Monday

Hello, All! Long time no post!

Second most exciting thing that's happened lately (the first being the election of course, which I have too much to say about so I'll save it for later)--friends are loaning us their time share so we're probably going to be spending a week in Atlantic City this June. Atlantic City is far from our first choice of vacation BUT it's only 1 hour from the delightful Andy, Lysa and no-longer-baby-C. (Surprise Andy and Lysa!!) And it's also close to NYC! We've spent some time this week haggling over what we can fit into one day in NYC. Our list is fat. Too fat, in fact so we're having to pare down. Claudia's wanting to ditch the Statue of Liberty of all things. Too touristy, she says. She's adamant about a tour of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Jordan wants to see Wall Street (she's an interesting child, I think. For Christmas she wants a typewriter, a record player, a perfume atomizer and a scarf like Grace Kelly's). I haven't checked with Sammy yet, but will get her input on Wednesday.

I'm considering organizing an interfaith, city-wide gay marriage-rights rally, which Jamie suggested I do and I'm thinking it's a good idea. I'm sick over Prop 8. Sick. From what I understand the LDS church (or their members) donated a ton of money to pass that proposition and seriously, it's more than time for liberal faith communities to be heard on this issue.

I think I have a bead on what's causing my migraines! Seems like the tipping point is food. In other words, it could be hormonal, barometric pressure, stress and temperature or any combination of those, but certain foods seem to be the tipping point. So far the culprits are cinnamon and msg.

Claudia's planning a birthday party (OMG, she's going to be 14 next month!!). So far she wants to invite 24 people and four of those are boys that will be leaving around 11. So yes, that's right, that means 20 of the invitees are girls and the party's a sleepover. I love Claudia a lot. Can you tell?

My friend, Melissa, who spends a lot of time in Mexico, makes a mole turkey every year for Thanksgiving at her house in Austin. I said, Melissa, I want to make a mole turkey this year but I can't eat the peanuts and almonds. She said, you can't make mole without that stuff! So she gave me this recipe for Pollo en Pipian Verde (chicken in pumpkin seed sauce) and I'm so super excited about it! I'm going to make a regular turkey and also the pumpkin seed sauce on just a breast. We're having Thanksgiving the weekend before, on Saturday the 24th so we can have Sam with us (she spends Thanksgiving every year with her mom). Walter and Beverly are going to join us and possibly Jason and Leah and anyone else who would like to join us is welcome. We're probably just going to have a casual buffet, come by whenever kind of thing going on. We'll also be serving my grandmother's cornbread dressing (if any other Texan ever tells you their grandmother's dressing is the best, don't believe them, because it's not!) and my mother's sweet potatoes and fried apples. Also on the menu--Jamie's family tradition of Stove Top Stuffing and corn. And of course, various other things. I will selflessly cook with cinnamon for you all and then selflessly not eat any of it. But no, no--I'm fine. Really. You just enjoy.

It's ok.

Look! Dog costumes were on sale at Target so this is our dog dressed as a lobster.


Turns out, he doesn't seem to like it when the kids gleefully cram him into it (they don't make costumes for portly dogs, apparently, so it's a little snug on him) so there's some snapping, but then once it's on, he likes it!