My First Turkey

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. John and I had turkey over at Mike & Diane's. Everything was delicious and it was nice to have a home-cooked meal. I haven't been cooking very much since I started my new job. The commute wears me out. Some nights, I don't even want to go out to get something to eat.

M & D had this weird collection of Jones sodas -- Thanksgiving dinner flavors. I tried the Brussel Sprout soda, Stuffing soda and Pumpkin Pie. I think I was the only one who tasted the sprouts. It wasn't bad. Just smelled weird.


Brined, coated with butter and herbes de provence, and stuffed with lemons, oranges and onion

Looks YUMMY, doesn't he? My first turkey. Turned out pretty good. It was ever so juicy. The secret is the brine -- a salt and brown sugar solution overnight soak for the turkey. The legs were a little undercooked... nothing 20 seconds in the microwave couldn't fix!

Saturday after Thanksgiving, John and I went down to the beach cottage and asked a few of our friends down to watch Maryland (football) and eat turkey. It ended up being just Freddy, William, Joe and Michelle (and Joe's dog, the Schmack Attack). We had a lovely time watching the game, playing cards, eating my turkey with all the fixins (stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry bread) and playing Charades afterwards. Pies and cookies, along with John's famous margaritas finished off the evening. A good time was had by all!


Go Terps!!!



John, Joe, Michelle and William enjoy a pre-dinner walk to the pier

Oh! The cookware mystery has been solved! It turns out the beautiful pots and pans were sent by my friend and former co-worker, Chris H. Hecht's managed to track down the order from the little bit of info I had on the box and Chris e-mailed me a few days later too. Thanks again, Chris!!!

Not much else is going on. The gang hasn't decided on a venue for our holiest day of the year -- 12/12. It's a tough night to have a party, being a Monday and all. But I'm sure someone will host and it will be fun. And as long as at least 12 people show up, we'll have another year of good luck.

25 days till Christmas. I have 4 projects still on the needles... one has to be completed by 12/11 for my brother's birthday. It's about 45% complete. One is a scarf for myself (which I'll probably end up giving away), another is the Branching Out scarf in an off-white alpaca and silk (the pattern used for Val's b-day scarf) and the last one is a wavy scarf in a brown "Peruvian tweed" alpaca yarn. My newest love is alpaca yarn. The Blue Sky Alpaca is really awesome stuff. I'll have to track some down locally. I bought 3 hanks at a yarn shop, Knitting Addiction, in the Outer Banks.

That's all for now, folks. Hope you have a pleasant rest of the week, stay warm, and a Bababooey to you too.

Mystery Gift

Friday, John and I received an awesome set of cookware off our registry from Hecht's. The problem is there was no card or indication as to who sent it. So, if you're the mystery gift giver or know who sent it, please reveal yourself! We want to thank this person properly!!!

One of our old drinking joints, the Quarry House, will be under new ownership beginning December 1. We went there to see one of our favorite servers, Trisha O. It was her last day working there and the place was packed! This place has gone through some highs and lows. For a long time, our table was maybe one of 4 or so and that was considered "busy". Other times, even the back room was full. Despite the stinky bathrooms, juke box that hasn't seen new music since the 70's and lack of atmosphere, they had the best burgers! It was one of those free form burgers so you knew it wasn't made from some frozen Costco patty. They served the burger on a huge Kaiser roll, and the burger was always hanging off the edges, so you can imagine how big this thing was. Hope the new owner (Jackie of Jackie's ) keeps the burgers on the menu. We hear they're going to do up the back room but keep the bar area the same. Hopefully not exactly the same! I think the main improvement could be in the bathrooms. In the ladies' room, you have to step up into the toilet area. I've been told the men have to go up two steps. Keep in mind this joint is in the basement of a building. So, if you're 5' 8" or taller, you'd be hitting your head on the ceiling. Good Luck, Trisha! We'll miss you! Keep in touch!

