After yesterday’s painfully long entertaining chapter book post I hope you’ve all given serious consideration to a trip to Ohio and decided to come spend a few days with us in Cincinnati. In addition to everything we showed my parents (if you missed it scroll down for a full recap!) there’s still the Newport Aquarium, Flower Conservatory, Kings Island Roller Coaster theme park (Cedar Point’s competitor), Graeter’s ice cream, a plethora of fantastic ethnic restaurants, the Cincy Ballet, Cincy Orchestra, the art museum, museum of history and science, Fountain Square, shows at UC, Coney Island, the zoo, biking trails, Mt. Adams shopping and wine tastings, and the horse races in nearby Kentucky. Oh, and there’s us – a great little house with two weirdos, a squirrel and a coyote (who are surprisingly not the two weirdos), a wii, a firepit, enough Door County wine for the next year, and a cozy guest room. So all of you who haven’t come to visit yet (um, that’s pretty much everyone) and are looking for a very inexpensive vacation, a tour of a great city you’ve probably never given a second thought to, and good friends to chum around with – reserve your airline tickets for sometime next year. We’d love to have you!
Today I will be stationed at the Ohio Licensing Agency for a good portion of the day getting my vehicle inspected, taking an Ohio rules of the road knowledge test, converting my title from Texas to Ohio, renewing my registration, getting Ohio license plates, and getting a new driver’s license with my updated name and address. I am changing everything there is to change all at the same time – with any luck. I can see this being a long and frustrating process. So in lieu of another novel (and in hopes that you’ll love our house and be further persuaded to come up for a long weekend), today I give you a picture tour of our home. Enjoy!
Happy Monday after Thanksgiving (blaaaahhh)! Now that our bellies are all a little pudgier and we’re all a little sleepier and we all probably have a daunting amount of crap to catch up on at work and at home (I know I do! The laundry pile has its own zip code), I thought I’d start off the week with a lengthy nice recap of the past few days.
We thoroughly enjoyed a fantastic 4-day holiday weekend in Cincy with my parents – our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, our first Thanksgiving that I’ve hosted & helped cooked, our first Thanksgiving in Cincy, and our first Thanksgiving in our house. That’s a lot of firsts! I should also throw in there that this was Ted’s first real day(s) off since he began his job November 1. Needless to say, we’ve been looking forward to the Thanksgiving holidays and my parent’s visit!
My parents arrived with a 10 ft. u-haul and my Buick in tow on Wednesday afternoon…in the rain. We have a long, narrow driveway and a car in tow on the car dolly attached to the back of a truck cannot be put into reverse (Who likes a challenge?). Dad maneuvered it down the driveway, parked it in front of the house and we unloaded all my boxes into the basement. Luckily I did a massive “I don’t need all this junk” cleaning before I moved and got rid of about half or more of what I owned (and wow does that feel amazing!), so there’s only a reasonable sized pile of boxes – most of which are kitchen things and clothes. Did I mention we unloaded in the biting cold, windy, rain? Oh, well, we did. Ted came home from work a few hours early and he and my dad unhooked my car from the tow dolly while mom and I brought some cooking stuff up to the kitchen. That night we went to dinner at Montgomery Inn – Boathouse. It’s a fantastic hot-spot restaurant right on the river that is the border between downtown Cincy and Kentucky. While dining you have a awesome view of the river, the bridges that connect Ohio and Kentucky, and the downtown Cincy and Covington areas. The food is excellent. They’re known for their ribs and they are fall-off-the-bone tasty. The place is huge for a fancy restaurant but always mobbed. That night because of the crowd it was mandatory vallet parking (which in the cold icy rain was quite alright) and we had to make reservations for priority seating so the wait isn’t as long as the normal seating wait. I had a creamy portobello mushroom and red pepper bisque, ribs, and the most delicious mac n’ cheese I’ve ever feasted on. Everyone else had ribs too along with a glass of their signature house beer – Ted’s Pail Ale. It is definitely a restaurant you take your guests to as an introduction to the city. So, come visit us! :-)
Thursday was Thanksgiving. We went to church to celebrate Thanksgiving mass in the morning (one of my most favorite traditions). Mom and I cooked all day and the guys watched Football. It was cold, gloomy and rainy again all day – perfect staying inside weather. The food was great and the company was even better. We sure do have a lot to be Thankful for – this year and every year. After dinner we watched Garfield’s Thanksgiving. The classic cartoons are hilarious. Please do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of it if you don’t already have it recorded off the TV onto a VHS tape from the 80’s. The humor and sarcasm won’t let you down.
