Archive: November 2007

The weather is actually not gray, at all. The air is clean and crisp, and the blue sky shows off the clean, leafless tree branches, but I am feeling dull and gray today. I am not pleased to be at work and not out weaving through the frenzied masses, spending my hard-earned pennies on discounted flats and scarves. I had to turn on all of the lights on my floor because there is only one other person here. Lest I get stuck in an unattractive, “woe is me” turn of the mind, I am trying to counteract my negative grumblings with other, more positive viewpoints.

I am kicking myself for forgetting my camera this morning, so I can’t upload any pictures from yesterday’s food fest. However, one of the aunts brought a green bean casserole, of which I took several commemorative photos, and I am so relieved that popular demand indicates that it will make a return appearance for the foreseeable future. Hooray!

My Blue Hens are playing in the first round of the 1-AA Championship play-offs, which is all very exciting, but I can’t go, because the game is today at 1:30pm. JG is going with a co-worker, but I am so disappointed that I can’t brave the cold alongside him. To say that I hope we win today is an understatement. I am not a fan of the team we are playing; I hope we crush them so that there is no doubt who has the upper hand. At least I can stream the local radio commentary at game time, and the announcers are very good at describing the plays. Even better, the game is being televised on ESPN, and JG has set it to record. We’ll skim through it after the game and see how our boys show up in high definition.

We came home to an empty fridge last night, so pickings were slim for my lunch today and I missed out on my beloved leftovers to heat up. Fortunately, when I mentioned this to JG, Mimi’s ears perked up, and she packed me a lunch with a turkey sandwich, chips and dip, cookies, and crackers. Cold though it may be, I think I can handle that for lunch.

Being alone in my end of the hallway is unnerving. There are strange noises and echoes in the walls, and the tap-tap-tap of my keyboard sounds eerily hollow in the empty space. I’m taking advantage of the emptiness by wearing jeans (gasp!) and listening to the first strains of my Christmas music playlist. “Linus and Lucy,” I love you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sadly, due to a dial-up internet connection, pictures of Ted meeting a dozen new people, including cousins, aunts, and uncles, plus a new dog, are not yet available. I’m glad that A) Ted loves loves loves meeting people and B) everyone around here is a dog person, so I don’t have to be on-call for the majority of the time.

One thing’s for sure: traveling with a dog requires a heck of a lot of gear, even for just one night. How does one 12-pound dog manage to fill up half the trunk with stuff? It’s like he has his own entourage to attend to his needs; namely, JG and me.

Despite Ted’s high-maintenance ways (I kid), and although I will not be mentioning this during the “what I’m thankful for” go-around, I am thankful for our little puppy. I just hope he doesn’t have any carsickness on the way home, seeing as he’ll be sitting on my lap…

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Get your November Daily Dog Dose with Bugs, Rufus, Ben, Ted, and Gus!

For the past three Thanksgivings, JG and I have gone up to Mimi’s from Wednesday to Saturday. We look forward to yearly rituals to follow and games to play, but I would be remiss if I did not mention the traditional Black Friday shopping marathon. The girls get together and fan out within each store, scouting for the other, digging through piles, and ducking and weaving through crowds. Within a warm, glowy sphere of family togetherness, I think cutting off other girls from striped sweaters might be my favorite part.

This year, however, I’m not able to take time off on the day after Thanksgiving, so JG and I are heading up this afternoon and coming back home on Thursday night. I’ve worked longer hours so that I can leave early today and we can make it in time for the pre-Thanksgiving dinner at Mimi’s club. At least we have that. I’m trying not to be a baby about missing the post-Thanksgiving traditions this year. I mean, I can handle it for one year, and it’s really more of a function of a probation period for time off than anything else. It’ll be quiet in the office, right? I’ll get a lot of work done…

Anyway! I first joined in on JG’s family’s Thanksgiving festivities when JG and I got engaged, and I was rather overwhelmed. My, you people are all loud talkers. My, you are all very passionate about your sports teams. My, you are all so tall! I had memorized everyone’s names beforehand, and I won a few games throughout the weekend, so I managed fairly well. The real shock came at the dinner table.

