Its a little difficult to follow up that last post with something so trivial, but I’m going to do it anyway. I haven’t given my Thanksgiving update, so I figure I’m due for it.

This Thanksgiving we decided to make a few dishes to take with us to Clarksville and one of those was a green bean casserole. Jason had been talking about how he hadn’t had one in so long and how great it would be, yadda yadda. Anyway, I was curious to see how difficult it would be to make it from scratch and found a recipe on a blog called “A Veggie Venture”. It looked a little complicated, but since we were not having T-giving dinner until Friday (which means we had a whole day to prepare), I thought I might as well go for it.

The recipe boasts as being the “World’s Best Green Bean Casserole” and I have to agree. Everything is from scratch, including the topping, although I opted for the traditional fried onions cause I didn’t want to go too far out on a limb. I may try the topping for my next holiday potluck, coming up in a few weeks. Anyway, you start by sauteeing the mushrooms in butter, garlic and salt & pepper and then add the sauce ingredients to that. By the end of it, the house smelled so good. On Thursday I only made one batch and realized it wouldn’t be enough to fill half a casserole dish, so on Friday morning, I made a second batch. It was much easier the second time and came out just as yummy. It was a hit at the dinner table and we even had leftovers to enjoy. I finished it up last night. Yum yum.

Other than that, there was nothing much remarkable about Thanksgiving. We left the dogs at home, seeing how Dexter is still recovering from his back surgery and that there were already going to be 5 dogs in attendance. Speaking of Dexter, he is doing really well after his surgery. We are still cautious about him jumping up on things, but he’d love to do it if we let him. He’s managed to make it down the stairs once when we weren’t looking and has jumped off the couch a few times before we could catch him, but for the most part, he’s taking it easy. I think he’s suffering a bit from cabin fever seeing how he keeps trying to play with Clementine. She seems to know that he’s not supposed to play too hard and mostly just lies there, which makes him bark even more. Its really very cute. Its good to see him energetic and in good spirits.

On Saturday, Jason’s parents and his sister and her husband came down to Nashville to see the home renovations. They were very complimentary and let me show off all the work. Afterwards, we talked them into going down to the Gulch for dinner at Rusan’s. They’d never been before but everyone found food to enjoy. Kinda hard not to when you go to Rusan’s!

When I was a kid at summer camp, we used to trade in tokens for various “campy” trinkets and toys. Among the selection were rabbit furs and fox tails. I always though those were pretty cool and thought “awww, poor bunny. I wonder how it died”. Never did I think that someone had killed it for its fur.

Then on Sunday I just happened to choose to watch an HBO special on Ingrid Newkirk, the founder of PeTA. I have never really taken an interested in PeTA because of all the negative publicity they generate and their extreme approach to animal activism. To say that animals are, on every level, just like humans and should be treated as such is a bit extreme in my mind. That sentiment was absolutely reinforced through this candid documentary, but I also saw something I will never be able to erase from my memory. As they have a tendency to do, they flashed a graphic video without any forewarning and I didn’t have a chance to look away or even know what was coming. It was a video of an animal being skinned, alive. *shudder* It was one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen and I am still reeling from it. (If you are even a bit curious about the video, google for “fur is murder” and it will take you to the PeTA video campaign site. Its the one about Chinese fur harvesting.)

I don’t know how I thought fur coats were made or obtained, but I guess I just never really thought about it hard enough to care. Surely I know deep down that they don’t take fur from already dead animals, but I never thought about the fact that there are actually “furriers” who raise animals just to kill them for their fur. And to know that in some areas of the world its done it such an inhumane way just so they don’t mess up the fur, it just makes me sick. How are there not rules against this?

And surely my friends who own fur coats don’t know this is happening, right? I mean, I’ve always had an icky feeling about fur coats or mink stoles, enough that I’ve never wanted to buy one, but surely those who have bought them don’t know about this. Or do I have sadistic, shallow friends who would purchase them even knowing the full truth? I just can’t believe that. Surely anyone who has seen this video or images like it would never purchase or want to purchase the product of such cruelty.

Surely.

This Titans game sucks! Bullock just got a personal foul call that lead to the 4th Bengal touchdown. What about the late hit on Bullock right after the penalty? Argh!! They better play better than this next week when we’ll be at the game!

This year, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Friday instead of tomorrow. Jason’s sister’s husband (I guess that makes him my brother-in-law-in-law?) is in the army and is just now starting his Thanksgiving break. Seeing how they live in NC and have to drive here for the customary dinner, it will most likely be late tomrrow or early Friday before they arrive. Se we are delaying our dinner until then, as you might imagine.

