Blogging is definitely taking a back seat these days. But that's okay, the spirit has to move, there is no forcing it.

I knew I was hopelessly tired last night when even Bugs Bunny didn't make me crack a smile. Normally, Bugs has me in stitches, he's such an agreeable and saucy little fellow, depending on who, at the moment, is sharing the frame with him. Honestly, to not laugh at Looney Tunes, it felt like I was halfway to the next world, meaning not coming back to this one.

After a VERY relaxing day of doing NOTHING except staring at the JUMBLE (tip: don't try the JUMBLE unless you are fresh, fresh, fresh, a dull mind is simply not going to cut it, TRUST me), we went to the mall (two more pairs of free unmentionables). I am on a mission to buy ONE gift for each person, except, of course, for DTD and stepson. Gotta get back on our feet and all that. I think it will be very quaint to tone down the gifts this year. Not that anyone is going to agree with me, but that's the way it is and shall remain.

I did get to visit with my neighbors this evening. That's a rarity. Salad and punkin (Mike keeps waiting for me to spell that "p" word just right) pie for dinner. Now it's beddy-by because 3.5 hours of sleep has never done it for me yet. I resisted the overpowering urge to nap, because as of Monday, I am on a completely new schedule. Just you wait and see. No more all nighters. My nights shall become nights and my days shall become days, instead of the present reverse layout and all that. I'm going to hope this works out, it just HAS to. Because of Mike's wonderful new job and all that.

And all that . . .
KEM

Made my abbreviated Thanksgiving dinner. It took all day. Even Looney Tunes could not tempt me to stay up any later. Not even JUMBLE. Thank goodness we have food for the next few days.
Pumpking poured out of a box into a graham cracker crust is very good.

Sorry Folks, That's All, to spin off of Merry Melody Looney Tunes.
KEM

O, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good!

Oh, HAPPY DAY! Mike has a wonderful new job!! Big huge answer to prayer and thanks to everyone who kept the prayers going. We love you! God is so good to us!!!

That AOL article about cooking your Thanksgiving dinner in 30 minutes. Well, I got so happy tonight that even though we are going to be guests for Thanksgiving dinner, I decided to run to the store and get a turkey and all the main stuff so I can cook our own dinner on Friday. It took me 30 minutes from the time I left my driveway to the time I came back home to my driveway. So even though not in a million years could I cook in 30 minutes, I have derived a lot of satisfaction from shopping in 30 minutes. It was totally sponataneous and I came home with lots of shortcuts for an already abbreviated menu. Seriously, I was going for sweet potatoes and pecans to make a dish to take tomorrow, but I came home with you name it. And it has left me feeling a little smug, savvy, smart and sassy.

Did you know you can buy those neat little carton/boxes of organic turkey gravy? I didn't until tonight. I also bought pumkin pie in a carton, just pour, add egg and pour into a graham cracker crust. Lots of pouring. Normally, this is not my style, but it is this time and I shall have to let you know the results. At least the graham cracker is organic, ha! Will cook some real cranberries, that only takes a second, and stir in some jarred cranberries, too, and lemon. Sweet tater casserole, which makes everything else taste all the better, mashed taters, peas. Stuffing. I even broke down and bought a tub of organic pre-diced celery and onion to go in the stuffing. That happened because it looked interesting and upon closer examination, it looked all fresh and beautiful. And it had to be sold by Nov. 28 and there were lots of these tubs left. It was a new item the health food store was carrying and I didn't want them to be disappointed and stuck with buckets of diced celery and onion. So I did my part. I am suddenly such in the mood to do my part.

Oh, and speaking of onion, I bought an impulse bag of tiny pearl onions. Only because Annie used to make creamed pearl onions for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. I have no idea how to make them so I asked the check-out girl. She said her grandmother from Holland used to boil them. I said, Do you cut the ends off first? She thought so. And then on second thought she suggested, GOOGLE it. Good idea.

And finally, speaking of mashed potatoes, my friend the excellent cook, she made her potatoes last night and, horror of horrors, they went pasty on her. She appreciates pasty potatoes about as much as I do. I sympathized and said when mine whip into paste it's so depressing that I want to dig a hole and bury them. Except I worked too hard on them to do that, so we eat them and I suffer. My friend is going to turn hers into potato pancakes. She read up on it and found out you need to add the butter first. This coats the molecules (that is as scientific as I want to get, but she said there was an entire deep scientific explanation). Then you add your milk and mash. Of course, I always dry my potatoes back on the burner, but sometimes they still revolt into paste, so now butter goes in first. I hope I remember this come tater time. Mashed potatoes are entirely too much work to be a failure, they must be a success or at least salvaged at all costs.

I read on Facebook that this guy was hoping his Thanksgiving would be perfect, just like he remembered his childhood Thanksgivings. I hope it's PERFECT perfect for him.

Happiest of All Thanksgivings to EVERYONE!
KEM

I remember what I forgot. Did you see the AOL article on fixing a Thanksgiving dinner in 30 minutes? An editor or someone presented it to her staff as a challenge. At the end of 30 minutes I would still be rinsing the turkey. But this one person grilled a piece of turkey, mashed potatoes and fancied them up with cream and cheese, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, made stuffing from a box and had baked apples with crumb topping for dessert. All in 30 minutes. Honestly, how dumb do they think I am?? I could hardly throw a tuna sandwich on white bread together in 30 minutes. Besides, they didn't have any cranberry sauce. What on earth is Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce? And pumpkin pie? Well, nice try AOL, I have to hand it to you, it could have been worse.

