly frightening.

I drove from Salt Lake to Plymouth, a wide spot on the freeway about halfway between SLC and Poky. I need a massage now. My shoulders were up around my ears. My hands are sore from gripping the steering wheel so tight. I think the top speed I reached was about 40 miles/hour. Good (and bad) thing there wasn't too much traffic when we took the exit at Tremonton to Pocatello. I was driving down the middle of the freeway. You couldn't see the lanes at all. I don't think any plows had been out. There was a car ahead of me for awhile and I tried to stay in their tracks, but then they exited the freeway and I was on my own for awhile. I remember sliding a bit here and there. I totally hated every minute of my driving time. I wanted to pull over, but there was no way I was going to pull over to the side of the road in that storm. I was relieved to get to the gas station in Plymouth and let MT take over. I rode in the back seat of the car with my dog, put on my neck pillow and closed my eyes and took deep breaths. It was awful.

The roads did seem to improve once we were on the Pocatello side of the Malad summit. Hopefully when we go back home on Friday the road and weather conditions will be much better.

Talk about giving thanks! I'm thankful we made it here safely!

#1314 furnace troubles, a matinee and prepping for the feast

This morning when I woke up, it smelled like something in the house was burning. There was a terrible burnt smell up in my bedroom and throughout the top floor. I freaked out a little. and by that I mean I demanded that MT (who went to work today) go down to the first floor and check everything and into the basement to see what was burning. We didn't smell or see smoke, but we sure smelled the burnt smell. MT investigated the whole house, but couldn't find anything except that our furnace filter was dirty. He demanded that I buy a new one when I went to the store. (I was not working today.) We opened up some windows upstairs to air the place out a bit. MT left for work and I went to the store.

Had to step away for a minute. Osi had a seizure :(

Where was I? Oh, yeah, the store. I was there early enough that it wasn't totally crazy, but there were still more people there than I expected for 8:30 am. No furnace filter at the first store, so I had to go to another store. Got the filter; went home and put it in the furnace, then it was time to take my car to the shop. When I bought it, there were a few things that needed to be fixed that were still under warranty, so I had those taken care of today. T and Trent picked me up at the dealership and we went to see a movie. I'll write more about that in a minute.

When we got home after the movie, the temperature in the house was down to 64 degrees which was just a few degrees warmer than it was outside but the furnace wasn't running. The house was not being heated. I called a repair place that we've used before and they sent a technician over to diagnose the problem. The control board was fried. The control board in the furnace is similar to the mother board in a computer. All the wires that run the furnace connect to it and it runs the furnace. It's about six inches long and maybe four inches wide. The burn mark on the board was about the size of a silver dollar. The control board is pretty easy to replace, but sadly, the tech didn't have a control board that would work for my furnace on hand. He'll have one on Friday morning, but in the meantime, no heat for us. Thank God we are not in a blizzard like on the east coast! The temperature tomorrow is supposed to be very similar to today and with the stove and oven working and a space heater here and there, I've been comfortable in the house today. Bummer though. That was $500 I wasn't expecting to spend today.

What with all the running around and fretting about the furnace, I didn't do as much prepping for tomorrow's meal as I intended. Oh well. It will be fine. I did get some things done, and I feel like I'll still be in good shape for tomorrow because we'll be eating later in the day.

Jake and Linda, my father and mother-in-law, arrived this evening in time for dinner. I roasted a couple of chicken breasts with some mushrooms and garlic. When it was cooked, I cut the chicken into small pieces and put all the roasted yumminess into some creamy tomato basil pasta sauce I got at Trader Joe's. I cooked up some spaghetti noodles and we had a tasty and easy pasta dish for our meal.

After that I spent an hour on the phone with my BFF LA. Her husband bought his dream car today, a new(ish) Camaro. They were pretty excited.

Now about that movie...T, Trent and I went to see Horrible Bosses 2.  Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis are funny and Jason Bateman is funny too, but in a straight-man kind of way. They have come up with a product to sell and are going to start their own company where they will NOT be horrible bosses. They get involved with a big distribution company that's run by Christoph Waltz and Chris Pine, who are father and son. When the deal goes bad, the guys come up with the idea to kidnap Rex (Chris Pine). Along the way, Kevin Spacey sort of advises them (from prison, where he ended up after the last film), Jennifer Aniston spices things up in a creepy/sexy way and Jamie Fox is back as M.F. Jones, too. Hilarity and some cringe-worthy moments ensue. I think I liked this one a little better than the first one. Charlie Day is my favorite of the three. His voice and the things he says are hilarious. I love love love Chris Pine, but he was definitely not the good guy in this one. Still cute, though.

Well, it's been a big day for me, so I better get to bed. Talk to you tomorrow!

#1298 two new recipes

I tried a new recipe tonight. No, it was not for Thanksgiving. I just wanted to eat it. Of course I found it on Pinterest. I really do spend kind of an absurd amount of time on Pinterest, but I get so much out of it!

Tonight I made this bacon chicken ranch casserole.

