1. Do you cook all or part of the meal?
   I make the apple pie, and I help with everything else.
2. How much do you spend buying groceries for the meal?
   My portion cost me $8 this year: it was the apples that really cost me, what with off-season produce and whatnot.
3. Do you eat at home or go to someone else’s?
   It depends.  I don’t feel very particularly, one was or the other.
4. Describe your perfect bite?
   Turkey, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, and cranberry goo.
5. White meat or dark?
   They both have their appeal; I’m not picky.
6. Stuffing with giblets or without?
   Ew, no giblets, that’s just…ech.
7. Anything you won’t eat at the Thanksgiving meal?
   Hmmm…ham.  My MIL has ham and turkey sometimes, and I just don’t like ham.
8. Carve Mr. Gobble at the table or serve on a platter?
   On a platter.
9. Favorite pie?
   My own apple; but if Gram was still alive, hers would beat mine, hands down.
10. Formal table or Chinet?
    Formal.  If there is any holiday for formal tableware, it’s Thanksgiving.
11. Your menu:
    Turkey w/Gravy
    Mashed Potatoes
    Roasted Sweet Potatoes w/ Honey Butter
    Good Old Country Stuffing
    Green Bean Casserole
    Cranberry Jelly
    Rolls w/ Irish Butter
12. Favorite leftover?
    An entire reheated plate of everything from the night before.
13. Extended family, friends, both or just the immediate family for dinner?
    One year, I’m going to have just friends over: it seems like the least stressful way to do it.
14. After dinner, do you go to the latest movie or watch football on TV or just a turkey induced snooze?
    I usually get stuck cleaning the kitchen; but this year I get to clean and decorate the tree by myself.
15. Do you watch the Macy’s Parade?
    Nah, I’ll pass.
16. Christmas decorations up before or after?
    After Thanksgiving.  I’m really, really particular about Christmas decorating, and timing is everything.
17. Black Friday shopping or sleep in?
    Mostly shopping, but not at big boxes stores – that’s insanity.
18. Any special Thanksgiving tradition?
    Nope.  I’m not terribly sentimental.
19. Favorite thing about Thanksgiving?
    Using the formal dinnerware.
20. Favorite Thanksgiving memory?
    Dinner at my in-laws house for Thanksgiving, with The Boy, The Brothers (and dates), and the Uncle and Aunt.  It was so much fun: it was casual, no stress, everyone pitched in to clean, and everyone enjoyed everyone else’s company.  It was awesome.

Well, I did find a recycling plant in Cleveland that would be willing to take the books off of my hands for recycling.  The other good news is that they also will take just about everything but #5 Plastic, so I’m going to have to look into maximizing their potential.

I spent the entire weekend staying up and getting up late.  Now, it’s almost midnight, an that last thing I want to do is sleep.

So, as the start of the next phase in relocating my office to the basement, the plan is to remodel both the office side and the living side of the basement.  Part of this means that there needs to be paneling put up over the cinder-block-and-plaster walls.  This also means that the bookshelves in the living section need to be emptied, and pulled away from the walls.  So, my phase is that I started moving the books.

I cannot believe how many of the books survived the move from our house in the Heights to out here. But apparently, my father was insistent that all of the books get packed up.

I am so glad that he got a barn that he can tinker in: it keeps him out of Goodwill and from buying nickel- and dime-priced paperback books from the ’60s and bringing them home.  There have to be hundreds upon hundreds of paperback novels alone.  Do not let me forget to mention the hardbound books, either: we have a copy of The Hunter’s Encyclopedia from 1968.

My father does not hunt.  He has never hunted.  We have no need for this book. Or tattered copies of diet books and encyclopedias from the 60s-80s; or travel guides for the Soviet Union (oh yes, I did not mis-type).

What frustrates me about it is that it’s just so much stuff that we have to dispose of.  And I’m not really excited about giving it back to Goodwill; I don’t want to try and sell useless copies of Agatha Christie novels on the internet; and even though they are useless, it seems pretty abhorrent to use them as fuel for the firepit.

It was certainly a testimony to getting a Kindle, or thinking twice about buying another object that gets used and just sits.  This is a huge reason why I love the library: first of all, free; second, I can figure out if I really want a book before I buy it.

It also speaks volumes about how amazing the interenet is for free information.  I certainly believe that guide manuals and books are extremely important to have in a hard copy if necessary.  But I also believe that if you’re just a lay person trying to get a snippet of information, the internet is going to be your new best friend.  Hell, even Wikipedia is a good jumping-off point.

(Aside: does it make me sad about the internet over books? Yes and no.  Books are irreplaceable, but my father’s avid “collecting” of books is testimony to how useful the digital age is for information.)

I’m not looking forward to the next steps of this project, which includes picking out which books need to get pitched, trying to find a book-recycling program, and re-assembling the bookshelves.

So, after the feeling of general cruddiness wears off from being sick, and the full effect of “holy shit, I’m really doing it: after 9 years of regular cigarette-smoking, I have been nicotine free for 11 days” kicks in, life is pretty shit-sandwichy.

I’m cranky about everything.  The cat is crying, but doesn’t want to be petted or picked up? Kick it in the kidney!  You broke a nail? Pull the rest of your fakies off – screw them if they don’t want to stay on!  Your chin is breaking out? Dig the offending blemish out: that will show that damn skin not to break out again!

Of course, I’m sure the other things I’m angry about and not mentioning here are valid things to be angry about, but they are liberally peppered with neurons that are full-blown-tantruming for a nicotine fix.

The bake sale went tremendously well. After lunch, I could find nary a whoopie pie from the 24 I brought in.

This afternoon, I headed west on I-90 to get down to school, Cleveland Browns Stadium was getting ready to sit thousands of fans in its belly by lighting its LED screens, welcoming fans.

Oh, we band of downtrodden rust-belt fans!  Our chorus of “This is the year” changes so quickly to the dirge of “There’s always next year”.

I certainly hope there is joy in Cleveland tonight.

Well, today was a waste of a day: and I had the best of intentions.

This week, I’ll be baking for the Food Bank of Cleveland in my company’s annual bake sale.  In addition to that, I need to coordinate my department’s Secret Santa exchange (reminder: figure out what to do about lunch…), I also need to work with The Boy to get his annual Christmas party planned.

I’m just very, very glad that I am done with my group project at school.  And, I’m already registered for next semester.

After The Boy got out of his annual conference this year, he came out to see me and we moved a free desk out from my mother’s office to my new office.

I got the opportunity to move to a new office a while ago, but finally took it when the thought of dealing with another winter without seeing any light was unbearable.  So, after I supplied my own furniture, I got to move.

I’m really, really excited for this change of scenery, even if it is the rooftops of the surrounding shops below.

I figured out what I’m going to make for the bake sale.  I’ve added a whammy third!

1. Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream filling
2. Rice Krispie Treats made with Maple Marshmallows
3. Apple Cider Cookie/Muffin Tops