thankful for friends

I think Claire and I are in full agreement when I say Thanksgiving is the best holiday ever. Those pilgrims really did a good job with that food agreement they worked out with the Indians. I can eat as much as I want...in fact I had two slices of pie today. I will probably have one more before bed.

After working 45 of the past 75 hours I was ready for Thanksgiving. This year's Thanksgiving was just what I needed. My store and my managers did a great job. We had the best labor % in the city, as well as a solid gain over last year. So I have to brag a little about our success. When it was all said and done, I was very ready for it to be done. After I got off work at 2 today, I headed over to Charlie and Emily's who were kind enough to open their home for Claire and I to enjoy the festivities.


With a plethora of food, no one went wanting. We had sweet potato soufflé, green been casserole, broccoli rice casserole, sweet corn casserole, shrimp diablo, a cheese ball, crab dip, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, rolls, brussell sprouts, Greenberg turkey, and fried turkey.


It was all amazing. Charlie's fried turkey was great and all the casseroles were perfect.


It was a spot on traditional thanksgiving with great friends. Afterwards we had our fill of pecan, pumpkin, and Claire's chocolate ice box pie. We bummed around, took naps, and watched football. I won't speak of the sadness the Aggies have left us with. Maybe someday they can turn around the program and actually have a decent season. Just maybe. Until then I will enjoy my Thanksgiving holiday and food whether we win or lose.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you ate way too much, took a long nap, and can enjoy some delicious left-overs tomorrow!

aaaah thanksgiving

I'm kinda sad that we don't get to spend T-day with either of our families this year. Last year would have been our first time without family - but Chance's Aunt Ann stepped in to save the day! We were able to head down to Kyle, TX and feast with Chance's aunts, uncles, and cousins - it was a ton of fun to spend time with family we should see often, but rarely do.

This year will mark the first year that either one of us won't be seeing family for Thanksgiving. Chance's family is mostly in the panhandle, and we're not entirely sure what the family members nearest us are doing. Some of my family will be in Tyler for the holiday and the other part of my family is headed to Dallas to check out the Gaylord Texan for their Thanksgiving feast. Sounds like a blast...but this year we can't make it.

But you know what? That's QUITE alright. We're still having Thanksgiving with our family (of sorts) right here in Austin. We're gonna give thanks this year at the Rajeh's house...with Charlie and Emily and their family. I'm so happy that we were invited to share in one of my favorite holidays with them. Chance and I really enjoy relaxing at their place on a semi-regular (we wish it were more regular) basis anyway, so why not do it on the most relaxing holiday of all? (:

I just finished making my first ever Broccoli Rice Casserole, the one item Chance said he wouldn't want to miss this time around. I've started on my first cheese ball (we'll see how that turns out, I improvised), and am mostly finished with my chocolate icebox pie (my favorite)! My daddy and Karen were sweet enough to send us a Greenberg Turkey (from Tyler) again this year...I can't wait to enjoy that too!

I'm headed over to Emily's now to see if I can help with anything, and I'm SURE we'll be over there all day tomorrow (at least, Chance'll join us when he gets off work at 2). So, if you don't hear anything from me until late tomorrow evening, that's just cuz I'm stuffing myself with wonderous food.

This is a bad holiday for gluttons. It's like having an alcohol related holiday that recovering alcoholics are forced to partake in. I've been doing fairly decent with the whole eating healthy thing (and at least I've been making it to the gym a couple times a week)...so maybe this won't do me in. Let's hope not. If I'm still gorging in a week or so, someone stop me. Tell me I'm fat or something. Anything. I don't want to add another chin.

a long day just got longer

Well...it's 7:45pm but it feels like midnight already. The days when Chance works a lot of hours just drag on like nobody's business. Today's no exception.

