Happy Thanksgiving 2014

I am so proud of me: I put the stuffed 25 pound turkey in the oven at 6:31 a.m.! For me, that's the middle of the night.

Here's the Turkey!  Of course, I'm using my favorite Aussie dish towel.

Speaking of the middle of the night, I woke up at 3:15 a.m. and it was a darn good thing I had brought my cell phone into the bedroom (and set the alarm).  The power had gone off (again) and my alarm clock was an hour slow.  Meanwhile, I had learned the hard way that when my alarm clock loses power, it also loses the alarm setting.  It would have been a disaster to be an hour late with the turkey.

Emily is driving here this morning because the snow last night made it a bit tricky.  She will help me get the hot pan with the cooked turkey out of the oven.

We seem to have received about 6 inches of snow.  My faithful plowman was out there in the wee hours plowing (and I appreciate it).  He nicely offered to deliver the turkey for me but I told him I have to get to the Senior Center because, after all, I AM THE GRAVY QUEEN!  

I always arrive in grand style with whisk aloft.  Some of the other volunteers are not amused.  They have been slaving for hours peeling and chopping vats of potatoes and squash and I waltz in looking as if that's all I do. I make one large stock pot of gravy.  I used to make less and one year it was very tense as I ran low.  Those elders get MEAN if there's no gravy.  We almost had a riot two years ago when the stuffing ran out during seconds.  Everything has to be even on the plate, don't cha know. 

Ah, what I go through for you, Faithful Readers!  I went through the garage (in my jammies) onto the deck to show you the snow.  And when I backed off my perch (I didn't want to have the snow go over the top of my shoes, I stepped on a wooden rod and it rolled.  Nope, didn't fall! Guess all those years of ice skating served me well.  That's an idea.  Maybe I'll go ice skating this weekend ...

Standing on my front porch, looking east.

Looking directly across the street from me.  That's my decorative crab apple tree on the right.

This is my neighbor's shed (and his fence too).

My backyard.  Notice dawn appearing? I was getting too chilly to wait for full color.

Soon, as the rosy fingers of dawn appeared ... (That's from the Odyssey in case you have forgotten.)

Okay, that's it for the cold scenes. I'm going to fire up the Keurig.  Man, I love that thing!  Ciao for now.

Oh, wait: I have started reading Not With My Father by Andra Watkins.  It's "One Woman's 444- Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace."  This is an advance reading copy and, so far, I really like it.  I had been invited to a house party to meet Andra when she was actually pushing her other book.  Wait, I have to look it up.  

Her acclaimed first novel was To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis.

This just didn't seem like my cup of tea.  But I loved listening to Andra and I knew I would want to read her second book.  

So I offered to host her at the Jones Library and she will be

 coming in March.  Bring a sweater, Andra! It will be cold for a southern girl!

By the way, the woman who hosted her visit had met Andra through her blog, Andra Watkins, the Accidental Cootchie Mama.

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A good time was had by all at the Bangs Community Center, which is where the Senior Center is.

Here are some dedicated workers checking on one of the four turkeys.

Here is some of the turkey ready to go into the bain marie.

Nancy is in the center -- her 40th year of this giant production!  Lorrine is another volunteer (on the right).

Sleigh Bell Fair

Boy, am I pooped! I got to the church at 7:30 a.m. (I'm amazed too) and I left at 2:00 p.m.  Rod kindly brought my lunch to me, so other than bathroom breaks, I was pretty much there taking money in the craft room that whole time.  Only one pig and two birdhouses sold.  Sigh.  Luckily, I didn't have to take them home.  They give them to the Fisher House (hospice) to sell in their store.

Here were the sights:

Both Holy Family sculptures sold.

Ann made the kittens in the tote bag.  I don't know who made the egg on the right, but it was amazing.  You can tell how small the ornaments are because they are on a standard Christmas ornament wire hanger.

I love the penguins!