My Thanksgiving drawings on our fridgeOur dining room table all set for dinnerMom & dad enjoying appetizers during a football game
Baking piesPumpkin cheesecake and apple pie - YUM!
That night around midnight as Ted & I stayed up late to cash in on a starting-at-midnight-Black-Friday deal on a warranty plan for our new washer & dryer set (ha! you know you’re no longer 21 when your idea of a Black Friday sale is a warranty, not clothing) we happened to look out the window to see this….
Our first snow-fall of the season!
As a disclaimer, I’ve never gone Black Friday shopping. There’s pretty much no reason good enough for me to crawl out of my warm, cozy bed at 1:30 a.m. to stand in line with 200 other grumpy people at 3 a.m. in 30 degree weather and risk being trampled to death in a stampede. Nope. Not for me. That being said, we decided it might be fun to see what all the hubub is about. We all slept in, ate a leisurely breakfast at home, and left home around 11:30 to return the u-haul. We drove around some of the big shopping spots in Cincy making stops at Target, Sears, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Christopher & Banks (for my mom – she likes that all her kids live in a city with a C&B nearby since they don’t have any in San Antonio). I was expecting full parking lots, boisterous crowds, snaking lines, and super hot deals. Sooo…what’s the big deal about Black Friday again? We effortlessly found parking spots, walked right up to the cash register at Target with our purchases, and I didn’t see any major sales that knocked my socks off. Maybe all the big sales are timed ones in the wee hours of the morning and maybe that’s when all the crazies are out. But by the time we made it to these stores in the early afternoon – it was no big deal. Just a normal shopping trip. We received gift cards to Sears, Bed Bath and Beyond and Target as wedding presents so we stocked up on Wii games & accessories for our new Wii console, shop work lights for Ted, and a several kitchen accessories including a knife block, knife set, knife sharpener, and electric turkey carving knife for next year (um, regular dull knives don’t cut it on a turkey folks….lesson learned) – all stuff we’ve been wanting to get and all for free. Excellent. And Thank You Everyone! We lunched at Five Guys – a great burger joint if you’ve never been to one (go!) – and then took mom & dad on a scenic driving tour of Eden Park, Mirror Lake, the museum district, Mt. Adams (Cincy’s upscale bohemian Greenwich Village), and the bustling downtown area of Cincinnati including Fountain Square. For dinner we met our friends Nick & Linda at a yummy (but spicy! Hope you like your food hot!) restaurant between Anderson & Williamsburg called Great Scott. They graciously allowed us to stay with them while we were house hunting – they’re great people and it was very nice to see them again.
