I'm pretty sure everyone here knows about this, but I wanted to note in the family timeline that I'm planning to donate a kidney. I've been planning to do this for a long time now, but I wrote about it here, in case you haven't seen that yet.
Perhaps Kels or even a guest blogger will be interested in sharing more about what that looks like to Team GW. Perhaps they will be interested in writing for my hypothetical book of short stories about kidney donation. If finding a job takes too long, that's going to be what I work on to keep myself busy. More on that later.
Things are good here- we are planning a camping trip to the Olympics for Thanksgiving, and STILL get to eat stuffing with the family this Sunday. Work is winding down, but I feel like this is a nice time of year for some free time.
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Much to be Thankful for
This week we host the much anticipated visit of the Texas family, AND a return of the parents to our new abode. Those of us who regularly hang around in WA were pretty pumped about these events, if you can image. Nana and I would just site round ringing our hands in anticipation of those cute baby cheeks to pinch and the mountains of food that we would be eating. And this visit did not disappoint.
Noel's family got in on Saturday night. So I got to host a newly arrived Mom and Nana for dinner before the airport run that delivered the Texans to my house. Tyler valiantly tolerated us hauling him all around Pike Place Market, and Seattle was in full spectrum grey on Sunday. At least it was an honest representation of the city. We also somehow talked Mom into hosting all the cousins for a potluck dinner in Sunday, which was a great excuse to get a ton of adults together to just watch a baby. It's pretty funny how one little kid can completely steal the show at a dinner party.
Even though I had to WORK at my awesome JOB, I think Noel and Jessie managed to enjoy themselves while they were here. I know Tyler got to spend some super bonus Nana time with his Nana and Great-Nana, which would be the Nana Highlight of the whole holiday season if they weren't going to see him in Texas in a couple weeks. And this was just the build up to the main event- TURKEY DAY.
Even my mother-in-law came down to dive into the family food frenzy of Thanksgiving. When you've got that many balls in the air, it seems safe to assume at list one thing is going to come out charred and inedible, but we managed to time every single thing perfectly- steaming hot dishes stuffing, green beans, Brussels sprouts (lovingly friend with bacon), stood next to a tower of mashed potatoes, creamy pools of gravy and the glow of a sweet potatoe pie (a pre-dessert tradition from Jessie's family). I suppose if you were going to be nit-picky (and I'm not), the one casualty of the kitchen was the bird. Don't get me wrong, after a day in the roaster, this bird was as tender and juicy as any bird you could dream of. But to get that 18 pound monster of fall-off the bone good-ness onto the platter, well, it lost just a little in the presentation. As they inevitably moved/dropped/exploded the bird onto the target platter, Jessie and Noel stood giggling over the "Norman Rockewell Perfect Turkey" in a way that reminded me of the Disaster of The Wedding Cake. They are so cute.
My mother-in-law lead the charge to bake 3 universally awesome pies on Wednesday night. I always assume that part of the motivation for cooking so many is that at least one should be ok. Well, we felt like we won the pie lottery, because all of them were fantastic: sweet-meat squash/pumpkin, brown bag apple and West Virginia Pecan alike. As Noel said, "I believe this pie is a triumph of human ingenuity and civilization." Wash it all down with a couple gallons of Martinelli's and it was a Thanksgiving for the record books.
Betty revived the old family tradition of going around the table to share something we can be thankful for- and man, I felt like we could go around the table a few times. Great family, near and far, good health (especially those who just got out of their back braces), meaningful work that PAID us to spend the day cooking and eating, the means to live a comfortable life and share it with those precious people around the table... and this was before we tried the pie.
Everyone is back on the road again, which leaves Matt and I to conquer the lion's share of the leftovers. It's just one more thing to be grateful for.
Noel's family got in on Saturday night. So I got to host a newly arrived Mom and Nana for dinner before the airport run that delivered the Texans to my house. Tyler valiantly tolerated us hauling him all around Pike Place Market, and Seattle was in full spectrum grey on Sunday. At least it was an honest representation of the city. We also somehow talked Mom into hosting all the cousins for a potluck dinner in Sunday, which was a great excuse to get a ton of adults together to just watch a baby. It's pretty funny how one little kid can completely steal the show at a dinner party.
