Even Dead Birds Need Cleaning

I swear to you, this is not my fault.  But, I will be blamed, I have no doubt.  My sister a-ster might wish to kill me after reading this, but she'll have to catch me first, so I'm not too worried. I know Christmas is right around the corner and she might withhold all gifts after she sees this.  But I got the Acini de Pepe recipe in the mail from her today, so I'm all set.

It all came about because of this post that I read from the laundress over at laundry hurts my feelings.  You can go read it, but I warn you, you are best advised to use the facilities before you begin reading because if not, you might lose everything about halfway through.  It's a bit of a read, but I'll wait.  You'll have all your laughing muscles ALL warmed up after reading her.

Wasn't it the best thing you've read in ages?  I might have to go reread it because I just laughed so hard the other day I might do it again.  She has quite a knack for words.

So after I read her post, I sent it to my friends and mentioned that it reminded me of this story which my friend a-ster said I simply must tell.  So here I go.

My parents were away and we had our favorite babysitter c-ster staying with us.  Now, c-ster is a teacher, 3rd great in those days, so she knows kids.  And she knows that kids needed to be responsible for things.  She wasn't always clear about which responsibilities we actually had when our parents were home, but when she said hop to it, we usually did.  She believed in team work and everyone sharing the load and blah blah blah.

So, we had a cat that had a penchant for killing birds.  Yes, we live in a coyote infested area, but we have always believed in the live and let live philosophy, so our cats always went out.  And came back in.  And went back out and killed stuff.  And once or twice, might have tried to bring said killed stuff into the house.  Except the time that Dolcie brought a LIVE MOUSE into the house and wondered what all the fuss was about while my mother came unglued.  And my own Gwenstopher brought in a VERY FAT mouse/rat that was dead but just barely, and put it right at k-ster's feet in the living room.  I couldn't speak, I just stood there, hopping up and down, making noises and pointing while k-ster just looked at me and told me he didn't understand.   I didn't understand why he couldn't understand that wildlife was currently IN the house in a very mouse/rat like state.  And there was the time the one of my cats brought in a live baby bunny and let it get stuck behind the radiator.  I came down to find two cats who were exceptionally interested in the radiator, in the middle of July.  And then I saw the source.  And the poor bunny was missing some fur. So I took it to wildcare in hopes they would care for and release this wild bunny.  Because 15,000 bunnies in my yard shows they must be nearing extinction and I have to to my part to help stop that.

So, we noticed that whichever cat we had at that time had killed a robin or something like it and left it on the deck.  I think my mother would have just removed it herself, while muttering Ew gross or UGh God a lot.  Or maybe she would have told my father to get rid of it.  Just a shovel and a swing over the fence would have sufficed.  But c-ster wasn't going to clean it up and there were no big strong men to do it.  So, she told my sister a-ster to do it.  I can't imagine why I didn't get the job, since I was the oldest.  Maybe I wasn't home or I was upstairs, out of sight.  That makes sense because I think I heard about this first part, rather than experiencing it first hand.  And I certainly would have prevented what resulted below if I had been present. 

A couple of days went by and I noticed a stream of ants making their way to the forbidden living room.  When my parents built their house, the one I currently live next to in the "old house", we finally had a living room and a family room.  Somehow the formal living room became that room that no one was really supposed to be in, certainly not with food or dirty shoes.  To this day, the furniture in there is in most excellent shape because it gets used so rarely.  Dolcie loved to sneak in and sleep there.  And a few times, I've read a book in there.  I think I caught my mother in there reading once or twice.  And I think I recall someone being entertained in there a few times.  It was always my fantasy, and still is, that the Christmas tree would go in there and we'd have Christmas in there.  It's really perfect for it.  But, no cigar.  It hosts a great deal of quilts that are completed or about to be.  And sometimes clean laundry on its way upstairs.  But NEVER NEVER NEVER was it host to ants.  Until this day. 

So, I told c-ster about this parade of ants and she told me to see if I could find the source.  I have to stop here for a second.  I am making c-ster out to be some kind of cigarette smoking, soap opera watching babysitter, Miller High Life drinking wench when she could not have been more unlike that.  She was always doing something: cooking, cleaning up, correcting papers, dealing with her own kids which came when she'd stay with us.  She was a great babysitter and I am not portraying her properly here.  She was more about finding out for yourself and figuring out a solution.  The teacher in her, I swear. 