A lake in Eden Park that overlooks CincinnatiI love the intensity of the color still on this one treeMom & dad at a lookout point
Saturday we took mom & dad to UC to show them where Ted works at CCM. Ted gave an awesome 2-hour tour! We saw all 6 performing spaces including recital halls, costume/prop/set/lighting storage, the massive scene shop (anyone in theatre would be highly jealous of this shop), Ted’s office area, the hydraulic lift on the orchestra pit, the trap door room under the stage (for the 20 some odd traps), the music rehearsal room that overlooks the Bearcats football field, some of the 164 Steinway baby grand and grand pianos in the building, and the electrics shop where some of the moving light are being fixed (aaaand I may have gotten to play with the color, gobo patterns, focus and positioning of said light with the light board :-) ). They have some pretty fabulous stuff! After that tour we ventured over to West Chester to the Ikea to clue my parents in on the self-contained world that is Ikea. If you haven’t been to one, it’s worth the drive to just spend a few hours walking through it and, of course, the Swedish food at the restaurant is tasty as well. Don’t miss the Swedish Meatballs, Lingionberries or the Chocolate Overload cake (though it is recommended that you share it among 4 people…bring friends!). After Ikea we went to check out a place called Jungle Jim’s that we’ve been hearing about from people all over town. Jungle Jim’s is an international food market. They have a hugely extensive wine and beer section, meats and cheeses from all over the world, cooking classes, old vintage-type candy, fresh produce and herbs, and more. Oh and they have a monorail (monorail!) outside that circles the whole building and a lot of jungle animal statues and decor. Their restrooms are award-winning (they look like you are entering a porta-potty on the outside) and they have a nearly 800 lb. cheese. We picked up some butterkase cheese from Germany, some cigarette candy sticks (good luck finding those anymore!), and some different flavors of Woodchuck Hard Cider to try. We ate at Skyline Chili (a Cincy chili chain that makes a Greek recipe chili with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg in it – a very unique flavoring that’s worth a try if you’re in the Cincinnati area), and then built a fire in our backyard firepit to have s’mores and coffee/cider around.
With a bat puppet at Ikea - Katie this is for you! Bartok says hello :-)It was chilly - perfect fire weather!Mom & dad with s'mores & coffee. Please note the Green Bay Packers hoodie!Our toasty warm fire!
Sunday was our chill day. We went to Mass and checked out electric fireplaces at Lowe’s & Home Depot that blow heat for our kitchen (our kitchen is missing a minor something called insulation and is easily 7 degrees colder than the rest of the house which is costs a fortune to heat and keeps it in the 50’s or low 60’s in there). We ate Thanksgiving leftovers and made turkey veggie noodle soup from the bones of the turkey. Ted watched the Packers game (not a pretty outcome) and then we went for a small hike through the woods at the nearby Stanbery Park in Mt. Washington. I love discovering new parks – there’s no shortage of pretty parks in Cincinnati and most have little rivers, great hiking trails, swing sets, and grills. There’s still plenty more I’d like to visit before it gets too snowy or cold. At the worst I’ll have to wait until spring. We can check out a new one every weekend. We came home and watched a few episodes of a funny Irish TV show called Ballykissangel (recommended for a good laugh – kind of like Northern Exposure) and broke open the Wii for a few rounds of archery! It’s hard to believe that the Wii has been out for like 5 years already! Such amazing technology – we love having it!
Mom & dad hiking in Stanbery ParkTed getting aquainted with our Wii
Mom & dad left this morning and the house is awfully quiet with Ted at work. So now it’s back to the real world – a world of laundry, grocery shopping, cooking dinners, unloading boxes in the basement, getting my Ohio drivers license, and oh yeah, that little thing called finding a job. Up next is finding our Christmas tree, Christmas shopping, holiday cards, hopefully receiving our pro pics from the wedding very very soon so we can get our Thank You cards out, and tying up loose ends from moving and getting married. And, oh yeah, still finding a job. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post: A picture tour of our house! Hope you all survive easing back into real life after your holiday weekend.
You know what the problem is with finding a job (other than finding a temporary one that I like well enough to tide us over until I get a real job)? A) Real jobs with normal hours and respectable pay scales and fun/challenging/interesting duties are hard to find right now – especially in the arts. B) All the temporary positions require you to work nights, weekends and holidays. Now this wouldn’t be too much of a problem except that we plan to be out of town for Christmas and New Years (and unless I stay home alone in Cincy this Christmas, they aren’t going to be interested in hiring me), and my husband works the occasional nights and weekends. I don’t mind working whenever he’s working, but on the nights and weekends he’s not working I sure as hell don’t want to be working either. I’d like to see the guy sometimes. There’s a lot of things out there I can see myself being happy with for a few months – library, pet shop, bookstore, Crate & Barrel, ice cream & bakery parlor – but I’m not filled with joy when I read the job descriptions and I see the dreaded words “includes nights and weekends.” I know beggars can’t be choosers, and right now we’re definitely in the beggars line so I should probably shut my mouth and suck it up, but I’m also going to be really selfish here for a moment and say that I’m a newlywed and I don’t want to give up spending time with my husband when we have a chance to. I feel like the first few months of adjusting to married life, a new state, a new city, a new house, and all that crap that goes along with moving, renting, and changing names & residency is tough enough without adding not seeing each other ever to the list. So that’s where I’m at right now. I’ve put in a few arts job applications and haven’t heard a word, so I’m going to begin applying to whatever I can (already got he list of places made) starting early next week and keep up the theatre job apps as often as I can. Something is bound to come along….I hope.
