thanksgiving dessert

the oven went out on thanksgiving before i had a chance to finish baking the pumpkin custard tart. i had the tart shell baked, but not the custard. i was ready to toss the shell, but then decided i should at least try it first. i was nervous about it because i'd had to futz with it a lot to make it workable. but it was really tasty! so instead of tossing it, i took it for a drive to brian's today and used his oven to bake the custard. definitely a good choice. so good.

X is for Xylophone

blargh.

that is all.

W is for White Christmas

"but it's only one verse, so i added one extra one," she says. love it.

thanksgiving recap

thanksgiving was amazing. my parents came down, and we had a lovely dinner together. my parents are awesome. my mom even brought bouquets for brian and i (mine was asparagus, his was radishes) and goody bags filled with tasty treats. plus, when i went to work this morning? she cleaned my kitchen! and it was a mess! she's much too good to me. :)

among the funnier events of the day: we realized we couldn't fit the potatoes in the oven with the turkey to bake, so we went to kroger and bought firewood. :) we pulled out my little patio fire pit (which had never been used before) and brian started up a fire. it worked quite well, and gave the potatoes a tasty smoky flavor. and the baking element in my oven shorted out! it started about halfway through the turkey cooking. we kept a close eye on it, watching the short progress around the element until eventually it completely fried. thankfully, at that point, the bird was done. :)

unscheduled free day

so i skipped monday's free day because i was just too excited to re-post the S video. or i forgot - one of the two. :) i'm up early this morning, hoping to work some magic on the chair back covers for thanksgiving. they did not fair well in the wash. i'm hoping to get them fixed without brian realizing i had to fix them. luckily, the chances of him reading this are slim to none. :)

edit: one hour later and Project Chair Back Recovery is complete. maybe i AM magic ...

T is for Two

as in two days until thanksgiving!

we went out tonight and got the last of our goodies. groceries? check! dessert dishes? check! flowers? check! butter dish? check! tomorrow is all prep work (with a little bit of actual going to work in the middle), thursday is all celebration, and friday? friday you just might see pictures of the whole amazing hoopla. ;)

S is for Shake It

R is for Really

yup, i skipped yesterday. really. :)

P is for Procrastination

remember that big crochet project i told you about last month? yeah, it's still not done. :) i'm thinking another 12 hours of work and it would be completed. but, you see, i gave it to its new owner before it was done (in celebration of Tim Burton Day) ... so now i'm having some issues working up the motivation to actually finish it. i mean, the surprise is over, ya know? :) maybe in time for his birthday. that gives me a week to focus on thanksgiving and then a week to crochet. i can do that, right?

O is for Olvera Street

N is for Narwhals

M is for More Important

on sunday i said i wasn't looking forward to this week. that is true, but only if i put on blinders and focus only on work. there are certainly times when it is much too easy to focus on a possible disaster that way. i want to mull over every possible outcome. i want to believe it's going to be bad because being surprised by success is always better than being surprised by failure. but this is not my point today. my point today is that there are much more important things happening this week than work. yesterday, when i wanted to retreat into my own gloominess? that was both work related and erased when a conversation with a dear friend reminded me there were much more important things that needed my attention. people i love, for example? much more important than work. and spending time with those people? much more important than sleep. :)

good night

tonight i haven't the words to actually describe what's going through my mind and my heart. both are aching just a little. my head from need for sleep, my heart from need for an outlet. six hours ago i wanted to retreat into my own gloominess for no easily defined reason. three hours ago i wanted to scream at the indecency and injustice of others' actions. now i want to curl up and sleep it all off. wake up to a new day, holding onto the simultaneous feelings of warmth and love that showed up somewhere along the way.

L is for Long Week Ahead

i am not looking forward to this week. i am not dreading it, but i am apprehensive. what i need to remember is to not let the apprehension undermine the possibility of success. i need to go in with an open mind and just let things happen. then, when things have happened, i can make an informed decision to embrace the change or run away screaming. yes, i do believe those are my two options. nothing in between. ;)

J & K are for ... Just Kidding?

wow. apparently alphabetical order isn't always my strong suit at 4:30am. because at 4:30am i apparently start working backwards and I is followed by H. i could change it since probably no one's seen it, yet. but ... why not just embrace it, right? :)

H is for Hmmmm

the chickpea bread did not turn out as we had hoped. but this is why you do a trial run, right? i need to try it again with a few modifications (like precise measurements, for starters) and see how it works.

I is for Ice Cream

i joined a group of gals in a six week weight loss challenge. we agreed to compete for six weeks and then take a week off before starting up again. today's my last free day before the next six weeks of focus. so tonight we went out for dinner (pizza ... mmmmmmmmmmm pizza) and picked up ice cream on the way home. might as well go out with a bang, right? :)

as a side note: i won the first six-week challenge, losing exactly 20 pounds. hopefully i didn't gain back too much of it in the past seven days. ;)

H is for Hollywood

G is for Good Things

- Great breakfast with a Great friend
- Getting to start my day in a skirt and cute boots
- Going on long drives filled with laughter, singing and honesty
- Going bowling, bowling, bowling!
- Guys who will let me play with their hair :)
- Gourds! and pumpkins and squash
- Guys who can sew
- Green batik fabric
- Gorgeous weather
- Gorgeous life

flying away

F is for Fabulous

yes, i originally wanted to post this for D, but i couldn't get it uploaded in time. however, i'm pretty sure i could come up with a complimentary adjective for every letter of the alphabet that describes it. so Fabulous it is. :)

E is for Effort

sometimes being patient takes a lot of effort. sometimes i want all the answers right now. sometimes i forget to remember to just breath and let things happen. sometimes possibilities are just so exciting that i can't contain myself. :) oooo ... Exciting! that's another good E word. :)

i get to see a bunch of friends from home tomorrow. we're going bowling and then out for dinner. i'm pretty Excited. :) brian's coming with me - without me even asking. i swear he volunteered. hopefully he has as much fun as i do. mixing groups of friends can be a bit ... Edgy. ;) luckily my friends from home are all Extremely Excellent, so there shouldn't be a problem.

D is also for Dispirited

some days i just want more than the people i'm surrounded by have to offer. often on these days i have the cure all worked out in my mind. mostly that cure never comes to fruition. some days are just like that, i suppose.

D is for Driving Into the Sunset

it was a beautiful evening. and the drive wasn't too shabby, either. ;)

C is for Cancellation

i believe i'm finally going to cancel my domain name and web hosting. the domain name expires at the end of january, i'll keep my web hosting until then to give me time to back up all the files. i guess. do i need the files? probably not. but why not have one more CD sitting around that i never use, right? :)

i'm still not sold on cancelling flickr, as i've started actually using that as a viable option for sharing photos.

B is for Bedtime

i will be back-dating this post to 11:59pm on Nov. 2. in reality, it is nearly 5:00am on Nov. 3, but as i haven't slept yet, i'm still deeming this post on time. :) i have a million things i want to say, and a million more that are quite content just resonating in my mind.

A is for Awkward

apparently i'm going dancing next month. this is not my idea, but i don't find myself having a good excuse to say no. granted, i have a month to come up with a good excuse - but it's a birthday request. how do you say no when someone's birthday request is to go dancing? sigh. this is guaranteed to be awkward.