Side note before I go on: I was just thinking that I dislike the term casserole. To me, it has always implied some foods kind of thrown together and maybe covered in sauce and generally not very appetizing. It just seemed very '70's to me and just not cool. I looked up the definition (because I'm weird like that) and a casserole is an actual dish in which food may be baked and served and it is also any food, usually a mixture, baked in such a dish. What I've learned from the definition and my own experiences is that the casseroles I've made have been damn tasty.

Back to the recipe!

Bacon. Chicken. Ranch. Pasta. Cheese. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of these ingredients on their own and when you put them together in a casserole as a casserole - MAGIC.

I didn't deviate from the recipe at all. Well, I don't think I used that much ranch dressing (3/4 cup) or that much butter (3 tbsp). It wasn't very ranch-y but I still liked it a lot. The menfolk liked it too. I usually try to make at least one pasta dish a week because T loves noodles. I will make this dish again!

On Saturday I made a cake that is in the running for a Thanksgiving dessert: chocolate Kahlua cake.

MT said, "That is a damn good chocolate cake." He is a chocolate cake connoisseur, at least in his own mind. The cake was quite tasty - not too sweet but with a nice flavor from the Kahlua and the chocolate chips. It was moist and tender from the sour cream. Maybe with a little scoop of excellent vanilla ice cream it would be a good Thanksgiving dessert. Or maybe one of the other days. I am thinking that I must have a pecan pie for Thanksgiving. MT and T don't like pecan pie, but I know my brother-in-law does and T-day is about the only chance I get to have pecan pie because I won't make one when I'm the only person eating it!

I did see a recipe for a pecan cobbler that I might try, though, just for something a little different. It seems like pecan pie, but a little less formed.  We'll see. Another pecan-related recipe I saw was for salted caramel and chocolate pecan pie bars. These recipes are definitely not WW recipes!

My guest list is now down to a manageable seven people: the three of us, MT's folks, and MT's brother and his wife. There is room for all of them to stay and to sit, so that makes me feel pretty happy. I've got to practice on a couple of side dishes that I have in mind, probably this weekend, then I'll be ready to put the menu together. My mother-in-law is asking what she can bring, so I'll come up with something. I actually think I already have an idea, but we'll get to that.

That's all for tonight. By the way, if you're wondering, T and KG had a fun time on Saturday night at the dance. :)

Good night!

#1290 cooking on Sunday: crock pot lasagna

We will have family visiting for Thanksgiving weekend, so I get to cook for a bunch of people for several days, not just on Thanksgiving. I've given it some thought and I've decided to do Mexican food one night and Italian food another night. You can make quite a bit of food and it's pretty easy.

For Italian night, I was thinking about doing a lasagna. T loves lasagna, and I don't mind making it but it's kind of labor-intensive and makes the kitchen hot. On Pinterest I found this recipe for crock pot lasagna, so I decided to try it out tonight.

I changed the recipe slightly. I used mild Italian sausage instead of ground beef. I like the little extra kick of flavor from the sausage.  I also added sliced mushrooms to the meat sauce.

I cooked it in the crock pot for about four hours and it was perfectly set, the noodles were tender and the flavor was fantastic. T even asked for seconds. MT liked it a lot, too and even suggested that I could make it ahead of time and freeze it, then just warm it up. Not a bad idea.

My lasagna did not come out of the pot in a pretty slice like the picture on the website. It was kind of sloppy and cheesy, but it tasted good :)

When the time comes, I'll serve a simple green salad and some garlic bread with the lasagna. There's one meal down!

~~

I've got to go take out my sweaters and put away my summer clothes. The temperature has really dropped and we even had a bit of snow on the peaks of the Oquirrhs. I should have already done my clothing swap, but time flies by on the weekends, doesn't it?

Talk to you tomorrow!

#1280 three things

1. Jazz preseason game. Last night T and I went to another Utah Jazz preseason game. We were with people from my department at work in the suite. The Jazz were playing against the LA Clippers, a team that I usually root for unless they are playing the Jazz. Even though it is just the preseason and the Jazz have only played three games, I thought the team played together well. There was a lot more movement than I saw last season, and a lot more passing to get a guy an open shot. The Jazz won the game and it was good. The Clippers played their good guys for a large part of the game, so it's not like the Jazz were just playing against the second string or just-trying-to-make-the-team guys the whole time.

T and I have been talking about ticket plans, but it's quite expensive, so we'll probably just end up trying to get single game tickets when we really want to go or keeping an eye open for good ticket packages like we did last year. Of course, if the opportunity to see the game from the suite ever comes along, I will do my best to try to snag a pair of those tickets. They are harder to come by, though, because the suite is really for our sales team to woo our customers. Still, it never hurts to ask, right?

