So What's New?

A lot has happened since I've last blogged so I better catch you up!

1. We survived "Thanks for Christmas" and I'm thinking of renaming the holiday "Revenge of the Turkey!" You see every year my mom and dad do not thaw the turkey out in the refrigerator in preparation for the holiday. Instead they just set the turkey out on the counter to thaw. And every year I look and it and ask what the heck they think they are doing?!! Then they usually get mad at me (yes, how dare I bring up food safety issues - who am I to tell them that I don't want to get sick this year!"). You see it all cumulated with the year that my mom to "speed things up" set the turkey on the heat register and we all came down with a week battle with salmonella poisoning.....so you'd think that they learned - but no. So this year was even worse. First they bought a fully cooked Hormel turkey that had been shrunk wrapped and frozen (I don't even get to have a real turkey for Thanksgiving!!!) and then they say that they thawed it in the refrigerator - - - NOT. Turkeys do not thaw out completely over night in a refrigerator (sorry laws of physics - it just can't happen). Sometimes they think that I'm five and won't notice them pouring the powdered milk into the milk carton (which they did when I was young to save money by the way - Yuck! I guess there are a lot of food issues in my childhood). So they took this magically thawed turkey and only heated in the oven for an hour!!! An hour!!!! So the middle of turkey was still cold. Now for the mashed potatoes. MY mom made mashed potatoes out of old potatoes that were soft and had eyes growing out of them!!! They looked like they should have been planted and would have yielded a banner crop in about a week!! Yuck. Needless to say, Todd and I smiled (while dreading the entire meal) and ate as little as possible. This could be the only Thanksgiving that we lost weight!! I know personally that I had the worst gas I've ever had for the entire time I was there!! But I didn't throw up and that makes the weekend a success in my book.
NEXT YEAR WE ARE STAYING HOME AND COOKING A REAL TURKEY WITH NEW POTATOES THAT WE BUY FROM THE GROCERY STORE. If people want to come and join us - good. If not, we are OK with that too. Well so much for the Thanks part of Thanks for Christmas!

2. The Christmas part of the Thanks for Christmas was nice. It's nice being done buying presents and not having to worry about about battling the lines at the stores. My eldest brother and my SIL couldn't make it for Thanks for Christmas because their cat was sick (diabetes - went into convulsions twice in a matter of a weekend and they don't know whether he'll make it or not). So we totally understood. However, IT probably wasn't necessary for my brother to call and taunt me while my mom and dad were sitting there watching asking, "How the turkey was" Yah, he knew...). So we opened presents on two separate occasions. One with my parents alone and the other with my brother Gregg and his family. I actually liked that. It was calmer and you really got to see what other people received and the look on their face. Then we got a game of Scene It so we all played that. That was nice. Here's some pictures from the Christmas portion of our weekend: My mom with the cowl that I knit. That's a good look for anyone!

My Dad with his new tools and my mom with the dishes that she bought for herself :-)

My brother smelling his jeans? My SIL with the loopy scarf I made!

Bro's kids with Deal or No Deal! Looks like a good deal to me!!

3. George is sick. When we got home the cat sitter told us that she thought that George has diabetes because of the all drinking of water and peeing. So we took him to the vet. Yah, he loved that! Especially when they took his temperature!!! He has lost 5 pounds since this past spring - which is a lot for a cat! *(I feel like I've gained 5 pounds since Spring so that makes it fair. We obviously want to keep a steady mass in our house!). So George has diabetes and has two shots a day, is now on a special diet, and is now on an eating schedule. George does not like schedules. He lets us know this by either being so hungry that he bugs you until you are REALLY ready to feed him by the time the time comes. Or he just won't eat. Like today, we get up early because George's times to eat are 7am and 7pm - so we get out of bed at 7am on a Saturday (Arggggg......) so that he can eat. Except that he refuses. He must sense that it is Saturday and we need to sleep in. So now both Todd and I are up - where is George you ask? In bed asleep!! Don't worry - he'll be really hungry at 7pm and I don't think that I'll be as sympathetic as normal. Karma even works with cats!! The other thing is that since George has been to the vet so much lately, that any time we do anything out of normal (like Todd and I leave at different times) he thinks that we are taking him back to the vet. So he has spent a lot of time hiding in the closet!!! I'm not saying that George is paranoid - but we are probably out to get him and bring him to the vet at all hours of the day at any moment!!! But don't worry about George he is doing better and is looking better. Here is a picture I just took of him (in bed by the way!):He's also feisty again. He is actually attacking the cord from the camera in this photo!!

4. Knitting has continued. I am done with the assembly of finger puppets:

I finished another Cowl. Maybe I'll give it to my boss for Christmas. Hmmm.......
Well you didn't think that just because George has a little thing like diabetes is going to keep him from working - did ya? Even though he didn't get out of bed to do it!!!

I'm also almost done with the sweater I'm making so I'll keep you posted as soon as I'm done.