It’s the day before Thanksgiving and my parents should be arriving within the next hour with all my stuff and my Buick (Buick! Beautiful Buick! Oh, how I’ve missed you!!). They had pretty decent driving weather the past two days but now that they’re in Cincy-Tucky land and we have to unload the beast there’s this nasty cold hard rain and ice droplet mixture going on. And it sucks. I’m not at all a fan of it. Though it does sound nice on the roof. Not so great for driving and unloading And it’s cold.
Starting today my goal is to relax – to spend the next 4 days not worrying about job hunting crap, not stressing out about the house, not cleaning or organizing everything (since it’s all done – yay! Just in time for my crap to arrive to organize…eventually. Like in late December or uh, January.) and just to relax and go out and do the fun things we’ve been wanting to do. Today we’ll unload the truck, do some cooking for tomorrow and then hopefully meet Ted at this super awesome steakhouse downtown right on the river between Ohio and Kentucky for dinner. Let the festivities begin!
I just got home from meeting Ted at UC for dinner. I love getting to see him during the day – especially on days he works so late. We went to a pub near campus – a true college hangout with cushy old booths and names, dates and messages etched into the walls. I don’t think think there was a single light in the whole joint – it was pretty much entirely lit by red and blue neon bar lights and it smelled of beer. They’re known for their burgers and the UC scenic and lighting crowd apparently hangs out there often. I’d give the place 3 stars. The burger was good but nothing to brag about and our waitress seemed a little spacey. She mixed up my order and I ended up the wrong side and even though there were only two tables of people in the place at 5 pm on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving it took a really long time to get our food so we ended up shoveling it down before Ted had to rush off to load-in call. They did win brownie points (pun intended) for the fresh baked brownies they brought around to everyone after dinner. All restaurants should offer free brownies!
On the walk back to the parking garage I saw several students piling out of the dorms and into waiting vehicles toting with them giant laundry bags to take home over the Thanksgiving break. I remember doing the same exact thing. Hard believe that was five years ago! I remember standing outside Falls Hall with my bag packed for the week and an embarrassing amount of laundry waiting for my parents to pick me up. I was so excited to go home and spend the weekend with my parents, see my cat Rufus, and hang out with my friends back home.
Tonight we ordered tickets to Cincinnati Ballet’s Nutcracker. We’re both really excited to see it – we love watching dance and the Nutcracker is a holiday classic. I’m excited to check out the talent at Cincy Ballet. Wish we could have afforded orchestra level seats :-) Also saw that Shrek the Musical, Jim Brickman, and Young Frankenstein will be touring to Cincy this year. I’d love to see them!
Well friends, I realized I’ve been holding out on you. I’ve been telling you all about our home and all the improvements we’ve been making to it, but I haven’t shown you any of it. Since nobody has been able to visit us yet and since we just finally got everything all set up, I figure it’s time to unleash the pics…soon. When I’m not eating a pomegranate, coloring a turkey, and writing thank you cards. Be sure to remind me to post them! But in the meantime I will (like our wedding photog) leave you with a teaser pic to hold you over:
Prince William & Kate have set a wedding date – April 29 – and it’s already been declared a national holiday in England and Wales. I don’t think October 22nd was a holiday to anyone but me, Ted and our families and friends who got to take that day off of work. Speaking of, it’s been over a month (by a day!) since our wedding and I’m starting to get a tad bit antsy for our pro pics to come in. I’ve been stalking occasionally glancing at our photog’s website and I nearly leaped over the desk when I saw he posted one photo from our wedding on his home page. I am working on practicing the virtue of patience since he did let us know that it often takes between 4-6 weeks.
