What I did for my Thanksgiving vacation...
A week back I was informed peripherally that I would be hosting a Thanksgiving dinner. Apparently 
nanomandrina wanted to host a Thanksgiving dinner. She was going to be moving earlier in the week, and my place was larger anyway... so why not hold it at my apartment. I was informed peripherally when she started talking about inviting people. She's a sweetie.
I had no problems with the idea -- aside from it forcing me to clean.
Due to her at the time known work schedule, we had to plan for a late Thanksgiving dinner, followed by dessert. A -- for me -- ridiculous number of people were invited. Dinner at 7:30, Dessert at 9:00. She invited some of her friends, I invited friends, Romans, and countrymen. In other words, some friends, some coworkers, some people who are both. Originally the plan was to do what cooking was possible before Thanksgiving, then leave me to monitor the turkey while Amanda was at work on Thursday. (I don't think she quite trusted me, it had a lot more to do with the popup timer.)
Manda's moving, however, took slightly longer than expected. Spilled over into Tuesday night, then Wednesday night. Admittedly, there was a lot to do. We did manage to cook some yams Wednesday night -- actually, I managed to stay up until 4am monitoring the cooking yams (They went squishy, I was told that was how they were wanted). Manda wanted to start cooking at 10, so I set the oven timer for 10am to be preheated before she was ready in the kitchen. She used my spare garage door opener to get in, saw the oven was on, and went to wake me anyway. (End of the day when she found I had been up until 4am the night before she couldn't understand how I was still functional.)
I learned a very valuable lesson while preparing Thanksgiving dinner: STAY THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY. Which made it incredibly difficult to prepare the few things I was responsible for. I came downstairs to the disturbing image of Manda pulling the "giblets" out of the turkey, and plopping them into a sauce pan (Nota bene: I need a new sauce pan... *shudder*). For gravy, apparently. I did some small bits of work that I could, then tried to help. However, I will point to the nice lesson I learned. You get me?
I got a call from someone not yet on my friend's list despite the fact that he's dating my new little
sister. Made arrangements to pick him up from downtown Seattle. (Look at a map, it's not too hard -- Bothell to Seattle.) Public transportation couldn't really help him, but it was no big deal, Manda and I were going to be going to her apartment in the afternoon anyway to pick up some things I was missing. Gravy boats, serving ladles, coffee pots. Okay, I wasn't missing the latter, but...
Manda and I left a bit later than we had hoped, turkey in the oven, giblets watered down or some such. I don't know, whatever you do to the poor giblets to make gravy. Simple route: I405 South to SR520 West to I5 S. The latter two steps were my way home when I used to live downtown. So I've done that route a few thousand times. It's a nasty route: two lane somewhat sharp downslope curve merging into the left lanes of I5S.It was drizzling. It was the kind of drizzle that would only count as rain in Seattle. I've driven the route hundreds of times, in much worse weather. Heck, I usually drive it much faster. Amanda had been prevailing on me to take curves slower, so I've been acquiescing. On the curve onto 520 I hit a patch of I don't know what, and my car swerved out of control. I spun from the left lane across the right lane and head on into the concrete barrier on the other side of the right lane, continued spinning and had the rear of the car slam into the barrier.
Short version: Manda might be hurt. I can't tell. She's stubborn. She claims it's just a few pulled muscles. I'm more or less fine. Slight lower back issues, but I have no reason to assume that they're actually from the car accident.
Car? Air bags did not deploy (unknown reason -- I'm tempted to believe it's because we didn't hit QUITE head on -- there was a slight angle involved.) Engine was running after the crash, turned it off to be safe. Wouldn't restart. According to our wonderful tow truck driver (it took him less time to get there than the police officer), one of the axles was probably broken, as well as the transmission.
