Good Morning.

It's sure been a whirlwind few days around these parts. I was particularly busy in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, and then all hell broke loose yesterday; it feels like I missed everything going on. So in no particular order, just some observations.

Today I'm looking forward to leading a walk on my childhood stomping grounds. Remember that I get paid to do this - I have (allegedly) 7 participants signed up to join me on a walk through Breakheart Reservation, about a half-mile from my mother's house. Alas, I've got to run straight to the store after that, but I think I have time to hit Kane's on the way by.


Our turkey day was only moderately succesful. The Turkey in a Trash Can bit worked OK, but I was actually short on charcoal. I did use the recommended "same pounds of charcoal as pounds of turkey", but it looked to me like it came up slightly underdone. It spent another hour in the oven finishing up. Javi and I have had this before at camp, but Mrs. TriSec decided it was "too smoky" and we may not do this again. Oh, poop.

During the runup to Thanksgiving, I made two pies, found an awesome recipe for cranberry sauce after all (trust me, I'm never buying a can again.) and wrestled with Parker House Rolls for the first time ever. (They tasted good, but I had some problems with the shaping. "Retahded" has fallen out of favour as an adjective, but there really was no other way to describe the way they looked to this New Englander.)

Naturally, we resorted to some subterfuge. Last year when I was sick, everybody knew we weren't going anywhere for Thanksgiving. I had no intention on ruining anyone else's holiday, so I cooked for the house anyway, but it was a rather low-key affair. (And turkey was a fairly benign thing to eat during chemotherapy.) But we decided that we liked staying home for a change, and once I finished treatment we planned to do this again. My mother was OK with it, but my mother-in-law had to be 'diverted' otherwise she'd be miffed that we didn't come out and spend the day with her.

Which leads, of course, to Catholic Guilt. The morning after Thanksgiving (yesterday), Mrs. TriSec's 94-year-old aunt has a heart attack at the breakfast table and goes on to the great beyond. We probably should have gone to see them Thursday after all; but who could have seen this coming?

In the great "cycle of life" bit, Javi and I went out last night to wrangle some Cub Scouts and schmooze with the politicos at the city Christmas Tree Lighting (No "holiday" tree in liberal Waltham, screw you Bill O'reilly.) A fine evening was had by all, despite the curious juxtaposition of emotions.

So now with a funeral in the offing, and me needing to be bright and chipper at both the walk and on the sales floor this weekend...I leave you to enjoy the rest of your day.