Domestic Geek

I took a much needed blogging break yesterday. I spent the afternoon helping Marcus organize his office at work. I designed my Christmas card in my head, so I'm going to making those over the next couple of days so I can get them in the mail by early next week. If you want one, just send me your snail mail addy via email. Then I painted some more wooden balls for my crocheted popcorn garland. As soon as I do some posting here, I'm going to crochet while watching Ugly Betty on ABC's website. Since we lost our East/West coast stations from Dish Network on Thursday (all thanks to FOX, we later found out), there are just some shows I'm not going to be able to watch if they don't have them on their web sites. The senate has a bill to allow some "distant channel" services for some satellite subscribers, but even if it passes, Marcus and I won't be eligible. *sigh* That sucks. I really liked having the New York affiliates. Oh, well. We went ahead and downgraded out satellite package, as well. If only we could get rid of shopping channels, public interest and religious stations. That is over 30 channels right there that I will NEVER watch. What a waste. I really wish they would offer an a la carte type system, like pick 50 channels YOU WANT for $39.95 or something. Maybe someday.

Well, I actually managed to get the meal on the table. The turkey turned out really good. My mixer bit the dust, though, halfway through making my whipped potatoes. Boooo. I ended up just mashing what was left by hand. I followed Cass' sweet tea recipe and it came out yummy! Thanks, Cass!

Stupid Broncos lost again. I don't think there has been a season that I've been this unmotivated about them. I know a lot of that had to do with my mind being on other more important things for most of the season, but I am just not feeling the fan in me this year. I kept switching over to SPEED to see what was going on with the PINKS marathon. I really love those drag racing cars with the NOS that need the stabilizer bars in the back to keep them from flipping when they take off.

I'm procrastinating cleaning up the disasterous mess I made in the kithcen, but I need to move my butt because I do have to go to work in the morning. I need rest after not getting any last night. I'm still having some horrid cramps and those always wipe me out physically, too. Hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I'm having one of those Murphy Thanksgivings. If it can go wrong, it will.

First that stupid flour bug mess last night, then a raccoon was attacking Skippy when I went to let him in so I could go to the grocery store. I don't think it bit him, but he was really scared and I was really mad. I hate raccoons. I chased the stupid thing with a snow shovel. I didn't get the cheesecake into the oven until after 11 pm. Marcus finally got home about then, as well. So, I didn't eat dinner last night, either. I didn't go to bed until almost 2 am. I made the mistake of trying to bake the cheesecake in a water bath. I guess I didn't wrap the foil tightly enough around the pan, because water got in. This morning I woke up to a soggy cheesecake mess in my oven. *sigh* I heated up the oven, put the cheesecake back in to try and dry it out a bit and then I threw the thing in the freezer. Damn. Then, my pies are turning out funny. The crusts are acting weird. Must be those new glass pie plates I bought. I took the turkey out of the fridge and it's still partially frozen, so dinner is going to be a couple of hours later than I planned. Next, the trash bag I took out of the can to take to the dumpster fell over and I got to clean up all that flour I dumped last night, coffee grounds, bird seed, etc. off the floor.

So, I'm taking a little break to calm down before I break into tears. It's just a meal, after all. It's just Dad, Marcus and me, so it's not like I have a house full of guests expected. It'll all be ok. The turkey will thaw. The cheesecake will probably still taste ok. I just need to make a list of what needs to be done still so that I don't forget to make rolls or something.

I really start to miss my mom this time of year. She had tons of Christmas decorations (a trait I picked up from her). Christmas Elves, Santas, Nativity figurines, trees...you name it, she had it. One thing that was kind of goofy was this tinsel garland we draped on the family room beams with tissue honeycomb bells. We tried to get the Christmas decorations up Thanksgiving weekend and kept them up until at least January 6th. She said it was because that's when the wise men found the baby Jesus, but I think she just liked having the tree up for her birthday. Since Marcus' birthday is the same date, I keep that little tradition alive. The tree can't come down until after January 6th.

Hey, look...I finally finished Marcus' Thanksgiving graphic the day before yesterday for his site. I present the iPod Pilgrim, actually making an appearance before the holiday. It's not my best work, but it didn't come out too bad. This is the third in a series I've made for his sidebar. As soon as he gets me his idea, I promised to make him one for Christmas. I told him he should start a little archive of all of the little guys somewhere on his site to save them for posterity.

In other web news, I've got to find out why my freaking site is loading so danged slow. I'm absolutely sick of this.

The Barenaked Ladies are in town tonight. I had really hoped I could've found a way to score some tickets, but no such luck. *sigh* Next time they are in town I will see them!