After the bird

Thanksgiving really is my favorite holiday. I think it is 2-fold. Firstly, although the holiday in meaning is really about gratitude, in practice, it is really about eating. Which (of course) pleases me. Plus there's the old-fashoined element to it--pilgrims etc. Secondly, because it is a harvest festival it doesn't carry any weird religious conflict or ambivalence for someone like me who grew up in a non-religious/2-religions household. There's no conflict about gratitude.

So Thanksgiving was fabulous, as it usually is, year after year. My mom excels at the sort of cooking that is traditional for Thanksgiving, and we had a wonderful group of friends and family at the table this year. Diego watched a little more TV over the weekend than I would prefer, but with no other kids his age (after Minky's grandaughter Amelia left on Friday morning) and pretty chilly weather, I was willing to give in a little (for the sake of a little peace).

Unfortunately, no pictures. My camera needs a repair, but this is where working nights becomes a real drag: either I have to stay up until 10 am to drop it off after work, or I have to go in to work at about 3:30 (prime napping time). So there has been a slight delay in getting it fixed, but it will happen.

I have to work tonight, but hopefully today we will be able to get some house projects done including relocating 2 bookcases back into the sunroom (from whence they came) and putting away the clothes from the beach.

Renewed talk at work about the possibility of the department closing. I can't help myself from scanning the midwifejobs.com website in search of other places/options.

Penelope has croup! That's what we get for a 'well-baby' visit. When I called the doctor about her crazy high fevers and barking cough, she said 1/3 of her pediatric patients have croup. Well geez, now you tell me.

Diego has been having some issues with a boy in his class "Amar." He tells me "Amar said I'm slow when I'm eating" and "Amar says I can never work with him again." It seems like Diego really like Amar and continues to pursue hanging out with him even though Amar gives him a hard time. This pains me and I have been tempted to go slit the child's throat, but instead have been trying to help him find 'appropriate' ways of coping. He had obviously been thinking about it because yesterday he said "Mom, if Amar tells me I'm slow, I'm going to say "I'm tired of this 'slow' stuff!" I told him that sounded good. But if it doesn't work, tell Amar to come and see me...

Diego told me Penelope is a 'stoling monster' because she always 'stoles my toys'.

He has been taking flute lessons for 2 weeks now. Part of his practicing involves singing "Where is thunbkin" to strengthen his fingers. Yesterday he stood in front of me singing it at top volume, and the 2nd-to-last line was "How are you this morning? Very well my fank you." Got it? Very well my fank you?

An Unexpected Sunday

Boy and his (neurotic and bizarre) dog. Just ask Nora whether looks count or not.

A quiet night at work has left me with an unexpectedly unscheduled Sunday. I hardly know what to do with myself. It has finally gotten cold here, so our usual walk to Clark Park with the dogs will probably need to involve some coffee/hot chocolate at the Green Line Cafe.

I've been enjoying a new cookbook called "The Sneaky Chef" which involves pureeing veggies in various combinations and adding them to 'kid friendly' foods like macraroni and cheese or french toast. It actually seems to be working, although Diego did reject the turkey meatballs that had spinach and brocolli in them on the grounds that they were green. I found them pretty tasty though. I may attempt the 'white puree' today as well as some of the healthy chocolate chip cookies (involving wheat germ and a lot of pureed almonds. Apparently Jessica Seinfeld has a similar book, but she's actually being sued by the author of this cookbook for plagerism. So I have the original.

Penelope and Diego had a checkup yesterday. All seems to be fine--even though Penelope hadn't been in for a well-baby visit since April. Apparently she is supposed to be in every 2 months. Al and I were gently reprimanded by our lovely doctor.

Halloween was fun.

The rare 2-tailed dragon.

The dragon and his friends.