Ann tried to get me to help her with the stars (above), but I'm not as talented as she and I gave up pretty quickly.  That's fabric glued to paper.

Bat house anyone?

The bells on the right are made from paper with music on it. (I don't know what tunes.) They completely sold out.

For Fido -- a wreath of dog bones.

 Felt flowers

 Gaye, Ann, and Carolyn above and below.  They did much of the crafts and set up and priced the whole craft room.

 Gaye painted the window/mirror. It sold.

Gaye painted the glassware.  They were gorgeous! Most of it sold.

The s'more ornaments made me hungry!

 Believe it or not, the purple thing on the left (and the green on the right) is a snake.

Potholders by Ann.  Both of these sold.

Wooden eggs -- the painting was amazing!

Of course, there were many other rooms with jams, jellies, clothing, and white elephant stuff.  I only bought a couple of little things.

Cheers! :)

Crime Bake Photos

I've been so busy, busy, busy that I'm really late with this.  And since I've got one more post after this (since today really is Nov. 22 and not November 9), this may end up being one big jumble.  Suffice to say: I had a 3 day blast with many panels, fun, a banquet, killer dessert, etc.  It was great to see friends who are really famous authors!

That's Judge Michael Ponsor on the left, author of (fictional) The Hanging Judge.  My Emily used to play with his daughter, Annie.  I'm two thirds of the way through Kate Flora's (right) Death Dealer which is a true crime novel.  

Here I am with Craig Johnson, the big special speaker/guest of the weekend.  He authors the Longmire books and the TV show made from his books is SO popular, Neflix has just picked it up to create a season 4.  Yahoo! I love the TV series too.

I chuckled at this picture -- as if he needed a name tag.  He wore "The Hat" everywhere, including taking a nap (with The Hat over his face) in the hotel lobby.

And yes, Craig Johnson is tall! You can see this because he is standing next to average height people.

Above is the "make up a story" panel.  That's Hank Philippi Ryan (TV anchorwoman and now much lauded award winning mystery author) with the $100,000 smile.  She's really a personality kid!

The moderator of the above group was Hallie Ephron (below).

This was a very funny and fun time.  We were at tables and there were cards in the middle of the table.  We each had to pick either a setting or a villain's name or a hero's name or a crime.  They had a paper bag for each category and the panel took turns drawing one card.  So one time we had [insert silly name] from Turners Falls who stole books and the bad guy was [insert other silly name].  We laughed and laughed and played the game three times.

My very favorite new thing was the Crime Scene.  We had to gather as much forensic evidence as we could and see if we could figure out "who done it."  We had actual CSI (state police) people telling us about it on the last day.  Little did we know it was a recreation of an actual crime scene!

Yup, there were two (count 'em) dead bodies (or db's as we like to call them).  These photos only show a small portion of the clues. I have lots more so that I could refer to them later, but unless you're into it as much as I am ... it's boring!

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And I thought of you all ... here is Death by Dessert!

And on the last day ...

I think the horse had let wind and I was reacting to that.  Actually, they had put Craig Johnson's face/head on John Wayne's body.  These two cardboard standups were decorations for the Saturday BBQ.

A good time was had by all!

Saturday CrimeBake

It's great to see a lot of old friends. I have a zillion  pictures, but no way to upload them here.  That will be later.


I've been to seminars and panels and last night was the traditional Friday night pizza party.  Afterward, I couldn't get to the Death by Dessert in time to get you pristine photos of the display of desserts.  I was very happy, however, to see (and eat) tres leches! Yay!


The crime scene doesn't have one but two db (dead bodies).  I haven't had time to process what I saw, but I was allowed to take pictures of everything.  Yay again!  More later.

Bird House

I'm thinking that painting 12 of these just might take longer than I have! (I have given three away, two should come back painted.)

Front

Side

Back

Side

Maybe I shouldn't embellish all of the sides. What do you think? I think it's weird with the tabs showing. I don't know how to get rid of them without ruining everything.