.
We are back home after the thirty-seventh iteration of our particular Boggie Bloat, and the dogs & cats have been served their dinners (THREE hours late, we are indignantly reminded). I am doing my best to feel flattered that two of the people who’ve known me longest congratulated me on how much better & healthier than I looked when they last saw me two years ago, which I assured them was mostly due to having slept in my own bed last night. And I remembered that two years ago, I’d spent the preceding 24 hours under great stress and contention with the Spousal Unit and the three godsdamned damaged rescue dogs, culminating in an unscheduled three-hour pre-dawn delay in a strip mall parking lot outside Parsipanny, after (a) a tire blew out (b) somebody realized he’d forgotten to re-inflate the spare, and (c) it was established, after much cellphone triangulation, that somebody had also forgotten to update his AAA membership before we started the trek from Boston to Hoboken…
So now, I have one more reason to be grateful tonight.
How’s things in your neighborhood?
danielx
Most excellent….kitchen is cleaned up, Harry Potter movies with the daughter unit, fire in the fireplace and snarfing Drambuie. Wonderful dinner for fourteen, everything done on time, no muss, no fuss and no fucking drama.
Grateful.
Latter is particularly nice, since in my experience large family gatherings tend to put the diss in dysfunctional. Spousal unit is out braving the hordes of savages in search of deals. I suppose somebody (in the generic sense, not for our family in particular) has to do it – but not me. I don’t care how good the deals are, it’s just…stuff. I would rather spend the rest of my life at a Barry Manilow concert than go anywhere near a shopping mall or discount store tonight or tomorrow.
Alison
TBH this is a difficult day for me, so I’m just kinda glad it’s done. But I hope everyone had reasonably pleasant meals/visits/travels/etc.
Looking forward to Saturday so I can go throw a bunch of money at local businesses for Small Business Saturday :)
snetzky
What do you get if you cross a turkey with an octopus?
Drumsticks for everybody.
NotMax
Well, that pinpoints the problem.
People come from Hoboken; one doesn’t deliberately go to Hoboken….
andy
rolled out of bed at the crack of noon, looked out the window and was pleased to note a lack of snow.
baked a couple epi loaves and a gratin dauphinois for a Tday potluck one of the gals at the co-op was having at her house.
had a nice time at the potluck. everybody was nice and i’ve been really lucky the past few years with events like this, not having any family here.
a couple hours later rolled out of the potluck after making my goodbyes and headed straight in to work and spent just a couple hours putting the paper to bed, discussing the Steelers game with the cuter half of the photo department.
now i’m home putting leftovers away and having a drink. it was one of the nicest thanksgivings i’ve had in years, not one bit of unhealthy stress.
YellowJournalism
@Alison: Today was my late cousin’s birthday. My sis was pretty close to him, and I know his mom does not take this date well. He died around Christmas, so the pain doesn’t subside for her as the Holidays ramp up.
Comrade Dread
Did a nice Turkey quiche today for a brunch with my family.
It should work well with leftovers for tomorrow.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
I was in Hoboken Tuesday night. We must have just passed each other.
NotMax
Just sitting down to dinner.
Damned delicious.
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
Bleh. Just want tomorrow to get here. It’s the slowest day of the year at my company but I’d rather be at work than have a day like today happen.
PurpleGirl
@efgoldman: I’ve recently heard TV commercials about a condition called Psuedobulbar Affect.
pbafacts.com/
It sounds like what you experienced after your strokes. The main presentation seems to be uncontrollable and inappropriate crying or laughing. It also seems to appear after neurological damage such as a stroke or brain trauma. I’m pleased that you aren’t experiencing it any more.
Alison
@YellowJournalism: Sorry to hear that :/
Suzanne
This has been kind of a sucky year. But a good holiday. I slept in, we went to a restaurant, then came home, napped, took the dogs for a walk, watched a movie. I am thankful for my many blessings, but still wouldn’t mind if 2014 was an improvement on unlucky ’13. In addition to Christmas, December also brings my wedding anniversary, both my girls’ birthdays, a work trip, a vacation, and another exam. Plus all my regularly scheduled, you know, WORK. I am tired just thinking about it. My goal is to map every day of this four-day weekend so I can start December off on a good note.
Yatsuno
@Suzanne: Two more weeks of work then three months of post-surgery recovery. Doc is throwing me into a rehab facility afterwards to jumpstart the PT, then home with the folks until March 10th. I’ll be bored out of my skull so I’m taking some free accounting stuff through work.
Suzanne
@Yatsuno: Rehab will be difficult but ultimately awesome. I would assume you’ve got some great rehab hospitals up there, right? Being in a good place really does make a huge impact.
PurpleGirl
I had had plans for Wednesday and Thursday and nothing worked out as I had hoped. Ended up sleeping most of Thursday and only made lunch/dinner late at 10 PM. (Really breakfast type food.) Now I’m not sleepy and can’t fall asleep.
This weekend is the fifth anniversary of becoming unemployed. It was the same date/timing as five years ago — Thursday was Thanksgiving and then followed my birthday (Sunday five years ago and this year it’s Saturday. And my mother died 4 days after her 93rd birthday in January.) That was a horrible holiday season.
Bill E Pilgrim
I never even knew there was a Turkey Open.
Lots of birdies, I assume.