Even though I had to WORK at my awesome JOB, I think Noel and Jessie managed to enjoy themselves while they were here. I know Tyler got to spend some super bonus Nana time with his Nana and Great-Nana, which would be the Nana Highlight of the whole holiday season if they weren't going to see him in Texas in a couple weeks. And this was just the build up to the main event- TURKEY DAY.
Even my mother-in-law came down to dive into the family food frenzy of Thanksgiving. When you've got that many balls in the air, it seems safe to assume at list one thing is going to come out charred and inedible, but we managed to time every single thing perfectly- steaming hot dishes stuffing, green beans, Brussels sprouts (lovingly friend with bacon), stood next to a tower of mashed potatoes, creamy pools of gravy and the glow of a sweet potatoe pie (a pre-dessert tradition from Jessie's family). I suppose if you were going to be nit-picky (and I'm not), the one casualty of the kitchen was the bird. Don't get me wrong, after a day in the roaster, this bird was as tender and juicy as any bird you could dream of. But to get that 18 pound monster of fall-off the bone good-ness onto the platter, well, it lost just a little in the presentation. As they inevitably moved/dropped/exploded the bird onto the target platter, Jessie and Noel stood giggling over the "Norman Rockewell Perfect Turkey" in a way that reminded me of the Disaster of The Wedding Cake. They are so cute.
My mother-in-law lead the charge to bake 3 universally awesome pies on Wednesday night. I always assume that part of the motivation for cooking so many is that at least one should be ok. Well, we felt like we won the pie lottery, because all of them were fantastic: sweet-meat squash/pumpkin, brown bag apple and West Virginia Pecan alike. As Noel said, "I believe this pie is a triumph of human ingenuity and civilization." Wash it all down with a couple gallons of Martinelli's and it was a Thanksgiving for the record books.
Betty revived the old family tradition of going around the table to share something we can be thankful for- and man, I felt like we could go around the table a few times. Great family, near and far, good health (especially those who just got out of their back braces), meaningful work that PAID us to spend the day cooking and eating, the means to live a comfortable life and share it with those precious people around the table... and this was before we tried the pie.
Everyone is back on the road again, which leaves Matt and I to conquer the lion's share of the leftovers. It's just one more thing to be grateful for.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Other Finger Exercises
One of the main reasons I haven't been
blogging as much is that whenever I get a free 15 minutes or so, I've
actually been indulging in a new, different hobby. I'm learning the
piano. Again.
I don't have much of a recollection of
playing the piano before. I can't have been that good at it,
but my body clearly remembers a few of the tricks. I still remember
'doggy D', and whenever I put my hands on the keyboard, my first,
third, and fifth fingers are always ready to hit the C Major chord.
So far my strategy of 'make sure you practice every day, preferably
before you play videogames' has been paying off. I picked up a book
of instructional songs for adults to teach themselves, and it's been
a great help in just lining up songs that push my dexterity a little
bit at a time. I should put up some video (or maybe just audio?)
later, but Jessie says she likes listening to me, so that's pretty
good to hear. I keep thinking that if I still am doing this after a
year I'll reward myself by getting a real piano. Probably an
electric piano, or just a better keyboard. An upright at best. We
technically could fit a grand somewhere in the house, but I'll save
that until after I become a world-famous performer.
The idea that we should have
Thanksgiving in Seattle catalyzed yesterday, and has quickly run away
as a fantastic idea. It'll be neat to see the family again, of
course, but I haven't really gotten to see much of the city, and I'm
told it's a pretty cool place in spots. Also, Tyler did quite well
on his last flight, so we're up to trying it again. Getting him his
own seat is a real boon to his comfort, as well as ours and all those
around us. It's an investment, but it's been a good one so far.
