Sunday Summary and #ROW80 Update

Wow, I really haven’t posted since Wednesday.  That’s almost unheard of here.  In the last…nearly four years of blogging, I rarely missed more than a day or two a year.  But it was a holiday and I was spending time with family, then getting the house put back together and sorted out from the attendant chaos, doing laundry and dishes, and clearing out leftovers, and generally getting things back to normal.

  1. I did not brine my turkey this year.  This was huge.  I always brine the turkey.  I am a HUGE BELIEVER in brining the turkey.  But my bucket broke the night before Thanksgiving, so no brining for me.  Instead I made what I referred to as a Paula Deen turkey.  I used a WHOLE STICK OF BUTTER with herbs.  The end result was, of course, very tasty.  Because, you know, butter is the secret of life.
  2. I did almost no black Friday shopping, even online.  My mom cleaned up, though.  She finished her Christmas shopping!  We should all be so lucky.  Hubs and I are still sorting out what we’re gonna get people.
  3. Mom and I went to see the new Muppet movie.  I really enjoyed it.  I LOVED the Muppets when I was a kid, so it was a lot of fun to kind of have the blast from the past.  I really hope that the movie ushers in a new interest in the Muppets from today’s kids because they were so much more awesome than so much of what’s available for little kid programming today.  
  4. While I’ve been off, I plowed through Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter MeWhich is full of so much awesome I can’t even fully articulate it yet.  I’ll be making a post later this week about it.  Let me put it this way–this book made me feel like a total talentless hack, and we all know I have a healthy confidence in my own abilities.  There should be more books of this caliber of awesome.  Right now it’s vying with Daughter of Smoke and Bone for best book I’ve read this year.  Both very unique stories and GORGEOUS prose.
  5. On an Operation GIT front, I’ve been working hard to keep up my yoga and stuff through all the heavy eating.  I’m not going near a scale until end of next week.  Then we’ll see.  I honestly don’t think there was too much damage.  It’s funny, I LOVE Thanksgiving dinner.  It’s one of my FAVORITE meals and I look forward to it ALL YEAR LONG.  In our house that means turkey, dressin’, sweet potato casserole, Granny’s deviled eggs, usually some other veggie like butter beans, Sister Schubert rolls, and an assortment of desserts.  Most of this equals a LOT of gluten (even though this year we adapted most stuff for hubs, except the dressin’, which he doesn’t eat anyway).  I did not go totally gluten free when hubby did.  I still have my whole grain toast with my eggs in the morning.  I still eat stuff with gluten when I’m out to eat.  But because of hubs, I DO still eat a much lower gluten diet than normal people.  After Thanksgiving dinner and after the reruns for lunch on Friday, I literally passed out in the chair for like an hour.  Stone cold napping.  Exhausted.  Talk about a wake up call.  And honestly…I didn’t enjoy things as much as I usually do because of that.  So we’re discussing the possibility of shaking things up at Christmas and doing something different.   Like steaks and scalloped potatoes with green bean bundles.  And still sweet potato casserole because it’s our FAVORITE.  It might mean I make it through the holiday season WITHOUT my usual five pound weight gain.  That would be pretty awesome.
  6. Last night was the Egg Bowl.  The Bulldogs won for the third year in a row.  That hasn’t happened since World War 2.  I was embarrassed for the Rebs.  And, frankly, I was cheering for the Dawgs.  I’m sure my granddaddy was turning over in his grave.  I’m a fourth generation Rebel, and until Ole Miss goes back to BEING the Rebels, I’ll be ringing a cow bell.  Hell, even the ESPN announcers last night felt sorry for them and called them the Rebels instead of the Black Bears.  The whole thing was such a moronic change and NOBODY wanted it done.  Perhaps things will get set to rights whenever the new head coach comes on board–whoever that winds up being.
  7. On the writing front, I’ve been plowing through a blueprint for one of two potential next projectsPart of today’s plan is to begin turning that into a synopsis.  They’re so much easier to write BEFORE you write the book.  I want to keep moving forward on this and the other project and hope to have completed outlines, blueprints, and synopses of both by the end of Round 4.  Not where I’d planned to be originally, but that’s okay.  It’s still progress.
  8. I’m off to go cuddle 104 pounds of snuggle puppy.

7 thoughts on “Sunday Summary and #ROW80 Update

    1. It’s soaking the turkey in a super saturated solution of salt, sugar, water (and often other herbs and spices), which causes the turkey to absorb more liquid and consequently stay moist. It’s practically fool-proof.

  1. Sounds like a great Thanksgiving.

    I want to read that book. The reviews were so mixed on Amazon that I was hesitating, but I guess I’ll go ahead and take the plunge. I have Daughter of Smoke and Bone on hold at the library. We walked over to get it the other day and they were closed because of a water break and I was so sad. I’m all excited now. These will be my rewards for finishing Nano.

  2. Sorry you didn’t get to brine your turkey…but BUTTER! That makes everything good. 🙂

    I never, ever shop on Black Friday. I would rather pay more than be trampled by insane people. After the pepper spray incident, my resolve is even stronger.

    My weight loss efforts are still on track, even after Thanksgiving. That’s really a first. I’m learning to leave the table or a restaurant without feeling full. Just satisfied. It’s almost a feeling of freedom! I’m still loving that calorie counter on my Droid phone. Of course, we all still have to get through Christmas. I wish us both luck on that. LOL

  3. Aw, shoot, now I have two more books on my TBR list. Actually, I’ve heard good things about both of these, so your comments strengthen my interest.

    Your thoughts about Thanksgiving are interesting; my husband and I came away from dinner Thursday thinking we had to do something different next year.

    I walked off what little excess I might have permitted myself on Friday, following my Black Friday maven sister-in-law through every mall in a thirty-mile radius. I have to say I found Black Friday rather depressing and upsetting, when I used to enjoy the chase.

    Even if your progress is not where you forecast it, having two projects fully blueprinted is impressive. I’m looking forward to the resulting pieces.

  4. I have to agree – butter for sure is a miracle ingredient because it works well with almost every dish! Next year, why don’t you try adding 7up and sugar to the turkey to make it extra tasty? And…I’m really jealous of you right now because you loved the Muppets movie. Sadly, I didn’t.

    PS: Nice blog BTW. Cheers!

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