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.

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. :)

Single

Blah blah blah single...blah blah blah...sucks.

Airshows and other disasters.

After 4 years at an aviation university and nine years of working in the industry, I went to my first air show today. This is a big, free public airshow put on at Dobbins Air Reserve Base/NAS Atlanta. I almost didn't go because the guys at work told me the crowds would be insane. My friends guilted me into going and I thought...hey...stop being a crybaby, you can handle a crowd. On my way to meet everyone for lunch before the show, I got a text from Rich. You cannot just drive onto the property where the airshow is. You have to park at either Lockheed or Whitewater and be bused over. Rich's text message said that it took his family an hour and a half just to get on a bus. I told everyone at lunch that I was not going but they stole my purse and would not give it back until I agreed to go. We lucked out and as we drove onto Lockheed property, we were directed to drive onto NAS Atlanta property and park at Hanger 5. We only had to wait 15 minutes to get on the bus. Now, the airshow was just on the other side of the base but this involved driving off the side we were on, driving around to the other side and then sitting in a line of busses...which equated to another 45 minutes.

We walked around, met up with Rich's parents, met Joe's "friend" Michelle, watched some planes and decided to leave before the Thunderbird finale was over so we didnt have to wait for a bus. What a disaster the exit was. They had three large "areas" for people to gather in order to get on the right bus. The "areas" were poorly marked and crowd control was basically zero. There was no designated stop for the buses so they just stopped wherever the soldiers told them. More than once we were at the front of the line, then they would move the bus stop and we'd end up towards the back. We ended up splitting up our group just to get on a bus. It took another hour and a half for us to make it back to the car. I realize they probably had more people show up than they planned but crowd control was just a joke.

Oktoberfest

I just got back today from Oktoberfest. Myself, Jenn, Jason, Paul, Jimmy, Ashley, Greg, Rich Dan, Joe and Kelly shared a 12 person cabin in Helen this weekend. We left Friday about 1:00 and headed up. After checking in at the main lodge, we had to drive 2 miles to the actual cabin. It was pretty sweet. 3 stories, 4 bedrooms, each with private bath, pool room, grills, hot tubs. Neat. We soon discovered one of the hot tubs and one of the grills were out of commission. We were able to make due with the other working hot tub and grill. The first night we made the rookie mistake of bringing our A game. After a dinner on the grill,we decided to kick the night off with shots followed by games of flip cup and beer pong. Then we went to the game room for games of pool and an impromptu dance party. Late in the night I was taking pictures of myself and Ashley on the pool table and dropped the camera right on my nose. I didn't even realize I was bleeding until I went upstairs and everyone pointed that fact out to me. Apparently, Tuba ran through the forest at some point in the night and had random scratches on his arms.

Good times but the next morning was rough. I got up first, had a bottle of water and tried to chill out in the hot tub. Everyone eventually got up and made breakfast. Greg, Jimmy and Rich went up to the state park for a hike. Several of us went back to bed for a nap. After lunch Saturday afternoon, we made the hike into town. We had ice cream and then walked down to Paul's on the River for drinks. Spent a few hours at Paul's. We headed back to the cabin...except for Rich. Rich made a special friend at Paul's and we didn't see him again until later that night with a giant smile on his face.

Back at the cabin, we threw dinner in the oven. Joe, Kelly and I climbed back into bed after dinner to watch Mr. & Mrs. Smith and chill out before we went out again. Joe brought chicken to bed. Paul and Dan were done for the night and had already passed out downstairs. Seymour came upstairs and tried to talk Joe, Kelly and I into heading back to the Festhalle in town but we could not be convinced. We were having too much fun giggling and watching tv in bed. Jason, Jenn, Greg, Ashley and Jimmy hiked back into town to finish the night at the Festhalle. Joe, Kelly and I fell asleep for a little while. We all woke up at the same time and decided to pick up where we left off. The crowd returned from Helen and we got to hear of Rich's "adventure" in town. Rich and Jimmy decided it was a great idea to climb on the roof and check stuff out.

We slowly got up this morning, made breakfast, cleaned, packed up and hit the road. We all decided this should be a yearly event and I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time.

O Canada

I haven't blogged for awhile. I'm writing this from Greg's apartment. My ghetto internet connection is down at my place. I leave for a week of work in Canada in the morning and I needed an internet connection. Yay Greg. Hmmm...what's new? Heather was here for a week. We went to the Georgia Aquarium, Fat Matt's, the Smyrna Beer fest and a BBQ at the Seymour's. Great Atlatna sampler.

It was Sarah's birthday last week. My husband and I had a great time at Whino Wednesdays with the group.

I'll keep this short since I still have to pack. Bathroom update. The new floor is down and the baseboards are nailed in. Just have to caulk, sand and paint. Weee!

Sick...again.

A week ago, I came down with a cold that turned into bronchitis. A week later, my sleeping pattern is totally thrown off and I still feel like garbage. I just started this new job and I get knocked off my feet....not the impression I wanted to make. Against my better judgment, I had dinner with a group at Front Page News Friday night followed by Cosmo Lava and then went home early. Last night, I went to the drive-in with Greg and Rich and saw Pineapple Express and Step Brothers. Pineapple Express was actually the worse movie.

My bathroom is still not done. I'm a perfectionist with the mudding and I keep noticing and fixing little problems. I won't rip up the floor until the walls are done. I also haven't touched the ceiling. Yikes. I put down a new floor in the dining area. I'm busy this morning fixing a few things. I feel like this place is never really going to be done. I have a wishlist of things I'd like...new shower hardware, steel fridge, sectional to replace my old sofa, gas logs for the fireplace...new doors throughout. As Sarah would say, "le sigh."