I discovered the tasty treat that the ants could not resist.  The Dustbuster.  Yes, in addition to hosting an odd assortment of laundry or quilts, the formal living room was also the home to the Dustbuster.  Ironic.  So, I told c-ster that the Dustbuster was the source of the ants and what did she make me do?  Open it. 

Guess what was inside????  Yep, just about the whole bird.  A-ster had taken the Dustbuster out to the deck and sucked up all the feathers to clean it up, just like c-ster said.  And then she was so careful to put it back right where it belonged.  Without emptying it.  Or telling anyone.

Steve and Rene Duking It Out In My Pants

If you've been paying any blogtention to what I post, you might know that I have issues with underwear.  I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but I have had far too many pair of underwear just disintegrate before my eyes lately.  I would blame it on the laundry soap, but it's only my underwear that is being attacked by whatever it is that eats through them until you could read a newspaper through them and then there's a hole.  And unlike some, I refuse to wear underwear that has holes unless the holes occur as I wear them and I have to wait until the end of the day(like in my brand new pair the other day).

My dilemma is that I am very particular about how they fit and I have a hard time finding underwear that make me happy.  Must be cotton, can't be thongs, no granny panties, many rules.  Oh and most especially, NOT BLACK.  We aren't sure why, by my sisters and I remember my mother always saying you can't wear underwear that has a black crotch, so we are afraid to.

A long time ago, I was introduced to the Rene Rofe line of underwear.  You might also know them as Rene Rafe.  I know them as Filene's Basement's best kind of underwear. You buy them in packages of 6, right at the checkout, and they are just perfect.  They fit great.  They last forever.  They are stylish.  Then our Filene's Basement closed.  That was truly a tragic day because I didn't know that no one else on earth, including the Rene whatever company themselves, sells these things!  But, I had plenty, so I was fine.  Until about a year ago when they all started falling apart at once.

So  it became a mission that when one of us was near a Filene's Basement, we'd look for them.  We even made a special stop when I went to help my sister a-ster move.  They had the brand, but only in some terrible style and size large of what I needed.  I need small.  So sad.  But I did get an awesome shirt that day, so it was worth it.  My sister e-ster found them but they had 2 pair of black, so I only ended up with 4.  And they didn't fit so well.  The elastic was weird.  And I've had them like 6 months and they are starting to ruin.  Then I made a trip to the big city a few weeks ago  and lo and behold, they had them!  In ridiculous colors, but they had them!  So I bought one package.  For $9.99.  I think they used to be $6.99.  So when I took them out, I knew right away they were no good.  Each pair was cut completely differently and of the 6 pair, only one felt really good.  So sad.  And one completely fell apart the other day so by the end of the afternoon, I had a giant hole on one side.

So, Rene?  Ummm we're through.  I put up with a lot of shenanigans with you, but you've disappointed me twice, so we're all done.

Ladies, let's welcome Steve.  I have no idea who makes Steve.  They had them at TJ Maxx.  So I took a risk and bought 2 pair.  HELLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOO Steve!!  You are my new favorite brand.  I promise I will try to take care of you.  And maybe I will stop doing whatever it is that makes all of my underwear wear out.  Perhaps I'm wearing pants that have zippers that rub on them and wear them out?  I'll be careful....I bought 2 and of course, there are no more.  Perhaps I need to stop buying my underwear at outlets and closeout places so I can actually go back and buy more when I want them and not get the miscut knock offs.  But who will spend 6-10 dollars on underwear???  That falls apart anyway because something is eating at them??? Not me!!!

My mother always gives us underwear in our stockings, yes, even in our 30s, so I've had a great supply until now.  It seems since last Christmas, I have had just about every pair "wear out" and have had to replace them and very few actually please me.  But now I have Steve.  A white Steve and a pink Steve.  And the pink is just the best shade of pink.  It makes me so happy to wear that color.

Although today, I think I noticed that they say St. Eve but that little dot is so tiny and the words are smooshed together, so it reads like Steve.  So now I get to snicker every time I go to the bathroom because I thought my underwear said Steve.That's probably how they made it to TJMaxx.  Too many ladies freaked out to wear Steve underwear.

