THANKSGIVING 2008

I went down to NH to spend Thanksgiving with my "adopted" family. It's where I've spent the last 17 Thanksgivings. It was a wonderful time, made even better by Teddy coming with! My adopted family is my bff's family who have taken me in pretty much since I moved to Maine.

We invited Teddy because his family is all the way down in Boston, and we wanted him to come with us. Plus...I wanted to hang out with Teddy to pick his brain. He was recently laid off from his full time slot to part time. That would by why you now hear Ryan Seacrest in the afternoon. I can't get into exactly how I feel, but let me just say that we are all very disappointed with this decision and devastated at the loss of one of the greatest radio guys ever.

But this blog is about Thanksgiving...one of the best holidays ever. It revolves around food and you don't have to buy any presents.

Teddy and I had a great time. He's like a brother to me. I actually have two brothers, but feel closer to Teddy than my actual blood brothers. My favorite part about Teddy is that he really cracks me up. I love that about him...so I laughed a lot this Thanksgiving. And now my "adopted" family wants him to come for Christmas.

I did learn that wine, turkey and pie adds up to this:

My God...could this photo be more unflattering? And watch the hand Teddy McKay! I don't care if your hours have been cut! I would have to count this Thanksgiving in the top 5!

WORLD AIDS DAY IS MONDAY 12/01

Not a toe tapping subject, but important none the less. Wanna fun way to learn about AIDS? I'm not kidding. I'm totally addicted to the AVERT AIDS Challenge. I've made it to level 7, but my score is pretty low. Try it and learn about Aids.

CHRISTMAS IS TOTALLY IN THE AIR

Sorry I didn't say "holidays" are in the air...but for me it's Christmas. And I grew up in a pretty religious free home so Christmas to me was all about presents and family. I friggin' loved it! I guess that's what it is for most kids, but seriously, I didn't even know about Jesus' birthday until I was in my 20's. Well, maybe a little younger.

I do have one memory that even beats out Christmas morning. It was the wrapping parties we had growing up. We'd all pick a day to go Christmas shopping. We'd head to downtown Boise or the Mall (both of those things were very small in Idaho in the 70's). Then we'd drag our booty back home, make lots and lots of yummy hors d'oeuvres and make tents from blankets and pillows in the family room and all wrap our presents while stuffing our pie hole with everything from pickled herring (my family was weird) to those little pizza bites. Hell, I cannot for the life of me remember the name of them. You know the ones, they come in the yellow box and have about a dozen and they are frozen and you put them in the oven and they become little molten lava pizza bites. Damn those were good. We'd have olives and cheese and crackers, and smoked almonds! We only had smoked almonds at Christmas. One year we had caviar. It was gross. But nice try Mom and Dad.

Anyway, when the tree went up this week...I started remembering Christmas' as a kid and how much those wrapping parties meant to me. I think it was the fun of making a fort with everyone else in the same room and eating. God I do love eating. Too bad you have to be so good about eating when you get older. Seriously...if I ate what I wanted to, I'd weigh a good 300 pounds. You know what? Don't grocery shop when you are hungry and don't blog when you are hungry.

HOLY COW IS THAT GOOD!!

A couple of weeks ago, I went down to Connecticut to see my "adopted" family. On the way, I always make a stop at the Charleton Plaza, in Mass. to pee. On this occasion, despite trying to be good, I got a pretzel from Auntie Anne's Pretzels. They had JUST come out of the oven. Now don't get me wrong, I love my adopted family, but that pretzel was by far the best part of the four hour drive too CT!

I talked about Auntie Anne's and how if this radio thing didn't work out, I would get a franchise just so I could eat those pretzels over and over again. That's when a kind listener let me know that they actually sell

AUNTIE ANNE'S PRETZEL KITS!

I immediately bought one and it came quick! But I read the directions and it seemed like it might take some time...and well, I just didn't have it. Until today. It was my only purpose today.

First off, let me just say that the box lies like a bastard: "Ready in 45 minutes!" My ass! The dough rises for 45 minutes alone! So, set aside a good hour and a half for this. As I struggled with the dough, and the actual making of the pretzels...I was actually thinking that driving 6 hours round trip might actually be easier!

That is until they came out of the oven. I'm not sure, but I think I heard angles sing when I pulled out the golden brown bundles of joy. I just want to say for the record...if you are a pretzel fan - GET THESE FRIGGIN' PRETZELS! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go overeat.

ELECTION FUN!

I couldn't be happier that we vote on Tuesday. Lord am I sick of it. Every part of it. I always feel dirty when the campaigns roll around and this one has been especially icky. I swear politicians think we're idiots. Hell, maybe we are - cuz we eat it up every time.

But Jeff Parsons made my day with a website that is addictive fun...but only if you think Sarah Palin is semi mentally disabled. If you like Sarah Palin and think she'd make a fine president DO NOT GO TO THIS WEBSITE.

But if you'd like to have fun...check out Sarah Palin for President. Keep clicking everything in the office. And don't just click once...keep clicking until you have stopped laughing.

And should you be someone who just has no idea who to vote for, there are lots of sites to help you make up your mind (why is your mind NOT made up yet?!). This is a pretty good site to answer some questions and then figure out if you like Obama, McCain or even good ol' Ralph Nadar. Vote Chooser. Whatever you do, vote. It's what separates us from China. Well, that and lead in everything.