My brother held an early Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday because he's going to be away in Chincoteague for the holiday. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures yet. My brother did let me borrow his camera and I even captured Judy, Ann's mom, singing a special Thanksgiving song from her childhood. She's been teaching the song to her students (little ones, like kindergarteners). We all had a lovely time with family and friends. It's been about 3 years since the last Thanksgiving at Jim & Ann's.

So, Happy Thanksgiving everyone and if you know who sent those pots 'n pans, drop me a line!

Viva Las Vegas!

Johnny enjoys Old Vegas

It's Wednesday and we're still recovering from our trip to Vegas over Veteran's Day weekend. Last Thursday was a very long day for us... up and out of bed by 5:30 AM, out the door by 6:00 AM to go to work. After a long day of work, we came home to pick up luggage and headed to the airport. The flight was about 4 1/2 hours and we landed around 11:00 PM Vegas time. It took half an hour or so to get a taxi and then the real FUN started when we got to our hotel, Excalibur. Their reservation system was down and it was another hour and 45 minutes before we were in our room. East coast time: it was 4:30 AM. John and I had been up for 23 hours. Poor Johnny... he was like the walking dead.

After a coma-like sleep, we woke up and met the rest of the gang, who were staying at Mandalay Bay, for one of Vegas' famous buffets. YUMMO, as Rachael Ray would say. I didn't eat my $12.75 worth of food (sorry, Freddy), but I would highly recommend that buffet. We checked out the giant slot machine and Lena won pretty big after $6.00 and 2 pulls. What a way to start off the weekend! I should have taken a chance on that machine but walked right by it. Nuts! We checked out the hotel and here's Freddy enjoying some of the sculpture:


Three boobs

Afterwards, we hopped into 2 taxis (some weird 5 passengers per car Nevada law! Boo!) and headed to Old Vegas. I hear it's really awesome at night. Maybe next time. After visiting all the infamous casinos, the gang settled on the Four Queens and had a Blackjack table all to themselves. I think William amd Irene did pretty well.

We headed back to the Strip and the gang enjoyed Mandalay Bay's pool/beach while John and I napped back at our hotel. We met up again for dinner at the prime rib joint at Excalibur. It's been a long time since I've had prime rib... and boy was it yummy! Sadly, my stomach was suffering from the traveling blues, so I couldn't fully enjoy my dinner the way Mike did.


Mike polishes off every morsel


John, Jal, Fred, Irene, William, Mike, Shaun and Lena

An after dinner nap prepared me for meeting up with cousin Kara who was flying in from Chicago. She met us at Mandalay Bay and played Blackjack with the guys. Her friends, Greg and Brian, were playing over at Excalibur and stopped by to say HI. It wasn't long before John and I lost all pep and headed back to our room. At some point in the wee hours, Kara popped in and crashed too.

One word of advice if you ever go to Vegas... bring comfy shoes! I wore my work loafers, which was a good idea for getting through airport security, as I didn't have to deal with laces. For walking the strip, however... bad times. I should have packed my favorite Reef flip-flops or my blue Nikes. A tired, hungry, achy-toed Jal is no fun. I wish we had more time to do and see more of the hotels on the Strip, but I did get to see the water show at Bellagio.


Enjoying the dancing water at Bellagio


Where's Johnny hiding?

A double decker bus ride back to the hotel was the highlight of the afternoon... an old lady got caught getting out of her seat by the driver. John and I headed to dinner and went back to William's room to chill out before our red-eye flight home. Rosanna and Brent came into town Saturday afternoon from SD, so the crew partied on into the evening, I'm sure. John and I were back home and in bed by 7:00 AM Sunday morning. It's great to be home. 2 days in Vegas is too short, but I'm sure a week would be too long. Despite the rocky beginning with the hotel check-in snafu, we had a blast and I would certainly do this trip with this group again!

Note to BHL: Didn't you know turkey is the official sandwich of Vegas hookers?