Thanksgiving Preparations

Today I went to Kroger and picked up a bunch of groceries to prepare for Thanksgiving.  I also stopped at Costco to pick up a fresh Butterball turkey.  After years of trying to cook a perfect juicy bird I discovered the secret was buying a fresh turkey.  I had always thought the free turkey or the cheap turkey was such a good deal.  Maybe they were a good deal but they were almost always dry. 

I made my cranberry relish this afternoon.  My Grandmother Bullock used to always make this fresh relish.  She knew that it had to be made a few days early for the flavors to meld in time for Thanksgiving.  This is how you make it:  Proccess a pound of cranberries and a whole unpeeled orange in a food processor or blender.  Add in a jalapeno with the seeds removed (unless you like it really hot, then leave in the seeds).  My grandmother never added the jalapeno, that is my little Texas thing.  Add a cup of sugar.  Put this in a covered container and keep it in the refrigerator.

I am going to try a new recipe this year. It is called a topsey turvey apple pie.  I will put it in the recipe blog after Thanksgiving when I have a good picture.  It is a cross between a pecan pie and an apple pie.  My freind, Cathleen made it for a pie contest at Spring Creek Elementary and I got a taste.  It was excellent.  If you can't wait to find it on my recipe blog, you can google it.  It is a Pillsbury recipe.

I am just glad I don't have pnuemonia this year. 

Can't wait for Black Friday!  I can be so much more competitive now that I am not coughing up a lung.  Last year I had to take a lot of breaks to catch my breath.  That really slowed me down.  The worst part was during the initial entry into the store when everyone was running and I just couldn't keep the pace and I felt my heart beating out of my chest because of the lack of oxygen.  Some may ask why I didn't just skip the best shopping day of the year when I was so sick.  I think this proves that I will have to be dead to be out of the fray.

Levi Johnston Makes Me Sick

I know I am not the only one who is tired of seeing and hearing about Levi Johnston.  He is the dorky kid who knocked up Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol.  He is using his notoriety to keep himself in front of the cameras and in the press.  But is anyone really interested in this guy?  He is the kind of kid that if your daughter brought him home you might consider moving out of state. If your sons brought him home you might count your silverware upon his departure.  He isn't buff, he's not great looking.  He certainly isn't smart.  Almost every word that proceeds from his mouth sounds suspicously like a lie that will extend his time in the limelight.  I guess that the only good thing about him is that he has taken some of the tv time away from John and Kate.

There's No Crying In Football

Today Joe watched the Cowboys go down in flames.  He can't help himself for getting so emotionally involved.  I think when he gets older he will learn how to yell insults at the TV and get angry like most guys.  But for now, Mr. Tender-heart just sobs when things go tragically wrong.  He did manage to say, "Well, so much for the lead in the NFC East," several times.

I tried to make him feel better by telling him that maybe some of the recievers might be dating Jessica Simpson, to explain why otherwise great players were having a bad day, but he failed to see the humor in this.

What Happens to Evil People After They Die?

I was tucked up under my kitchen sink today, holding a flashlight in my teeth, with water dripping on me from a line I was trying to repair.  I was trying to remember how to turn the nut.  It is just opposite of what you would think when you are under the sink in that position.  My father started chiding me about my lack of mechanical ability.  You know,  that is one of my visions of what hell will be like.

My other vision of hell is working behind the ticket counter at Chuck E. Cheese while children with too few tickets painstakingly shop for treasures. 

Okay, so maybe these visions lack any doctrinal support, but I can't imagine worse fates than to be sentenced for eternity to either of these scenarios.

Feel free to share your own version of a horrible eternity in the comments.

Confessions of Vengeful Heart

One personality flaw that I have had to work on all of my life is vengeance. I know that I should not feel the need to take revenge, and usually I keep this desire under control. I have trained myself not to act on my vengeful feelings for a few days after I feel the urge. This time allows the feelings to simmer down and allows reason to take over. For several years I would just think of perfect revenge and act out the scenario in my mind, and then I would let it go. I thought I had progressed to feeling compassion for the offending party, as I tried to see his or her point of view. But this morning all of my self reported progress went down the tubes.

