In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, which will be here soon, I made this beautiful hand turkey while cleaning rental property (yesterday and today - I think we're at 8 days of full day work and counting to get it back in rentable condition).  All it took was a roll of paper towels and any window on the property.  Although I had to wait until the third wipe down to get the best effect.

Eryn wanted nothing to do with it, even though I made it just for her.

Thanksgiving

A very happy Thanksgiving to you all, even those of you who have already put up your Christmas Trees, although I openly despise you.  Thanksgiving is a more interesting holiday than Christmas, so embrace it and stop trying to bypass it.  Do you put up Easter decorations a month and change early?  Because Christian-wise, that's a more important holiday.

We had two turkeys, but only ate about 3/4 of a turkey, so there were lots of leftovers.  All told, I estimate we ate about 25% of the food that entered the house.  I won $8 at family poker.  Lost $2 when I backed Eryn.  And $2 was mine originally.  So a $4 net.  It all goes to charity anyway as I always donate my earnings even though I own the donation jar this year because I traded it for donating to the Trylon's sign and the Alzheimers Association on Give to the Max Day.  It's hard not to pick a charity on that day as it's generally matched 100% by a backer (US Bank and the City of Minneapolis in this case - thanks taxpayers) and then 50% matched again (original amount, not the matched total) by my workplace.  I'm sure my local foodshelf doesn't agree as they usually get my container full of change, but I upped their monthly allotment through my work donation program this year, so they'll have to cope.

What am I thankful for this year?  Just being f-ing alive.  Not too many years you can say that and mean more than lip service.  It's good to see all my family and friends and know how close I was to last Thanksgiving being the last.

That's too serious.  So I'll end on something more amusing.  My picture of Matthew for Facebook today.  Doesn't he look delicious?  I think I'm getting better at Gimp.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was once again held at our house.  We cooked both corporate turkeys.  Mine, and Leon's.  I think we could have once again done with one, but two ensured plenty of leftovers.  Lee and his family showed up.  Lloyd (my other uncle in law - or Eryn's great uncle, depending on how you color it).  My father in law and mother in law.  And my sister in law and her family.  Cookie Queen and her kids showed up later for some play time.

Apparently snrky.com did a special cartoon to celebrate our turkeys noting, "It's the intangibles that count."

There were two rounds of poker.  I lost the first, despite putting the hurt to my father in law and Eryn (that's right, no mercy in poker, even for my own daughter.  And yes, she plays Hold 'em.  I need to remind her to save some money for New Year's Eve).  And won the second.  $12.  Enough to offset half a bottle of one of the two bourbons I bought for Thanksgiving, as that seems to be the drink of choice - both for the menfolk and womenfolk.  The beer was virtually untouched.

Buffalo Trace and Eagle Rare.  Kyle's Kentucky trip influence is clearly visible in my choices.  When I was buying my bottles at The Cellars, there was a kid in a suit shopping for Scotch. He was clearly excited and I had the impression he was either hosting Thanksgiving, or taking a bottle to Thanksgiving, or had gotten a promotion.  He had some good $40 bottles in hand.  Then asked the guy from the Cellars, "So these are nice, but what's your favorite?"  The clerk noted his favorite was just over $100 a bottle and the kid looked simultaneously taken aback and intrigued.  Definitely the appropriate approach.  Some skepticism in your $100+ purchases.  I should have taken down his name and number so we could do scotch sharing nights.  That's the best way to try $100 bottles.  Hear that Kyle?  Up for Scotch or Bourbon nights with a group of 4 or 5?

My wife and I discussed the possibility of making squash soup for Thanksgiving next year.  I am loving the squash soup with crustini/french bread.  Don't panic.  In addition to the turkey, not instead of the turkey.  While listening to MPR, I heard them discussing this recipe, harvest stuffed squash, which I'd also like to try.  Might have to experiment earlier to get an idea for whether it's good.  But the ingredients sound delicious.  Here are the details, courtesy of Beth Dooley at MPR.

HARVEST STUFFED SQUASH
Serves 8
Ingredients: 
4 small Cinderella pumpkins or acorn squash, halved and seeded
2 tablespoons sunflower oil or olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 fennel bulb, diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded, deveined, and chopped
1 large carrot, finely diced
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
2 cups cooked wild rice or barley
1/2 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons rubbed sage
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions: 
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the squash cut-side down on a baking sheet and bake until it is tender, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet and saute the onion, garlic, fennel, red pepper, carrot, and hazelnuts until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the wild rice and herbs, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove the squash from the oven, turn it over, and place it cut-side up on the baking sheet. Fill the squash with the stuffing. Return the squash to the oven and bake it an additional 30 minutes.

Finally - you can't declare Thanksgiving over until the naked Barbie balances on an exercise ball.  Haven't heard that saying before?  Get used to it.  And just so you don't have to imagine it...

Thanksgiving Wrap Up

Sophie, representin' Thanksgiving at the Scooter household.


The other children, demonstrating what happens to you when you don't join in the d*mn holiday festivities and eat your freakin' share of the turkey.

Strange New House

There's a strange new house in the neighborhood according to Google Earth. It looks like some of my neighbors moved into a red airplane, or at least appended one as a new story on their abode. Fortunately, it's on the block over, so we don't have to look at it all the time, like we do the r.v. a few houses down. Eryn and I were looking at Google Earth because we were tracking how far some of the geocaching tags we've found have gone. There's a little blue car and little green car that started in Eagan that are racing. We found the little blue car, and so far it's gone about 690 miles. But the little green car has gone 9150 miles! Someone picked it up and took it to New South Wales. Boring SAHM might be amused to find it's gone from my back door to her back door. I wonder if I could have just sent my used Burley to her with some expatriate.
We went geocaching today. 1.4 miles round trip. A little singing on the way there. Much singing on the way back to encourage walking, to the amusement of a family of kids, a gardener and two people walking their dog, who all heard renditions of The Ants Go Walking, The Girl That I Marry, and What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor. Here's some nature on the way to the cache. A big puffball. As you can see, some kids beat us to it and poked sticks in it. I gave it a tap to encourage dissemination of the puffball spores.


