Turkey Day Weekend

I just had three good days. Three out of four ain’t bad but, unfortunately, the one bad day (Friday) was my wife’s birthday. Can I pick ‘em or what?

We had three days of fine weather this weekend (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; Sunday was a rain-out from sunup to sundown), so we took advantage of them to go for walks each day. On Thanksgiving morning, we went for a walk at a nearby park. While we were walking, we ran into our representative to the U.S. House of Representatives, who was walking the trails with a large, extended family. Then, further along the trail, we ran into a person whom we hadn’t seen in over 10 years. I stared at her at first (not recognizing her) because she was preparing to saddle-up on her bicycle, which she had just removed from her Prius, and I wondered what kind of bike carrier she had attached to the Prius. (We have a Prius, too, which will accommodate few bicycle carriers, so I’m always on the lookout. It turns out that her bike fits in the hatch of the Prius if she takes off the front wheel). While I was staring at her, she called out my name, which surprised me since I hadn’t seen her in so long. We caught up for a few minutes before several of her companions came along and the group took to the trails.

When we got back home after the walk, we began preparing our 22-pound turkey. Because our turkeys are usually boring, we decided to consult our new Bon Appetite cookbook and make a citrus-glazed turkey with wild rice stuffing. It was the most delicious and moist turkey we’d ever made, but was a lot more work than a “standard” turkey. Nevertheless, it was worth it. Plus, now we’ve got leftovers for days.

While the turkey was roasting, I raked leaves. I made a lot of headway, but there are still a lot of leaves left to rake, load into a trash can, and dump on the compost mountain behind the house.

After enjoying and cleaning up after dinner, we watched Moonstruck. I just finished watching Brokeback Mountain on Monday, and then had a chance to watch Moonstruck on Thursday—two of my favorite movies in one week! Moonstruck is nearly perfect—only one false note when Cher first meets Nickolas Cage’s character (Cage overacts his part).

On Black Friday, my wife decided to help pump up the economy, so she went Christmas shopping while I stayed home to take care of errands and to rake leaves. For some reason, I became increasingly depressed as I raked the leaves. By the time she returned around noon, I was in a full-blown foul mood. It was a nice day, so we decided to take a long walk for exercise but hardly said a word to one another for almost two hours.

Because it was her birthday, I decided I’d better do something nice, so I started to bake biscotti late in the afternoon. She came out to help, and my mood began to lift. Of course, by then I had ruined her day. I made dinner, and then we watched The Incredibles on television—a clever animated film we’ve seen several times.

Saturday morning we decided to go see Bolt at the super-bargain matinee ($6 for all shows before noon). We both enjoyed the film and I’d recommend it, but there’s not much to the story; we both agreed that The Incredibles was better. After the movies, we took a long walk at a nearby state park. When we got home, I raked leaves again, and then we went out to dinner at a TGI Friday’s type restaurant.

After we were seated, the hostess seated a young family in a booth across from us. The father was a real “looker”—I couldn’t keep my eyes off him. He appeared to be in his late 30s, had a shaved head, and was handsome, slim and trim—just my type. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt, Carhartt-style canvas pants, and hiking boots. Woof!

Sunday it rained all day. It showered in the morning, and then steady rain arrived around noon. I decided to go Christmas shopping myself. I was gone for three hours, went to lots of different stores, and had mixed results. It wasn’t a total bust, but it wasn’t completely satisfying, either.