Thanksgiving was nice and quiet. Almost quiet enough. My inner introvert is ultra needy, and festive holidays are not usually what my spirit is craving for recharge. Hiding in my office, hiking, climbing, or a long winding road with the stereo turned up too loud is soul food. I never can get enough.
We did not coordinate thanksgiving well this year. I dropped the ball on planning, so it was just the 4 of us. (Girly, Alex, me, dog...)
I think it was nice to hide from the big bad old world and do something manageable. There are so many people here that it’s nice to pretend that I am special and unique. We should stop breeding so we can really appreciate ourselves. We’ve perfected reproducing. Which, upon reflection, is surprising given that i’m pretty sure we haven’t actually perfected sex. Another one of life’s little chicken and egg problems.
Alex brought all kinds of digital goodness with him. He managed to fix the Stinkpad in less time than it took to track down the bug that caused the video to crash. I think he did it before I was done with cooking breakfast on Thursday, though it may have been washing dishes. I don’t think i’ve turned off the computer since then. It runs for hours and is pleasantly snappy.
He also brought me some video cards, so now I can play left4dead. I haven't been in bed before midnight any day this week.
I tried roasting Cornish game hens on the charcoal grill. I’ve never roasted a chicken before, much less a game hen, much less on the grill. My previous experience with meat and grills gave me the confidence to just light it up and throw the birds on. That and the spare pizza in the freezer. I was sure to lubricate them barbecue sauce as a hedge. I used a little too much charcoal, so one side was a bit over grilled, but the juices extinguished some of the coals, and we had well done birds under an hour. The meat thermometer will have to wait for another year. The hens have about enough meat for two people each, especially if there’s a salad involved. Other than that, their flavor was not easily discernible from other forms of chicken. Apparently all forms of chicken taste like chicken. Life is full of surprises.
Alex brought vegetarian main dish as well.I didn’t want him to be picking around the edges with ‘only’ salad, potatoes, cornbread, and stuffing. He made spicy potato soup, which I intended to have for lunch this week, but I ate it all in one sitting. He also brought an amazing loaf of sourdough. Real San Fransisco sourdough.
There was a bottle of wine and pie in there too. My memory gets foggy after that. It must have been ok. I think we watched a bunch of movies. Yes. That was it.
On friday, he left, and I spent the day hiding in my office doing whatever magic was necessary to make the computers work. I should look to invest in linux games. A complete windows XP installation takes something like 6 hours just to get updated, much less get files transfered and installed. My xubuntu discs takes maybe 10 minutes to get live, and another hour or so of letting rsync clone my home folder.
Saturday was a whirlwind of family and driving... a 2.5 hour drive to the other end of the state. Our family seemed generally pleased we took the time to come. We ate a lot and talked a lot. I should send thank you cards to key players.
We took the Swedish Brick. To my relief, it didn’t break down on the trip. Heated seats and manual transmissions are amazing bits of luxury. The extra space allowed for all of us, with zero mandatory dog cuddling. He’s cute, but the drool accumulates on you after a while. It’s easy to guess who was riding bitch, if you know what I mean.
I spent sunday morning replacing the exhaust system. The knowledge I gained doing the same job on the Boat last year proved fruitful. I used the drimel to cut nice seams in rotted pipes and was able to replace the mufflers(!) in about 3 hours.
Unfortunately, it failed inspection because the rear brakes are worn out and the power steering pump belt wasn’t tight enough (they inspect that? wtf! (also: isn't fine if it's not slipping or squealing?)). I picked up pads and rotors. I think next saturday will be volvo day too. I’ll change the oil while I’m at it. My hands are covered with scratches and splinters from this little project. I need to order a new clutch linkage (the original has a deep groove worn in it from the bajillion presses the clutch has gotten over time),fix the heater so it will blow hot air on the floor, and fix or replace the radios attachment to the antenna, so that we can listen to NPR. I am beginning to suspect fixing things is my hobby.
