Thanksgiving...and Black Friday...and some other things...

I was lying in bed Thanksgiving morning thinking about all the things I had to do that day. The thought came to me that I should make deviled eggs as an appetizer. Fifteen minutes later, I got a text message from my oldest son... "You should make deviled eggs." Hmmm...weird. But I had to go with the strange connection, so here they are (or were)...

I didn't get many shots of the group that day. Here are Jeffrey and Jonathan...the oldest and the youngest...duking it out on Jeffrey's X-Box or Playstation or whatever it is. They couldn't look more thrilled, right?

Here's Jared with Nutter....

And Jeffrey with his girlfriend, Erica. Notice how they're dressed. Jeffrey looks like he's headed for the beach and Erica looks like she's headed for a ski lodge. Erica has lived her whole life in Texas, so anything under 70 degrees is like freezing. Jeffrey has lived in Wisconsin and South Dakota, so it has to get DAMN cold before he feels like he needs to put on a long-sleeved shirt.

I made the Thanksgiving meal and while Jeffrey was carving the turkey, Erica said, "You didn't get a picture of the turkey when it was done!" Damn it. She was right. So here it is...carved.

I really wish I HAD gotten a picture of it before we carved it because this is the absolutely BEST turkey I have ever had in my entire life. And I'm not saying that to brag...it's just the truth. I normally make turkey the same way every year, but I was watching an episode on Food Network with Tyler Florence which offered a different recipe. Combine two sticks of softened butter with salt and 1/4 cup of fresh sage and stuff it under the skin. Oh, my God...it was absolutely wonderful. I have never had such moist, juicy and tender turkey...EVER! Even the kids said they couldn't believe how moist it was...especially the white meat which can tend to be kind of dry.

That was a winner, but Tyler's version of cranberries and orange sauce was a definite...

I'm not a cranberry fan, but I thought the recipe sounded kind of interesting...with orange juice and cinnamon. NOT! It was bitter and I ended up throwing the whole thing down the drain. (I probably need to learn a thing or two about cooking with cranberries.)

So, it was Black Friday yesterday. Jeffrey and his girlfriend are going to Colorado in January, so I told Jeffrey I'd buy him a coat since he doesn't have one. We decided to meet at Cabela's to see what they had. We got there at 10:00 a.m. and saw they were giving out free samples.

MMmmmmmm...nothing better than pork rinds in the morning. Okay, on second thought, I can think of about a million things that would be better than pork rinds in the morning. To each his own.

So Jeffrey and I are looking around at coats and I take this picture...

Is Mr. Moose looking at me and asking, "Are you people for real??" Personally, I think I prefer the company of Mr. Moose than some of the people I saw at Cabela's yesterday.

On another personal note, I think "Black Friday" is the biggest materialistic farce this country has come up with. The thought of people going shopping in the middle of the night and standing in line for hours just boggles my mind. My friend, Paul, from Rapid City, South Dakota, said he was going to check out the 4:30 deal at Best Buy for a computer. I expressed my doubts about his plan. This was his outcome...in his words:

"....There is always a first for everything---and in most cases we never really forget the 'first' of most anything. Today was my first attempt at the Black Friday shopping frenzy. I got to Best Buy at 4:15...the parking lot was full and about 2500 people waited in line. There were cops and coffee vendors. What I wanted was a computer that had been marked down in a huge way. Regardless, the paper said there would be 18 of them. They weren't 'doorbusters' so it was first come = first served. This is a desk top so my pea brain figured the 2500 people in front of me would be fighting over TV's and laptops. Regardless, when I got in they were all gone. The geek in the blue shirt said they passed out numbers in the line before the doors ever opened. I'm pissed.I've never seen such a frenzy....crazy people, who had already been at some of the midnight and three a.m. openings. I felt like a puppet. Thousands of people with money clenched in their fists ready to do battle for a GPS. The women were crazier than the men. Lemming, or Buffalo being driven over the cliff, came to mind. I didn't fall for the bait and switch and step up another couple of C-notes for a similar computer.The guy in front of me wanted to score a Blue Ray something or another that was normally priced at $30 and now only fifty will be available at $10 each. This dude had been in line longer than I was to save twenty bucks. Unbelievable. At least I was trying to score a $700 savings from the original price.In short: Never again. I shouldn't have fallen for this crap this time. Black Friday has been experienced, and has left the building, forever."

