Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving 2008

I should be in bed right now but it's Sunday night after 4 days off from work and I'd rather be on blogger than preparing for work tomorrow, well I guess it's today. :( This week has been pretty crazy. After picking up my and Dawn's race packets Wednesday afternoon for the next day's gobble jog, I went home and started making Thanksgiving pies. Dawn came over late that night to pick up her packet and have a glass of wine. Ran the Gobble Jog 5K Thanksgiving morning. Went home, put some cookies in the oven. Beth came over at noon and we went to Jeff and Danna Vach's for a Thanksgiving lunch. Salmon, lobster and crab legs, oh my. It was very good and their two boys were super cute. I came back to my place and Beth came in for a glass of wine then I packed up my pies and cookies it was off to Faisal's for Thanksgiving dinner. It was pretty cold out but I kept Fais company while he fried a turkey out back. His family and another family came to his place for Thanksgiving this year. The other family just got back from India that morning so they were pretty wiped out. It was a great Thanksgiving.

The girls and I had a paint your own pottery night a few weeks ago. I made a display plate for my sister and her two daughters. I had made her one last year with kitties and this one she can switch out during the holidays because it has a snowman theme. I painted the edge with a "snow" paint.



I considered doing my annual midnight trip to the outlets Thanksgiving night, but when I looked at the sales flier, most of the sales were all weekend long so I didn't see the point in going up that night to save an extra 20%. Truth be told, I started nodding off while reading the flier and thought after running a 5k and eating and drinking all day, driving at midnight wasn't a good call. Last year, the stores had some excellent 5 a.m. deals. This year, there was nothing special. I need a new DVD player but the few that were on special, had horrible reviews when I researched them. Since the weather was decent and it was dry Friday morning, I decided to tackle painting my front door. I put a coat of primer on it Wednesday between getting my hair done and making pies. I put the first coat of black enamel paint on it. It turned out pretty well, but oil based paint sticks to everything. I also bought a new deadbolt and handle set and while the mechanics of it seem simple, lining it up just right is another story. Very frustrating. 24 hours is supposed to pass between coats of paint and you aren't supposed to paint in conditions below 50 degrees or with high humidity. Since it was cold and rainy all weekend, I couldn't put a second coat on. I'm shooting for next week.

Faisal texted me and we saw 'Role Models' Friday night. It's pretty funny but you have to have a certain sense of humor to appreciate it. Saturday, I went for a run on the Silver Comet Trail. There was only one other car in the parking lot. Yes, it had rained that day but it was still in the low 50's and pretty nice running weather so I was surprised more people weren't out. Later that afternoon, I drove up to the outlets. It was clear I had missed the boat on some of the better deals as many racks were bare. I still picked up several good deals including two new pairs of running pants at Nike which I tried out on the Silver Comet today. There were quite a few people on the trail this afternoon despite the fact that it was even colder than the day before. I always thought performance sports wear was dorky but now I see the usefulness. It really makes a comfort difference if running or biking.



















After my run today, I came home and used my leftover pumpkin puree to make pumpkin muffins to bring into work tomorrow. I also put up my Christmas tree. It looks like a child's tree. :) A pickle, shrimp and geisha are displayed on my tree. The pretty tree skirt was a gift Beth made me. I had to have a star as my tree topper. Growing up, Christmas trees always had gold stars on drawings other kids made. An angel just wouldn't do. Had to have the star.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Work work work work

Hmm....what have I been up to? I've been working a lot. I'm working on a project that has to be done before Christmas at work. So, to make that happen, we've all been working crazy hours and weekends. I just hope I make it to Christmas. In fact, I'm pretty excited about Thanksgiving next week. A break will be nice.

I am fortunate to have two invitations for Thanksgiving this year. Jeff is an engineering manager that I met on my last trip to Canada. Jeff and his wife invited me over for cedar plank salmon which will be my first Thanksgiving dinner of the day. My friend Faisal is having his family's Thanksgiving at his house this year and that will be my second Thanksgiving. I think I'm the only non-Bangladeshi attending so I'm excited to see how this turns out. I'm making pecan and pumpkin pies (from scratch!).

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year. Not only do you get to spend it with friends, but its the Christmas kick-off. I get excited about Black Friday. I pick up Thursdays paper and plan all the sales I want to hit. I'm probably going to make the ludacris trip up to the outlets at midnight followed by early morning hits at the best sales. I'll go home and crash...and then it's Christmas tree time. That weekend I fill out all my Christmas cards so they go out in Monday's mail. If I'm really feeling motivated, I make cookies or fudge to bring into work.

So, I'm pretty jazzed about the holidays. However, by New Years Day...I'll be ready to pack it all away again. :)