These are spoilers for the cache we found - so don't look if you've ended up here from geocaching.com. This particular cache was in an area of serene beauty, a natural environment unsurpassed in the quiet stillness of a setting sun. Yep...that's a bus stop bench in a parking lot conveniently empty on a Thanksgiving weekend.


Here Eryn models the whole geocaching process, from GPS unit to small tin container to waterproof plastic bag to pencil and paper for signing our nom de plumes. Walking sticks are not mandatory, and even to be discouraged if you have to constantly stress "don't poke your eye out." Which she didn't do, but she did manage to scratch her forehead with the stick.

I am Thankful for...Pink Eye?

Yesterday morning I awoke to a little treat my wife and daughter had saved for my return from London. A great case of pink eye. Fortunately, there was lots of pink eye medicine in the house. Unfortunately, I was supposed to be finishing up some important work that I had left at the office. So I cleaned up and headed into work just long enough to fetch the papers off my desk, taking care not to touch anything that didn't belong to me. Which really pissed off the lady with the armload full of crap coming in the door as I was leaving, because I wouldn't hold the door for her. Hey...I saved you a nasty eye infection on Thanksgiving, lady. You should be pleased. Remember that the next time someone is rude to you - maybe it's for your own good.

My eye infection came with all sorts of sniffling and a stuffy head. It's not as bad as last time, when I couldn't even look at a computer screen, but it was bad enough that I slept on the couch so I wouldn't keep waking Pooteewheet up with my snuffling. And it resulted in Pooteewheet being in charge of most of the food preparation for all the people that showed up. I concentrated on important issues like washing myself repeatedly with a bottle of Purel. She cooked two turkeys, although it ended up that we only really needed one, even with a house full of people. The side dishes filled everyone up. Nothing lost, though. They were both work turkeys (i.e. my company gives us a free turkey and both me and my uncle-in-law work there, and it's his extended family that shows up over here) so it wasn't like we'd laid out for an extra bird. It'll make good sandwiches and dinners for a week.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! If you're hiding out in the computer room (I'm like Virginia Woolf) to escape the noise and heat generated by many children, here's a fun turkey flinging game you can play that only takes a few moments.

Thanksgiving Weekend

It's sad that our Thanksgiving weekend is coming to a close. Four days is just a lot of fun to hang out, and by the fourth day, the Scooter family begins to fully, completely relax and have no expectations for the day. Our day consisted of: 1.) going to the park, 2.) going to lunch, 3.) going to Dunn Brothers for a cup of coffee and to read...you can increment one if you include "sleep in". We did accomplish the minor task of picking up paperwork at the rental property...ooo.

Some pictures from the weekend...Eryn hanging out with great grandma Millie on Thanksgiving day.


Thanksgiving "dinner". Do I look hungry? We had at least seven fewer people eating this year...makes a big difference in how full the house feels. That's Lloyd in the foreground...he took all the poker money. Eryn is indeed in a change of clothes...potty training has its successes and its failures. But she's sporting the new outfit Grandma Ellen made for her. I'm not sure if this is before or after Pooteewheet figured out how to put the blouse on correctly.


Conner came later. He'd already eaten some turkey, but was feeling the need for a balanced diet. I picture Adam looking like this when Eve gave him the apple in the garden.


Non-turkey day video of Eryn just running around in a big circle at the park. We can't afford fancy exercise equipment like my friend Klund, so instead we make Eryn run laps.

Thanksgiving, Job, Birthday

It's Thanksgiving, so happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We'll have a few less guests than last year but, on a positive note, that means we cook one turkey, not two. It's "have Thanksgiving with the other side of the family" for many of Pooteewheet's relatives. I don't think we'll get through all that gravy and I wonder if I have to regift my Uncle-in-law's corporate turkey (he works with me, we get a Thankgiving turkey for life if we retire) back to him. Maybe I'll just cook it in a few weeks and make him have lunch with me on the leftovers.

It's been a little over a week now, but I'm 95% of the way to 40. Pooteewheet got me a very cool thermal coffeemaker a little early. I use the thing obsessively and have started making coffee to share at work every other week, which is easier now that half of it doesn't leak out the bottom of the coffeemaker and all over the white countertop. And I make coffee and just take the thermal pot with me to the rental property when I'm painting and cleaning and doing yardwork. It tends to stay hot and drinkable for about 24 hours.

Almost on top of the change in age, but unrelated, I have a new job. She Says should take comfort in the fact that it's an internal move, not a job at a whole new company, and a lateral move, I poked around at promotion opportunities, but eventually picked the job where I thought I'd do the most good for the company (which includes making me happy, a happy Scooter is a very productive Scooter). I did have to do a lot of interviewing, but I had an advantage in that I have access to documentation and wikis and a willingness to absolutely consume information. It is a big change in that I won't be coding anymore except as a hobby (that's not a commitment to code CDFFL, Mean Mr. Mustard). Instead I'll be working with a variety of company groups to make sure they get the functionality they need. Sounds sort of project manager-ish when I put it that way, but that's not quite the truth of it - there's training and maybe some travel. Friends and family are invited to contact me about details if they're interested.

And I'd like to show you my favorite birthday card, which I got from Sandy, my old project lead. The punchline is, of course, "I can't run again."