On the subject of my tow truck driver... Steve was great. He got there promptly, let Amanda (who was freezing cold) sit in his warm cab (I stubbornly stayed outside in a t-shirt and seem to have caught a cold), hooked my car up, towed us out, determined that the shop I wanted to go to didn't have a body shop so recommended another he knew of, arranged to drop off my keys to my nonworking car at the repair shop the next day for me, drove out of his way to drop Amanda and I off where we could get transportation (we had left her car at Microsoft on our way to Seattle to have more parking available for guests), and generally was a very pleasant individual -- and all on Thanksgiving day. Amanda took his card, though, which makes sending him a thank you moderately more difficult.
So car is trashed, lost over an hour and a half, turkey still in the oven, someone needs to pick up Jonathan, didn't have the supplies we needed from Amanda's place... Yeah, there were a few issues.Got someone else to pick up Jonathan from downtown, then went shopping on the way home. Didn't get EVERYTHING, I'm sure, but did a wonderful series of adjustments. To quote Amanda, I "threw money at a problem until it went away." For me: I was pissed and wanted her Thanksgiving to be as wonderful as possible -- she had never hosted a Thanksgiving dinner before. So she wants a gravy boat? Fine. The only one available was in a 5 piece serving set. It was on sale! Buy it. Coffee maker missing? Buy it. Need a clean ~dressy outfit? Buy it. Serving utensils? Buy it... You get the idea. It became a rather expensive holiday very rapidly. I didn't care.
The giblets were ruined when we got home, but the turkey was okay (I've heard it may have been slightly dry, but that was from Amanda, and I'm sure she was more critical than anyone else).
So we were now about 3 hours behind schedule. Last minute panic would be one phrase.
Somehow we still managed to pull it off. There was some last bits of cleaning as Amanda's friends were arriving, and I didn't get to vaccuum, but...
The menu:
- Iced tea brewed from tea bags
- Green Bean Casserole
- Dressing (aka stuffing that hasn't been stuff. "What's dressing?" "It's a southern thing." But the latter has to be said with Amanda's "I'm talking about Pensacola or my family" accent)
- Sweet potatoes topped with pecans
- Creamed onions (I think that's what they were called)
- Gravy
- Turkey
- Ham
- Quiche (I made -- swiss and broccoli, not my best ever)
- German beer (purchased, oddly enough)
- "Texas Rolls"
Appetizers:
- "Ro tel"? A ~spicy cheese dip
- Spinach dip (Mysteriously, this is one of the few items that vanished in entirety from my house, and reappeared at Amanda's...)
- a cheese platter (brie and dill havarti)
- celery with some sort of good filling
- I don't know, I'm just going by what I remember putting away
Dessert (all made by your's truly):
- Cherry Pie
- Chocolate Fudge Pie (From Amanda's Mom's Recipe)
- Apple Crisp
- ice cream (Okay, I didn't make this one. But I made the money used to buy it.)
Seven people for dinner. I got to sit at the head of the table... but I wasn't trusted to carve the turkey. Next year. I did get to say something approximating a blessing. Unfortunately, my cleverness apparently was damaged in the crash. *shrug* I also had to be quiet about the important part, but hey. ValDiscretionor.
I was the rudest host ever. I kept getting phone calls from people who needed directions for dessert, or who couldn't come, or who were wondering where to park... but I managed to eat some food.
I think an additional seven people showed up for dessert, and three others called with regrets.
None of my apartments in this state... okay, none of my apartments have ever been that crowded. I was forbidden from helping in the kitchen (Apparently since Amanda was in there, I had to be hosting) after the meal, so I got to float from group to group. Odd people, all. They bonded over killing each other in Halo 2.
Dessert was a bit of a mess because we ran out of serving utensils -- they had all been put in the dishwasher.
beautyofevening's father apparently got a wee bit impatient, and my coworker/friend Art's seven(?) year old son was getting tired -- so luckily I came across one knife-like utensil. We managed.
Then everyone left. That was good, too. Gave Amanda the opportunity to order me around again as to putting away the mucho-leftovers. They went away, I didn't worry about dishes.
