1. Take Jess to the airport. Up at 5am, flight is at 7:10am.
2. Dryer repair dude due at house 8am-11am, sometime. Maybe squeeze in a nap there or incorporate number 4's content into this period of time.
3. Laundry after he finishes fixing the never ending beeping noise coming from the dryer.
4. Clean the house of the Thanksgiving aftermath. Oy.
5. Buy some small gifts for a boy in Keri's Orphanage in Kemerovo, and ship them. He is 12. And I have no idea what to get. Nothing with batteries though... it's hard to have a toy with batteries and then the batteries die and you have nothing. I'm thinking two mitts and a ball, a Red Sox t-shirt... and some personal items. Some arts supplies? Open to your suggestions.
6. Maybe squeeze in a nap, maybe?
7. Receive 2 cords of wood sometime after 3pm. Which means clear a space in the shed so that we can start putting said cords away.
8. Look for more work.
9. Call Bank of America and bitch them out for the 22nd consecutive month about my mortgage (I'll write an entry about that later as it is its own horror story).
10. Help Geoff solidify the choices he has for music for an English class project on Lois Lowry's "The Giver."
11. Grocery shop for me.
12. Grocery shop for fresh fruit and welcome home items for Keri and Nastia
13. Stop at Keri's house after the house sitters are cleared from the site, or before and hug them hard and thank them profusely for their time there. What a blessing... what an amazing blessing.
14. Pick Keri and Nas up at the airport in Boston. Flight arrives at like 11:50 pm.
Sounds like a full day. And it is. I won't drink too much wine tonight. Heh.
We had a great Thanksgiving time. Jess made her trip via Chinese bus from Pittsburgh to Boston and met Doug at his office on Wednesday. He met her in the city and took her too his desk, where she snoozed and watched the Zakim Bridge and events unfolding nearby. He actually had to work the full day, no getting out early for him. So they got home at about 6:30 pm. My parents had arrived here at 11am, cutting short my efforts to clean the house but I guess I wasn't going to make much more progress than I already had. Things were clean enough for dinner on Thanksgiving and that's all that mattered.
In the afternoon, Geoff and I did the leaf thing at the old lady's house, see a few entries back. We got home and then went out to dinner with my entire family and it was nice. We went to the local pub, which I'm fond of, and I love our waitress. After 14 years here I'm starting to feel a little bit "townie," which is kind of odd.
Thursday morning Doug got up at 8am and went down and started turkey prep. I got up at 10 and he went and took a nap. My son peeled potatoes and carrots, and we prepped all the rest of the foodstuffs. Dinner was served at 12:30, and all I have to say is thank God for the DVR because we paused the Pats Game (who timed this meal to be ready at 12:30 when there was a Patriots game on. Honestly! heh).
Dinner was over at 1pm.
Naps were had. More football was watched. All told, everyone was fat and happy.
Friday, Doug had to work. It being the last Friday of the month, he teaches a class to incoming new hires and they're required to attend. He had 6 people there. And he got home at 6:30pm as usual, so we ordered pizza since most everyone but Doug had leftover turkey dinner products for lunch.
Saturday I went down to Keri's to decorate (see last entry) and got home in time to make 26 pounds of baked ziti at Jess' request. She was having people over for a bonfire, and I figured I'd make dinner. People weren't supposed to be there until 6pm but at 4pm there were 6 kids at my dining table. Liz and Jess were baking cookies and pies, as usual. I whipped up the ziti and seriously, 26 pounds of it... and I think I have a small ziplock bag leftover. The kids devoured it (as did Grandma and Grampa, who were still here, Geoff and Doug...)
My son and my father went out to build the bonfire, and honestly people, why send a city boy (my dad) 0ut to do something like that. He put 2 pizza boxes under 10 pieces of wood and thought that would start. I had to undo and redo everything.
Honestly, I'm a better Boy Scout than most of the men I know. Jeeesh.
Bonfire cranking, kids start showing up. It was an open invite so there were a couple people there that I didn't expect but one brought snacks so kudos to him.
I had invited one of Jess' classmates from Pittsburgh to come. She lives about 1/2 hour north of here, and I thought that since she was so close she should come to the party... she did, and I'm glad. It was nice to meet someone that Jess is friends with at school. She is so sweet and gentle.... very kind.
The party went until about midnight and I finally had to kick everyone out. Well, kicking everyone out meant that I drove home 3 kids who didn't have a ride and everyone else took care of themselves.
All told, a good time.
My parents left before I was out of bed on Sunday, which confused me. But whatever... they had their agenda. We went to church without a very sleepy Jessica, and the day devolved into Football and Fondue.
I'm sad to take her to the airport tomorrow, not so much because I'll miss her because heck, she'll be home in three weeks, but because I'm not interested in getting out of bed at half past oh my God thirty.
That's the update guys. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend too. No matter how you spent it.
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