On that note, I had no desire to be a part of Black Friday. I think Christmas in the U.S. is totally too commercialized and has gone completely away from what it should be all about...especially when they start playing Christmas music in the stores at Halloween to get you in the mood to buy Christmas presents. My dos centavos.

A few random thoughts...

Nutter's phobia of the carpet seems to be waning. I guess it was an adolescent phase she was going through.

This is a flower that is blooming on my balcony...thought it deserved a photo.

Here's the Sopa de Lima I made out of leftover turkey yesterday. Muy bueno.

And one more totally off-the-wall thing. This is something you can entertain your family and friends with over the holidays. A couple of years ago, Jared and I were at an IHOP in New Braunfels and our waiter showed us this trick. I had totally forgotten about it, but Jared reminded me of it yesterday. You stick the tines of two forks together and put one toothpick in the middle of the tines and another one in a salt shaker. Then balance the end of the toothpick in the forks on the end of the toothpick in the salt shaker. Sometimes it takes awhile to get it balanced and, depending on the forks, sometimes it doesn't work. But it really impresses people because it doesn't look like it should work. Must be a "law of physics" thing.

Now I have this mental image of everyone running to their kitchens to get out the forks and toothpicks. Hahaha! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I'm so confused!!!

So I've been in my apartment for almost four months now. I have a six month lease which expires the end of January. I know I don't want to stay here. It's a nice place, but the rent is pretty high and it doesn't include anything like cable, internet, water, etc., like a lot of other apartments do in the area. But when I sold my house last July, I had to find something fast and didn't have the opportunity to shop around. Besides that, I don't like the fact that no one so much as says "boo" to you when you walk around...very unsociable place.

So I was looking in the newspaper on Friday and saw an ad for a condo apartment. Out of curiosity, I went to take a look at it to see what else is out there. It was owned by an elderly woman and was in an older community of mostly professional people as opposed to students. It was $800 a month for two bedrooms/two baths, tiled living/dining room and kitchen, carpeted bedrooms, large patio, fireplace and wetbar in the living room. The rent includes cable and water. It was cute and had more character than the place I have now. But since my lease isn't up until the end of January, I'd have to pay rents at both places, which would just be throwing money away.

I took Jared by it yesterday and he thought it was cute, too, but it's still just an apartment. So after talking about it over breakfast, we went by the new subdivision that I did a post on last month. After viewing all the models, we agreed that this one would best suit our needs. It's called a "courtyard" home in which the grounds and exterior are maintained by an HOA for about $75 a month.

Although I'm not crazy about split levels, it has two totally separate living areas which would be great for both of us. Even though days can go by where we don't see one another in the apartment because of work and school schedules, when we ARE there together we kind of feel on top of one other.

I would have the upstairs area...

...with an extra room for an office...

And Jared would have the downstairs with a separate kitchen area...

Living area with a separate entrance to an outdoor patio area...

And bedroom...

We talked to the sales guy for about two hours on how much it would cost and the extras you can get. I can't get the $8,000 tax break because I've owned a home too recently, but the guy said that if Jared went in on the mortgage, HE could qualify for it...especially since he has excellent credit with a car loan and an American Express card. So, bottom line, with the considerable down payment I would put down, the monthly payment would be around $800 which includes the HOA fee and upgrades like granite countertops and stainless steel appliances (which I would want to do for resale purposes).

Sounds like a great deal, but I hesitate because I've heard lots of people say that the economy is going to get worse and I'm almost afraid to buy anything for fear of what's going to happen in the future. And I really question the resale value of these places. I had thought that I it would be an investment because I could always rent it out, but the HOA will only allow 20% of the homes to be rented out.