I originally heard that Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan, the shooter at Fort Hood, had died by being shot to death by a female police officer at the scene. Good, I thought, at least it will be closure for the families of the victims. Then I heard he was still alive, but in the hospital due to his gun shot wounds. Well, at least he will be questioned and we will find out his sick motives for this shooting ,which will bring closure for the victims' families who have to know why. Then, this morning, when I woke up I heard on the news that he is paralyzed from the wounds he received. My feeling about this was not glee, but a feeling that he was getting what he deserved. Not only will he be locked up in a military prison, he will be guarded by the brothers in arms of the men and women he assaulted and killed, all of this while he is imprisoned in a wheel chair. I am hoping the guards feed him a solid diet of pork: bacon for breakfast, pulled pork sandwiches for lunch, and pork ribs for dinner. While they are at it, they should give him marshmallows for dessert for every meal.

So, obviously, I am back to square one on overcoming my desire for vengeance.

This whole situation makes me sick. As a member of a military family I think it is particularly evil that this man was an officer and a doctor. He was in a position of trust and privilege. Who were the geniuses who decided to transfer this troubled man to another base when he was being watched by the FBI for pro-terrorism statements on the web? It kind of reminds me of the abuse the Catholic church perpetrated on its members by transferring around pedophile priests to new and unsuspecting congregations. I hope that this problem will be investigated because our active duty military members deserve better treatment than this.

Halloween Feast and The Free Clinic

We started our Halloween feast with deviled egss.  The spiders are made out of olives.  These were really really tasty and so cute. 

What Halloween Feast would be complete with out bat wings?

One of our family favorites is a big serving of bones with blood dipping sauce.

Jack-o-burgers have been a family favorite for years. I fed this to everyone right before Joe went out Trick-or-Treating.  Joe got to go out by himself this year. Of course he had a phone and Bob and one of the other dads followed behind them about two houses. 

We made Megan's favorite Halloween treat for dessert.  I carved the tortillas and fried them in a little oil and then sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar.  Bob and Joe ate theirs with ice cream.  I felt that I had reached my sugar limit so I ate mine just as it came.

This year I dressed up like a Democrat.  Megan had given Joe a Barrack Obama Tshirt.  He refused to wear it and actually threatened to throw it away.  I saved it and wore it.  How could anyone waste a two dollar shirt?  I explained to the kids that last year I was Sarah Palin and I was campaining for John Mc Cain, but this year I was a Democrat.  All of the Democrat children were so happy that I had seen the light.  The Republican children were a little confused that I could change political philosophies so quickly.  I then asked them if they wanted their shot in the arm, leg or butt.  Almost all of the kids 6 and under tried to run away.  I asked them if they had read the sign about the free vaccinations.  Some older kids said they had already had the vaccination.  I asked them if they were pregnant because in Dallas county those are the only people getting vaccinations for H1N1.  I found one little girl who really had recieved the vaccine because she was a type one diabetic.  A lot of teenagers said they wanted a shot of whiskey.  Its pretty evident who was absent during Red Ribbon Week.  When the line got really long I told the parents that this was no way indicative of what would happen when our national health care plan passed Congress.  As you can probably guess, all of the children opted for their vaccine to be served in the oral suspension form. They got to choose H1(cherry) or N1(lemonade).  I also had the juice machine filled with plain water.  It is amazing how thirsty you can get while running from house to house. 

   

I started making slushees the night before. I got the machine all cleaned up and filled.  Each side takes 12 cups of sugar.  When I started up the machine the red side came unhinged and I had three gallons of double strength red Koolaide all over the kitchen floor.  It took me about an hour to clean it up.  I got the machine going over night and I cupped up about 160 slushees in the morning and put them in the freezer.  Then I started the next batch so they would be ready for the Trick-or-Treaters.  After a few hours I noticed that the red side was not freezing up.  Some of the electronics got sugared up during the big spill.  Fortunately I was able to clean up the connections enough to get the machine running, thus saving Halloween.  It was iffy for a while.

Joe dressed up as a rapper. He looked a lot like a football player with aviators.  By the end of the night I was exhausted!  I am glad Halloween comes but once a year.