Jess played hookey today to go riding
down the river on inner tubes with work-mates, drinking and generally
having a relaxing time. I took over baby-caring-for duty, and Jess
has been taking every opportunity to tell people how nice I am being
to her, which is a kindness that I definitely appreciate.
Tyler's latest trick is that he really
likes noticing when things are the same. If you're reading a book,
and the picture on the front of the book is the same as the picture
on one of the pages, he'll get really excited (if he remembers) and
make you flip back to the cover to make sure they are the same. He
also got really excited when he noticed that the cat on my 'darth
vader kitty' t-shirt was the same as the cats running around the
house. Both dee-dees.
My sparring (they call it shi-ai) in
judo has never been very good. I'd mostly quantify it as 'really
bad', and I've decided I have to face my fear of sucking at judo and
just practice it more. After all, that's pretty much how you get
better at anything. I get myself pumped up by listening to energetic
music on the way in, and I'm trying to convince myself that, much
like the piano, I just have to do it every day. Not a lot,
necessarily, but every time needs a little more practice. I'll get
there eventually if I put in the time.
-N
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Turkey, Et. Al.
'Tis the end of our Thanksgiving weekend too, and it has been a very nice one. This also marks the first time Jess and I have celebrated Thanksgiving by staying home and not traveling across the country and driving ourselves crazy. I gotta say, if you can swing it, Thanksgiving at home is a pretty good way to go. Though you do have to cook for yourselves.
Wednesday was prep day, and like any good father, I just assumed I would have no time to do anything the next day (babies are unpredictable like that) and did whatever I could. Our spread was a little more modest, but I did manage to brine the turkey and set up for both green bean and Sweet potato casserole on Wednesday. Thursday I cooked, and having a little turkey breast to cook instead of a huge honking Turkey makes all the difference, let me tell you. Ever cook a turkey in an hour? It's a little less iconic on the table, but white meat is all we really want anyway, so it worked out. Then a couple of casseroles, some Stove Top stuffing, can-shaped cranberry sauce (the best) and some brown-n-serve rolls and we were in business. Everything was delicious, and we even bought ourselves a few pies to sustain ourselves during dessert. Of course, those pies had been missing a few wedges since we had been trying them out earlier in the week to make sure they were, um, ripe.
Friday was pretty sedate, though notable because it rained, which is always nice when you can get some of that in Texas. I had the bright idea to go get some discount turkey, but there weren't any notable markdowns so we just picked up some random stuff and came home. We're still undecided about Christmas lights, whether or not we actually want to put them up, and the fact that the ground was all wet meant we didn't want to go trudging around in the yard, so we just went on a few walks and played with Tyler a lot. And a few video games, I won't lie.
Saturday I decided to knock the last thing off my long weekend to-do list and finish my latest song. I've been working on the (unofficial) Ticom Geomatics theme song for a while and had the music and lyrics all written, but I hadn't been able to record the lyrics yet because...I've been busy playing video games. So I convinced myself I wasn't allowed to play Saint's Row until the song was done, and then Jess was nice enough to watch Tyler so I could do some recording.
It's still fairly low production value, I personally think it sounds like I'm in a Karaoke Bar, but it's functional, and a worthwhile proof of concept. Maybe I can get some Ticom musicians to help me with a more professional sounding version, starting with the singer. I'm not amazing. I'll post it up in a bit, but if you get desperate, or I forget, you can e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.
Then today was Judo. Our sensei, who just got promoted to 8th degree black belt (one of only 5 in the COUNTRY) decided to have a little seminar, and so I went and Jessie came to watch. There were only about 8 of us there, but it was great fun, good education, and excellent exercise, clocking in at 3 hours of judo, which ain't bad. After that, we've been at home and just fussing around with Tyler and trying to get him to stay awake until his bedtime. I think we've managed to skype with pretty much everyone on my skype list this weekend, so you've all seen his most recent antics. Lots of crawling, getting into things he shouldn't, and eating puffs like it's going out of style.