We did not coordinate thanksgiving well this year. I dropped the ball on planning, so it was just the 4 of us. (Girly, Alex, me, dog...)
I think it was nice to hide from the big bad old world and do something manageable. There are so many people here that it’s nice to pretend that I am special and unique. We should stop breeding so we can really appreciate ourselves. We’ve perfected reproducing. Which, upon reflection, is surprising given that i’m pretty sure we haven’t actually perfected sex. Another one of life’s little chicken and egg problems.
Alex brought all kinds of digital goodness with him. He managed to fix the Stinkpad in less time than it took to track down the bug that caused the video to crash. I think he did it before I was done with cooking breakfast on Thursday, though it may have been washing dishes. I don’t think i’ve turned off the computer since then. It runs for hours and is pleasantly snappy.
He also brought me some video cards, so now I can play left4dead. I haven't been in bed before midnight any day this week.
I tried roasting Cornish game hens on the charcoal grill. I’ve never roasted a chicken before, much less a game hen, much less on the grill. My previous experience with meat and grills gave me the confidence to just light it up and throw the birds on. That and the spare pizza in the freezer. I was sure to lubricate them barbecue sauce as a hedge. I used a little too much charcoal, so one side was a bit over grilled, but the juices extinguished some of the coals, and we had well done birds under an hour. The meat thermometer will have to wait for another year. The hens have about enough meat for two people each, especially if there’s a salad involved. Other than that, their flavor was not easily discernible from other forms of chicken. Apparently all forms of chicken taste like chicken. Life is full of surprises.
Alex brought vegetarian main dish as well.I didn’t want him to be picking around the edges with ‘only’ salad, potatoes, cornbread, and stuffing. He made spicy potato soup, which I intended to have for lunch this week, but I ate it all in one sitting. He also brought an amazing loaf of sourdough. Real San Fransisco sourdough.
There was a bottle of wine and pie in there too. My memory gets foggy after that. It must have been ok. I think we watched a bunch of movies. Yes. That was it.
On friday, he left, and I spent the day hiding in my office doing whatever magic was necessary to make the computers work. I should look to invest in linux games. A complete windows XP installation takes something like 6 hours just to get updated, much less get files transfered and installed. My xubuntu discs takes maybe 10 minutes to get live, and another hour or so of letting rsync clone my home folder.
Saturday was a whirlwind of family and driving... a 2.5 hour drive to the other end of the state. Our family seemed generally pleased we took the time to come. We ate a lot and talked a lot. I should send thank you cards to key players.
We took the Swedish Brick. To my relief, it didn’t break down on the trip. Heated seats and manual transmissions are amazing bits of luxury. The extra space allowed for all of us, with zero mandatory dog cuddling. He’s cute, but the drool accumulates on you after a while. It’s easy to guess who was riding bitch, if you know what I mean.
I spent sunday morning replacing the exhaust system. The knowledge I gained doing the same job on the Boat last year proved fruitful. I used the drimel to cut nice seams in rotted pipes and was able to replace the mufflers(!) in about 3 hours.
Unfortunately, it failed inspection because the rear brakes are worn out and the power steering pump belt wasn’t tight enough (they inspect that? wtf! (also: isn't fine if it's not slipping or squealing?)). I picked up pads and rotors. I think next saturday will be volvo day too. I’ll change the oil while I’m at it. My hands are covered with scratches and splinters from this little project. I need to order a new clutch linkage (the original has a deep groove worn in it from the bajillion presses the clutch has gotten over time),fix the heater so it will blow hot air on the floor, and fix or replace the radios attachment to the antenna, so that we can listen to NPR. I am beginning to suspect fixing things is my hobby.
At least your hobby isn't breaking things. It's easy to run out of things to break; there's always something to fix.
ReplyDeleteIt was a delicious meal and a good outing. I enjoy your and Aimee's company immensely. Bayram is growing on me, for better or worse.