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Well Good Morning Everyone! This may be a first for me !--?

OK, Russell ... what the heck are you doing up at this time of the day? Believe it or not, I'm not at work ... just catching up on some emails that I've been procrastinating over returning. Thought I'd better get that one off to the college "kid" and tell her that she indeed is welcome for the holiday, and give her directions ... Doesn't seem possible that Thanksgiving is just is just 16 days away! Where did the year go???

Also one of the radio stations down here is already playing ALL CHRISTMAS MUSIC ... ALL THE TIME!!! Gimme a break, eh?

Morning!

Amazing. Who knew about the rockets?
Yes, sad to say, there are Christmas
decorations festooning the stores here in
Toronto too.

We're excited at our house. Our soldier boy,
stationed at Fort Lewis, will be coming home
for a visit this weekend. He's asked for lots of
his favorite foods and has invited friends over
to share them with us. We can hardly wait!

Cindy and Kosk enjoy your upcoming visits! Those are truely "holidays"!

A sad note. I tried making pasties last weekend. Yeow, I am not the cook that my mother was. Thank goodness for ordering through Pasty Central and Stillwaters! :)

Mornin'

Speaking of making pasties, I tried my hand at it when our son was 2 1/2. He's 34 now. Not a good idea. I got so mad that the pasty dough flew across the livingroom over brown carpeting. Hubby was in Japan at the time and when my mom came home from work I was crying and running the vaccuum. Oh, those Great Memories!!!!

Just caught a fawn on John Dee's new cam on his property. Actually, it says it's from 4:57 yesterday.

Kosk, What a wonderful Thanksgiving that you will have this year, with your son home for the holiday. I can't imagine the joy that will bring you and your family. And how is your pioneer daughter faring in the UP?

Llamamama and ILoveLucy2: Speaking of cooking disasters with pasties, I decided to give pasty making a try last week. You see, when I am working on a case, I like to relax and de-stress by spending some time in the kitchen. So instead of going out and getting the pre-made pie crusts, as Fran suggested, I decided to try...once again...to make my own pasty crust...because you know, I was just going to get it right this time.Yeah right...it was a disaster. I was so absorbed in this case, that I really goofed up the dough. I have a new saying: "that's the way the pasty crumbles"...because that is exactly what my pasty dough did. ;)
Other cooking disasters, since I have been working on this case: Ooops...I forgot to drain off some of the fat and add corn starch to the onion soup. And chopping the garlic that I added to the stew...what was I thinking?

Cindy,
Your college kid sounds like a hoot. I guess they were waiting for an invite? The minds of teenagers, eh...never underestimate them.
Why is there such a rush to push Christmas? I liked it better, when the stores didn't advertise until after Thanksgiving. Now, it seems that they are in a rush to get past Halloween and skip Thanksgiving, in order to get to Christmas.

I don't mind a l-o-n-g Christmas season! I'm ready to start playing Christmas music now!

Don't think I've mentioned yet that George Hite has a new journal entry up on his site.

Just back from what must be our 5th or 6th trip to the U.P. since
beginning of August. Sunday morning helped us remember
what it is like to live in the U.P. year-round. Raw, blowing
snowmost of the day. As we drove back to the Big Mac on
Monday we saw plenty of snow along the way. I suppose some
of that snow will still be there next May when winter finally goes
away for a while. On a more pleasant note wasn't that
Menominee team something on Saturday! Can you imagine how
a downstate team must feel not only having to play in the U.P. in
November but having to play a team using the single wing?
T'ain't fair! Being from Esky I never liked those Maroons, but
I have to root for them now. Go, Maroons!

I have another experience to share too. We watched some TV
while up in Esky, and that included the TV station out of
Marquette -- WLUC? On that station they have the most
amazing sports segment. Not only do they have pics of
many,many games from all over the U.P., but they know the
names of all the players! In Toledo the stations feel proud if
they can show pics of maybe six games on Friday nite. On that
Marquette station they show more each night, and they have the
names too. Imagine how you would feel if your Nimrod
volleyball team was shown on TV, and they even got your
daughter's name right when they showed her whomping a huge
kill on the other side of the net. No way would you see that in
Detroit or Toledo. In Marquette it is somehow par for the
course. (Well, I have fooled around long enough. Now I have to
go out and tackle all those magnolia leaves that fell while we
were gone.)

Come on now, Sur5er, our minds aren't that bad! I'm barely out of my teenage years myself, and I still like an invite to visit Mom and Dad; makes me feel all grown up ;D
I don't care for the early Christmas theme either, but there is something cozy about the festive decor (makes the beginning of winter a little more bearable!)

So much for raking; back to some fun. I have two more
comments or observations from our weekend trip to the U.P.
First, Clyde's Drive-In on U.S. 2 going out of St. Ignace toward
Esky is every bit as good as its rave reviews indicate. I have
wanted to stop there for years, but it was always too early to eat
or the place was just too crowdwd. Last Thursday night, tho, the
time was good, and the place wasnot too crowded. Oh, my, are
those burgers good!!! I am not saying they are the equal of my
wife's pasties, but in the world of burgers, they are 4-star.
My second comment is on the hardiness of Wisconsin
fishermen. We stopped at a nice motel outside Esky for 4 nites,
and you couldn't help noticing how the motels and restaurants
in that area were just packed with walleye fishermen. I
wondered where they were from; all their license plates were
from the Badger State. Now the waters of Little Bay de Noc are
not exactly warm and inviting in early November, but I guess if
the fish are biting, who notices? Not Wisconsin fishermen for
sure. (Maybe, too, if they were out on the water in the snow on
Sunday afternoon, they had an excuse not to watch the Packers.)

I made a batch of awesome pasties on Sunday. turned out to be quite the consolation for the Packer game. First time the son's girlfriend had my homemades.

HEY THERE SIIRA, WHERE'S THOSE BASHFUL JOE RECORDS YOU TALKED ABOUT. THAT GREAT TALENT NEEDS SOME ATTENTION!!!