2. Thanksgiving at my house? Yesterday MT told me that it was entirely possible that the Pocatello family, or at least some of them, would be coming down to our house for Thanksgiving. My brother and sister-in-law who live in Arizona would fly up to SLC, but they wouldn't be able to get here until Thanksgiving late morning/afternoon, and it's a three hour-ish drive to Poky from here, so wouldn't it just be better if everyone came here instead? Why not? I did have a moment or two of panic. My house isn't big and I'm used to cooking for three, not a dozen. Still, MT is very excited about the possibility and we have hosted Turkey Day before, so it would be fine. I'm already planning the menu in my head. (No turkey.) More on this topic to follow as we determine if it's really going to happen.

3. I'm a student!! Remember about a month ago when I wrote about other career options and making changes? (Post #1252 on 9/9) I wasn't kidding. Although I won't be up and leaving my job anytime soon, I am thinking about the future and what I might enjoy doing. At the time, MT and I brainstormed some possibilities and we kept coming back to one thing. That very night when we came home from dinner, I started doing some research, talked to someone in the field who I trust and enrolled in a class to see if it was something I would like to do. Can you guess what it is? Travel planner/agent!!! I am taking a class through the Continuing Education program at the local community college. The course I'm taking is about geography and focuses on several specific places. I'll be learning about the countries, how to get there, when to go, things to do there and other stuff like that. The first country I'm learning about is Canada, specifically British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. It's an online class that lasts eight weeks. I just started tonight and I'm already digging it! I've never taken an online class before, so it's pretty novel for me. We'll see how it goes. It's kind of expensive, so I'm only taking one class this half-semester to see if it's right for me. There are like 14 classes in the program, so it will take me some time to complete them all because no way do I want to be a full-time online student. I'm sure I'll be telling you more about this as I go along with the class.

So there you go...three things!

I finished another book! Check out the 2014 Reading List page. Scroll to the bottom for the latest entry.

#1064 and there's still one day to do what I need to do

We are back home after a couple of days in Idaho. Actually, we spent three nights there which is a little unusual for us. It was a nice visit. Yesterday was pretty social. I got to spend a bit of time with LA and her boys (husband and son) and later in the evening we went to Kelly's to visit with him and Denise for a bit. It was great to laugh and joke around with all of them. MT said it reminded him of the old days when we would go to Mama Inez with Rob and LA and we would get to giggling about whatever.  We miss those guys a lot.

This morning was pretty mellow. MT was helping his mom and his aunt download books onto their Nooks. I finished the book I was reading, and I really want to tell you about it, but I think I'll wait a day and think it over. Sometimes I get really caught up in the emotion of a story and I'll think it's the greatest thing or the worst thing I have read. I want to make sure I feel the same about the story tomorrow, so I'll sleep on it.

When we got home this afternoon, the ABC Family channel was showing the last two Harry Potter movies in sequence, so MT and I watched those. I love Harry Potter. MT and I were kind of laughing at ourselves for not just putting in the DVD and skipping the commercials, but it's all good.

When the movie was over I came upstairs to fold some laundry and watch the end of the Jazz game. Guess what? They won, on the road! That's three wins now. Yes, there are like 15 losses, but that's why every win is worth a mention.

I feel happy that I still have a whole day left on this little break. Tomorrow I'll be busy with paying bills and grocery shopping and laundry and all the regular stuff that has to be done, but the three and a half days that I didn't do anything but relax and chill have been fabulous!

PS  Today is the last day of November, so the last day of this NaBloPoMo. It has been fun to write every day :)

#1062 Thanksgiving

We had 17 people here for Thanksgiving dinner. I've been in this family for over 20 years, but the number of people that gather for a holiday meal still overwhelms me. At my mom's house, there were four people this afternoon. If we had been there, it would have been dinner for seven, and that seems like a lot :)

It has been a good day. It started out with the delicious smell of onions cooking - really one of my favorite smells, onions sauteeing in oil or butter - as Linda made her stuffing. This morning I read and chatted and looked at Black Friday sales flyers.

People started getting here a little after 2pm for dinner at 3pm. It was fun to see everyone. Two of my nephews brought their girlfriends, the other two are younger and came with their parents. Still, the nephews with girlfriends are 27 and 34; the younger nephews are 17 and 21. T is the youngest of the kids. My niece was here, too. She's 20. I guess the reason I mention their ages is that it surprises me how old they are because I don't think of myself as getting older so much, but I remember when they were all really little kids!

Dinner was delicious and traditional: roast turkey and a ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes (a hit!), green salad, rolls, jell-o salad, stuffing, cranberries. For dessert, a variety of pies including pumpkin and apple. No chocolate cream or pecan, though. Miss those pies. I'll probably have to make them myself if I want them.

After dinner, almost everyone sat around visiting and enjoying each other's company. Slowly, everyone took off. T is over at Kelly's house hanging out with his cousins; they were about the first to go. The last couple just left and now MT is upstairs talking to his mom. I think he is feeling better.

Tomorrow I will get to spend a bit of time with LA. We're going to exchange Christmas gifts. I think that we will head back home on Saturday morning, probably.

I hope you all had a wonderful day and got to spend time with people you love and are thankful to have in your life.