It was the last day of my in-law’s visit yesterday.  We went down to the Big City to get some Art and Culture.  I managed to get some good photos.  Here they are

As I mentioned yesterday my in-laws are in town this weekend for Thanksgiving.  Yes, I know Thanksgiving is not for at least a couple more weeks, but the plans around here got kind of FUBAR’ed and we thought Tom was maybe going to be in China for Thanksgiving, and since nobody else wanted to go to China for Thanksgiving we decided to have it early.  It was fun, but kind of strange because I didn’t have a chance to read several hundred magazines about how to have the Best Thanksgiving Ever.  I just had to wing it.

This is not our turkey

Here are some random thoughts:

The turkey cooked faster than I thought it would.  I don’t know why this surprised me, it seems to happen every year.  This is always worrying, and it leads to subjecting the poor turkey to a lot of poking and probing with the meat thermometer to make sure it really is done.  I always worry that I am about to poison everybody.  It adds a nice note of uncertainty to the festivities.

I love my roasting pan.  I think it is everything the Food Network says a roasting pan should not be.  It is lightweight, it has that black speckly enamel on it, and I got it at Wal Mart ages ago for about ten dollars.  Every turkey or roast I have ever made in that thing has been perfect.  If Wal Mart still had them I would buy more, just in case anything ever happens to this one.

I did not make my dressing in the crock-pot this time.  I just put it in casserole dish and baked it after I took the turkey out of the oven.  I never stuff the turkey, not because I am worried about food poisoning, but because I have discovered that if you do not stuff the bird you get way more gravy, and I am all about gravy.  So no stuffing in the turkey.  It was fine cooked in the casserole dish, but I like it much better if you do it in the crock-pot.  I will have to remember that.

Pumpkin pie really is the best food.  A dessert that’s good for you because it’s made of yellow vegetables.  What’s not to like about that?  I love pumpkin pie, and pumpkin bread.  I am in search of a recipe for pumpkin soup.  These recipes are easy to find but the first ingredient always seems to be:  a pumpkin of a certain size.  No.  This is not what I want.  I want the first ingredient to be a can of pumpkin.  I do not have the time or the inclination to roast and puree my own.

Now if only I had some Magic Cookie Bars.

My in-laws are in town for an early Thanksgiving. (It’s a long story, and I will tell you sometime soon). So I made a turkey and all (well, most) of the trimmings. I love to cook Thanksgiving dinner. It’s just too bad turkey makes you so tired.

10,529 down, 39, 471 to go.

I’m afraid I have used up all my words for the day, and I don’t have any to spare for the old blog-o-rama.  Sorry.

Son of the return of food that can kill you

Many thanks to my mother in law for the following find.  Ladies and gentlemen may I please present The Bacone

From This is Why You’re Fat.

In this photo they have filled the Bacone with scrambled eggs and biscuits and gravy.  I am not a big fan of scrambled eggs.  In fact, I think they might be poison, but I have given this some thought and I have come up with some alternative fillings:

• Donut holes
• French toast sticks
• Lettuce, tomatoes and ranch dressing (a Bacone BLT!)
• Pasta and parmesan cheese (Bacone carbonara)

Or, my personal favorite:

• A great big scoop of maple ice cream

Come on, you know you want one.

So if you are paying attention to the thingies over to the right, you may have noticed that I am participating in National Novel Writing Month.  It’s this month.  You might not know that.  You might be a Sensible and Sane person who does not think trying to write an entire novel in 30 days is a good idea, or even possible.  I am not one of you.

I tried this last year too, hence the 2.0 tag.  I think I lasted about three days.  So I have already improved.

To date I have just over 6,000 words written.  Just over 6,000 words of pure unadulterated garbage.  But at least I have not yet reverted to typing curse words over and over again to get my count up.  I am saving that for later.

Oh my gosh!  I can’t believe I forgot to write my race report.  Well, actually I can believe I forgot.  The race was really boring and stupid.

This was the last race of the year, and so I tried to keep an open mind.  There won’t be any more racing for a long long time.  I hate winter.

So I should probably tell you about the track.  Yas Marina is built on a man-made island.  The track is built around a marina, hence the name.  It had some fancy grandstands, and a hotel, and the track goes under a hotel walkway, and the paddocks are all air-conditioned.  The facilities are fabulous, everybody said so.  But the whole thing left me cold.  The track has no personality.  Once the sun went down it was like watching a race at an airport.  Yawn.

Lewis Hamilton was on pole.  He was absolutely flying.  It was amazing.  And I don’t even LIKE Lewis Hamilton.  Sadly, during the race he had a brake problem, and brake problems are bad when you are driving over 100 miles an hour. He had to retire the car.  It was too bad.  He was going so fast I was starting to think he might actually become airborne at the end of the long straight.  But he didn’t.

Sebastian Vettel won.  He started second on the grid.  Mark Webber rounded out the top three in the second Red Bull racer.  He ended up finishing second, and our new World Champion, Jenson Button finished third.

Alonso, meanwhile started 15^th on the grid, and finished 14^th.  Wow.  That Renault was a real steaming pile this year.  If I were giving them a grade I would give them an F-.  I cannot wait until next year when he is driving a Ferrari.  Finally he will have a proper car again.

And so another Formula 1 season comes to an end.  I’m sure my mom will be relieved.  There will be far fewer racing posts in the coming months.

Once again, consult a real racing site for real information.

The children are very fond of Domo, a funny fake monster plush toy they sell at Target.  We suspect his origins may be Japanese, but we really don’t know

They each have two.  One of the C-man’s Domos is MIA at the moment, but we know he is Around Here Somewhere.

Anyway, apparently the Domos are very fond of Halloween, and got into quite a bit of mischief after eating too much candy.

Dracula Domo flies a helicopter

Devil Domo goes for a spin

Must...get...more...candy...

A little help...

I wonder what it’s like to have normal children.

It’s National Novel Writing Month.  Here we go again.  Heaven help me.

As promised, here are the photos from the party and Halloween night.

We had a great time.  Halloween was a little chilly, but one house in the neighborhood was giving candy to the kids and “warmers” to the grown-ups.  You had your choice of red, white or distilled.  I went with red, it made the evening more fun.  Especially as all the grown-ups with “warmers” would lift their go-cup in passing and give a little knowing smirk.  Lovely.

Now I have to figure out what to do with all this extra candy.  I should have Tom take some to the secretaries at work, and take some to the secretaries at the elementary school, but I will probably just eat it.