Batting a Thousand

It has not been my weekend.  Driving home from work on Friday night, basking in the glory of free time on the horizon, I thought it was a bit drafty.  Turns out the back passenger window fell completely down in the door.  This is not the first time I've dealt with this problem.  Must be an annual thing; happened at almost this exact time last year.

G managed to get it taped up.  I can't get it fixed until late this week.  Welcome to the life of the Clampetts.

Today was our Supper Club's Family Thanksgiving Event.  I was supposed to make creamed greens and that just didn't pan.  Simple recipe + user error = see below:

So we promptly went to Panera and bought like all of their macaroni and cheese.  I dumped it into my crockpot and got all kinds of compliments!  (I eventually fessed up.)

I've tried two books of late that are extremely popular and just defeated me:

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

This children's story is a witty tale of a boy who transports himself to a foreign land via a tollbooth that shows up in his room.  There are all kinds of plays on words, and motifs about how thinking determines our actions, etc., but it was like a boring version of Alice in Wonderland and I couldn't make it past about 30 pages.  I believe had I read this as a child, it would have resonated with me and I would love it now.  But alas, I missed the boat on this one.

The illustrations are phenomenal, though, by Jules Feiffer

A book I've been wanting to read for a couple of years is Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman.  The premise of the book is that the world is quickly running through its resources and the entire globe is becoming flat (bigger gap between the haves and have nots, diminishing middle class - can't exactly remember how this equates to flat, but it does), hot (global warming), and crowded (lack of population control).  The book is well-written and makes many good points about our crazy reliance on oil and how our gas guzzling is crippling America and propping up dictatorships in countries with little to offer besides wide-spread intolerance and violence.  I got about 100 pages into it and then never picked it back up.  What's done is done.

On the upside, I am officially a blogger because I attended a website/blogging conference on Saturday with Nat King Cole.

One of the speakers had a service dog, Otis.  I couldn't take my eyes off him!

Highlight?  Stepping out for an afternoon coffee and discussions about important things like books and food.

The conference was about Word Press and I'm wondering if I should switch?  Or stay with blogspot?  Ideas?  I managed to coerce Nat King Cole to tutor me - and her husband to cook for us because, duh, I'm strategic that way - so maybe I'll eventually move that direction.

On Saturday night we went out for German beer with some peeps and finally solidified our Big 2014 Vacation.  Lots of things are changing for us very rapidly, so we wanted to prioritize and make sure we get a big trip planned and mostly paid for before the end of this year.  We are very mature and therefore need stuff like world travel to keep us motivated on a daily basis.

I feel like I blinked and the weekend is now over.  But the next five days of work?  They will take about a month and a half to pass.

That's OK though, because then it's the week of Thanksgiving!  Food, festivities, family, and time off work!