I am sleepy 'cause we had our second Thanksgiving dinner with the yummy farm heritage turkey! I made a challah-pumpkin cornmeal bread-bacon apple sage stuffing, mashed potatoes, and roasted root vegetables (celeriac, beet, turnip, sweet potato, carrot). Also roasted up wee baby brussell sprouts in bacon fat. No cranberry sauce, but Tom opened up a jar of cranberry apple chutney he'd canned earlier in the season.

The turkey was definitely a different flavor than the usual turkey flavor, which is generally pretty mild. This turkey was more gamey (which I liked) and just MUCH more flavorful than one is used to turkey being. We didn't brine it, just rubbed canola oil, kosher salt, and pepper all over it and under the skin. Also stuck some sage leaves under the skin.

It was fun. The whole meal really only took less than 2.5 hours from the start of the turkey prep to sitting down with our plates full o' food! (the turkey was only 6.5 lbs.)

Also, Tom opened up a bottle of his much labored over homebrew porter and it was FANTASTIC. I think another week of bottle conditioning will really get those smokey notes transformed into something really special.

Am not done with my research proposal project, but I'm getting there, and have till Thursday to finish it.

Cute hair, vw!

Wheee! That's a blast from the past, Cashmere. How is the certain Welsh Bronzer doing?

He's doing really great! Same long term girlfriend, they just bought a house together in Bristol--he's got a good, adult type job and his sense of humor is the same. So, all good!

Cashmere, can you use those baby-proof things over the door handle that have to be squeezed and turned at the same time?

I'm going to pick one of those up tomorrow to try. For now, we'll use a baby gate in the hall between their rooms--as Cindy suggests. I think he may be able to scale the portable gate which is our only spare left in the house.

It seems that the only time he makes a break for it is when he's not sleepy and gets bored in his room. When I put him down tonight at 8, he was tired and didn't bother getting out of his bed before he fell asleep. I don't know how determined he'll be to escape tomorrow morning when he wakes up so I'll turn up the monitor and hope that I wake up before he decides he wants to leave his room and wake up his sister.

At least I have an extra high gate at the top of the stairs (I decided I might have a future need for the escape proof gate so we installed a more expensive model on the two stair cases in the house).

Is Hec around? Here are Thanksgiving pictures, including a picture of the new and improved haircut:

Very pretty, Ms. Bug. You know you can do brunette just as well as you did blonde.

Hey, guess who we just had over for dinner? Juliana and meara! I fed them pasta and Italian sausage. The baby? She cried, it being that time of day. They did allow as how she was cute when her face wasn't contorted in anguish.

That makes meara, Kristin, Jon B. and FAQ!Wife as Non-Localistas who've met Matilda.

Thank y'all for the birthday wishes. 'Specially today. I need some advice.

I managed to cut someone out of my life, and she just sent me a card.

Do you want her cut out of your life still?

Yep. I think so. At least today.

Matilda: Perfectly Normal Human Worm Baby EXISTS!

And is quite tiny and adorable. And didn't cry that much--just lots of little grunty suspicious unhappiness.

Am back at my hotel, having successfully illegally ridden the MUNI after my ticket thingie expired. But tomorrow I plan to buy a weekly pass, I think.

My hotel room is nice, and it looks out on the CNET offices, which look really cool. Neat furniture. Also, free wifi. Which I'm using. Go them!

And I think I'm going ot have to go back to juliana's hood to get the stuff I was drooling over in teh paper store. Sure, it won't ACTUALLY make me more organized, but gosh, I can dream, can't I?

Yep. I think so. At least today.

I tore it up. I wish I were a better person, but I'm not.

I went into the living room to check on Emmett before I herded him to the tub. They're watching Wallace and Gromit plus Wererabbit.

At first I couldn't spot the baby. She wasn't in the basket, and she wasn't attached to JZ's breast like the limpet she is. No, she was all aswim in a big pink blanket in Emmett's lap, contentedly flailing her arms and making the occasional grunt of communication. (As opposed to one of her more assertive grunts or cries of complaint.)

She's very content in his lap, and he's happy to watch her go crosseyed, and then kiss her tiny little fist.