-N
Wednesday was prep day, and like any good father, I just assumed I would have no time to do anything the next day (babies are unpredictable like that) and did whatever I could. Our spread was a little more modest, but I did manage to brine the turkey and set up for both green bean and Sweet potato casserole on Wednesday. Thursday I cooked, and having a little turkey breast to cook instead of a huge honking Turkey makes all the difference, let me tell you. Ever cook a turkey in an hour? It's a little less iconic on the table, but white meat is all we really want anyway, so it worked out. Then a couple of casseroles, some Stove Top stuffing, can-shaped cranberry sauce (the best) and some brown-n-serve rolls and we were in business. Everything was delicious, and we even bought ourselves a few pies to sustain ourselves during dessert. Of course, those pies had been missing a few wedges since we had been trying them out earlier in the week to make sure they were, um, ripe.
Friday was pretty sedate, though notable because it rained, which is always nice when you can get some of that in Texas. I had the bright idea to go get some discount turkey, but there weren't any notable markdowns so we just picked up some random stuff and came home. We're still undecided about Christmas lights, whether or not we actually want to put them up, and the fact that the ground was all wet meant we didn't want to go trudging around in the yard, so we just went on a few walks and played with Tyler a lot. And a few video games, I won't lie.
Saturday I decided to knock the last thing off my long weekend to-do list and finish my latest song. I've been working on the (unofficial) Ticom Geomatics theme song for a while and had the music and lyrics all written, but I hadn't been able to record the lyrics yet because...I've been busy playing video games. So I convinced myself I wasn't allowed to play Saint's Row until the song was done, and then Jess was nice enough to watch Tyler so I could do some recording.
It's still fairly low production value, I personally think it sounds like I'm in a Karaoke Bar, but it's functional, and a worthwhile proof of concept. Maybe I can get some Ticom musicians to help me with a more professional sounding version, starting with the singer. I'm not amazing. I'll post it up in a bit, but if you get desperate, or I forget, you can e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.
Then today was Judo. Our sensei, who just got promoted to 8th degree black belt (one of only 5 in the COUNTRY) decided to have a little seminar, and so I went and Jessie came to watch. There were only about 8 of us there, but it was great fun, good education, and excellent exercise, clocking in at 3 hours of judo, which ain't bad. After that, we've been at home and just fussing around with Tyler and trying to get him to stay awake until his bedtime. I think we've managed to skype with pretty much everyone on my skype list this weekend, so you've all seen his most recent antics. Lots of crawling, getting into things he shouldn't, and eating puffs like it's going out of style.
-N
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Thanksgiving survivors
Happy Thanksgiving, All!
We were very exited to be close enough to drive up to my mother-in-law's for a weekend of fun and eating. See, moving home is great, because you can get together and plan a big meal to share with you family in person, and then get together AGAIN and share it. How cool! Right? I mean, that was kinda how it turned out. Thanksgiving Eve, as it were, I started feeling not awesome- achey, sleepy, sore throat. By the time Matt came home I was reduced to shivers on the couch under a pile of blankets. In a brief moment of clear-minded-ness brought on by Tylenol, I remember 'Hey sometimes people don't like it when you bring them germs as hostess gifts.' I tried to explain this to Matt, but I am pretty sure my pathetic muttering came off as much more "Please take me to your mom's, she'll take care of me."
In the morning Matt confirmed, that yes, his saintly mother would still take us and all the germs we could carry for Thanksgiving AND put our entire, ambitious feast on the table. Whadda Woman! Picture this, I moved directly from the couch to the car, took a long nap in the car and arrived in slippers, sweats and a fleece blanket thrown over my head. I gave a big hug Betty, who made me a cup of tea, which I immediately took to bed. At some point, Matt poked his head in to ask how you make sausage cornbread stuffing. I believe my exact recipe was "Sausage, Cornbread and more butter." I woke up once thinking I might be energetic and asked "Are we having mashed potatoes?" and then went back to bed. I don't know that I felt so terrible, but being awake and suffering just didn't seem in the cards. During one of my brief peroids of awakefulness, Matt did say that he was feeling achey, maybe from his workout. This is a literary device called forshadowing. After a couple more naps and mugs of tea, dinner happened!
