Saturday, December 5, 2009

Thanksgiving break 2009

It's 11pm, and I'm back in my cozy apartment in University Town.  I feel like I'm just warming up.

I feel like laughing.  I left the southern city of Metro a week ago, and in the past couple of days, they've gotten snow--one of the earliest snows of the season.  Here, in the northeast, it's raining, and 51 degrees, at night.  Since our snow in October, here in University Town, all precipitation has stayed liquid.   Here, we're looking at each other and saying "Can you believe it's December, and we don't need our coats?"

My Thanksgiving holiday was great.

I didn't go to a movie, but I played way too much Assassin's Creed, both 1 and 2.  I enjoyed them both, but I think the second game is superior.  The first game grew a little monotonous.  The second game had more humor, more variety to the missions, and did a far better job of incorporating the various tasks you had to complete into the plotline.  And I liked the puzzles in AC2!  A part of it, too, I think, is that my husband assisted me as I played, helping me to find hidden objects, directing me to different points on the map, solving puzzles with me, and giving approval of my cooler assassination moves.  It was just really nice being able to game together.

We mostly ate in during the week.  I did get a good steak at Saltgrass.  It was a surprise, as I had remembered it to be a middling experience the last time I went.  I would go back.

On the other hand, I had a negative experience when I went to D__'s Mediterranean Buffet.  It was one of a regional chain of restaurants.  One had opened recently near my apartment, and it had gotten high reviews from family members, who had eaten there several times.  My trip there was a wasted effort.  The food was either dry, or overspiced.  I tried to sample as many dishes as I could, to give it a fair shake, filling one plate with a bunch of options, and when those did not work out, going back and getting another plate, sampling a different variety of food.  Unfortunately, I was not able to get more than one bite out of most of what I tried.  I liked two things:  the rice, and the green beans and carrots, but even the rice had dried, and was crunchy--not in a good way.  It was not worth the $11-ish dollar price.  I left hungry, and I asked the husband take me took a grocery store so that I could buy something frozen to take home.  If I was with a group of people considering D__'s, I would actively try to dissuade anyone from going there, and if they decided to go anyway, I would get food elsewhere, and meet up with the group again later.

Despite my concerns with Thanksgiving dinner, everything turned out well, even though it turned out to be more of a Thanksgiving supper--the food wasn't ready until about 4:30pm.  Luckily, I had talked the husband into taking me to IHOP for breakfast--and for me, a full hot breakfast will last until suppertime. There was turkey, turkey Wellington, stuffing, baked beets and squash, green bean casserole, Dijon glazed carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy.  I also had pumpkin pie, homemade, fresh from the oven.  Yum.  The others chose to wait on dessert.

I am thankful for many things.  For friends, especially for family, for the chance to just get together, to have to time to get together.  I am grateful, too, that everyone in my family has employment, that their bills can be met.  I was thankful that Thanksgiving day was nice--I joked that it should have been a bbq--it was warm enough to be comfortably outdoors, and our cooking was causing the A/C to run.  I am thankful that school was gone very well this semester.  And I'm thankful for all the support my friends, family, and my husband has given me as I slog through school.

Thanks everyone.  And I hope that everyone found something to be thankful for this holiday, as well.

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