No word from a lot of you for a while.
Hello? Hello? What’s everyone up to?
Spookily quiet in here.
by CJ | Nov 18, 2010 | Journal | 70 comments
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You hang in. A fast way to do turkey is a brown n bag with a whole or piece of a turkey with pre-done Poultry Seasoning spice, and pumpkin pie from the bakery. Canned cranberry sauce (jelly) is pretty good in a pinch. The most thing is getting together a little bit of festivity, be it only a nice card or an appropriately decorated cupcake from the deli! You have a great one.
I’m just back from helping run and present at a day-long community action event in Boston on racism in health care and really want to do a second draft of the chapter I wrote last weekend in my 16th C. Scottish historical fantasy. I’m bushed right now however and relaxing by reading these comments. It’s a really hectic time of year as everyone is trying to cram in community and conference events before Thanksgiving and the holiday/snow season and I haven’t quite had the energy to make comments here. I teach two nights a week as well as do my advocacy and public policy day job. The teaching is a delight but tiring to get home wired and have to head into work the next morning.
Monday evening my students have agreed that we will cancel anthro class so I and a fellow professor who works in Northern Kenya can drive up and visit a Rotary Club in Vermont and tell them of the current situation of the Samburu of N. Kenya (whom I mentioned here two summers ago). Through the political help of Cultural Survival, we and the Samburu have more or less gotten the Kenyan police to back off their systematic human rights violations of the tribe (well, aside from a few rapes, castrations and threats of burning homes, but the systematic, egregious attacks have stopped), but the Samburu are dependent on outside food since the police started their campaign of persecution by stealing 3000+ cows two Marches just as a massive drought. The rains have returned and we are raising funds for restocking the cattle (with triple-tier marking systems to track stolen cows) at $250/cow — a really decent price for cows the Maasai want to sell to their cousin tribe. We’re hoping this Vermont Rotary Club will respond with some funding and, even more, bring up the cause to fellow Rotary groups (apparently for Rotary International to come in on a campaign, a local group has to recommend it). Hmmm… I think I am rehearsing/mentally working out my points for Monday night here so I will leave it at that. Tomorrow’s Sunday and I will be planting my tulip and daffodil bulbs which I finally got around to ordering a few weeks ago. Late, but they should be fine. And then, maybe, a spot of writing on a really fun scene I’ve been working out in my head all week when walking to and from the subway and work. Life never lacks for good things to do.
I just have to post this somewhere. I”m at my computer in the sun room. A red tailed hawk just flew across the yard and into the oak woods. How do they do that without hitting anything?
Still reading Foreignor, on Pretender now, Love them!. NaNoWriMo for me as well. I’ve fallen dreadfully behind, but I have 4 days off around Thanksgiving and plan to write most of the weekend when we aren’t cooking or eating.
I just re-read Hammerfall and Forge of Heaven. I forgot how much I truly enjoyed them and of course wish there were more. I now have to catch up all the housework so that Thanksgiving can happen! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!
Happy Thanksgiving to all! And what a varied and wonderful crew you are!
Panicking. Japanese exam in two weeks.
And reading Baudolino by Umberto Eco. It’s a fun yarn.
CJ, thanks for the encouragement. My grandmother’s showing some improvement, I think. Slight, but there. Her two best friends (a neighbor only a few years my senior and a church friend now nearing 80 whom we’ve known…wow, over 25 years) both visited, the day was beautiful, and extra TLC helps. Hoping for good results from lab blood work tomorrow, but if she can stay home or if she goes to the hospital, either is a positive step. This is a bump in the road, just not a pleasant one. She’s hoping for ham, and I’ll do whatever we can for a good small-scale holiday. If I do a turkey, it’ll be a portion, not a whole one this time. She’ll be happy as long as we are together and festive. Sure glad I’m a pretty good cook.
Hmm, I know I’d love a linguistics course or more language. Anthro is probably one I’d like. Liked my history courses, and would more so now. If my schedule would calm down, I could 1 online course per semester…maybe.
Good that the Maasai want to help and have given a fair price plus (if I understand right) have helped towards tracking for the cattle purchased from them. Cattle theft and horse theft are felonies here and may still be capital offenses. (Texas.) But I’m a city boy. Human rights crimes, and tribe against tribe…old, old repeating pattern in history. You’d think people would learn to leave each other alone, if they can’t get along.
I hope everyone has a better Thanksgiving and even better new year. A little peace and health and love and prosperity would not be amiss. 🙂
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Hadn’t been on in a few days. Was sweating my promotion exam on Sunday. All of last week was an up and down affair. Lose my military ID, find my military ID, work the Christmas Parade as communications support, Saturday kendo practice, Sunday kendo promotion exam. Yes, I passed my test. I am not in the hallowed “dan” ranks – which are the kendo equivalents to black belt in other martial arts.
Today was dentist day #1, 2 very large cavities filled, 1 more to go. Yes, I brush, I floss, it doesn’t matter, it seems.
Update: My grandmother’s lab tests came back. Good news, she can stay home for Thanksgiving. Bad news (but not the first time) — She has “mild” renal failure. How mild, how severe, or how much this differs from prior years, I don’t yet know. I am, oddly, not panicky or too worried, which I’m taking as a good sign (or a good self-defense mechanism).
So, the mince pie and cornbread are done, the stuffing (brown bread and cornbread based) and ham will get fixed tomorrow, and we are unfamiliarly close to being ahead of the game for a change. Yes, I’m telling my internal red alert guy to be quiet.
Busy week, but far better than it started. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
I know that this is an old thread, but this seemed more appropriate here than in the cheerful holiday postings.
I am sorry to have to say that I had to let Trinkett go today. The cancer came back in the hip, there were signs of it in the lungs, she had stopped eating this week, and just could not find any way to be comfortable. I could have tried upping her pain meds, but seeing how large the tumor had gotten in just a week, and remembering how much pain she was in before, I just couldn’t put her through that in the hopes that they worked, especially since she was a very very stoic dog. So my sweet girl is waiting for me at the Bridge, running free and racing the wind the way she used to before the cancer.
This is a video of her in her healthy days: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUjezbJ4koY
Philospher77…I am so sorry to hear of Tink’s passing…..regrets.
Our regrets on Tink’s passing; it can be a difficult choice, I know. I loved the videos of her racing around.
Rosemary
Oh, I am so sorry. What a beautiful girl. This is the reference I think Philospher was making re the bridge: http://www.petloss.com/rainbowbridge.htm It’s a beautiful piece.
Tink had the best of lives, and knew herself loved and cared for by her person. What more does a dog ask?
Haven’t been here for a while. Sorry, just viewed and not logged in, but here now. We all love you, but sometimes reality bites and we don’t get much time.