Now I wonder what kind of quickie dinner I could come up with and it would still seem like Thanksgiving. My friend who is a spectacular cook, she was so tired and beat she was going to eat out, but I said, WHAT? You can do an EASY dinner this year. Normally, she knocks herself out for days. So, she's cooking. I hope it goes great so I don't hear about it. You know, like setting up a disastrous blind date.

Not to be a one tune record, but I feel terrible and am cutting out early tonight. Can't get to sinus doc soon enough. Today I drove all my paperwork over to his office building. I asked the lobby lady where this doc's office was and she gushed, Oh, he is WONDERFUL! Well. That's encouraging. And encouragement is what I'm looking for.

Cranberry Sauce with Lemons,
KEM

Today was a completely average day. There were mistakes in it.

At the grocery store I reached up to grab a gallon of distilled water. I know I touched the handle, but then all contact was lost. Really can't explain what happened except the gallon hit the floor like a torpedo and split wide open. Do you know how much liquid is REALLY in a gallon? I do. A LOT. A LOT, (haven't used bold in a while) lot. Like, an unbelievable amount. Now I know why when I drink 6 glasses of water a day . . . well, you know why. My friend I take to the store and I just stood there and watched the water flow and form into a lake, Lake Michigan. The whole aisle was covered in water and the water kept spreading. Honestly, if I don't have a new appreciation for the quantity of a gallon of liquid. Am also grateful I wasn't reaching for a glass bottle of cranberry juice or something. Of course, I don't think they make glass anymore, except for pickles and relish. And some peanut butter.

Egg salad sandwiches on white bread were the salve for that embarrassment. The recipe is going in the file. The Southern Living Cookbook for Two is a great little gem. I use more than two recipes out of there. Egg Salad, Sauteed Mushrooms and Spiced Pineapple Pork Roast. There. That's three. Really, very good recipes and I need to use this book more, it's really my best cookbook, maybe. It LOOKS like I've used it a lot, back in the day.

Also going in the file, How to Perfectly Hard Boil Eggs. I'm back to boiling eggs just right. They even didn't give me fits when I peeled them. What's the world coming to?

I've gotten lazy and didn't write down a thought I thought of about what to blog on tonight while I was peeling those eggs. Boy, that was a great sentence. I was so sure I could remember. Well, I don't remember and I don't know why I pretend I might remember.

My main activity today was downloading and filling out paperwork, sheafs of it, for my sinus appointment next Monday, with this new doc. These must be mailed tomorrow because the doc won't see you if you don't answer his questions ahead of time. So, it figures it's Thanksgiving and the mail will be messed up. I also had to make calls to order medical records. My sinus surgery records have probably been destroyed by now, so the doc will have to make do on that point. Honestly, this type of activity . . . paperwork . . . SUPER UGH!

Writing about my day is making me believe it was less than average. But I did watch one Andy Griffith, but had a hard time focusing, due to sinus and other exhaustion. But it was the only episode I know that ends kind of sad. It's lovely. Andy and Barney put a high school reunion together. Andy's high school sweetheart shows up, thank goodness, since Andy has been anticipating this, and they still have the chemistry, but it's not going to work out because she is a big city girl and he is a small town boy and that's all there is to it. Barney's old girlfriend shows up with her husband and she doesn't even remember Barney, which directly opposes Barney's preconceived notion that she is still "crying tears into her pillow that speak the pain in her heart." Something like that. At the end, when Andy and Barney are throwing used paper cups into a box, they are both sad and thoughtful, a little regretful. Pensive, there's the word. Andy asks Barney, Do the tears on your pillow speak the pain in your heart? Barney said, Yeah, a little, how 'bout you? Andy says, Yeah, they do. It made me wanna cry.

I can't cry into my pillow tonight, I just changed the sheets.

KEM

"Tomorrow is a new day, with no mistakes in it."

"Well, there are no mistakes in it yet."

Some of you should know what two characters speak those lines :)) Over Thanksgiving I have heady plans to watch DVD marathons. The above mentioned movie and Father Knows Best. Which reminds me, I used a gift card at Borders to order Season Three of FKB. I think they lost it. I've never heard Boo! about it. It was a big mess, they were supposed to ship it directly to me. The lady in the store who helped me order it, well, that computer wouldn't print a receipt, so she had to go way in the back office, out of sight, to redo it. Then I realized much later, as in when I saw it on the computer at home, where they tell you every move they're making, that the DVD was being shipped to the store instead of home. When I never heard anymore, I called the store a week ago and it hadn't come in. Hmm. This sounds like KEM'S smooth 'n easy usual order of business . . . all mangled and screwed up!

Gotta make tracks tomorrow, as I'm sure you all do, too. Blogging and holidaying are going to be an interesting combo. I have the distinct feeling blogging is going to come out on the short end of the stick.

I'm going to go hand stir a milkshake. I need a sugar fix.

Love you all!
KEM