Bring on the bird!

Thanks to you who sent me birthday cards, both electronically and by regular mail!

My husband's gift to me is the promise of tickets to see... wait for it...

YO-YO MA when he comes to Columbus, OH in May of next year! Tickets are not yet on sale, and I hate to think how much they'll cost, but who cares.

Did my brother even CALL to say Happy Birthday? Or the "best friend" (who I know was at the gassy-man's house, because he's off work until the middle of next week)?

No!

Let's not go there.

So today, we're headed over to the in-laws for our postponed Thanksgiving dinner. We were supposed to go Thursday, but the father-in-law came down with the flu (or something) early last week, so dinner was put off until today. Holiday dinners at the in-laws' place are always an adventure in food.

My father-in-law loves to watch the Food Network, as do I. He also loves to experiment with recipes that he sees on their programs or finds on their website, as do I. Sometimes these experiments are successful, and sometimes ... they are not.

For some reason, my father-in-law has had it in his mind for years that my husband (his son) does not like turkey. This could not be farther from the truth. Because he (my father-in-law) was under this misunderstanding, though, our Thanksgiving dinners at his place have always been... different (and it's only this year that we discovered that my father-in-law thought that my husband {his son} didn't like turkey, in case you're wondering... it just never came up before... oddly enough... ). Last year was the kicker, though.

Last year, he (my father-in-law) tried out a recipe from the Food Network for pork chops (fine), that involved first soaking the pork chops overnight in a brine solution. One very important step to this that he missed, though, was rinsing OFF the brine solution when you remove the pork chops the following morning!

ICK!

Also on the menu was some sort of exotic (and I use the term loosely) stuffing, that really was nothing more that a perfectly decent box of Stove Top ruined by all sorts of weird things like almonds and raisins being added to it. Oh sure, it sounds like it might be tasty, but trust me, it was not.

But I ate it. With a smile on my face, I ate all of it. Because that's what you do... I suppose...

This year... this year, though, my mother-in-law (my father-in-law's second wife, not my husband's mother) said she's putting her foot down and having the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, et al (which is how it came to light that my husband does, in fact, like turkey, but the conversation really wasn't interesting enough to recount here).

Wish me luck.