And let me just brag on this spread, because I optimistically committed us to it and then didn't lift a finger to get it on the table. I thought surely, the two remaining chefs would decide chard AND Brussels sprouts is overkill, or that maybe a waldorf salad was redundant considering we had like 4 other vegetable dishes on the table- but no. No pan was spared in the making of our Thanksgiving feast, which should come as no surprise given our turn-outs in the past. The centerpiece was of course a beautiful, herbed and brined turkey. Together, they made an amazing sausage and cornbread (that Betty baked fresh) stuffing, as well as Brussels sprouts with sopressetta, creamed chard, mashed potatoes and parsnips and a green casserole which I managed to muff up by giving him crunchy onions that expired 2 years ago (uh, yeah, we moved with that....). There was also a heavenly sweet potatoe dish, an heirloom quality orange-cranberry relish and a divine pumpkin cheesecake. AND a waldorf salad, which while I supposed Bety didn't grow the nuts, everything else in it was home grown AND my-mother-in-law's-best-recipe Deviled Eggs and a crazy good gravy to drown everything in. It was amazing. It took like and hour to move it all on to the table, and then on to each of our plates. And now is a good time to clarify, that yes, it was just the three of us eating. We of course ate ourselves silly, and then retired the feast to the fridge until we could consider cheesecake. I believe I had another nap. And about the time I got up to eating cheesecake, Matt said that, no, he didn't want any, he would just go to bed. Which I thought was weird- especially when I tasted how good the cheesecake was! By my bed time, my throat was just feeling bruised from swelling and I was tired, but Matt had mumbled a goodbye, and then curled up on the bed, fully clothed and passed out. Uh-oh.
He spent the rest of the night tossing and turning and feeling awful. He woke up in the morning sort of confused about it, like he often is about when his body does not respond as directed. After some discussion, we concluded that maybe you don't only need to take medicine when you are SICK, if you use a narrow definition of SICK that requires hospitalization, maybe sometimes you can take some medicine when you don't feel good. Having some aleve in him made it easier to get him interested in drinking juice, but unfortunately, his interest in food was completely off. Betty and I went for a brief sprint around town for "black friday" shopping- we went to the gallery, and her friend's gallery and the grocery store for more lemons for my lemon honey tea. I got some beautiful cards, and then was in sore need of a nap. I cannot exaggerate the amount I slept this weekend. Matt and I barely saw each other we were sleeping so much. This is partly due to illness, but I think also a cry for help in the form of blackout curtains for our bedroom. By today, we both felt with it enough to pack our own things out to the car and stay awake for the long (2 hours) drive home. Matt took a shower, put on all his warm clothes and came to sit on the couch with me. Then the cat yurped, and after he recovered his dignity, he came to be the cherry on top of our sick family sundae.
As objectively bad as most of that sounds, it was actually a really nice weekend. I mean, if you have to be sick, it is so much nicer to be around people who want to take care of you and can make tea without batting an eye. I'm thoroughly convinced our health was buoyed up by a full array of hearty and nourishing foods, prepared lovingly by my (blessedly un-infected) mother-in-law. And if we left too many germs behind, I will totally rush back to concrete to make the tea and prime the DVDs.
We were very exited to be close enough to drive up to my mother-in-law's for a weekend of fun and eating. See, moving home is great, because you can get together and plan a big meal to share with you family in person, and then get together AGAIN and share it. How cool! Right? I mean, that was kinda how it turned out. Thanksgiving Eve, as it were, I started feeling not awesome- achey, sleepy, sore throat. By the time Matt came home I was reduced to shivers on the couch under a pile of blankets. In a brief moment of clear-minded-ness brought on by Tylenol, I remember 'Hey sometimes people don't like it when you bring them germs as hostess gifts.' I tried to explain this to Matt, but I am pretty sure my pathetic muttering came off as much more "Please take me to your mom's, she'll take care of me."