Chance had to be at work at 7:30 this morning (yeah, 12 hours ago)...and I couldn't make myself wake up in time to take him. Part of it was my fault, I'd stayed up a little too late reading. Part of it was the fault of my dreams, those boogers exhaust me. And part of it was the knowledge that today would be long no matter what, but if I slept a little later it might not seem as long. So, I couldn't force myself out of bed, therefore Chance has the Jeep at work with him.

The day was going about normal speed until it started getting dark. The darker it got, the slower it got, and now I feel like time's not movng. And unfortunately, I just received word that he's not sure when he'll be home. According to Chance it could be "any time between 11pm and 1am". Fun times! Now, I shouldn't be the one complaining, he should be. But since he's not here, I'll just whine a bit for him.

Things had been going really smoothly for their T-day setup...and everything was in place, they were actually a little ahead of the game, and Thanksgiving sales tomorrow seemed like they'd be a piece of cake - until the vault went out. The vault is their refrigerator which should currently be holding all of their turkeys, but they've had to move them all to a cooled truck so that the vault can be replaced. The coils decided to melt at the absolute worst time possible: the day before their turkeys all go out...so tonight they've got to deal with the setback.

Poor Chance. That'll make a 15 to 17 hour day for him. He's gonna be exhausted. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, and if things go well on Thursday maybe he can have a decent Thanksgiving afternoon.

The days like today...I hate. I should have gotten up with him this morning, but I was already dreading the day. Now I'm miserable - I should have at least gone outside this afternoon. It's these days that I SHOULD get a ton of work done. I SHOULD get plenty done around the house as well...but these are the days that slow me down. I wonder why that is? I can get so much more done in 8 hours away from Chance than I do when he's gone for 15. Terrible, but true. He should be coming home to a spotless house, a hearty meal, laundry cleaned and put away (which might happen), and 2 or 3 finished projects (you know - wedding photos edited, paintings completed, things organized). But he's not.

Sorry - there's really no point to this one. I just thought I'd whine a little for the both of us since Chance won't have the time.

a month of blogging

Well, we have had our blog for a little over a month now. I'm sad to say that I don't feel it has lived up to my expectations of it. Maybe I thought I would have grand thoughts I would share with everyone on a daily/semi-daily basis. Then the real world set in and I have been working 70 hours a week for the last two weeks with little time for blogging much else anything else in my life. Such are the woes of being a general manager at a restaurant, I guess.

Halloween was good, we went to a couple of friends' parties, played games, and went to bed. I think the holiday really lost it's appeal to me about, oh, 15 years ago when I couldn't go trick or treating anymore. I remember going with mom one year in pajamas that had glow in the dark skeletons on them. I have no idea how we convinced mom this was suitable for Russell and I but we did it and I am pretty sure I had too much candy. I am positive I had too much candy, since I still have too much candy on Halloween and I am 24. Who can resist a butterfinger or 6 anyways (they were at least the "fun" size ones). I might let Claire tell you more about what we actually did on Halloween. For this post, however, I wanted to write about something on my mind.

I got a haircut on Wednesday. While doing so I realized I finally understood why Claire likes to go get massages. In my own weird way, getting a haircut, for me, is like getting a massage. Of course, there are some boundaries on this. I have to have a stylist that is either foreign and therefore can not communicate with me, or just someone who has no desire to discuss my frivolous day. So assuming I have a mute, foreign, or shy hairstylist I can go in sit down and shut off. Often this ends in me nearly drifting off to sleep. I have the white noise of the buzzers, a cool mist being sprayed from time to time and a nice hair/head massage. Really how could this not be wonderful. I realized I have been letting myself down by being so lazy as to only get a haircut every 2-3 months. I am missing out on one of the most relaxing 20 minutes of my month if I skip for that long. Maybe I am just crazy but dang it's relaxing.

Also November is National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) so maybe Claire and I can get on top of this and give you readers a little more to chew on as we head into Thanksgiving. But, expect me to be gone for about two weeks around the big Turkey day as thats my busiest time of year at work.

Until next time.