Rene's history, I'm all about Steve.

Thanksgiving Hoopla

I'm not sure why, but posting this has been stuck in my brain and can't seem to get onto the page.  Maybe because the drama that some people thought would ensue did not.  I know some of you have the music all set to crank up when you do the I told you so dance, but really, there's not a lot to tell.  I could make up stories about the turkey being done at midnight on Thanksgiving, so we were forced to gnaw on the railing that s-ster just installed.  I could tell you that we got into such a brawl over something trivial that we will never be allowed back.  I could say that the sisters made such embarrassments of themselves that the men left and didn't come home until they were stinking drunk.  I could say that k-ster and I had to pull over on the highway because we were having such a fight that no one could drive.  I could tell you those all of those things, but they would not be true.  There seems to be a myth in my family that when I am involved in something with one or both of my sisters, it can only end in pure ugliness.  Not true, not true, not true.

For those who just tuned in, k-ster and I drove to my sister a-ster's house for Thanksgiving this year.  My sister e-ster was here with her boyfriend and my parents were in Florida with my mother's brothers and their wives.  So, we had family togetherness, just not the normal family togetherness we usually have.  A-ster and s-ster (yes, s-ster welcome to the blog.  I know you've been waiting  with baited breath and you've finally made it~!) live, let's say,  in the middle of the country.  I flew down in July to help them move and thought maybe joining them for Thanksgiving would be fun and certainly cheaper than flying to Florida, as we usually do every other year.  I thought it would be fun to drive, since flying really wasn't such a hoot in July.  Remember when flying was hassle free?  And we'd have our own vehicle in case we had to make a break for it so we could do things at our leisure.

The ride there wasn't bad at all. One toll, not too much traffic, pretty scenery.  Really, no biggie.  I hate to drive and go on long rides, but this was ok.  I did have a moment when I regretted my decision to try to crochet and had to stop all movement for a while and get my head back from its state of near nausea.  I thought I might have outgrown that carsick feeling from reading and crafting, but, no such luck.  We got there at supper time, my father's favorite way to estimate time.  We'd always be somewhere by supper time.  Or we'd be back by supper time.  We always eat supper, not dinner.  A-ster made supper that night.  I'm not used to her fancy cooking, so I wasn't sure what to do when she served this.  Was it soup?  K-ster hates soup, what am I going to tell her???

Just kidding, that was the turkey brining overnight.  Can you see how big that bird is for just 4 people??? It was 21 pounds!  She got it from a farm down the road, so we know where it came from and that was cool.  I was expecting some skinny thing because she ordered it in July, when they were still chicks. I figured they'd be half grown by now. I didn't expect anything like this.  I will say that turkey is turkey, but the thing I noticed about this one is that NO ONE smelled like turkey for the rest of the day.  One of the things I hate about Thanksgiving is that once you're done and people start digesting, that's all you smell for days to come.  Not this bird.  We ate it the next day and night too, same thing.  And I stole some for the ride home.  No problems there either.  So, lesson learned.  To keep from stinking up the car smelling like turkey, don't eat commercially grown birds.

I don't think I talked much about the surroundings of a-ster and s-ster's house, so I'll elaborate here.  I think k-ster was as surprised as I was the first time I saw it.  I had expected somewhat of a classy place, being that they were so excited to be moving, but I had to bite my tongue when I saw it.  Even this time, it sort of took my breath away.  She'd told me they had done some work on it and  I realized they did try to jazz it up, what with all of that lawn ornamentation.

You can take the girl out of the trailer park , but you just can't take the trailer living out of the girl.

Ok, ok, I kid.  On their side of the street, all of the houses look like this.

No, this is not their actual house, so if you are googling it so you can go and steal all of their belongings, you lose.  This is on their street, not their actual house.  These are what I consider normal houses, on a normal street.  Why the aforeshown mobile home is 1/4 mile down that same road, and the only one on that road, is a mystery to me. Especially mysterious since right across their street, all of the houses look like this.

It's kind of strange neighborhood, architecturally speaking.  Giant mcmansions on the right, normal one story houses on the left.  Rolling hills and what looks like it might have been farmland on the right, portioned lots with fenced yards on the left. And a random mobile home that has 2 other trailers beside it(you can't really see them off to the right), kind of like in-law apartments.   I went out for a walk on Thanksgiving and took these pictures.  It was a gray day, cold, and not so great.  It was only when I came up on this that I knew why they chose this street.