In the morning Matt confirmed, that yes, his saintly mother would still take us and all the germs we could carry for Thanksgiving AND put our entire, ambitious feast on the table. Whadda Woman! Picture this, I moved directly from the couch to the car, took a long nap in the car and arrived in slippers, sweats and a fleece blanket thrown over my head. I gave a big hug Betty, who made me a cup of tea, which I immediately took to bed. At some point, Matt poked his head in to ask how you make sausage cornbread stuffing. I believe my exact recipe was "Sausage, Cornbread and more butter." I woke up once thinking I might be energetic and asked "Are we having mashed potatoes?" and then went back to bed. I don't know that I felt so terrible, but being awake and suffering just didn't seem in the cards. During one of my brief peroids of awakefulness, Matt did say that he was feeling achey, maybe from his workout. This is a literary device called forshadowing. After a couple more naps and mugs of tea, dinner happened!
And let me just brag on this spread, because I optimistically committed us to it and then didn't lift a finger to get it on the table. I thought surely, the two remaining chefs would decide chard AND Brussels sprouts is overkill, or that maybe a waldorf salad was redundant considering we had like 4 other vegetable dishes on the table- but no. No pan was spared in the making of our Thanksgiving feast, which should come as no surprise given our turn-outs in the past. The centerpiece was of course a beautiful, herbed and brined turkey. Together, they made an amazing sausage and cornbread (that Betty baked fresh) stuffing, as well as Brussels sprouts with sopressetta, creamed chard, mashed potatoes and parsnips and a green casserole which I managed to muff up by giving him crunchy onions that expired 2 years ago (uh, yeah, we moved with that....). There was also a heavenly sweet potatoe dish, an heirloom quality orange-cranberry relish and a divine pumpkin cheesecake. AND a waldorf salad, which while I supposed Bety didn't grow the nuts, everything else in it was home grown AND my-mother-in-law's-best-recipe Deviled Eggs and a crazy good gravy to drown everything in. It was amazing. It took like and hour to move it all on to the table, and then on to each of our plates. And now is a good time to clarify, that yes, it was just the three of us eating. We of course ate ourselves silly, and then retired the feast to the fridge until we could consider cheesecake. I believe I had another nap. And about the time I got up to eating cheesecake, Matt said that, no, he didn't want any, he would just go to bed. Which I thought was weird- especially when I tasted how good the cheesecake was! By my bed time, my throat was just feeling bruised from swelling and I was tired, but Matt had mumbled a goodbye, and then curled up on the bed, fully clothed and passed out. Uh-oh.
He spent the rest of the night tossing and turning and feeling awful. He woke up in the morning sort of confused about it, like he often is about when his body does not respond as directed. After some discussion, we concluded that maybe you don't only need to take medicine when you are SICK, if you use a narrow definition of SICK that requires hospitalization, maybe sometimes you can take some medicine when you don't feel good. Having some aleve in him made it easier to get him interested in drinking juice, but unfortunately, his interest in food was completely off. Betty and I went for a brief sprint around town for "black friday" shopping- we went to the gallery, and her friend's gallery and the grocery store for more lemons for my lemon honey tea. I got some beautiful cards, and then was in sore need of a nap. I cannot exaggerate the amount I slept this weekend. Matt and I barely saw each other we were sleeping so much. This is partly due to illness, but I think also a cry for help in the form of blackout curtains for our bedroom. By today, we both felt with it enough to pack our own things out to the car and stay awake for the long (2 hours) drive home. Matt took a shower, put on all his warm clothes and came to sit on the couch with me. Then the cat yurped, and after he recovered his dignity, he came to be the cherry on top of our sick family sundae.
As objectively bad as most of that sounds, it was actually a really nice weekend. I mean, if you have to be sick, it is so much nicer to be around people who want to take care of you and can make tea without batting an eye. I'm thoroughly convinced our health was buoyed up by a full array of hearty and nourishing foods, prepared lovingly by my (blessedly un-infected) mother-in-law. And if we left too many germs behind, I will totally rush back to concrete to make the tea and prime the DVDs.
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