Our Thanksgiving

What a wonderful Thanksgiving we had.  I know in some areas the weather was not the best but in southeast Texas it was warm and humid.  The high was near 80.  However that did not stop Candi some catching some rays.

 Here is Elizabeth in the kitchen getting ready to prepare a feast.

The table was set with our Thanksgiving dishes.

Here is our "turkey" ready for the oven.  I did some research on line and thought I knew how long to cook it.  Elizabeth said it was not long enough.  As it turns out she was right.  So our feast was a bit late but I enjoyed the company so much it did not matter.

 There was a total of six of us.  Elizabeth, who took the picture. myself, Bryan and his girlfriend Amber, Bridget and her daughter Karma and our good friend Sydney.

 For dessert we had an ice cream cake from Baskin Robins.  It sure was rich.

After our company left we went out for a little ride.  You could smell rain on the wind.  There is a cold front headed our way and when it gets here the temperature will drop 20 to 30 degrees.  Tomorrows high is forecast to be in the mid 50's.  Goofy weather.

I am so thankful so for many things but mostly for family starting with my wonderful wife Elizabeth.  Thank you for all your hard work taking care of me, Candi and our home not only today but every day of the year.  Love you Elizabeth.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too.

It's beginning to look like Thanksgiving

It is 1:30 PM on Wednesday. It has been a busy day so far. After doing my morning computer work I had a pre-ride snack. It included some pumpkin bread, banana and a glass of chocolate milk. Then I rode 34 miles in a 2 hours 20 minutes. After showering I had breakfast. This included a small bowl of oatmeal, 2 pancakes (Leftovers) 3 slices of sausage, a glass of juice and a glass of milk. Then we made a quick trip to the grocery store for some supplies Elizabeth needed to have while I was gone. I then went to have an eye exam. It is time for new contacts. I use to get glasses and contacts at the same time but since I only wear my contacts when I ride, I did not use any for four or five months last year when I was sick. On the way home I stopped to get the cake for tomorrow. Back home we had lunch. I had homemade chicken noodle soup. After that we went to do our main grocery shopping including the roast fro tomorrow.

The grocery store is starting to look like Thanksgiving. Actually it was not as crowded as I expected. People were getting supplies and I think you can get it all at a well stocked grocery store.

You can get Thanksgiving paper goods to eat from.

Of course you can get your turkey.  There were lots of people getting a turkey.  The problem they are frozen rock solid.  Can you thaw a turkey in time to cook it tomorrow?

There are boxes of stuffing.  How good can stuffing be if it comes from a box?

Then you have to decide how to cook the bird.  Do you go traditional and bake it in the oven?

Use an electric roaster

Or go the deep fry route.  You need lots of oil for this and I am told it is not for rookies

After a quick pass through the book section

Elizabeth was ready to check out.

When we got home Elizabeth was tired so right now she is napping. 

I am so excited.  While I was doing the dishes I discovered a bag of FALL colored kisses!!!!

Life is good.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

November 24 Update

Right now it is 5 AM on November 24, the day before Thanksgiving and the temperature is 73F and the humidity is 100%. That is not a typically morning even for Texas. The forecast high for today is 84F. Just for perspective, the average high for today is 70F. The record high is 86F so we will be close to that. How am I supposed to get in the Thanksgiving mood when I will be wearing shorts and a tee shirt? The plans are to go for a bike ride a little later. I like to wait for the sun to rise before I ride. Then breakfast and off for an eye exam. On the way home I need to stop at Baskin Robins to pick up a cake. Back home for lunch then off to run some errands including the grocery store. We are going to have a prime rib roast tomorrow rather than turkey. I know it is not tradition but it works for us.

My son and his girlfriend will be joining us tomorrow along with a good friend. So we will have a rather small get together but I am sure it will still be very nice. It will be bitter sweet as last Thanksgiving was the last time I saw my Mom. She died earlier this year. I think everyone is expecting me to have an emotional melt down. In one way it will be sad but I will have family and friends for support. Also Mom would want us to celebrate the day and be thankful.

I am not a black Friday shopper so the next day I plan to avoid all stores. One of the routes I sometimes ride my bike goes right past the major shopping mall in the area so I will avoid it too. I have been working hard to finish a project at work. I got it done yesterday so now I can enjoy the next 5 days off.

If you will be traveling today to visit family, friends or just get away, I pray you have a safe journey. Godspeed.

Movie Viewing

A number of years ago there was a popular book titled Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. It discussed the differences between men and women. I started to read it and it made sense to me. In a number of ways Elizabeth and I are alike while in other ways we are very different. I am a morning person while Elizabeth is a night owl. She needs to gain weight and I need to shed some pounds. Tonight another difference showed itself. I am a finisher while Elizabeth is a walk away. We had recorded the movie “The Bucket List”.  I must admit I was not sure it was the kind of movie I would enjoy. We started watching. About two thirds of the way through Elizabeth got up and left the room with the phrase, "Don’t pause it for me”. I have learned this really means I am really not interested in this so I am out of here. On the other hand I now have invested over an hour of my life in this so I need to “protect” that investment. I need to finish it. As it turns out this was quite an enjoyable movie so it was not an issue. However this scenario has repeated itself for some pretty lousy ones. The really sad part is I am not sure why I feel I need to continue. Common sense would say the first half of this was horrible, do not throw good time after bad. Alas I persist. Maybe it is the rush you get at the end when this painful journey finally ends. I do not know. I just know I am sad. That is true in more ways than one. Got to go there is another movie starting.