Yes, it's a mess.  Ramshackle remains of buildings.  Right next to the mobile home.  A lot like some of the yards we know around here.  This could be the yard we grew up in or it could be Audrey and Alec's.  You don't need to know who they are because they are long dead and gone, but we know and someone is smirking right now because they know how true this is.  So, while I puzzle over how someone can move as many times as she has and know that this is the place she wants to stay for a while, I  find reasons for what makes it all tick.  It must be that she knows if she gets homesick, she can just walk down the road and get lost in a field of rundown crap and she'll almost feel like she's 8 again.  .  Or maybe it's this.

The proverbial ditch.  This is so foreign to us around here.  We have nothing like this on our streets.  No drainage ditches, just drains right on the side of the road.  These always remind me of my cousin's house in Louisville because that is probably the first time I saw them.  All I kept thinking about was snakes must live there.  And small children must crawl into those tunnels.  And now my sister has one right across the street from her.  Maybe she likes the thrill of never knowing what might crawl out of it.  Or maybe that she will sleep walk one night and fall into it and she'll have a great story to tell about the night she fell in the ditch.  Or maybe she'll have a golfcart some day and end up driving right into it like some friends of ours did in Florida once.  Or maybe so she will be able to tell her kids to stay away from the ditch and say it in horror or italics every time like it's really the scariest place on earth.

So, Thanksgiving was a day of cooking (for a-ster), correcting papers (for me) and watching football (for the boys and for a-ster for about 10 minutes).  In a-ster's kitchen, only a-ster lifts a finger.  I washed a dish and two mugs and that was all I was allowed to do.  She didn't want help, so I sat at the table and graded a mountain of papers.  And marveled that she has this great counter/cutting area because I like space to cook and this is space.

We had turkey, two kinds of stuffing (one had hamburger, so I didn't have it), potatoes, winter squash, Brussels sprouts, green bean casserole and cranberry sauce.  I think there must have been another dish but I can't remember what it was. I didnt' have the green bean casserole until the following day because I just don't think cheese belongs on the Thanksgiving table.  Plus I think it was even better the next day because anything with cheese is better on day 2.  We ate some time after the game, it was dark, so I have no idea what time it was.  Then we finished the meal with a fabulous Italian concoction.  It's called something di pepe (aci? api?  I forget).  It's like ambrosia with little pepe which is pasta that looks like tapioca.  It's custardy with canned fruit and the little pepe.  FAB-U-LOUS and truly better on day 2 and probably even better on day 3.  Again, not Thanksgiving like, but I couldn't resist.  Later, we had dessert which was either apple or pecan pie, or both.

We went to the zoo on Friday, instead of shopping like those other maniacs out there.  I am sure the traffic we drove in was caused by the nut jobs who were trying to get a bargain.  You might be surprised that I like zoos, being so nature loving and crunchy as I am.  But I just can't resist a zoo, especially if I think the animals are being treated OK, which I think they were at this one.  And it was free, so what's better than a free trip to the zoo?  That night, we drove to a big park that had those big light displays and you drive through and see them.  It was fun and not so cheesy like the one I went to here one time.  It was cheesy, dont' get me wrong, but it wasn't 1970s cheesy like the one I went to here.  This was just corny.  The one I went to here had lights that looked like they were from 1970 and needed some serious updating.

And that was it. Then it was home on Saturday.  Another harmless drive.  K-ster didn't threaten to leave me at a rest area.  I didn't tell him that if he didn't slow down I was going to jump out of the car.  We did hit more traffic than I expected for a Saturday and since we came home a different way, we paid tolls up the butt.  But it was slightly faster so now we have to decide which way is better if we drive next time.

See, we didn't get into trouble, so there will be a next time!

So, put away the I told you so music and save it for another time.

Feel Good Friday- Back in the Saddle!

Oh yeah, we are SO back! The Girl had the NERVE to take off last Friday and I just haven't been right all week, not giving my top 5 feel good moments last week. Ok, I might not have had time anyway but.... Here's my first feel good moment of the week, followed by 4 other things, in no particular order.

