Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. We here in eastern Iowa are getting our first taste of winter with a possible accumulation of 3 to 4 inches of snow.

I am heading out to Williamsburg to my parents house tonight. I, being the one to prepare the turkey, kind of need to get up early to get it started. My hubby is staying home and sleeping in our own bed because of his back. Makes sense.

I got the job of doing the turkey with my family several years ago because I watched Good Eats on the food network and learned about brining. My 22 pounder is now sitting in a concoction of vegetable broth, koscher salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, garlic flakes, and other herbs to give it tenderness and flavor. It works great!! You should try it sometime.

Anyway, I also do the dressing. (stuffing is evil!) ( to understand that, please check out Good Eats on the Food Network web site). One with meat and the other without. We have a family friend who is a vegetarian.

I also bake bread. Well, I have a bread machine. Well, actually I have three bread machines. They are all the same brand DAK. They don't make them anymore, but I think they are the best bread machine out there and they make really large loafs. I make a French bread that calls for two egg whites beaten to soft peaks. Really great bread.

So, I'm getting ready to gather all of my food. The turkey is in the brine inside one of those orange coolers you see at work sites. Dressing is done and ready to transport. Bread is baked and in a zip lock bag. I am also taking along a few movies that we might watch, some music, and clothes of course. No computer, you say? No Internet access at my parents house. Hey, they just got cable for the first time in there lives since moving to town a little over a year ago.

I think I've rambled enough. I hope everyone has safe travel and a very nice Thanksgiving.
Think about all the things you have to be thankful for and don't eat too much bird. ;-)

SNICKERS 1988-2007

I grew up on a farm where the cat was a bigger deal than the dog. Not that we didn't have dogs, we just had a lot of cats and we all really loved them. I always said I would have one of the farm cats as a house cat when I moved away from home.

The spring of 1988, a cute little calico kitten was born in a litter of about four. As soon as I saw her, I said, "That's Snickers and when she is old enough, I'm taking her home." Thankfully, she survived her first 11 weeks on the farm and I brought her home to a "big sister" named Katrina. They got along quite well. A few years later, we got a pure bread cat named Meetawn
(mittens, with an Asian sound to it) Three cats in the house, that made things interesting.

In the summer of 2000, we moved into our own home. The day before we moved, Katrina laid down on the landing of the stairs of the old place and curled up and dyed. I was heartbroken, but she looked so peaceful and content, I was comforted by that.

Now Snickers got sick about 2 1/2 years ago. I nursed her, took her to the vet, gave her antibiotics, bought special food so she could gain back weight, everything. She bounced back. She wasn't as roly poly as she used to be, but her eyes where bright, she was playing and eating and very happy.

Two weeks ago, Snickers finally hit a wall. I had been feeding her baby food for quite some time because she couldn't chew because of the lose of teeth. Now she wouldn't even eat off my finger. She would lay under my dresser in the bedroom and I would check on her to see how she was and give her water. Touch her, brush her, let her know how much I loved her.

Then this week she lost control of her hind legs. I tried to make her comfortable, but she kept dragging herself downstairs. Finally we laid her over the heat vent next to the kitchen table. One of her favorite places. I turned the heat up so the furnace would run and keep her warm.

Her paws were cold, and her breathing was shallow. I laid there with her for several hours on Thursday. Making sure she knew I was there, petting her gently, and again letting her know how much I loved her.

I had to go run some errands and do some work in the afternoon. I thought she might be gone when I got back. When I came back into the house, she didn't seem to be breathing, then she stretched. I bent down and was there with her as she finally let go. She would stretch and do a silent meow. She did that three times and then she was still. She was gone. Off to a yard full of catnip to roll in, grass to chew, and her sister to play with.

Now, you people who don't/didn't have a special relationship with a pet might think I'm a little too sentimental. I never thought of her as a person. She was always a cat, but she seemed to know things that people around me never could sense. When I was down she would cuddle with me. If I was sick, she would lay in bed with me to keep me warm. Or keep her warm, didn't matter. Her purring was a comfort. She loved to play, and was rather insistent in the morning about being fed.

That is why I included this little video. I hope it works. never done this before. It was sent to me be Side Notes a few weeks ago, and it really makes me think of my little Snickers.
I miss you Snickers and I love you very much.

The day after the election

Well, here I am sitting in the, well, used to be small town of Tiffin, wondering what will happen now.

We have a new mayor. Potter lost after 20 some years of serving as mayor of Tiffin. The sad part is that the voter turn out was piss poor. From what I got from the Press Citizen, only around 400 of our 2500 more or less populous voted. That is really sad. A majority of a minority is telling the majority how to run the government. Gee, that sounds like elections for every level of government, doesn't it? My motto is: I voted, so I have the right to complain.

The city of Tiffin also passed a 7% hotel motel tax to begin July 1 2008. WTF!!!!!! We have no hotels. We have no Motels. Hell, we don't even have a simple sit down or fast food restaurant. Well, we used to have a restaurant, but it burned down 8 years ago and the city didn't fight tooth and nail to keep the landmark Lark Supper Club in our town.

I also saw that the 21 only measure was defeated in Iowa City. There is something that can be done to solve this problem that nobody seems to want to address, except maybe State 29. Change the drinking age back down to 18 or 19. They are considered old enough to serve in the military, to go into debt, have a normal drivers license, vote in an election, why can't they have a drink? If you make it not such a 'bad boy/girl" thing to do, they might not do it as much.

Well, that's all I can think of to say about the elections. If I hear more, I might comment again, who know.

Better late than never, a Halloween post

Halloween has just past us by less than a week ago. I don't do much on that day. Lately I have taken to leaving the house. We have neighbors across the street that decorate there front lawn like some people do for Christmas. Ghosts, Ghouls, and all sorts of creepy crawlies. I think they just about cover it for the whole neighborhood.

Anyway, in the spirit of the holiday just past, I would like to share one of my favorite quotes from a movie. V for Vendetta seems to have been a popular costume this year. At least I saw it in several stores so I'm guessing it was popular. Anyway the V speech is one of my favorites and I think it would make a great audition speech or a warm up for any actor before a show. Gets the mouth working if you know what I mean.

Without further ado, here is V.

V: [Evey pulls out her mace] I can assure you I mean you no harm.

Evey Hammond: Who are you?

V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask.

Evey Hammond: Well I can see that.

V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.

Evey Hammond: Oh. Right.

V: But on this most auspicious of nights, permit me then, in lieu of the more commonplace sobriquet, to suggest the character of this dramatis persona.

V: Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.

[carves V into poster on wall]

V: The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.

[giggles]

V: Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

Evey Hammond: Are you like a crazy person?

V: I am quite sure they will say so. But, to whom am I speaking with?

Evey Hammond: I'm Evey.

V: Evey? E-V. Of course you are.

Evey Hammond: What does that mean?

V: It means that I, like God, do not play with dice and I don't believe in coincidences.

Love it! Love it! Love it!

SORRY!!!!

I know, I missed the whole month of October.
I do hope you will come back and check and see if I wrote anything.

I have several things to talk about, and I promise I will write something soon.

Now I have to go and powerwash a friends house. ???