Then last night, Jill met a retired guy in Merida who's into real estate and she sent me his link:
http://mexintl.com/index.html So I could get this cute little place in Merida Centro for $59,900...

Look at these floors!

Or this little fixer-upper (also in Merida Centro) for $39,000...

Yeah, it needs a little work, but I could do wonders!

This is a yard I could handle...

Now I'm more confused than ever.

Another Mexico blog...

One of the many internet friends I have made since I started blogging is Jill...she lives in Seattle. She had arranged a vacation to Mexico with a friend, but when her friend couldn't make it, she decided to make the trip on her own. I convinced her to take her laptop so that she could stay in touch with people without having to find or pay for internet shops. Besides that, when you're traveling solo, after a day of exploring it's kind of nice to find a cafe or restaurant that has WIFI and just sit and watch the people or scenery while you're blogging and having a cerveza or four. So, she has started a blog on her adventures...which began on November 17th. She's starting out in Merida...

... (this is just a photo I found on the internet, by the way), and will end up on Isla. If you want to check out her blog, go here. It's a fun read. I'm looking forward to her posts because I'm thinking of going to Merida for Spring break. Check it out!

Just another day at work...

The department where I work at the university is trying to break into different areas, so I've been assigned to take photos of the various laboratory activities. We have a foundry which heats different metals that are poured into molds. Today, they were pouring copper.

This is very dangerous stuff and it has to be heated to about 2100 degrees F before it can be poured. It's a waiting game until then.

But it offered some pretty interesting photographs...

One of the few female students in our department...

A crazy onion soup post...

When I was in high school, my mom and I had the opportunity to take a road trip to Montreal. Oh, my god...what an experience. As a teenage girl, I instantly fell in love with this romantic city. Everyone spoke French, the stores and restaurants were charming, and the guys...well, the guys were to die for. Cute guys AND they spoke French! What more could a girl want??

I swore I was going to apply to McGill University just so I could live in Montreal.

Well, that never happened, but I'll always remember my first trip to the most romantic city in North America.

What brings all of this up is that I had a craving for onion soup the other day. I went to Jason's Deli and had a bowl. Lame. My very first bowl of French Onion Soup was in Montreal. I LOVED it. But nothing in the United States compared with the soup I had in Montreal...

...until they started serving it at little cafe in a department store in St. Louis back in the 1970s. Famous-Barr was a large department store that had several locations throughout the suburbs of St. Louis. I googled it and found this picture of the one in Clayton. Clayton is a very upscale area of St. Louis where Washington University is located. My mom and I used to shop here after my piano lessons. According to the internet search I did, it's currently being used as a storage space for Washington University.

This was the Famous-Barr located close to where I lived as a child. It's all boarded up now and in an area where you would not want to live.

Here's the downtown store. Look at all that architectural detail. This is a more recent picture and you can see the "Macy" signs on the side. Famous-Barr was eventually bought out by Macy.

My mom and I used to shop here. I think it had about 12 levels, and as you got to the higher levels, the escalators changed to these...

Does anyone remember those narrow wooden escalators?? I can still remember the rickety sound they made.

Another memory of the downtown department stores is the absolutely wonderful Christmas displays in the windows. I remember the crowds of people that would stand in front of the windows in the cold just mesmorized by all the activity. And I was one of them.

So all of these memories come about when I think of French Onion Soup. And here's what it takes to make it. This is the recipe used by Famous-Barr and it is the absolutely best version of this soup I've ever had. It is not a quick deal and takes two days to make. My oldest and youngest sons do not like onions, but they love this soup, so that has to say something. Here are the ingredients...

Saute the onions in a stick of butter for 1-1/2 hours...

Add the paprika, bay leaf and pepper...

Then add the broth and simmer for another two hours.

Then it has to sit in the refrigerator overnight. One bad thing about this recipe is that unless you've tasted the original soup, you won't know how much to season it. When I make it, I add salt and pepper until I get to the exact taste I remember way back when.

Toast the French bread and lay a couple pieces on top.

Then top with a fair amount of Swiss cheese and pop it under the broiler until the cheese melts and starts to turn brown. Then enjoy.