Guess what arrived on Saturday! That’s right…marriage certificates! So this morning I went to the Social Security Office to legally and officially change my name. Ted & I put down our new living room area rug this morning before he left for work so I wasn’t able to get there at 9 a.m. when they opened like I had hoped to. I was worried I’d be sitting in line wasting hours of time. I was in and out with a new middle and last name in 24 minutes. That has to be some kind of record! It took me 32 minutes to drive there! Needless to say I was fairly impressed with the effectiveness of Cincinnati’s SS office.
Ted will be working until midnight again and then he gets 4 glorious relaxing days off work! This will be his first real break since way before the wedding. We’ve been going non-stop with the house hunting, wedding, moving, unpacking, new job stuff and this beautiful 4-day weekend we intend to not do any cleaning and actually relax – eat food, watch tv and movies, go shopping, check out some of the sights in Cincy, and spend time with each other and my parents. It’s going to be fabulous and we are both really looking forward to it.
Today I am going to vacuum the unbelievably dusty stairs down to the basement (I seriously don’t think they’ve ever been cleaned) and organize all the boxes in the basement. I’m also going to work on thank you cards and reviewing the Ohio driver’s education online booklet since I’ll have to take a written test to transfer my license from Texas to Ohio. I’m dreading it. I haven’t taken a written driver’s test since I was 17. It sounds awful.
We have gorgeous weather here this week so far but we’re expecting it to get cold and rainy (and perhaps a few flurries) over Thanksgiving and while my parents are in town. They drove to Texarkana last night and today they are on the road to Tennessee. They should arrive sometime early tomorrow afternoon. We can’t wait to see them and show them around Cincy!
Today is our one-month anniversary – Ted is working load-in for the dance concert until at least midnight (great timing UC), and I spent the day running errands (none of the stores had in stock what I was looking for), cleaning the house (which took all freaking day), and vacuuming up one of Ted’s shoelaces on his brand new, never worn, steel toe shoes that they don’t sell the laces separately for. Happy one month anniversary from the wife of the year. I’m ready for today to be over.
So in lieu of a real blog post, I’ll stick to my old standby – animal pictures:
The past two-and-a-half days we’ve been all over the place – we’ve been busy.
On Friday night we hit a restaurant called Mac’s that’s within a few blocks of the UC campus in downtown Cincy – a college hangout. I’m of the opinion that any restaurant near a college campus that is in business must have pretty good eats otherwise it wouldn’t be in business at all. Mac’s was no disappointment. We split a pitcher of Strongbow Ale (cider is our beer of choice), an appetizer of hot soft pretzels with beer cheese, and a Gyro pizza with white wine sauce, spinach, black olives, onions, tomato, feta cheese, gyro meet and topped with tzatziki sauce. It was delicious! From there we walked over to CCM’s Corbett Theatre to see their big fall musical production of Evita.
The people who come out of CCM’s program often find that their first job upon graduation is on Broadway. WOW. There’s a good reason for that – the show was phenomenal. Really, seriously good stuff. CCM is comprised of opera, theatre, musical theatre, dance, music, design and technical production. They’re pretty much an all-in-one of awesomeness when it comes to the talent pool. This means their productions – especially their musicals – don’t just excel in one area. The singers can dance, the dancers can act, and the actors can play musical instruments. I really thought the dancing and choreography in this production was fantastic. The orchestra was awesome, the lighting was wonderful and the costumes were beautiful. All the costumes (and there were a TON of them) are each made here at UC, not purchased. I’ve seen less impressive sets, lighting, costumes and talent on nationally touring productions. Ready for the let-down? The show runs only 4 days. They started building the steel trusts for it during the summer, it loaded in and then was in tech for like two weeks. A crazy amount of money went into the costumes, lighting and more (it was sponsored by Macy’s if that’s any indication), and let’s not forget the weeks of intense rehearsals and crew of about 50. I think each person in the 20-30 person cast had their own dresser backstage. And all that for only 4 days of performances. Yet, they still make money on their productions for only having so few showings. I think such a short run is a disservice to all the talents that went into the production. If it were running longer and our lives weren’t so hectic right now, I’d have definitely gone to see it again. It was one of those shows where you could tell the performers were having fun onstage, and it reminded me of why I’m in the profession I’m in.