1. I'm supposed to do this in the first paragraph, but my paragraphs are small, so I hope this still counts. I was contacted by CSN stores to promote them on my blog and get something in exchange!! Isn't this one of the secret reasons we all blog???? Getting free stuff? Getting to give MY OPINION about something for all to see??? You mean my word might be good enough for people to read and believe???  Oh stop, you're making me blush....So, I checked them out, and they have so many stores online, I was amazed. I wasn't even sure where to begin. Then I headed to the kitchen,  because I am so practical. They have everything you can imagine, from small appliances to dinnerware, to inexpensive gadgets, to counter height stools.  And that's just in the kitchen!  Oh, if only I had a bar where I could use these stools! Putting a bar in my kitchen now would be great fun, if we were trying to add just one more obstacle in the already small kitchen we have.  But I do love bars/islands/counters in the kitchen instead of a table. Some day we'll blow out the kitchen and have one to die for and I'll have an island big enough for guests to sleep on. But that's for another feel good friday.  Anyfreebie, I'm in the process of choosing what I want on the CSN website to review, so stay tuned and see what tickles my fancy!  Given my propensity for finding underwear that just doesn't work for me, maybe I'll see if they have any panties I can get into a bunch.

2.  So, at some point, I really am going to do a post about the Thanksgiving extravaganza, but in the meantime, I'll say that it was a pleasant drive to and from my sister a-ster's house.  K-ster and I didn't kill each other.  We didn't even come close.  We ran into traffic both ways, though we went out one way and came back the other.  Both have their advantages and disadvantages, so we'll have to think about what we want to do next time.  Less time but more tolls, or more time and only one, cheap toll?  Being so thrifty, that's a big question for me to wrestle with.  I plan to give the train a whirl if I go by myself next time, but with 2 people, it's really cheaper to drive.

3.  I saw an owl in nature for the first time this week!  I've seen them in zoos and on tv and in books, but never in real life.  Pretty sad since I didn't grow up in a city, this is prime nature territory here!  This was the coolest thing. It was dusk and I was cooling out Tucker in the woods and there was a big bird right over us and it was making this really cool whoosh sound, barely audible.  I figured Tuck would go berserk but he didn't, so I slowed him down and the owl perched on a tree just over my head.  I was looking around, thinking:  this is when he's going to just bolt and I'll lose my balance and break my head just because I was so busy looking at an owl.  I decided we had to keep going, so we went off, hoping that maybe on the way back, like 10 minutes, it would still be there and I'd get to look right at its face, but no such luck.  It was just the coolest feeling:  out on a horse, just after dusk, an owl overhead.  It was almost creepy but I try not to creep myself out when I'm on a large animal in the woods!

4.  All of my students who are doing a penpal exchange with a teacher in France actually got their holiday cards and letters to me on time so I can mail them this weekend.  This may sound like small potatoes, but unless you deal with the mentality of today's 11-14 year old, you have NO CLUE how difficult it is to get anything back from them on time!  Now our French friends will be so pleased!

5.  The woman who won my lia sophia holiday jewelry basket is someone I actually have known for a while and I'm glad.  It's always nice to know that someone who will appreciate the jewelry actually wins it.  And she told me she will regift those pieces she didn't like, so I'm glad they won't just sit in her jewelry box doing nothing because she doesn't like them.  I'm all over regifting!

So that's it for these 2 weeks.  Check back to see what this free product thing from CSN stores is really all about!  And I swear a review of the Thanksgiving hits will be coming soon!

After the Maid, Comes the Chauffeur

I have to say that I have a theory about the word origin of chauffeur.  In French, rechauffer means to warm something up.  Chauffeurs like to warm up the car for you.  Therefore, a chauffeur is one who warms up the car so he can drive you to your destination.  But if you look up the origin, this is not the case.

Any driver, my point is that I need one.  A driver, not a point.  It's not that I am a snob, and feel that I am too good to drive.   I just find myself in the car so often when I have a great idea, or need to do something, and I can't take my hands off the wheel to do it.  So many ideas, lost because I couldn't act on them because I had to drive myself from point A to point B.  And most of my drives do not involve traffic, so it's not like I can do these marvelous things while I am stuck in traffic and can actually take my eyes off the road.  I just find driving to be such a waste of time.  And since I'm going to waste my money on a maid whose only job is to make my sheets clean and crispy every day and make my bed with them fresh every morning, I figure it's time to splurge on a chauffeur.  Here are my choices:

I figure as long as she is in the car with me and I can keep my eye on her, it's no problem, right?

