Bill Roper's Journal

We had a relatively relaxed Thanksgiving here, with everyone participating in one way or another in preparing the dinner. Ruby the Dog was happy to get snivels of turkey that were passed to her by cooperating children and adults, because (as Ruby is happy to remind us) turkey is a dog's perfect food. As is, apparently, beef, chicken, cheese, leftover milk from cereal, spilled coffee with cream, and whatever is left in our chili bowl, among other things. Happily, Ruby has a robust digestion.

Tomorrow, K and I are off to the last Chambanacon. We will see some of you there!

And look! I have four days off of work in a row. I am greatly looking forward to this. :)

This afternoon, I went to the grocery store and picked up more stuff that we needed around the house, including deli meat for tomorrow's lunch. Prices are sharply higher, which is not a surprise, but which makes me sad. The summer sausage that Gretchen likes is up from $8.99 to $10.99 a pound across only a few months. The Krakus ham is up substantially, although I'm not sure by exactly how much; corned beef and Swiss cheese have also vaulted up in cost.

I ended up spending more today than I did yesterday when I picked up the turkey and other things for Thanksgiving dinner. Of course, I also decided that it was an opportune time to fill in some holes in the pantry and that *will* bulk up the bill.

In any case, I hope that you all (in the U.S.) have a wonderful Thanksgiving. And if you are elsewhere, I hope you have a lovely weekend as soon as you get to it. :)

I intend to start enjoying mine now.

Made some good progress at work today, so when I come back next week after Thanksgiving, I should be able to roll forward the rest of the changes that I need to make in fairly short order and get on with further progress on the current task. (This is good, because I had been in wheel-spinning mode for a bit, which can happen when you're doing a major code refactoring. And it gets tiresome...)

Good progress at home too, as I gave Gretchen some minor assistance in baking the pumpkin pie for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner. This frees up the oven for the turkey breast which will be the main course. We'll still have to do some games around the stuffing and corn pudding, but pumpkin pie is just a roadblock on the pathway to the rest of dinner.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It was a lovely, quiet Thanksgiving here. We spent the day relaxing, reading papers, and watching TV.

Black Friday is tomorrow. I intend to skip it. :)

Jeff and Carol came by tonight for dinner and a last visit before heading home. Pizza was consumed, videos of small white dogs were viewed, and the conversation was good. :)

Jeff and Carol came over for Thanksgiving dinner this evening and we had a wonderful time (and are quite full!). Katie made a Waldorf salad variant at my suggestion, consisting of diced Honeycrisp apples, raisins, pecans (because I thought walnuts would be a bit too bitter for the girls' tastes), vanilla yogurt, and a dusting of cinnamon on top. It was delicious.

Gretchen prepared a turkey breast, using a spice rub on it for the first time, having found a lot of inexpensive fresh rosemary at Trader Joe's on her most recent trip there and that turned out juicy and delicious as well. She also made the cornbread stuffing using the recipe that we've devised over the last few years, plus mashed potatoes and corn pudding.

Oh, and King's Hawaiian rolls. And a salad, because there needed to be something green in this meal.

A good time and good conversation were had by all. :)