My strange nerd coworkers are at it again:

Guy 1: You know what I'd like to do someday, Sam?

Sam: What?

Guy 1: Impale you with a sword.

(silence)

Sam: Only if it's collapsable.

Guy 1: Well, where's the fun in that?

(silence)

Sam: I have no answer for that.

The neck is in a plastic thingy separate from the gibblets packet?

I've usually seen it just loose in the cavity, and I've roasted it in there because I didn't pull it out many times. If you find it later, roasted turkey neck makes an excellent stock. But they don't always put them in, either.

All I have done in the way of prep is start washing dishes so the kitchen will be a reasonable workspace, but I don't have much to do. One vegan cheesecake, no crust, which is mostly just throwing things in a food processor. Stuffing, where the most labor intensive part is probably slicing up the bread, though frying it all up does take a while. Butterflying the turkey, but then it just needs to hang out air drying overnight. Actually roasting will take place at my mom's tomorrow, I plan to amaze them with the speed at which my turkey finishes cooking. So I am taking it all rather lazily.

And it will be just me and my parents tomorrow, so no pressure to be particularly prompt or have everything look great or even be able to make scintillating conversation. Should be a nice relaxing day with way too much food, just like God and Abraham Lincoln intended.

I really wanted to turn that into a serial comma joke.

Yipes, Zen! This is the hand and arm that were tingly before, right? Did you get that looked at?

-t, yes, and no. It went away for a bit. Now it's officially "recurring".

Kinda scary, Zenkitty. I hope you follow up with your doctor.

IOturkeyN, the white pop-up thingy popped about a half-inch out of the breast, and I easily broke a wing off. Any other tests for done-ness that I need to carry out, seeing as it is about an hour earlier than I calculated from the instructions in my Mennonite Community Cookbook, at the instructed temperature?

Zenkitty, it sounds like what used to happen to my hand when I had a pinched nerve in my shoulder. The Chriopractor and anti-inflamitories straightened it out eventually.

Maybe a pinched nerve can do that? I don't know, but I think I want to get it checked out before too long - could be something fixable that is getting more damaged while you don't fix it.

Check with your doc of course, just wanted to point out a completely not scary option.

The pop up thing usually pops up way after it is done, Windsparrow. The only other thing I'd suggest is a meat thermometer, but it sounds like you can stop roasting.

Pinched nerve sounds right, actually. I don't have a regular doctor, so I don't know who to see. Maybe I'll schedule a visit to a chiropractor, or a massage or something.