T-Day
One Mercan holiday down, two to go.
Thanksgiving was mostly fine. We kind of had to rush around being crazy in the morning, because there was a boat that had to get moved Right Now, whilst I was trying to make the pumpkin pie, before we could get on the road. Dinner was very, very crowded: over at dionysusdevotee's parents house there were his mom and dad, the two of us plus my dad, the other two siblings and one sibling's spouse, Avia, her mom and Annie and their new baby, two Grandmas, and three cousins. It isn't, by the way, a big house.
The turkey we raised was eaten. We were mildly nervous about it, since it had keeled over of undisclosed causes, but Denise cooked the dickens out of it and it was fine. I even ate a bit. It seemed like the proper thing to do for a bird I helped to raise. The funniest part of the day was Sheldon, one of the small cousins, grabbing a gigantic turkey leg in his little fist and tearing happily into it. I swear that leg was bigger than his head. We re-christened him "Mowgli" after that. It took him all evening to eat it, but eventually he did, and then he just kept gnawing away at the big old leg-bone until somebody took it away from him. He kept asking dionysusdevotee to tell him more funny stories. So dionysusdevotee told him the one about skinning a skunk and having to take a bath in tomato juice, and the one about trying to catch a turkey vulture by the leg, and what the turkey vultures do as a defense mechanism. Kid made the most memorable yuck-face I've ever seen. We were amused.
Avia, it turns out, has learned about taking your life into your own hands. Since her mom can't/won't take her to Ardenwood to continue her internship there, she decided she needed a new one. So she, on her own initiative mind you, called up the veterinary office where her cats get their care and asked if she could come and volunteer there. They said yes, so she's going there every Friday and walking the dogs in the kennels, helping with groomings, critter-wrangling for shots, and observing at surgeries. Apparently she's all done with the squeamish about surgeries and dissections. She proudly informed us that she's already been allowed to observe a dog getting neutered. Now, we've talked with her a few times about how this kind of gig is something she should do before college, because the vet program she wants to get into at UC Davis is pretty competitive and all that. But the thing I was impressed with is that nobody had to hand-hold her or even help her set up this internship. She just, at 13, took it upon herself to go and make it happen. So not to my surprise at this point, the kid kicks ass.
Yesterday we worked our asses off hauling stuff from Grandpa Joe's house in a big U-haul. I slept like the dead last night, for 10 hours, and still felt tired this morning. I dreamed that someone found my cat, and several other things that are very not real.
Today I am going to see Cora, and several other beings of enhanced fabulosity. :)
Thanksgiving was mostly fine. We kind of had to rush around being crazy in the morning, because there was a boat that had to get moved Right Now, whilst I was trying to make the pumpkin pie, before we could get on the road. Dinner was very, very crowded: over at dionysusdevotee's parents house there were his mom and dad, the two of us plus my dad, the other two siblings and one sibling's spouse, Avia, her mom and Annie and their new baby, two Grandmas, and three cousins. It isn't, by the way, a big house.
The turkey we raised was eaten. We were mildly nervous about it, since it had keeled over of undisclosed causes, but Denise cooked the dickens out of it and it was fine. I even ate a bit. It seemed like the proper thing to do for a bird I helped to raise. The funniest part of the day was Sheldon, one of the small cousins, grabbing a gigantic turkey leg in his little fist and tearing happily into it. I swear that leg was bigger than his head. We re-christened him "Mowgli" after that. It took him all evening to eat it, but eventually he did, and then he just kept gnawing away at the big old leg-bone until somebody took it away from him. He kept asking dionysusdevotee to tell him more funny stories. So dionysusdevotee told him the one about skinning a skunk and having to take a bath in tomato juice, and the one about trying to catch a turkey vulture by the leg, and what the turkey vultures do as a defense mechanism. Kid made the most memorable yuck-face I've ever seen. We were amused.
Avia, it turns out, has learned about taking your life into your own hands. Since her mom can't/won't take her to Ardenwood to continue her internship there, she decided she needed a new one. So she, on her own initiative mind you, called up the veterinary office where her cats get their care and asked if she could come and volunteer there. They said yes, so she's going there every Friday and walking the dogs in the kennels, helping with groomings, critter-wrangling for shots, and observing at surgeries. Apparently she's all done with the squeamish about surgeries and dissections. She proudly informed us that she's already been allowed to observe a dog getting neutered. Now, we've talked with her a few times about how this kind of gig is something she should do before college, because the vet program she wants to get into at UC Davis is pretty competitive and all that. But the thing I was impressed with is that nobody had to hand-hold her or even help her set up this internship. She just, at 13, took it upon herself to go and make it happen. So not to my surprise at this point, the kid kicks ass.
Yesterday we worked our asses off hauling stuff from Grandpa Joe's house in a big U-haul. I slept like the dead last night, for 10 hours, and still felt tired this morning. I dreamed that someone found my cat, and several other things that are very not real.
Today I am going to see Cora, and several other beings of enhanced fabulosity. :)