Happy Thanksgiving

This week was my vacation week. It started off with a weekend trip to Jacksonville to visit Kathy with Tawny. Kathy surprised us with movie tickets to see New Moon which we all enjoyed immensely. Tawny and I have read all four books of the Twilight series while Kathy seems to have been motivated to read two more.

I was pretty much a slug on Monday while Tuesday was spent at a recommended follow-up check-up with my physician. The bloodwork taken at my cookie doctor last month revealed that I was anemic and unusually low on Vitamin D. It is official -- I am a vampire! My physician surprisingly wrote me a script for the vitamin deficiency.

The doctor also prescribed a mammogram since it has been years since I've had one. At (almost) 39 and with history of cancer in my family, I've had to endure the breast pancake machine earlier than normal. Coincidentally Tawny had to get one, too, with the same radiology company. A couple of phone calls secured us back-to-back appointments yesterday. We took the term Bosom Buddies to a whole new level!

Today is Thanksgiving Day...Turkey, gravy and rice -- could anything be more divine? My aunt made a legendary feast as she always does. This time I took home some leftovers to enjoy later.

I brought my aunt a big jar sampling of my Atchara (Filipino pickled papaya). Pic #1 is of the raw ingredients. The only things missing are the garlic and the sugar. Pic #2 is the finished product.




Yes, the decorative carrots are a rule. I didn't make the rule; I just followed it for fear of bringing a strange yet believable Filipino curse on me.




For part of dessert I made Cake Ball Truffles. It is made by blending spice cake (usually red velvet cake) and cream cheese frosting before rolling into balls. [Clearly not my original idea!] They were chilled and then dipped in chocolate coating. These crazy treats were a hit at my aunt's feast as well as Tawny's home. I stopped on the way to my aunt's to drop off a couple of containers.




Tomorrow is Black Friday. I have no desire to be in any retail store at any hour just to avoid the greedy crowds altogether. Some stores are opening at midnight tonight and others around 3am, 4am, etc. just to capture more sales with lures of unheard of deals. Big deal. Well then...Off to get some green tea.


PS I am thankful for my family and friends who continually support, encourage and love me. I am also very thankful that I don't have to go in the sun to increase my levels of Vitamin D. Taking a pill is worth every wrinkle not earned. Hee.
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Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Another day of turkey fixins' loomed ahead of me this morning. I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, catching mainly the very beginning and the end with Santa while I puttered around the apartment and got ready for the day. Even had a late breakfast of rice & gravy and lumpia from last night which hit the spot.

Drove to Kathy and Jamie's house to check on their cats Cesar and Rio and to bring in their mail. The cats were good and loved the treats I laid out for them. Rio is the lovergirl who allowed me to pet her after she kept wrapping herself around my legs. Texted Kathy that her kitties were okay and wished her Happy Tofurkey before calling Tawny to see if she need anything else before I came over for dinner with her family.

A very warm, inviting home greeted me when I walked into Tawny and Jeff's place. The kitchen was dinner in progress while her dining room was decorated in fall theme and had some good snackies. Jeff and his two boys were watching the Packers game on T&J's new 42" flat panel high definition widescreen. Their team won which I was told separately by Tawny and her mother-in-law was a good thing right before dinner. Apparently, the men's tempers carried to the dinner table if their team lost. We were very lucky today.

To earn my keep so to speak, I set the table and helped Tawny get most everything together after everyone else arrived. We sat 11 people at the table. We laughed and chowed down on a great dinner that everyone contributed to today. Soon the food coma was starting to set in. I decided to make myself useful by loading up the dishwasher and washing other stuff by hand. We needed to buy some time before sampling a plethora of pies and a berry trifle.

If things couldn't make you burst enough, we celebrated Tawny's sister's birthday with a small cake which her brother-in-law covered with the 40 candles his wife needed. He clustered about a set of 15 together at different sections. When he lit it, it looked like a torch and the candles had stuck together after his wife blew them out. It was quite the scene; needless to say, we sang Happy Birthday very quickly.

I had a wonderful time with Tawny and her family. They really made me feel welcome and part of the family. Tawny's mother-in-law invited me for the next holiday get together and to Tawny's surprise, she also invited me to tag/put my name on anything in her house so that in case she dies, my stuff is marked. I laughed so hard. Tawny already told her about the Thai-style buddha statue I've been admiring in her living room.

It was about 7-ish when I decided I'd better go home with another set of take-home goodies. Cabal needed to go out and be fed. I ate way too much and am paying for it now. That is why this post is earlier than normal. I have to quickly make my calls to other friends and family before I crash on the couch. Thank God I am off tomorrow; I will need it to recover.

