Snow

Our meal will be non-traditional as my daughter is a sea-food-a-tarian
We will be having a shrimp stir-fry
No need to worry about us not getting fatter
Dessert will be cheesecake, not pie

Is she a landlocked seafood-a-tarian? That would be quite ironic.

Umm. Shrimp stir fry is a meal I would give thanks for. And healthy, too! Cheesecake, not so much -- but yummy.
We will be having Thanksgiving in the nursing home with DH's mother, we hope. She may not even be up for that. We may go ahead to the reservations we made for the three of us later in the day -- just have snacks at her thanksgiving. The restaurant charges you whether you show up or not -- so we will probably show up.

Landlocked for sure - 800 miles from the ocean and living in a city where people do not understand that "fresh" seafood means < 24 hours after it was caught. She has always liked seafood. Shrimp was her favorite food when she was 3 and she would request it for her birthday dinner every year. We also had to tell her "eat your meat and then we'll give you more vegetables." I'm curious where she's going to end up living.

Watching kids grow is fascinating. They are so completely themselves, no matter what we do. Wise to give her shrimp. Watch her decide to live in some similarly landlocked place since she clearly likes even the pathetic shrimp we get here!

Either that or she will be visiting a place that makes GOOD shrimp and she won't leave. Not a bad thing as it will give me reason to visit.

Being from Arizona and having a mother who was a pretty bad cook, I thought I hated fish. I liked shrimp, tho, but we didn't have them often. Many years later I lived for awhile in coastal Virginia and North Carolina. In N.C. local people could go to the " fish pound " and wait for the boats to come in. You could get whatever they had, really fresh, on ice. That was when I learned to Love fish. I still think of the butterfish, especially. My brother in Florida is a sea food lover and always was, even in Arizona. He knows where to get daily caught fish near Pensacola. I like the flounder there. And grouper. My brother loves the beaches, too. I have always been tempted to live down there. Unfortunately, I'm not great at keeping my mouth shut and would likely be hanged for something. My bro is more diplomatic.

The Florida panhandle is part of the South. I've had to travel there a fair amount on business. I recall going out for seafood and making my selection based on that item being the ONLY one on the menu that wasn't breaded and deep-fried.

Yes, you have to ask for broiled fish! Pensacola, Destin and probably some other places have some nice seafood restaurants. Actually, there was a good one in Milton, too. What is sad is their Mexican food. l.o.l. My in-laws took us out one night for Mexican food that was off the charts awful. They wanted us to feel at home. That still wasn't as bad as some Chinese food I once ate in a small town in Ohio! Another really terrible road food experience was brocolli soup somewhere near Gunnison, Colorado. Whew.

I've declined "Mexican" food in FL too. Our host did a double-take, but after a moment's reflection understood and decided that was best. OTOH, we've hosted people here (from the UK for example) and come close to killing them with a medium green chili at a local restaurant. I guess there is an art to entertaining guests from afar with the best of the local cuisine.

Yep, I am with you roybird, as we have discussed in person. I, too, am a fish snob. I love fresh caught fish. So I only eat fish in New Mexico at the very fanciest restaurants and even then I find I am better off with elk or buffalo or caribou. Of course, nowadays, I am always looking for a vegan option but still succumb to shrimp now and again.
I hate to admit it, but I even love the southern breaded and deep fried seafood if it is done right. I crave and even dream of well fried shrimp and crawfish and soft-shelled crabs. In New Orleans, even the dinkiest restaurant can usually do a great job on all of the above. Love fresh fish in Hawaii but even in California you have to be careful. I once ate fish on the Santa Monica Pier that tasted like it had been lying in the sun for a week. Rather I tasted it. My companion who was from New Mexico raved about the good fresh fish while I bit my tongue.
And truly, some of my all-time-worst dining experiences occured when being taken as a treat for Mexican food where it doesn't occur naturally. One in Madrid, several times by my brother in New Orleans. When I took them for Mexican food at Tomasita's in Santa Fe they couldn't eat anything but the chips and the flan.
DH tells the story of a colleague who had a Chinese student for a while. The colleague and his colleagues decided to give her a real treat and take her out for Dim Sum. She thanked them and told them it was delicious, but asked them what it was called. She had never heard of it before.
So correcto, dparsons, there is an art to taking people out for local cuisine.

So true. The chile thing can be a real problem. I advise guests from elsewhere to get it on the side. That sounds kind of sleazy, doesn't it! l.o.l.

