Thanksgiving Parts I & II

Well This past thursday was Thanksgiving, and I had a really good time this year. That's not to say that I never have a good time, it's just that this year I really enjoyed myself. Nora wasn't stranger-danger to anyone, Grandma & Great Grandma got to hold her, she walked all over, and slept well during the big meal.

When we were leaving, I was packing up her stuff, and decided to be cute with the monitor. I started whispering "Get out" in it. Turns out my 3 year old nephew thought that I was an alien, and started having a conversation with me. Sara ran so she could relay what he was saying, so I could respond. Turns out I was from Nebulon XI and I came for turkey. :)

Saturday I did what I've never done before: I cooked a turkey. A little 12 pounder to start off to see if I'm really capable of it. Turns out I am. Real moist turkey and good flavor to it. I don't know if that'll become annual as long as Mom's still making her turkey, but at least I know that when it becomes my family tradition, we can handle it.

Vaccuuming the Lawn

Well, all the leaves were down, so I had no excuse not to rake them up. So at 12:30 on saturday I got in my work clothes and put on my hat (side note: guess it's a good thing I'm wearing a hat outdoors now, not only is my hairline receding, but I'm developing male pattern baldness.... :( ) and went to vaccuum them up.

Now I know I could have raked them up and then put them in a bag, but 1) the mower chops them up so I can put more in a bag, 2) the lawn was only covered really heavy in the back 1/10 of the lawn, so the rest of the lawn would have been a pain to rake and 3) I feel it's easier.

Easier, yes, but not shorter. Once I was finished, I discovered I had spend 4+ hours outisde bagging that up. But wait, there's more! the leaves were 1-2 weeks old, so most were brittle and dry... that meant DUST. Everywhere dust went, and the bag spewed it out every time I emptied it. I didn't think much of it until I had to blow my nose (warning: it gets a little icky here) and i noticed my snot was black... that's right, pure black. So I blew the rest of that crap out of my nasal passages and spent the rest of the eveining wondering what my lungs looked like. The dust also settled on the pores on my arms, making me look very freckly. My clothes and shoes were covered in a nice reddish-brown soot.

At about 8pm I realized that 4 hours of lawn work took a lot out of me. Standing up felt like a chore, and my mind worked slowly, so I went to bed at 9 and pretty much slept until 6 when Nora needed to be woken up.

Other than that I've let go of my WoW account and now am back to playing City of Heroes (CoH). Started on Friday, and my Natural Blaster is Level 13. :) Level 50 here I come.

Stranger Danger Averted

My daughter, bless her bald round little head, is not very fond of anyone outside of Mom, Dad, Jami (the babysitter). Anyone else who tries to hold her is met with a very frowny face and crying until Mommy or Daddy come to the rescue. My Mother is especially affected by this, because apparently none of her kids had this type of Stranger Danger. We'd just say hi to anyone I guess.

Well this past weekend I had a friend visit, and he was just "around" her for a few hours before he even tried to hold her.... Well Lo and Behold, she didn't cry. In fact, the rest of the weekend she smiled and giggled at him.

EUREKA! So Grandma & Grandpa (still having trouble remembering the new naming system) stopped by this weekend and we let her know to just let Nora get used to you before you hold her. About 30-45 min in we let Grandma hold Nora. Guess what? Yes! That's It.. she bawled until one of us took her back.. No, that's not true, Nora was just hunky dory with Grandma, and you could tell Grandma was very pleased with this.

Grandma & Nora came out to visit me while I was grilling, and so Grandma got to see Nora in her little hooded jacket. I bet it's all babies, but my daughter gets a +10 to cuteness every time she's wearing that little hood.

Yay! No more stringing lights!

Well, I'll start by saying I really dislike how Corporate America is pushing Christmas season on us before halloween. I know the secular version of the holiday expects us to spend lavish amounts of money on presents to everyone in existance, and I know they can't get much out of Thanksgiving, a season of eating at home with family, but come on man, let us have our holidays seperate!

Okay after all that's said, Sara & I went to look for a new tree. My old one got damp in Narnia, and it was the push I needed to get rid of it and look for a pre-lit tree. Never has the Christmas spirit left me faster than putting up and taking down Christmas lights.

Surprisingly enough, a good multi-colored Pre-lit tree is hard to come by. We saw quite a few really nice trees that had all white lighting, and most of the trees with multi-colored lights were sparse or too narrow. We found one at Lowe's that we would get if we couldn't find a better one for 220, but before we went home we looked at Michael's. And there it was, with Joy to the world playing in the backround was this not too narrow, well filled out Multi-colored pre-lit tree. and it was on sale for 180! Yippee! So after some creative packing in my truck, we brought it home and it now rests in Narnia, ready to be taken out either for this christmas, or next (depending on how "hands-on" nora is.)