Five Things I am Thankful for Today:

1. I am thankful for my loving family and friends who support me in whatever I decide.
2. I am thankful I have a job that allows me to live.
3. I am thankful for my Pretty Boy Dog who loves me and doesn't care if I have a bad hair day. To him, I am the perfect belly scratcher, playmate and treat giver.
4. I am thankful for the divine force that guides me even when I argue with its methods.
5. I am thankful for the blessings I have and yet to receive.

I hope that if you celebrated Thanksgiving, you gobbled 'til you wobbled with your loved ones. If you didn't, I hope you still had a Happy Thursday and are thankful for the blessings in your life.
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Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Eve: Filipino Soap Opera

Oh gosh...I didn't become really alert until a surreal scene unfolded itself at my aunt's dinner table at 4:30pm. We were about to have an early Thanksgiving meal at her house because a few of us were having separate meals at different places tomorrow.

My aunt had me on my cell to find out where I was because she was already slicing the turkey. There was a lot of traffic on the highway that made the journey longer. Her city always is most especially traffic-ridden that you want to slit your wrists just to avoid it...I had literally just parked my car in the driveway and found my progress through the front door impeded. Why my uncle chose that particular moment to fix the front door and have his youngest son Gary help him unhinge it was a mystery. I thought, Great, my uncle (and Gary) get to be grumpy coming to the feast my aunt just laid out. I tried to quell my temper, but didn't have time to really think about it because my cousin Ida and her three kids pulled up. What the...? I didn't know they were coming. They were asked to enter at the back of the house while my uncle lost his marbles in the front.

My cousin looked surprised and embarrassed to have arrived at that particular moment. They were there for my goddaughter's twin to use the computer to set up an online account at school for grade viewing, etc. since their computer was being taken for repair. My aunt asked if they had eaten and they hadn't. Before I knew what was happening extra plates were being set at the table. My goddaughter Cristina and her twin Crystal were fighting their way around the table to give me hugs. My uncle and Gary were cleaning up and sitting at the table. Fish and other Filipino food were being heated up for my aunt, Ida and me while everyone else stuck to the American feast. I looked at my aunt when I was able to catch her eye and asked her what the hell was happening. She just shook her head. I was expecting a nice quiet dinner not bedlam.

Once we all relaxed, it was better. Rice and gravy is food from the gods. I felt rushed again later from my uncle's next marble losing event while helping Crystal on the Internet. My uncle is in his mid 60s and not always patient with the computer even with the jazzed up Dell he has now. Jeezus, I just wanted him to let me drive the mouse so we could get through a blue screen he inadvertently received and was stuck in. From there, it was a gazillion weird pop-ups, uninstalling a program, etc. Finally, he conceded after getting through everything and rebooting the computer. Sigh.

My cousin asked me to take her and the kids home instead of my aunt driving them. Somehow I think my aunt and my cousin cooked the whole thing up of being there, etc. They knew I would drive them home. Before we left, my cousin Ida and I were like vultures acting on carrion. We wrapped some leftovers to take home which is expected in a Filipino household.

Um...Yes, I brought one-cup Chinese takeout containers as seen below. (You can buy sleeves of different sizes at the big Asian store in downtown Tampa.) I also brought the plastic container holding the gravy below. Ooh -- my aunt had lumpia, Filipino eggrolls, to take home, too. Yes, I am a crack baby, but my aunt never has the proper size containers. I am being helpful. What a good niece I am!

This is my Thanksgiving loot displayed at my own table to show you.


At 7:30pm, I was on the road recounting the events to Angie in LA. I was disappointed at not being able to talk to my cousin Gary more. Mind you, he lives 15 minutes away from me, but we never get together. All in all, I ended up spending Thanksgiving Eve with my family no matter how surreal and chaotic. I am very thankful.

Tomorrow, I get to watch Tawny lose her marbles with her family. Teehee...
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Thanksgiving Eve: Filipino Soap Opera

AGOL Escapes Auntie's Thanksgiving Wrath

Well, my little loves, your AGOL has managed to escape the wrath of a 4'10" Filipino woman, namely her aunt...

My aunt called me this evening to let me know that I didn't have to come over and sit with Nan on Tuesday because attendance in their bible study would be low before the holiday. She was also inviting me for an early Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night with her, my uncle, Nan and her youngest son Gary. The dinner was more for Gary; he has to work Thanksgiving (I think). I said yes to my aunt. See, technically, I am still not spending Thanksgiving Day with family. I also made it clear to her that she would not see me at her older son's house the next day. She was okay with it.