PurpleGirl
@efgoldman: lachrymal whatever is one of the other names given to the condition. It seems like neurologists and researcher are trying to establish PBA as the main name for the condition. Again, I’m glad for you that is a transient condition and isn’t affecting you now.
piratedan
just as a heads up, I have my own date at the hosp next week and so if you notice that the threads are nicer and generally devoid of you tube band references, you’ll have me to thank :-)
Good Luck Yutsy on your time under the knife and you Suzanne with your whirlwind schedule
Suzanne
@piratedan: Hugs. You going to UMC or TMC, or Northwest? Both UMC and TMC are very good, and I had surgery at Northwest and it went awesome. (Of course, I brought my surgical team bagels.) You and Yutsy will be in my thoughts.
Glocksman
After the Steelers game I was somewhat depressed by the loss, but Leno wasn’t bad at all.
Today went fine as I went to my sister’s and also did my holiday ‘tradition’ of doing laundry at the 24hr laundromat after the festivities
Though now that Jimmy Kimmel is on, I have one question.
Just WTF is NBC thinking in replacing Leno with that dripping asshole Kimmel?
Whatever the programming execs are smoking, I wish they’d share their stash.
Yatsuno
@Bill E Pilgrim: Turkeys are tough birds. Well the wild ones are anyway. Ben had it right when he suggested they be our national bird.
@efgoldman: @Suzanne: This is the planned replacement of the left hip. I wanted to do both at the same time (disease-related replacement) but the surgeon balked at that. So left then right probably 6-8 months down the road. Suffice it to say I’ll be missing a lot of work but thanks to my union it doesn’t affect my raise structure at all.
max
@efgoldman: I’m a happy camper – except you couldn’t pay me to go camping.
Camping is fun, as long as you don’t do it in the cold. (You could do it in the cold if you’re hunting but then, you’re hunting and enduring having to camp.
How’s things in your neighborhood?
Indoor/outdoor cat was sick. Barely moving around last night (I thought it was the chill) and had a snotty eye this morning. He parked it on the woodpile out back and stayed there for five hours, watching the squirrels. I wonder if his respiratory distress (temporary it seems, he’s better tonight) was transferred to me, because I got a sore throat with 90 minutes of cooking left. So not much eating until various aspirins and such. And then I followed my thanksgiving tradition and sauteed the liver (the only actually good part of the turkey) in some butter with lots of salt and pepper and then added a red wine au jous.
I felt way better after eating that. Ummm, tasty.
max
[‘To sleep, perchance not to hack up my lungs every half hour.’]
BillinGlendaleCA
@Yatsuno: Apple Cup’s tomorrow, go Huskies.
piratedan
@Suzanne: Northwest… finally got the approval from the insurance company to approve the Sleeve Gastrectomy (only after 11 months!) so I can finally try and win the losing battle I’ve been waging with my weight. Should only be an over-nighter but have been warned that I’ll be plenty uncomfortable in the following weeks. Spouse has noted that the hardest part for me will be adhering to the diet prior to surgery noting that the hunger issues should be more or less resolved because I won’t have a big enough stomach demanding to be filled. Gotta say, today was personally uncomfortable behaving with all of the food that was available (thank you olfactory hunger markers!), but that’s essentially a first world problem just strange how different that discomfort is related to all of the crap that I deny myself from being able to do because of my size. The mind is one funny organ is all I can say.
Suzanne
@piratedan: Best of luck. I’m sure it will go fabulously and you’ll lose weight like nobody’s business.
@Yatsuno: Lordy. That’s a lot to put yourself through. Treat yerself nice. When do you expect to be up and moving?
danielx
Late night music.
fuckwit
@Glocksman: Jeez, some years back, they replaced Conan with Leno, only months after having replaced Leno with Conan. They’re idiots.
mary
@PurpleGirl: You’ve been having a rough time. Be gentle with yourself. Sometimes, like this year, Thanksgiving is just Thursday.
dmsilev
@NotMax: Let me fix that for you to be in compliance with All Internet Traditions: “One does not simply walk into Hoboken.” You’ll have to imagine the Boromir picture that should go with it.
Lurking Buffoon
Dinner was good, and there was a little less bickering than usual which is always a relief. And after we were done the family watched The Hobbit. As for today, by long stint of tradition this is not Black Friday (with the exception of my sister, but she wisely does all the post-turkey shopping online). Oh no, today is Sleep-in-and-Have-Turkey-Clubs-for-Dinner Day.
Aimai
My sister in laws mother was with us. She has moved into assisted living near her daughter and my brother from having lived on the other coast. She said that she had been alone for the last four thanksgivings. I have a lot of stress at thanksgiving since I’m always hosting it but that meant a lot.
Josie
@piratedan: My daughter-in-law had the sleeve surgery two years ago and it was extremely successful for her. She followed the doctor’s eating and drinking instructions to the letter and the weight just fell off with no ill effects from the surgery. She has lost a whole person, her appetite is greatly reduced and she is so much more active and happy than before. She is allowed to eat anything (with the exception of raw celery) as long as she only eats four ounces at a meal. She is on a couple of blogs like this one, only for people who have had the sleeve procedure. You might google around to find one. Best of luck to you.
kc
@Comrade Dread:
That looks pretty good.
piratedan
@Josie: thank you Josie, that’s part of the reason I went with this procedure, it doesn’t solve the problem per se, just helps you deal with the “hungry” issue which drives my particular bus. Who knows the where’s and why’s of how I got here, I just know that when I was hungry, I eat, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. The idea is if I’m not hungry, maybe I won’t eat. The surgery helps to develop new habits and reinforce good ones, so hoping that I can just follow the instructions and get better.
Villago Delenda Est
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Civil War tomorrow, don’t further embarrass yourselves, Fighting Fashion Nightmares.