November 21

It's Saturday. We're catching up on the chores we avoided last weekend by visiting my Mom in Arizona.

Speaking of said trip, I took a little heat for my post visit post about being frustrated by my wife's driving. For those who took exception, I can only say that if you have never ridden with my wife you need to experience it before passing judgment.

I have two major concerns.

1. Riding in the left lane and consistently forcing people to pass on the right. Mostly this concerns me because I’m sitting on the passenger side and first in line for a drive by shooting.
   
2. The stuff she eats while driving. Salads? Broccoli & cheese stuffed baked potatoes? Eating those is a two-handed operation. How is she steering? “One hand on your burrito and the other on the wheel” is my mantra.
   
   Well, three major concerns.
   
3. I’m old and don’t have much time to live and don’t want to spend any more time than necessary in transit.
   
   OK, four…
   
4. Aging is supposed to slow as one approaches the speed of light. So, the way I drive I’m actually increasing my longevity.

Oh and, I do NOT channel Mario Andretti and Spartacus while driving. It’s Jackie Stewart and Judah Ben-Hur.

Regardless, Denise delivered us safely back to our happy home, which I will confess is the important thing.

So, today we started off in the garden, which we haven't seen much of lately. It's dark so early it's hard to get anything accomplished out there during the week. Here it is late November and we're still pulling things out of the garden like crazy; tomatillos, eggplants, zucchini, bell peppers, jalapenos, cherry and roma tomatoes, anaheim chiles, grapefruit, and even a couple green beans.

After the garden, we started cleaning out the fridge and freezers in anticipation of Thanksgiving. Need someplace to put all the groceries for next Thursday. Cleaning out the fridge is always dangerous, because I find about 500 things I'd forgotten we had in there and immediately start preparing a bizarre assortment of foods. Frozen grapes, green olive tapenade on sourdough, sirloin burgers, pumpkin butter, seared albacore with a wasabe/soy dipping sauce. Found a boat load of frozen lime juice from last years lime crop so I felt obligated to mix up a few Margaritas.

Anyway, this evening we actually have freed up enough room to get our turkey into the fridge.

Thanksgiving should be fairly nice. Both the boys will be home for the holiday and we'll have a few others of my family up for dinner.

Jake is scheduled to arrive at Ontario airport Monday morning, flying down from Sacramento where he is supposed to be spending the weekend with his brother. Hopefully he makes his flight and arrives on time as he has an appointment with his surgeon at Loma Linda also on Monday morning. This will be a follow-up to his earlier surgeries and prep for upcoming surgery to install a dental implant to replace the tooth knocked out in his crash.

Nick has class through Wednesday, so he will not be home until late that evening. The good news for Nick is that my Extra Special Bitter will have completed its required two weeks of bottled fermentation and should be ready to drink. Of course, I have no idea what it's going to taste like, so maybe it will be less than good news.

I also purchased an ingredient kit for some Holiday Ale that I'd like to try for Christmas. Nick wants me to wait until he's home before starting the brew so that he can observe the process. Oh well, what's another recipe when it comes to Thanksgiving.