Like a kid escaping well-deserved punishment, I couldn't wait to call my aunt's daughter Angie in LA and let her know. She'd been hoping I get in trouble. I cackled and taunted her with my escape. Angie threatened to have her mother read my blog where I wrote about avoiding her. Hmpf!
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AGOL Escapes Auntie's Thanksgiving Wrath

Tawny Really Cooks!

Hustled to get things done before I left Bridget to sort everything else by herself next week before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, including training her on two new things. She'll be more than fine next week, but I am not sure how she will fare on participating on an outdoor jello wrestling event tonight. The temperature has been brazenly cooler for Tampa. Yes, I did say jello. Will it help that it is raising money for a good cause? (Wink!)

Thanksgiving Day or Turkey Day is Thursday of next week. I decided back in early July to take the three days preceding so I would have a full week off. My company has Thursday and Friday off, making it a four-day weekend. Now your AGOL is off a whole week with no real plans. I didn't get off my duff and plan an LA trip. My dance card is starting to fill up though; hopefully, I won't be so anxious about the unstructured time. Eek!

Received my invite from Sandy and Mark's Christmas party this afternoon via e-mail. Kathy and I usually go as each other's date; Jamie never attends with Kathy. Depending on how things go, this may be the last year Kathy and I attend. The attendees are mostly married couples with children of varying ages whom we cannot relate to at the moment or was that the last seven years we've been going? I must remember to make the Famous AGOL Rum Cake. I cannot enter the house without it. It has become a tradition for "the cake lady" to bring it.

Joined Tawny and Jeff at their apartment tonight for dinner with their two sons. I happily toddled over from my apartment to theirs across the complex. We had a tasty meal of salad and lasagna with garlic bread. Mind you, this is the first time I have had a warm meal served and cooked by Tawny at her house in the almost 10 years I have known her. Yes, we've prepared meals at British Jeff's house, but that doesn't count and the other meals I have had at her old house were either sandwiches we assembled or Jeff cooked.

There was almost one meal earlier in the year when her mother visited, but several people in her house caught a flu bug so my visit was nixed for fear of me catching it, too. She brought me some of the meal she had prepared for them, but it wasn't technically served at the table and I had to reheat it. I've teased her over the years that she really can't cook which of course is not true. She has acted as my sous chef at the parties I have given over the years. I normally love to cook and entertain so I always invite them. Haven't felt the love for cooking and entertaining lately.

In an unprecedented history of events, I will be having another warm meal at Tawny's on Thanksgiving Day. I am allowed to bring a bowl of jasmine rice so I may have it with gravy as is my tradition. I'll bring enough for everyone just in case. Might get teased over the potato offerings, but I can handle it.
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Tawny Really Cooks!

Ageless Mind, Time Ridden Body

The title is a play on Deepak Chopra's book from the early 90's Ageless Body, Timeless Mind which I enjoyed immensely...

A lady at lunch was obviously playing her pity me card. She told us the story of her trip to the grocery store. While checking out, she was asked if her purchases would be eligible for a senior discount by a butch looking cashier. This lady is turning 50 very soon, but was trying to feel good about it. She replied yes to the cashier. An elderly gentleman behind her whom she described as looking a hundred chimed, I don't get a discount. How old do you have to be? The cashier replied Sixty. That made lady at lunch very upset and she cried home, but tried to console herself that her cashier was hitting on her and trying to give her a discount to be nice.

I really don't care for this lady, but I felt for her. What was worse was that ever since she cut her hair shorter, she had aged 10 years. I didn't kiss her ass like my temp did, but I said that the cashier was rude and shouldn't have said a thing. Tawny said the same thing. If she'd get a darker/more vibrant hair color, put mascara on, a bit of blush and a swipe of lip gloss, she wouldn't look so much older. Every little thing helps if you are not blessed with wonderful genes.

I will be turning 37 in two months, but I am blessed with not looking my age (so far). When I was younger, how I wished I was older in actual years because when I was 14, I looked 18. Some people love their age and some people strive to fight it with plastic surgery or some snake oil cream. While I do worry a little, I am more anxious of the things I haven't accomplished. My mind and soul are demanding satisfaction...

Kathy picked me up at home for a Vietnamese dinner where she has more vegetarian choices and where she now enjoys avocado shakes like me. On the way, my aunt's son, Dave Jr. called me to invite me to Thanksgiving dinner. I politely declined and told him I already had plans. That must be my 5th or 6th invite for Turkey Day. My aunt will be going over there, too. It saves me from calling her. Yes, I am a chicken, but my feathers are still fine. Ha!
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Ageless Mind, Time Ridden Body