Then I looked at this guy:

But I don't think I want to be seen with someone leering like that every second.  I dont' feel that I would actually get to my destination in one piece.  Like he might like to serve me in pieces at his next meal.

So I guess I'll settle for this one:

Greenhouse Baby Steps

If you've been following the GREENHOUSE SAGA, here is the latest installment.  What started as a fun idea and took forever for me to make a decision has turned into a thorn in my side. I am about ready to name the company I bought it from and say very bad things about them but I want the thing to at least be standing up before I totally slam them.

After the grave disappointment of not have all 10 ground posts the day we started, I was elated when the customer service lady told me that it would be no problem to ship the remaining 3 posts and the other thing we were missing.  She said they'd come UPS, free of charge.  I'm already worked up over the shipping charges since we had to go get some of it, but that's for another day.  I've been in touch with my buddy Kirk who doesnt' really seem to get how mad I am about the shipping and handling fees, and I'm going to keep telling him I am unsatsified and he'll keep ignoring me and someone will eventually give up.  It is not likely to be me.

However, k-ster decided today to put in the final 3 ground posts and then see what he could get done.  It's cold, but maybe it will go smoothly and be fun.  It's very sunny and warm if you have on enough dark clothes.  So, while I was out, he went to work.  Until only TWO of the 3 ground posts were in the box!!!!  It said 3 on the invoice, the lady's email said 3.  How hard is it to count????  So once again, we are stuck.  Yet another good weather day lost for this project.

After lots of sighing and saying mean things and me calling Kirk to leave a message about my fury, we decided we can at least set up the 5 rafters which frame the whole thing.  They can't stand up yet, but we played with one so we can see how it will look.  Then we assembled the 5 of them on the ground, so they are ready to go as soon as the damned ground post arrives.

They went together so quickly and smoothly that it really does give me hope that any idiot we can do this without incident.  It's one of those things that looks like it can go together really easily but then you get into the heart of it and you need to have a phD in engineering.  Hopefully this is not the case.  It kind of seems like the IKEA of the farm buildings world.

Speaking of farms, on the way to my sister a-ster's house, we passed much farmland and I can't tell you how many greenhouses and plastic tarped buidlings we saw.  This really seems to be the way of the building future. 

I have some fun tidbits from my Thanksgiving 4 day trip that I will share this week, so stay tuned.

Thanksgiving in A Few Answers

Can't come up with my own ideas today, so I'm taking Joyce's idea from here and doing Wednesday Hodgepodge--Thanksgiving Edition

1. If you had known what they knew then, would you have boarded the Mayflower?
I 'm not sure what this means.  If it means that I knew the king wasn't making life easy and it was time to leave, then I think I would have left if everyone I knew was going with me.  Or a lot of people that I knew, at least.  But I would have had to REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hate it because leaving home for good isn't really something I do.  And as you will soon see, I'm not a boat person.  And knowing what I know now about the soundness of the Mayflower and its propensity for leaking, as well as stinking to high heaven with people smelling and being sick, I know I would not have been able to do it.  Have you ever been to Plymouth, MA to see the replica?  It is so much tinier than you could ever imagine.  Really.  The history books, and our elementary teachers lead us to believe it was a cruise ship, by 1600s standards, but it was very small.
2. How far have you traveled on a boat and how do you feel about boats in general?
From the boat trips I can remember, I think the farthest I might have gone on a boat is about 19 miles.  That's from England to France on a ferry.  There is a time that I might have gone on some kind of ferry with my family because I have a vague notion of our motorhome being on one level while we were on another, but I can't remember where we were.  Which is weird because...

I have a strong aversion to boats.  I have lived all of my life, except the college years, less than 1/4 mile from the ocean.  I sailed beetlcat boats in a small, protected bay and loved it.  But that's it.  I have never been on a cruise and don't ever plan to go on one.  I have been held hostage a couple of times by my father on his boat and haven't loved it.  I don't trust the ocean.  I have never been seasick but I also don't trust my stomach, so that adds to my dislike of boats.  K-ster and I were talking about where to spread my ashes, and I told him if he thinks he will take me to do things when I'm dead that I would never do when I was alive, I will remain in hell for eternity.  No sprinkling of my ashes over the sea, please!  And no bungee jumping or anything else that I refuse to do now. 
3. What traditions have you kept, acquired thru marriage, and/or tossed? If you're single what are some of your family's favorite Thanksgiving traditions?

For many, many Thanksgivings, we were in Florida.  So  many times did we spend Thanksgiving in shorts, I actually resented the few times that I wasn't in Florida and had to actually freeze.  Like the time when I was in high school and we had a blizzard on Thanksgiving and the football game had to be cancelled.  Although, that was kind of fun because did assinine things in the snow before being sent home.  As adults, we have gone to Florida every two years, or so, but with plane tickets costing too many limbs, and passengers being total assholes during that time, the appeal has been lost, and we've done it less and less.  I guess, the traditions that I have are that I always have turkey, and depending on where I am and who is cooking, the rest is up for grabs.  My least favorite meal was the year that my grandmother and I were home for Thanksgiving, while everyone else was in Florida, and she thought it would be great to make turkey soup.  But she didn't put in the bullion.  So we had hot water with turkey in it.  Mmmmm. 

One Thanksgiving tradition that sort of popped up during the college years, was for 2 sets of aunts and uncles, and sometimes their kids and sometimes their kids, to meet us all in Florida on one of those every two years.  The day itself was always a frenzy, sometimes full of laughter, sometimes full of wishing for more laughter.  That night, we would always go somewhere, usually to some part of Disney that let us in for free and had pretty lights and stuff.  And usually, the following day was Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon. 

Thank you to all of the airlines who got together to SCREW the common folk out of every penny they have and, as though that were not enough, to also JAM them together like cattle in planes and be MEAN so that these Thanksgiving memories become fewer and farther between.  Giving thanks, right this minute.

4. What time is dinner and how many will be round your table? And what is the one side dish you cannot do without on Thanksgiving day?

This was a new one for us.  We decided not to fly, teaching the airlines a lesson or two, and drove to my sister a-ster's house.  They just moved into this house in July, you might remember my tales of the visit to help her move, so this was their first Thanksgiving in this house.  Normally, Thanksgiving dinner has been served around 1pm, whether at my mother's house or k-ster's.  We knew this would be later because the Patriots were playing the Lions and everyone but me cared.  So, it was like 5:30pm when we actually ate.  There were just the 4 of us.  And enough food to feed the block.  She made some dishes that were new for us, like green bean casserole, brussels sprouts, s-ster's favorite stuffing, another stuffing, her own cranberry sauce, and then the standards.  One side dish I cannot live without on Thanksgiving is cranberry sauce.  Make it yourself, pop it out of a can, I don't care, but don't try to have Thanksgiving with me without it.
5. Have you ever used a fire extinguisher?

Nope.  I accidentally made one go off by dropping it, but it was outside and I was OK with the mess.  K-ster was not so happy because it belonged in his truck. I was so impressed that he was so careful he actually had a fire extinguisher in his truck!
6. Tell about a situation that caused you dreadful trepidation and feet dragging, only to realize later it was a true blessing.

There are so many, from ridiculous to extreme, I don't know where I would even begin.  I could drag my feet over a trip to the bathroom, so I really have nothing special and juicy that comes to mind.  I would say that leaving in January for a 5 month stint in France during my sophomore year caused me a lot of trepidation.  But I now teach French and refer back to that experience almost daily, so who knew?

7. Baked, sweet, mashed, hash browned or french fried...which one's your favorite? I

Baked if you have sour cream for me.
Sweet if the only other choice is mashed white potatoes.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I don't believe in Black Friday and getting up at some ridiculous hour to go stand in line and risk the life being stomped out of me, but I just received an email about a particular item being on sale at a ridiculous amount online at 12:01am and k-ster has mentioned numerous times that he wants this.  Beginning at midnight, I can supposedly get it at like 25% its normal cost.  So I'm going to give it a whirl.  I'm staying up for 10 more minutes just so I can do this.  And no, k-ster, this is not one of those high ticket items you always talk about, don't get too excited.  But it might keep you occupied when you have your foot up.
Now go link with Joyce and do your own Hodgepodge.