Tasty fishies from the lake
They luv to fly for my intake.
I also love the fish of salt
but t'is for sure a mortage default.
Sometimes I cheat
I close my eyes
and to the fishguy I arrive:
shimpies, lobstah, scallops yum
orange ruffy too will touch my tongue;
Wrap it! Box it! Load me up!
Tonight we feast, and what is sup
if not to laugh and be uncared
and fishies best when it is shared.
Of course with doom the bill does come
and with great ponderence calc the sum
and surely be tis true each time
the bill is motley, and not mine ^_^

Great poem, dahlia! And how nice that the motley bill isn't yours!

That is the beautious factor of the 'free money' budget theory dear paj ^_^

You are the all time best economist. I am going to recommend you to our President.

Maybe better to recommend me to the First Lady. She's a gardner ^_^

I will recommend you to both -- but glad to have a gardener in the White House! But you could help them both.

Excellent poetry and how lucky for you that the bill is not yours... these days everything is ours, and much to my chagrin, I seem to have become the "keeper of the paying of the bills". To my DH's credit, he seems to be (as he always has been) the action figure "I'll find a way to bring the money in" man. His action figure suit can vary, from motorcycle builder, to corporate owner and President, to RV Park owner/operator, to (perhaps) school bus driver... or whatever it takes. That's his Action Figure Name! Captain Whatever It Takes (ed. note: within reason!). Abbreviated as CWIT. I'd be Captain Whatever It Takes As Well, abbreviated CWITAW.

I am also very glad to have a gardener in the White House!

Brenda, these are hard times for so many of us. I am so sorry you and your DH and so many of the rest of us have to go through this. Thank goodness CWIT is on your side! Would that everyone had such a staunch partner!

It took me a long time to find my most awesome partner! And for he to find me. Life is good, and I am thankful.

Amen.

How very romantic to have CWIT in you life Brenda.

It is certainly fortunate to have a good sweetie! My D.H. is utterly weird and I wouldn't want him any other way.

Roybird, it is good to have a good fit! (Unlike my pants after Thanksgiving dinner, LOL!)

OOOh. I ate too much, drank too much. Surprisingly feel pretty chipper today, though! We are going to cook our "home" turkey today for mole. The turkey mole will have to be this weekend. I am way too fooded out to cook it today! Turkey, itself, is easy. Mole is hard. I want to get out for a good walk later.

Off to work today solving the Diar.... and Vomi.... that all the dogs will have today. Ahhh the day after Thanksgiving. No shopping for me.

Me either, Sofer! Keep up the good work!

I said I wasn't' going to shop yesterday but I did, just a little. Needed a few things to perfect the lighting design on the house. The weather was so fabulous yesterday - 70 degrees - I just wanted to be out there all day!

Well thanks to a good "Black Friday" not too many people at work yesterday. I even got to shop for an I Pod shuffle for my mom. I think it will be easy to use and she can listen to Montovani (if I can find it on MP3).

Oh, Lisabees, can't wait to see pictures of your lights! Sofer, you can always buy a CD of Montovani and download it onto your computer (I use itunes), then transfer it onto the ipod. What a lovely gift for your Mom!

We celebrated "Buy Nothing Day" by completing our gravel path (it's actually decomposed granite -- beautiful stuff). Now I'm filling in soil & compost along the fence so I can replant the daffodils that I dug up. I've got some little early blue irises to throw in there, too, so we can have a blue & yellow spring view.

My CD translations through I tunes have been unsuccessful and don't play well on my IPod.
Now you will be organized. I would have been more gracious with the bulb area and less with the path. Unless you have a big wheel barrow. LOL

This message was edited Nov 28, 2009 9:40 AM

Nice, Picante!

Really, Soferdig? I wonder why that is... I have done many CD's to ipod without a problem. I wonder if it has to do with the way they are saved or something... hmmmm...

That's strange, Sofer. I've put all my CDs in my computer music files using Windows Media Player. They are not MP3 files, but they transfer fine to my MP3 player, and they play just fine. (Not an Ipod. It's a Cowon.)

Sof, there is an old brick curb running under those rocks. We're hoping it will keep the weeds & grass out. Not to say that things won't change next year!

This message was edited Nov 28, 2009 9:50 AM

I cannot download any magnetic data if I am near the hard drive so unless I start and run away from it it is distorted. I have been laughed at by everybody saying that I am only joking but it is true. My wife has to down load all hard drive data or it doesn't load properly. And she never knows what to do unless I stand in the other room and tell her each step. She is totally a computer baby.

Oooh, Sofer, your magnetic field is very Powerful. You must be a shaman or some such thing.

Very mystical!

And it's looking like we might get some snow here tonight!