Saturday was a blur. It was Ted’s first full day off work since he started on November 1. At this point we’ve been in the house for nearly a month and we’re still not totally done unpacking and settling in and it was driving us nuts. So we took the day to pound out as much as possible. We mowed the lawn, raked a few leaves, moved Ted’s trailer to the back of the house, unloaded all Ted’s lighting and sound equipment from the trailer into the basement, gathered branches from the woods behind us to use as firewood, replaced the not-so-awesome hardware in the bathroom with much nicer replacements, installed hanging storage hardware in the kitchen, hung up all our pictures, wall hangings and two new wall-mount wine racks (to hold our leftover Door County wedding wine), set up and dressed the guest bed and unpacked the boxes stored in the guest bedroom, got most of the boxes in our office unpacked, and fully unpacked the living room. We took a break to order a pizza and finally got to sleep around 12:30. We only have about 5 or so boxes left to unpack in the house and only a small handful of other “fix-it” related tasks to do. It was a really productive day and it’s nice to finally have our house looking like a home.
Today we slept in a little and went to mass and the Knights of Columbus parish breakfast. After church we tried to use our Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards to purchase the knife block off our registry and pick up a few small other things but that turned into a big fail because the store we went to didn’t have anything in stock that we needed. Bummer. One more thing to try to fit in early next week. We watched that Packers v. Vikings game and now we’re back at UC from 5 pm – 2 am. Ted is striking Evita and I’m sitting in his office working on wedding Thank You notes which we can’t send out until we get our pro pics back from our photographer.
And that was our weekend in a (big and wordy) nutshell. Now, for your entertainment pleasure, I proudly present a really nerdy tool joke (you’ve been warned):
Today has been one of “those days.” Not a bad one, just a really busy one. You know, one of those days where you start early – you rake the yard, do four loads of laundry, tidy up around the house, drop your wedding dress off at the cleaners, run to the grocery store to do your Thanksgiving shopping now while stuff in still in stock and the mobs aren’t quite so obnoxious (and spend a truly horrifying amount of money in the process), drive home, unload the Butterball, chase back to the store to retrieve the items they forgot to put in your bag at the checkout, etc. In fact, it has been exactly one of those days. Today I am still hoping to do some dishes, rearrange the stuff we have stored in the basement, try to put away some of our kitchen wares (umm, with no room in the cabinets or panty. I’ll let you know how that goes.), check up on a prescription order, shower (yeah haven’t gotten to that yet), and do some job hunting. All in the next 3 hours. With any luck tonight will be a relaxing evening. I’m meeting Ted at UC at 6pm, we’re going to grab a quick dinner at one of the hot spots near campus and then see CCM’s production of Evita. I could really go for a relaxing evening of good musical theatre entertainment right about now. I’m sure Ted could too. Depending on how much energy we have left we may even come home and enjoy a small bonfire.
I am pleased that I have purchased all the ingredients for our first Thanksgiving meal as a married couple in our first house and my first time hosting a Thanksgiving. We sure do have a lot to be thankful for this year! Tomorrow is Ted’s first full day off of work since he began the job on November 1. We’d love to say we’re going to go to the park, see a movie and sleep late, but we have a ton of stuff we’ve been trying to find the time to do around the house together since we moved in. On that list is mow the lawn, gather firewood, install bathroom hardware, set up the guestroom, clean the outsides of the windows, set up the living room electronics, install shelving in the closets and hang our pictures and stuff on the wall, unpack more boxes, blah, blah blah. We’re happy to have the full day together to get it done though.
