26 November 1999

I had a lovely Thanksgiving, except that the cat woke me up twice during the night, so by the time I got up, I'd only had about six hours of sleep. I'll start with some notes I jotted down while I was watching the Macy's parade:

9:10 So I'm watching the opening to the Macy's parade, which is a song and dance number by the choral group America Sings, and I'm tearing up just a little (for no reason I can think of) and I thought I'd get out some paper and sortof babble.

9:20 I'm not sure I've ever watched a Macy's parade where it wasn't preciptating.

9:25 It was watching the Macy's parade as a little kid that I figured out the principles of TV advertising - I had seen about a billion Nabisco commercials, wondered why they didn't show anything else, and had an epiphany.

9:30 I like watching the Rockettes. Do you have any idea how hard it is to choreograph things that precisely?

9:40 Ooh, swing dancing! Wow, a porky Broadway dancer. But he's got good moves. Damn, that ground is soaked. I wonder how they keep from slipping.

Things I'm Thankful For: My family. My friends. My husband, who is both, and more. Our lovely house. The "Tough Guy" - Spud. Relative good health and prosperity.

10:00 Damn those Mastercard commercials. *sniff*

10:10 Okay, I'm going to go take a shower.

So after my shower, I went back to watching the parade, and had a slice of peanut butter pie for breakfast. Matt came down at about 11:30 and had a slice of peanut butter pie for lunch. We were fortifying ourselves. My family always has one big holiday meal disaster a year, and we were pretty sure it would be the turkey this year: My dad took it into his head to decide to roast our turkey Boy-Scout style, over a fire. Mom was lamenting the lack of drippings for the gravy, I was whining about the skin, and we were all sure that we were going to have a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner.

Around one or so, we headed over to my parents' house, and I felt a little better about the turkey after seeing Dad's actual setup, though still dubious about Dad's claim that all the ash settling on the turkey would rinse off with a little cold water. He didn't actually roast it over a campfire, but rigged a sort of vertical oven. Here's some pictures - they're a little blue because there was a blue plastic tarp over the whole thing to keep the rain out.
 

  I drank a couple of wine coolers while we were waiting for the turkey to be done and helping Mom with the last bits. This was probably a mistake, because I was already a bit sleepy when the alcohol hit. But finally, the turkey was done, and Dad brought the turkey in...

He thinks it was a result of using the Matchlight charcoal, instead of normal, untreated stuff, but the ash did not just rinse off the turkey. Dad tried a scrub-brush, and even soap and water, but wound up just pulling all the skin off and throwing it away. (So I may stop in the grocery store today and see if they're having a sale on leftover turkeys and pick up a small one for the skin and leftovers.)

The turkey itself, however, was pretty good. Not quite as moist as a oven-roasted turkey that had been frequently basted, but not as dry as I'd been afraid it would be. And nothing else was a disaster, either - no baked jello, no burnt vegetables. The bread didn't rise as much as it should have, but it wasn't inedible; just a little heavy. We ate until we were stuffed, and then decided to go watch some TV before having dessert.

John found Raiders of the Lost Ark and we watched for a bit. When I realized that Dad hadn't just gone to the bathroom, but actually gone into the bedroom and laid down for a nap, I gave up the ghost. Between not getting enough sleep, the winecoolers, and a busily digesting stomach, I was just too tired to stay awake, and I curled up on the couch for a short nap. I think I was out for about forty-five minutes, but I'm not really sure. I went to sleep around the line "Mountain asps - very dangerous. You go first." and woke back up as Indy and Marian were boarding Katanga's boat. However long that is. My dad had emerged from his nap, too.

I went into the kitchen for a glass of water and noticed that the pies had been cut into, so I helped myself to a slice from each, and finished the movie nibbling on lemon chess and peanut butter pie. (That's two different pies, not a lemon-and-peanut-butter pie.) Mom let me raid the fridge for leftovers to take home with me. My mommy loves me.

After Raiders came Star Wars, and we watched a fair amount of that, but at about 9:30, I started feeling my eyelids drag a little, and we went home.

All in all, a lovely, relaxing day. I hope all my readers had Thankful days, too.