Back to the diet

Just to show how unstable I can be, I decided to pick now, the holidays, to fight the most recent battle in the continuing war to lose weight. I know it does not make sense but I feel I need to work at it. I do not believe in fad diet. I think to reach my desired weight and stay there requires more of a life style change. So rather than follow the Twinkie Diet, I am working to eat the same things I have been eating just smaller portions. I have some other diet restrictions that limit the kinds of foods I can eat. I certainly do not want to drop the pounds at the expense of causing my colitis to flare back up. As usual Elizabeth did some research and one thing most nutritionists agree is not to eat late in the day. Also some suggest not including carbohydrates in the final meal of the day. So that is what we are trying. So here is an example day for me. Before I went for a bike ride I had a toasted English muffin with peanut butter and jelly, a banana and a glass of chocolate milk. I know the chocolate milk seems strange for a diet and it is. However it is good for bike riding. When I got home I had the rest of my breakfast, a bowl of yogurt with some granola in it. For lunch, which is my big meal fro the day I had spaghetti and bread. This carbo load was also with an eye on bike riding. Carbos are fuel for the muscles. For supper I had tuna fish, hardboiled egg and tangerine.

The only thing I forgot to do was weigh myself to see my actual weight at the start. I know where I want to be and I am not close to that yet. Elizabeth is a hard task master. Once she puts on her diet cop hat look out. I will post periodically as I work through this process. Maybe accountability will help.

Christmas rant part 2

I find myself in a bit of a dilemma. I was looking at the Hallmark schedule for the next week. There are a number of movies I really like that will be shown. The problem is, they are Christmas movies. So my problem is do I stay true to my belief and not watch them or do I cave and watch. My concern is that they will not be shown again. I guess I need to go to the Hallmark Channel web site and see if they will be broadcast after Thanksgiving. If not I guess I will just have to miss them this year. I think it is more important to be true to ones values. I know most people would not give it a second thought but it is important to me.

What time is it?

Well it is back to standard time. I am not going to debate the merits of switching the clocks but it does seem to me we are driven by time. I know the clock serves a very valuable function. Can you imagine the doctors office if everyone just showed up when they wanted? Also we would never be able to travel by bus, plane or train without schedules. In fact it was because of trains the country got on a standard clock. However like so much it can be overdone. I just spent a good deal of time (see there it is again) resetting the “clocks” in our house. Luckily a number of electronic devices like cable box, cell phones and computers reset themselves. Here are the ones I had to do manually.  Also this is the bad time change.  I was able to turn back only a few of these devices.  Most had to be set ahead 11 or even 23 hours

The clock in the car

My cycle computer and heart rate monitor

Both the microwave and the oven

Little alarm clocks for our bedroom and the guest room

My watch.  I have one while Elizabeth has several.

A wall clock. 

We have several mantle clocks

A CD Player / radio

While the cable box set itself I still had to reset the DVD player and the TV manually

The camera itself has a clock.  We actually have two cameras

And last but not least I had to reset the clock in the thermostat.

Have a great day and try not to be late.  Wait a minute, we set the clock back so try not to be too early.

Christmas rant

I guess it is time for my annual Christmas rant. Let me start by saying I understand that some stores, like craft or fabric stores need to get the Christmas stuff out early. If you want to make stuff for Christmas you need to start early. However I do not understand why every store seems to start pushing Christmas earlier and earlier. Here in Southeast Texas the weather forecast is for high temperatures in the mid 80’s next week. As a former yankee how as I suppose to think about Christmas?  As Elizabeth posts pictures from around our house, you will not see any Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. I do not allow it. It is one of the few things I absolutely insist. So what started this?

Many candies come in different colors for different holidays. These include M&M's and Hershey’s Kisses. Both had Halloween and fall colors. The Halloween were orange and black while fall is a mix of yellow, brown and orange. The other day we were at the grocery and all of the “Halloween” candy was on sale. This included the fall colors. This is actually good for us as Elizabeth likes to have a jar of fall colored candy out for Thanksgiving guests. Thankfully the merchants have not yet figured a way to completely commercialize Thanksgiving so I guess they have just decided to ignore it. In every store we have visited since Monday, only Christmas stuff is on display. I guess I should be happy that they have not tried to sell Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has always been an important holiday to me. To me Thanksgiving always has been and still is about family and friends getting together. It is about a house full of the smell of dinner cooking. I just think as a society in general we are starting to forget Thanksgiving. I guess this holiday got even more important to me last Thanksgiving as it was the last time I saw my Mom. Elizabeth made it a magical holiday and I will forever be thankful. This year we will celebrate with family and friends. How many of each we are not sure yet. But it will be about sharing food and time with both. It will be about traditions. I think traditions are important. They provide continuity from generation to generation. So for the next three weeks I will focus on all the reasons I have to be thankful. It is a long list. First and foremost I am thankful that Elizabeth is part of my life. She works so hard to provide a wonderful home and meals for us. More than that she has taught me what is really important in life and what is not.  Because of her I am a better person today.  I am thankful for my health. While it is not the best it is a lot closer to the top of the scale than the bottom. I try to remember with all my “problems” there are those who would trade places with me in a heartbeat. None of my problems are terminal. I am thankful for my job which allows me to provide for my family. I am thankful for family, friends. I am thankful for so much. I think we as a nation have so much to be thankful for that it irritates me we minimize Thanksgiving. Time to get off my soapbox and eat lunch.