Yesterday our new dinner trays arrived. They’re pretty spiffy looking – nice dark wood, strong, sturdy and classy looking – quite unlike the old worn-out green ones we used to have that look like they belong in a college apartment. They look good. Also, I received a call from the Door County Registrar of Deeds confirming my mailing address because apparently the Marriage Certificates I’ve been waiting on for two weeks were “Return to sender. Address unknown.” They had the correct address, we just have a dumb post office who doesn’t know how to deliver mail. Everything else has made it here okay. So that sets back my name changing, driver’s license changing, and insurance changing efforts until after the Thanksgiving holidays. Oh well. Perhaps I should have paid the $17.50 FedEx fee (outrageous!) instead of opting to ship them regular mail for free.
Well after that quick breather to clear my mind, I’m off to get more done. Have a relaxing day for us! :-)
Your cat-funnies of the day. No need to thank me. We all need one. Or two.
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Today I would like to re-live the holidays the way I remember them as a kid.
It was always cool and cloudy when I came from school on the last school day before Thanksgiving. The combination of the autumn-like weather, and the anticipation of yummy food and family made the extra few days off from school even more exciting. At school we colored turkeys, cornucopias, corn, pumpkins, pilgrims and Indians. The pictures were hung on the fridge at home and in the classroom. The classrooms were decorated in borders and banners of autumn leaves, brown, yellow and orange streamers, acorns, and cutouts of squash, pumpkins and cranberries. We made pilgrim and Indian hats out of colored construction paper and wore them throughout the day. We sang some really strange song entitled “Turkey in the Straw” and line-danced to it (Anybody? No one else? Maybe that’s just a Texas thing…). We learned about and then recalled every year thereafter the Mayflower – the harrowing trip across the sea to the New World, the dangerous months of starvation in Plymouth – the illness, disease, death, the lack of food, resources, and the harsh winter weather followed by the help given by the Indians and how they taught us to use the land and plant corn, and eventually the Thanksgiving meal. We watched Garfield’s and Charlie Brown’s Thanksgivings and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We went to church (Thanksgiving Mass has always been one of my most favorite services) and got the loaf of bread to share with our family and friends at the meal. Before the meal we’d go around the table and share what we were Thankful for. We always set a place at the table for those who could not be or who no longer are with us. After dinner we’d bring out the card games and board games and play late into the evening.
It seems to me that a lot of the things I used to love about Thanksgiving (aside from the obvious opportunity to share our gratitude, stuff our bellies with delicious food, and spend time with those we love) have been unintentionally lost as the years go by. True, we did just watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Charlie Brown Mayflower Adventure on TV tonight, but sadly I don’t remember the last time I colored Thanksgiving pictures or made a Pilgrim hat. The cool autumn weather only occasionally makes my tummy leap in excitement, and now that I’m no longer in elementary or middle school, I no longer get the annual refresher about the hard times and sacrifices endured by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower, their great faith in God, the kindness of the Indians or the how much gratitude they had and shared during that first Thanksgiving.
So this year I hope we’ll go to mass on Thanksgiving morning and receive a loaf of bread to share at our meal. I hope I’ll remember to step outside and breathe in the cool air and let it fill me with excitement. I hope we’ll set an extra place at the table for everyone who cannot be with us that day. I hope we’ll take a moment to verbally share what we are grateful for during Grace. I hope we’ll make the time to dig out the family card and board games and turn on Garfield’s Thanksgiving in the background (in between football games of course). And I hope I’ll find the time this week to color a few pictures of pilgrim and Indians, corn and pumpkins, and maybe even a turkey or cornucopia and stick it on our fridge. I hope I remember to decorate our dining room table with the baby pumpkins from our wedding. And I kind of hope I have time to make something like this:
Today is cold and dreary. It’s the kind of weather that makes you want to curl up with a massive mug of cocoa (kind of like the beauty to the left, eh?) and watch episodes of The King of Queens. Last night I made homemade meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner with Swedish Lingionberry wine. Ted says it’s his favorite meal that I’ve made so far in this house. He had scarfed down a full plate and was on his way to seconds before I was even halfway through. Not a bad way to pay a compliment. :-) He even walked in the door and commented on how good it smelled, which sure beats Tuesday’s comment of *sniff sniff* “what smells like rotten feet?” For the record, it was the bay scallops cooking in the Bowtie Alfredo Pasta with veggies and fresh scallops that I was making. And yes, he liked it.