First of all, JG’s family eats their turkey and whatnot around the noon hour, whereas I am used to an evening meal. Second, my mom usually concocts a different stuffing every year with all sorts of goodies in it, but Mimi’s version is more basic. Basic like just bread. Third — and this was the biggest cause of gasping — there were no green vegetables to be had. In all fairness, there were creamed pearl onions (ick), but there was not even a tossed salad or a green bean casserole to be seen.

Now, I am a very balanced eater. I take the food pyramid to heart even though I know it’s outdated, and I try to maintain a healthy selection of carbs, vegetables, and protein on my plate. I strive to have colorful meals because they are more likely to be more balanced, but I know that’s not a given. As I circled around the buffet during that Thanksgiving meal, I watched my plate fill with turkey, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, and gravy. Translation: protein, carb, carb, carb/dairy, carb, and fat. Also, beige, beige, orange, beige, and brown.

I wanted to cry. Or go out and eat some grass.

But instead, I ate my beige meal silently. Don’t get me wrong, the food was excellent, but I felt my nutritional balance going all out of whack and screaming, “Where is my vitamin C? My iron? My folic acid? I need some roughage!”

The next year, I asked my mother-in-law if I could request a salad to be added to the menu. Mimi has a full slate of dishes that go in and out of the oven with military precision, so I knew that it would be a tough sell. I would have to be low-maintenance. “Nothing fancy,” I said, “Even a bagged salad with some baby carrots would be great. Something green. Is that possible at all?”

“Sure!” she said brightly. “I’ll just take care of the salad. It’s probably good for all of us.”

I went into my second in-lawed Thanksgiving with high hopes, but it turns out that my mother-in-law’s views of a salad are not quite the same as mine. She had made a tasty dish, to be sure, but it consisted mostly of broccoli slaw slivers, grated carrots, a gallon of Italian dressing, slivered almonds, and a nice, crunchy layer of uncooked ramen noodles on the top. It was, to my disappointment, a beige salad.

Ah, well. What can you do?

This year, I have given up on my dream of romaine lettuce and a vinaigrette — that elusive “something green.” JG keeps reminding me that “there’s green stuff,” referring to a perennial favorite dish. Yes, but it’s made of Jell-O and marshmallows, dear.

Post-Thanksgiving edit: Hallelujah! Green bean casserole came to the party!

Secret Blogger Santa is ready to rumble with 41 participants! It’s all very exciting and I can’t wait to see what kinds of fun gifts people create in the next few weeks.

However, the excitement of the moment lies in the information within those 41 rows of the spreadsheet I created for this little endeavor, just waiting to be uncovered. Oh, sure, we could have just forwarded people’s sign-up e-mails to their Santas, but we would have missed the fun inherent in sorting! Trending! Graphing! Mail-merging!

Allow me to demonstrate (click for larger versions):

In the following graph, we see that peaks of sign-up occurred on the announcement day and the day before the deadline of November 16. We can see that SBSers are both quick on the draw and benefit from a last-minute reminder, if necessary.

When we examine the geographical distribution of United States-based SBSers (of the 39 participants who identified location), the most gifts will travel to New York (5), Minnesota (4), and Virginia (4). We also have 2 participants from our nation’s capitol — which was eerily excluded from this map — and 3 from outside the country!

From the personal tidbits SBSers provided to assist in the gift-buying process, we see that our pool of participants has quite a bit in common. SBSers are:

• To the point: 5 directed folks straight to their blogs for gift ideas
• Literary: 15 like to read (2 specifically mentioned Us Weekly)
• Busy:
  3 like crafty things (4 appreciate cards, especially)
  2 enjoy scrapbooking
  3 enjoy cooking (relatedly, 2 love wine)
  3 like to travel
  2 write
• In shape:
  4 love sports
  5 go running regularly
  2 practice yoga
• Family-oriented:
  3 mentioned their children
  8 love dogs
• Fans of color: 11 shared favorite colors
  3: pink
  3: purple
  2: green
  2: yellow
  1: blue

See how handy a spreadsheet can be? How else would we have known all of this invaluable information?

Check out the complete list of SBSers after the jump and see how you match up!

#51

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