And I have to go run errands, and does it tell you anything that this entry is To Be Continued...
nanomandrina wanted to host a Thanksgiving dinner. She was going to be moving earlier in the week, and my place was larger anyway... so why not hold it at my apartment. I was informed peripherally when she started talking about inviting people. She's a sweetie.
I had no problems with the idea -- aside from it forcing me to clean.
Due to her at the time known work schedule, we had to plan for a late Thanksgiving dinner, followed by dessert. A -- for me -- ridiculous number of people were invited. Dinner at 7:30, Dessert at 9:00. She invited some of her friends, I invited friends, Romans, and countrymen. In other words, some friends, some coworkers, some people who are both. Originally the plan was to do what cooking was possible before Thanksgiving, then leave me to monitor the turkey while Amanda was at work on Thursday. (I don't think she quite trusted me, it had a lot more to do with the popup timer.)
Manda's moving, however, took slightly longer than expected. Spilled over into Tuesday night, then Wednesday night. Admittedly, there was a lot to do. We did manage to cook some yams Wednesday night -- actually, I managed to stay up until 4am monitoring the cooking yams (They went squishy, I was told that was how they were wanted). Manda wanted to start cooking at 10, so I set the oven timer for 10am to be preheated before she was ready in the kitchen. She used my spare garage door opener to get in, saw the oven was on, and went to wake me anyway. (End of the day when she found I had been up until 4am the night before she couldn't understand how I was still functional.)
I learned a very valuable lesson while preparing Thanksgiving dinner: STAY THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY. Which made it incredibly difficult to prepare the few things I was responsible for. I came downstairs to the disturbing image of Manda pulling the "giblets" out of the turkey, and plopping them into a sauce pan (Nota bene: I need a new sauce pan... *shudder*). For gravy, apparently. I did some small bits of work that I could, then tried to help. However, I will point to the nice lesson I learned. You get me?
I got a call from someone not yet on my friend's list despite the fact that he's dating my new little
sister. Made arrangements to pick him up from downtown Seattle. (Look at a map, it's not too hard -- Bothell to Seattle.) Public transportation couldn't really help him, but it was no big deal, Manda and I were going to be going to her apartment in the afternoon anyway to pick up some things I was missing. Gravy boats, serving ladles, coffee pots. Okay, I wasn't missing the latter, but...
Manda and I left a bit later than we had hoped, turkey in the oven, giblets watered down or some such. I don't know, whatever you do to the poor giblets to make gravy. Simple route: I405 South to SR520 West to I5 S. The latter two steps were my way home when I used to live downtown. So I've done that route a few thousand times. It's a nasty route: two lane somewhat sharp downslope curve merging into the left lanes of I5S.It was drizzling. It was the kind of drizzle that would only count as rain in Seattle. I've driven the route hundreds of times, in much worse weather. Heck, I usually drive it much faster. Amanda had been prevailing on me to take curves slower, so I've been acquiescing. On the curve onto 520 I hit a patch of I don't know what, and my car swerved out of control. I spun from the left lane across the right lane and head on into the concrete barrier on the other side of the right lane, continued spinning and had the rear of the car slam into the barrier.
Short version: Manda might be hurt. I can't tell. She's stubborn. She claims it's just a few pulled muscles. I'm more or less fine. Slight lower back issues, but I have no reason to assume that they're actually from the car accident.
Car? Air bags did not deploy (unknown reason -- I'm tempted to believe it's because we didn't hit QUITE head on -- there was a slight angle involved.) Engine was running after the crash, turned it off to be safe. Wouldn't restart. According to our wonderful tow truck driver (it took him less time to get there than the police officer), one of the axles was probably broken, as well as the transmission.
On the subject of my tow truck driver... Steve was great. He got there promptly, let Amanda (who was freezing cold) sit in his warm cab (I stubbornly stayed outside in a t-shirt and seem to have caught a cold), hooked my car up, towed us out, determined that the shop I wanted to go to didn't have a body shop so recommended another he knew of, arranged to drop off my keys to my nonworking car at the repair shop the next day for me, drove out of his way to drop Amanda and I off where we could get transportation (we had left her car at Microsoft on our way to Seattle to have more parking available for guests), and generally was a very pleasant individual -- and all on Thanksgiving day. Amanda took his card, though, which makes sending him a thank you moderately more difficult.
So car is trashed, lost over an hour and a half, turkey still in the oven, someone needs to pick up Jonathan, didn't have the supplies we needed from Amanda's place... Yeah, there were a few issues.Got someone else to pick up Jonathan from downtown, then went shopping on the way home. Didn't get EVERYTHING, I'm sure, but did a wonderful series of adjustments. To quote Amanda, I "threw money at a problem until it went away." For me: I was pissed and wanted her Thanksgiving to be as wonderful as possible -- she had never hosted a Thanksgiving dinner before. So she wants a gravy boat? Fine. The only one available was in a 5 piece serving set. It was on sale! Buy it. Coffee maker missing? Buy it. Need a clean ~dressy outfit? Buy it. Serving utensils? Buy it... You get the idea. It became a rather expensive holiday very rapidly. I didn't care.
The giblets were ruined when we got home, but the turkey was okay (I've heard it may have been slightly dry, but that was from Amanda, and I'm sure she was more critical than anyone else).
So we were now about 3 hours behind schedule. Last minute panic would be one phrase.
Somehow we still managed to pull it off. There was some last bits of cleaning as Amanda's friends were arriving, and I didn't get to vaccuum, but...
The menu:
- Iced tea brewed from tea bags
- Green Bean Casserole
- Dressing (aka stuffing that hasn't been stuff. "What's dressing?" "It's a southern thing." But the latter has to be said with Amanda's "I'm talking about Pensacola or my family" accent)
- Sweet potatoes topped with pecans
- Creamed onions (I think that's what they were called)
- Gravy
- Turkey
- Ham
- Quiche (I made -- swiss and broccoli, not my best ever)
- German beer (purchased, oddly enough)
- "Texas Rolls"
Appetizers:
- "Ro tel"? A ~spicy cheese dip
- Spinach dip (Mysteriously, this is one of the few items that vanished in entirety from my house, and reappeared at Amanda's...)
- a cheese platter (brie and dill havarti)
- celery with some sort of good filling
- I don't know, I'm just going by what I remember putting away
Dessert (all made by your's truly):
- Cherry Pie
- Chocolate Fudge Pie (From Amanda's Mom's Recipe)
- Apple Crisp
- ice cream (Okay, I didn't make this one. But I made the money used to buy it.)
Seven people for dinner. I got to sit at the head of the table... but I wasn't trusted to carve the turkey. Next year. I did get to say something approximating a blessing. Unfortunately, my cleverness apparently was damaged in the crash. *shrug* I also had to be quiet about the important part, but hey. ValDiscretionor.
I was the rudest host ever. I kept getting phone calls from people who needed directions for dessert, or who couldn't come, or who were wondering where to park... but I managed to eat some food.
I think an additional seven people showed up for dessert, and three others called with regrets.
None of my apartments in this state... okay, none of my apartments have ever been that crowded. I was forbidden from helping in the kitchen (Apparently since Amanda was in there, I had to be hosting) after the meal, so I got to float from group to group. Odd people, all. They bonded over killing each other in Halo 2.
Dessert was a bit of a mess because we ran out of serving utensils -- they had all been put in the dishwasher.
beautyofevening's father apparently got a wee bit impatient, and my coworker/friend Art's seven(?) year old son was getting tired -- so luckily I came across one knife-like utensil. We managed.
Then everyone left. That was good, too. Gave Amanda the opportunity to order me around again as to putting away the mucho-leftovers. They went away, I didn't worry about dishes.
And I have to go run errands, and does it tell you anything that this entry is To Be Continued...