We (by we I mean Ted) sawed off 5/8 of an inch of our bathroom door for us last night so the bathroom rug will fit under it as it opens and closes. Not such a big deal normally but since the tile on that floor is freezing in the morning when we wake up and go into the bathroom to get ready, being able to have a rug down makes it much cozier. This morning our rental water softener was installed. Since it was just hooked up and hasn’t really had much of a chance to get through the pipes yet I can’t say that its made a big difference yet. We’re hoping it does though. In the process of installing the softener the installation guy discovered a leak in the hideous utility sink I’ve been dreaming of getting rid of. What this means is that there’s a small area of our new basement carpet over by the washer/dryer that is soaking wet. Excellent. So we’ll have to dry that out tonight and either buy and install a new pipe under the sink to prevent further leaks and damage, or we can just get a new non-creepy utility sink! (Ted, are you reading this?)
I found a place to take my wedding dress to get cleaned (yeah, I’m a little behind on things right now – hoping that spilled beer & campfire smell comes out now…) I decided to call ahead and check out their prices before I made the 30 minutes each way trek over there. Good thing I did because they’re out of their tree if they think I’m paying $170 to have my wedding dress cleaned! I found a much more reasonable option about 2 blocks from our house in Anderson. So I think I’ll drop it off there tomorrow morning instead.
Speaking of wedding dresses, this morning Extra informed me that Prince William and Kate (excuse me – Katharine, as she is now being called) are engaged and planning a royal wedding. I am thrilled I never have to plan another wedding. We both think our wedding turned out great and we’re really proud that we did everything for it DIY. But sometimes planning it was a huge headache-inducing pain in the butt. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not excited to see what they plan! I bet it’s going to be fabulous!! I can’t even imagine the pressure though. The wedding will most likely be televised and watched (read: scrutinized and brutally judged) by millions of people all over the world – regular folks, other brides-to-be looking for inspiration, fashion designers, celebrities, etc.
When it comes to weddings I’m of the opinion that if you aren’t the bride or groom you should probably keep your mouth zipped on what you think about this bridesmaid dress or that wedding gown, if you like the meal choices or not, if you think it’s too lavish and expensive or a redneck’s dream. Unless of course you are specifically asked. Not because it’s not okay to have an opinion, but because it’s not always the most helpful thing to voice that opinion. Brides who are not marrying into royalty often get more advice, pressure, opinions, ideas and suggestions than they can handle or even want for that matter. I imagine for a queen-to-be having to live up to all the hype and standards that everyone is setting for her is a million times more stressful. On the other hand the girl’s probably got the hook up with designers, coordinators and planners galore – she may not have to do a darn thing but say “yes” or “no.” I mean she’s been engaged for 5 minutes and her choice of dress and church are already under attack. People are already speculating if she’ll get married at the church where Diana & Charles got married or at Westminster Abbey – but that’s where Diana’s funeral was held. And will she wear a copy of Diana’s gown, or will she choose one of her own favorite designers? Is she going to follow in Diana’s footsteps with “Kate Couture?” I don’t really care. I think no matter what she & William choose, it’ll be a lovely, gorgeous, schmoozing with elegance affair. And if it’s televised, I’d probably tune in and watch it to check out all the cool details they choose – they seem like a hip, modern couple. I’d be interested to see how they combine their personal style with royal tradition. Ah, a royal wedding – warms the heart.
Oh! And today is the day you’ve been waiting for. I’ve finally got a picture of Solo for you. World, meet Solo:
