Dinner guests

Thanksgiving week has been progressing nicely, and I can already tell it will be really hard getting back to school tomorrow to wrap up the last two and a half weeks of class before finals. I really hate these 15 week semesters.

In the days leading up to the time when turkeys really should be laying low in hiding, we were graced with the company of our group of twelve! In the early morning before Thanksgiving, they were right in our neighborhood again, even wandering up to our front porch! As charming as it was, I couldn't help but to feel bad knowing that they really ought to be out in the woods, not dodging traffic and going door to door looking for handouts. (Our neighbor was tossing them bread from her front steps, but thankfully other than that we haven't seen people feed them.) At least they seem to be doing well and their numbers have not diminished since we first saw them a couple weeks ago.


The next day, we ate one of their domestic cousins at the home of Bud (Seth's uncle) and Jean. They had all their kids over, including Seth's cousins Karen, Beth, and Mark and their families. It was nice to see Gina, Mark, Adah, and Kate again. Besides spending a day with Gina and the girls in Raleigh over the summer, we hadn't seen the gang since they moved to VA about a year and a half ago. We were also happy to see Chrissy and her family, even though they live practically down the road. It was such a great time catching up with our 'New England family'!

Jean putting the finishing touches on the 7 or 8 types of sweet potato and squash (YUM!)

The kids' table with the respective parents

Like so many others, this weekend we put out our Christmas decorations, ours being particularly sparse and mediocre (the showpieces include a large Santa Clause candle and about 10 nutcrackers of various sizes). However, with the weather persisting in the 60s--interrupted by a small scattering of days in the low 40s--it feels rather out of season...

Turkey Time

It is nice to be in the US, where Thanksgiving and the over-marketing of Christmas really help to make the holiday season festive (I am being only slightly critical here; I really do love this time of year in this country!).

One of the nice surprises is that a few of my classes/labs will not be held this week, which means I only have ONE class during these NINE days! Besides the pesky distraction of a project and exam to prepare for, I am totally on Turkey Time :o) So, I finally have some time to go through the massive cookbook my parents got for me as a late birthday gift (they waited to order the second edition which just came out a month or so ago). It is 1500 pages of Italian cuisine, but with some other influences, mostly French.

Here is the grand-daddy of cookbooks, The Silver Spoon.

Two nights ago I made eggplant fricassee (stewed eggplant with an egg-lemon sauce--must be French), and last night we had spinach ricotta gnocchi (the picture shown here in the book; I was too lazy and hungry to photograph the dish before eating it, hah).

Besides cooking, Seth and I spent an evening watching a show suggested by my microbiology professor. Thankfully it aired on PBS, which meant we could watch it streaming off the internet (this is very nice for those of us who are TV-deficient). It is a wonderful and extremely fascinating story called My Life as a Turkey (click the link), about a man who becomes the mother of 16 wild turkeys. After watching it I can't stop thinking about those 12 that live in our neighborhood!

A weekend away

Two weeks ago Seth went off to sunny California for the annual AMS meeting. While he was spending 5 days scoping out the sea lions, hippies, and Occupy protesters in San Francisco and Berkeley I was home hitting the books, working on presentations, and studying for exams. It is always strange being home alone for more than a few hours at a time (especially without Lorenzo for company), but the busy week was broken up with my own trip out of town for the annual church retreat to Vermont. It was mostly time to relax, gawk at all the wonderful scenery, and do some hiking up Magic Mountain (yes, that is its real name!).

Near the summit of Magic Mountain

Heading back down--it was steeper (and slipperier) than I recalled!

It was also pretty wet, so we let the pastor go first.

Sammy, who just came from Rwanda, saw his first icicles.

We were glad to return to the lodge before sunset (ie 4:20pm)

Everyone was busy painting on Sunday morning

Don't be fooled by the bunnies

Tricks and Treats

So, as predicted, there was indeed another, larger, round of snow that hit last weekend. It dumped about 6 inches of very heavy, wet snow, not unlike what North Carolina might get in January. That, combined with the dusting we had two nights prior, smashed the previous October snow fall record of a whopping 1.25 inches. As strange at that was, many of the trees here still have their leaves! They began changing colors like they were supposed to back in mid-September, but they should have all fallen by mid-October. I'd reckon at least half the deciduous trees still have branches full of leaves, many of which are still green!! It is like we are frozen in time! This made the snow last week especially annoying because icy, snowy branches are rather heavy, and many downed branches and trees blocked roadways and toppled power lines. Our run Sunday morning through Prospect Hill seemed risky (we could hear the cracking of trees and limbs all around us), but the rare spectacle of the fresh snow combined with colorful fall foliage drooping downwards into long tunnels was also extremely beautiful. I am still kicking myself for not bringing my camera!

A splendid February morning

Oh wait, it is still October...

The snow didn't last long and by Monday we were certainly good to head to Salem for some Halloween fun. I decided I had to do pull together some sort of costume again this year so I joined an estimated 25% of all other girls and I put on some cat ears. At least I made my own. As lame as the costume was, I am sure I was warmer than the other 75% of the girls out there!

Salem!

This guy we found slinking around had the coolest mask
Some more very awesome and spooky costumes

Salem always has these religious people strutting around and shouting things. I never know if they are in costume or if they are the real deal, which would be infinitely more creepy.

We found where all the high schoolers were hanging out

How cute!

I loved these big, fuzzy horses. They looked so warm.