ma-nure

a few weeks ago i had a birthday, and i am now as old as other 28 year olds. to celebrate my day in the sun, i got in my car and drove into the sun. well, i actually drove to play some golf-a-roo at a nice local course.

after driving an hour in the wrong direction and yelling at meagan's navigation device, i arrived and saw this. it was early december, and i was pleasantly surprised to see that i had indeed found the sun.

it was a really nice course, and if you hadn't played it before you could get lost in the dr. suess bushes.

well, i had never played here before and i got myself into a bit of trouble.

nevertheless, it was still awesome. i played 25 holes, walked like 8 miles around a very nice area, and finished the round with a few snickers bars. i also got some mcnuggets because i really like that new commercial where there is a tower of wedding cake made of mcnuggets.

the week after my official bidet. when meagan finished her exams and papers (good job mego!), we headed out for some indian food and to furnish our home with a holiday-themed tree. i think we got a 40-footer, and it barely fit into our limo.

we also got all the other requisite crap people drape around and over their homes this time of year: stockings; garlands; shopping carts.

a pinch of mom....a touch of dad....and boom! tree baby! it was really fun to put this little guy together. except for the lights...the new lights sold in stores are different from the ones i am used to working with. that is, unlike normal lights, the lights we purchased from walmart would not connect to each other. this would have been very agitating if meagan hadn't been supplying me with margaritas.

the mantle was also festooned with the usual array of christmas balls and holiday bones.

this was all very exhausting, so we retired for naps and prepared for ensuing night activities.

indy was also very tired from chasing decorations around the house and eating tinsel.

to get the night going, we had few people over, ate a wonderful football-themed cake (provided courtesy of meagan).

post-cake, a group of friends headed to the local bowling lanes where we all proceeded to make complete fools of ourselves. even so, good times were had by all.

since bowling, i have been enjoying the warm southern weather with our newly adopted cat, "other", and have been preparing papers for a doctory conference in vancouver(!) this coming may. i really hope my papers are accepted, as i have never been to the northwest and desperately want to drive through canada.

i am now philly, and this is what awaited me when i arrived yesterday. ick. it wass 65 degrees when i left nc! ahhh!

well, it's not so bad, as my gmom let me borrow her ride for the week i am here. i think i'm gonna have to go carousing now.

here toblett makes his strike, then waddles joyously.

turkeys are for riding and calling, "whoa, big kitten!"

so i'm not sure if anyone was aware, but last week was thanksgiving. it's a little holiday my close friends and family like to celebrate, and it commemorates when the pilgrims successfully warded off an invasion of aliens and predators. there was a movie made about it a few years ago with danny glover, but it was set in futuristic L.A., so it wasn't very realistic.



squirrel is only 5 months old, so this is her first thanksgiving. meagan forced her to get excited.

anyhow, this holiday is essentially an eating event. well, it's also a drinking event, and if your family is anything like mine, it is also an arena to air your familial grievances and catch up on juicy gossip about unknown relatives.

meagan and i, being displaced northerners, decided we would host this year. this meant we woke up early, survived the throng of shoppers at our local mart, and made side dishes to complement a turkey stuffed with a duck, that heretofore, had been living inside of a ham.

here meagan made a yukon potato something to complement my ham sauce. yum. our guests also brought stuffings, greens, pies and much to drink.

i don't really know why, but we always eat this dinner at a ridiculously early time. why is that? when we are old people, will we eat this meal even earlier? that would be scary.

anyhow, our friends began to show up at like noon and joined squirrel to watch the detroit lions get massacred. those poor lions. they're not going to win this year, are they?

right, so we had about 8 people come over

and they wanted what indy wanted....

a kitty cat! oh wait, that wasn't it. they all wanted a turkey. this was the first turkey i've ever made, and i didn't really know what to do. i called my mom like 10 times to ask inane questions, like, "where did the head go?", "should it's tail be this long?", and, "is a giblet the same as a gerbil?"

my mother, while stupefied with my idiocy, was extra patient, and in the end, kitty city et al. had exactly what they wanted.

when the food eating was over, we undid our belts, aired our grievances, and sat, drinks in hand, in front of the football proceedings.

and when i say football proceedings, i don't mean toby's junk. i mean we sat on the couch and consumed many-a-bag of cheese balls served from a football. why are these the best food in the world? anyone? anyone? cartwright?

my first southern thanksgiving was wonderful. as far as i know, people had a fine time, didn't stuff their food into their napkins, did not get boccilism, or food-related misery, and meagan had an excuse to terrify squirrel with drunken snuggles for an entire day! the only thing that could make this better is what i think makes everything better: an unrelated theme! maybe next thanksgiving can be "dress as your favorite animal", "80's rich", or "bring your lost son to thanksgiving day."