more orange

This is my right foot, wearing (one of) my red Campers winter boots. They look like something wrestlers would wear, so I tend to get my way when I wear them. I think the toe is scuffed because of the VW's limited foot room.
As far as food court food goes this Korean spicy soup was the best ever. It cleared out my sinuses and made me sweat just below my eyes just like the guy who sold it said it would. It looks like I had a basin of soup there, but I actually did not. I did scrape the bowl though. Plastic spoon against styrofoam is not pleasant, but it was so worth it.

no, I am not about to make gingerbread using an american recipe

Orange is a very popular color for Thanksgiving. I am kind of glad we are done with it, though, because when it comes down to it I am in favor of Christmas.

I need to go to IKEA in search of that gingerbread dough. If they don't have it I will have to make my own, which would involve buying a metric scale because I won't be responsible for converting metric weight measurements into American volume measurements. That's probably 5th grade math, but I just don't feel like it. Not where there is baking involved, and the stability of a gingerbread house is at stake. The Fahrenheits of the oven are bad enough.

I also need to draw a plan for the house and test out the construction. And see if I can find a cheapo version of the silicon mats Martha Stewart uses to line her cookie sheets. Gingerbread house construction requires that you roll out the dough onto something that can go in the oven. If you try to lift and transfer the pieces they will become stretched out and will not fit when it's time for assembly.

that's newfoundland down there

The weirdest thing just happened. I woke up to the smell of warmed-up catered Thanksgiving leftovers, and I thought I was in an airplane on one of those flights across an ocean where they actually give you hot food. Smells exactly the same.

tired

It's tiring to celebrate Thanksgiving.
There is turkey and stuffing and potatoes and gravy.
Pecan pie, apple pie, and pumpkin pie.
And leftovers.

no, I don't remember my own license plate

So I ran around today to get some last minute Thanksgiving stuff. I was not alone. I kind of like the desperate tension in stores on the days before big holidays. People tend to interact and bond more and not just keep to themselves and their own cell phone conversations.

I ran into an older gentleman driving a VW Rabbit with a license plate saying "SLOW CAR" or something like that. He asked me what year my car was (that's always the opening line), and then told me that when he was still teaching, he used to get obscene gestures for going too slow on the freeway far more often. Which is kind of funny when you think about it.

Then I saw somebody who had the Los Gatos zip code for their license plate. I am going to go ahead and guess they use it for their ATM pin number too, as well as for various passwords.

I on the other hand make up creative passwords all the time that I never remember. I will probably never get access to the pay your bill service on the PG&E website again I have had to change my password so many times.

I won't ever have to leave my house again.

No dust, just two IKEA candle holders on top of each other.

I read somewhere about the lens that I just got that it turns even the dullest abandoned yard into a place of wonder. So far that seems to be the truth.

that blind again

I didn't wait for Christmas. So now when I take pictures inside the dust shows up.

This digital photography thing is so much fun I don't know what to do with myself.

one nation one holiday

I made a practice apple pie today. Thanksgiving is coming up and pies are a must. Last year we made a practice turkey, and then the real deal one. Both were tasty, but especially the Thanksgiving day one. It was wrapped in bacon by Åsa, and isn't it the truth that bacon makes everything taste good.

Today's apple pie was not wrapped in bacon. The crust (all butter, no shortening) turned out good. But the apples were the wrong kind (Mcintosh). Mcintoshes turn into mush when baked. Tasty mush, but mush all the same. So I googled what apples to use, and now I know to look for Jonathan, Stayman-Winesap, Cox's Orange Pippin, or Jonagold.

Apple pie and turkey aside, what happened to the indigenous peoples of the Americas may turn Thanksgiving into a day of mourning. Winners write history, and they make up the holidays too.

mcmurphy

This is Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. It was on TV tonight.

The movie was in theaters for 11 years straight in Stockholm. That's in the Guinness' Book of Records.

I am not going to try to explain why the Swedes liked it so much. Maybe they just like a good movie.

And it's a really good movie.

may be appended

All I want for Christmas is a macro lens and some good ribs. And a gingerbread house but I guess I will have to make that one myself.

dan's rules of america (cont.)

4. Coffee should be in cups, not bowls, in America.

(1. When you give someone chocolate, you don't get any.
2. If you are not from America, you can't make up "Rules of America".
3. In America, pancakes are "fat".)

pet peeve (language)

In my mind, you use a recipe to make a dish.
You don't make a recipe.

Just like you use instructions to assemble your IKEA furniture.
You don't assemble the instructions.

Saturday morning back to back PBS cooking shows = a nightmare.

if you were a tree

What would you look like?

no, you are not a flower. (you wish.)

A lot has happened since this time last year. I can't get my head around some of it. But one thing I have been reminded of lately is that there is an element of choice in how we feel about things. Not only, and sometimes not even mostly. But we do have a choice and that's an important thing to remember.

Poppies, on the other hand, do not have choices.

it's all about that word count (box on the right there)

I do not know why the background of this flower turned blue. I only did very minor photoshop fiddling. In real life it was the greyish green of old grass. Flower has its original color, though.

pants got dirty too

I photographed things on the ground today. I kind of took it seriously, and didn't move anything off the ground onto a more comfortable hight. Maybe my jacket knocks 20 years off my age, but I sure can feel that bending and kneeling in my sciatica leg. So if the jacket subtracts years my leg adds some, and it all evens out.

powers

So I had an errand today and when I was done and wanted to leave my car was dead. I checked the lights (working) and opened the engine and poked around a little. Obviously I couldn't find anything wrong, it all looked good to me. I called Dan but he was an hour away, and busy. So I just stood there looking lost, thinking about what to do next. Engine still open though, I figured I needed to signal my distress somehow.

About 45 seconds later a wandering mechanic showed up, adapted something to the battery to measure something, deemed it insufficient, got some cables, jump started the car, and off we went to get a new battery. He installed it in five seconds and the car started like a charm.

This may be the best part about the US. Whenever something happens to your car, people just show up and are extremely helpful.

Guy was from Nicaragua, had been to war, and said he had healed himself from the terrors of that experience by positive thinking.

apparantly wearing something that old cuts your age in half

Went to see Borat. I got the tickets, wearing my leather jacket. Guy gave me the student discount.

The movie kind of left me speechless too.

I spoke too hastily (below).

Actually, you also cannot kill sage.

objets d'artes they're not. (I am unsure of those plurals. I don't know any French anymore.)

I cleaned up the yard. It's fall. The small Japanese maple is turning red. Geraniums and one other thing (sv. kärleksört, eng. orpine) you cannot kill. Everything else is dying.

Sometimes I buy unnecessary garden objects at IKEA. I do not know why I do this. They just end up in that cart. I figured the best way of dealing with them would be placing them close together. At least that way they will be with someone who likes them.