This will be the first time my in-laws have had both of their children married at Thanksgiving, so I wonder if that’s crazy for them. First Jason and now Jennifer. No longer their “babies”. I know my mom had a hard enough time when I got married, I wonder what it will be like when/if Brett gets married. I say “if” not because I think he won’t find someone to share his life with, but because he has expressed distinct disinterest in the concept.

Anyway, I think Thanksgiving on Friday will be nice. Mostly because we can avoid the travel traffic on Thursday. Then again, we run the risk of running into Black Friday traffic too. I’m debating whether or not I should do a little early morning shopping. I’ll probably opt for not. The only time I’ve done that was with Melissa who now has a 3 week old baby. I doubt she’ll be out doing any early morning shopping…unless Jim decides to stay with lil Brody.

I’m rambling.  So yeah, Thanksgiving on Friday. For those of you celebrating tomorrow, have a happy one and have safe travels!

Last night I went to my first Nashville Predators Game at the Sommet Center. My soccer team got great club level seats because our resident photographer (and girlfriend to one of the players) works for the Preds and was able to get us some complimentary tickets. We basically took over a little corner in our section and had a great time.

We met at Rippy’s beforehand, a Nashville BBQ tradition that I’ve never experienced. We had hopes of dining there but Jason and I didn’t even get there until 6:25, and apparently everyone who goes to the Pred’s game also tried to eat at Rippy’s first. The place was packed and we barely made it through the crowd to find my soccer team and grab a quick beer. I also made a new friend, Annie. Hi Annie! (she’s a blogger, so I’m hoping she’ll find mine!) Glad you’re moving to Nashville in January. Be sure to email me and we’ll get together!

The game itself was pretty fun. The Preds scored first, then the Blackhawks scored three unanswered points. In the final period, the Preds scored again, taking the lead, but then the BH scored again to tie with 42 seconds to go.  Sudden death! dun dun dun. Within what had to be only 30 seconds, the Preds hammered one in and won the game. We were screaming and dancing and it was all around good fun.

It reminded me a lot of my days at RIT, watching hockey from the Corner Crew section, yelling out nerdy chants and booing at the other team’s penalty box. Those were fun times! Vandy doesn’t have an ice hockey team, that I know of, so I never got into it in college. Of course, RIT doesn’t have a football team, so I guess I traded the two when I moved here!

I still think football fans are much better fans that hockey fans. Or maybe its just because the Preds are having some trouble and the fanbase isn’t what it could be. But so far, I’d say the Titans games are much more exciting as a whole and it would take a lot to change my mind!

The fall soccer season has come to a close. We played our first tournament game on Saturday and killed our opponent. Here’s a great action shot from the game:

Thanks Kristy!

I got a nice fat lip from protecting my face with my hands. I’m beginning to think I would’ve been better off if the ball had hit my face instead of my bony hand, but whatever. Its back to mostly normal now. I’m the only person who can tell something is wrong and its still a little painful to eat hard foods, but..whatever.

Yesterday we played the second tournament game and we lost. So we’re out. Our ref was horrible and the other team scored at least twice immediately after fouls the ref didn’t call. Usually I am sympathetic to refs due to my father’s participation in the task, but she was awful. Missing obvious handballs and acting like she was going to call a foul when really she wasn’t, so we’d slow the play and the other team would take off. Anyway, it did not feel like a fair ending to the season, but its all in good fun.  Till next Spring!

I just met a relative of the 9-year-old boy mentioned in this article. She was walking from the garage into the clinic at the same time I was and asked for directions to the Children’s hospital. Knowing what a maze this place is, I told her I’d just walk with her so she didn’t get lost, even though I wasn’t going in that direction. After a short silence, she proceeded to tell me, in sporadic short sentences, that her nephew was injured in a car accident last night and that his father died in the crash. I tell ya, I started tearing up as we were walking over there. I felt so bad for her, but also felt proud to work at the hospital that was taking care of her family. I walked her through the Children’s food court and to the hospital elevators. As I wished her luck, she said “Bless you” and smiled a little. I smiled a little too.

The strangest thing has started happening with my Wordpress comments. I usually receive an email as soon as a comment is posted, but now it takes hours, sometimes days, before the email gets to me. Any idea why?

My bff Melissa gave birth to a beautiful baby boy last Thursday morning! I am so proud of her and want to show him off! Brody was born at 2:13am after 18 hours of labor and he was 8 lbs 5 oz, 20” long. He is so precious! I got to hold him a little bit on Thursday and then came back and held him on Saturday while he soaked up some sunrays. Melissa, Jim, and Brody went home on Sunday!!!  Congratulations hun! I love you!

Nuff said