In the Dining Room with a Chair...

I also bought a new dining room table and chairs "for Thanksgiving" while Matt was away surfing. I had it set up for him, and said, "Hi, honey, look what arrived when you were gone!"

My friend Mimi said that she once did this, but that she didn't tell her husband. It took him 6 months to notice.

Matt loves them, so I'm safe.

What's for Lunch

Sam's teacher once told me, "Your child comes to school with the best lunches! All of the teachers like to see what he has." I told her that this was mostly my husband's doing, that he's a gourmand dressed in a lawyer's button-down. But I do feel the pressure now. Sam's never had a "regular" hotdog, not yet. Only organic and uncured (again, mostly Matt's influence). He hates PB&J.

Today, in his lunchbox, I served him roasted pork tenderloin with raspberry confit, glazed carrots, fresh green beans and grapes. I think I may start including a menu just for laughs. ; )

I sent my family a spreadsheet for Thanksgiving (also for laughs) on how the day will "go down", and I've made out my entire schedule at home for my workload. For example, tomorrow at 5:00PM, I begin by brining my bird (oh, I love when alliteration comes together so unexpectedly), and the list goes on from there...

Today, I rest, especially since Sam woke at 5:30. Matt and I are closing in on trying each beaujolais nouveau.

Lucky 13

I spent all of yesterday shopping for Thanksgiving, the first official Thanksgiving where I'll be the hostess, and not just the person who brings wine. But I can't take all the credit, as most of the side dishes will be brought by other participants in the family. Thank God.

I bought a turkey at one store, a ham at another, Williams Sonoma for cheese cloth, and even made a trip to Crate & Barrel for more dishes and two more place settings of silverware. We had 10, but need at least 12.

Matt and I have the same silverware he once had, before his ex burglarized his place. When I told him that we now have 12 settings, he reminded me that we have 13 forks: when his ex stole everything, she forgot to check the dishwasher, where one lonely fork remained.

Matt said, "That punctuated our entire relationship." Lucky 13!

I'm a kindred spirit of the girl practicing for Thanksgiving in the Target commercial. I'd love to invite her to our feast and get her opinion.

The Men In My Life

Matt loves the ocean and I love the sky, but we both love the movement of life. Stagnation wears us down. There's so much out there to see...

My dad and I were chatting the other day and discovered that besides Mr. Flood's Party (his favorite poem by Edward Arlington Robinson) and Advice to My Son (my favorite poem by Peter Meinke), our second-favorite poems are The Ruined Cottage (Wordsworth, my dad), and Ode to Immortality (Wordsworth, me).

Sam and I both love singing, and catching spiders.

Eh, Just Bag the Leaves

Matt's back from Rincon and Sam and I welcomed him with a rake. We missed him a lot though, and he's a bit bruised and bloody from scraping against coral several times. He called me every night from some cool bar that Esquire voted one of the best bars in the world, sipping his margarita and watching the sunset. I was sincerely happy for him. A few days of absence makes us live large on love soon after.

I had a fun-filled week of going out for dinner and drinks almost every night he was gone. I really do not miss the crowds at Sullivan's or Ruth's Chris. Yuck. So not my thing...

Sam and I delivered all of our food to Gleaners Food Bank from our food drive last week. Sam was thrilled about all of it, and I can tell that he's a giver at heart. He gave an old man one of his crackers today at Target, and the man said, "What a good boy - that's a good sign." Sam's the best.

I helped serve food to 200 homeless men on Sunday (while Matt was home cooking our London Broil) at the Wheeler Mission. Talk about putting it all into perspective. I went with my dad and brother, Nick. I would like to say that it was a fantastic experience, but it was a rather sad experience, overall. I'm going again this Sunday, though, and Matt's going soon, too. I felt very nervous and shy being there, but my dad and Nick are anything but nervous or shy, so Nick got me playing Jenga with a couple of the guys, and it turned out to be fun. I had to hold back my competitive nature when the poor old man got Jenga-ed...I was hoping to let him win. He was very smart, but I think he'd suffered a stroke at some point in life. He told us about once taking a jet with a friend from Florida to West Virginia, and how he once went scuba diving (scuba dove?) in Key West. It was nice connecting about life outside the mission - I told him that I went diving in Grenada and got very, very seasick. Nick is an incredibly mature young man - he made me so proud. : )

No joke: I've bagged over 50 large (paper) lawn bags, and the maples are still going... I'm in great shape, though, and an elderly neighbor lady yelled over to me today: You have great posture! That made me laugh.

Sufing vs. French Fries

My husband is surfing in Rincon, Puerto Rico, and I miiiiiiiiiiss him. It is a great feeling to miss your husband, who hasn't raked but one bag of leaves all fall. We've been texting and calling each other constantly, like those dating people do. You've seen them, sitting in a bar constantly smiling, texting, receiving texts, texting, receiving texts. That's dating.

Sam definitely notices that he's missing, and says, "Daddy home..." a lot during the day. He even napped on Matt's pillow this afternoon.

Matt said he's been surfing with a lady from New Jersey, and I said, "Have fun!" I doubt he got such coolness from marriage #1. ; )~

Took Sam for his first official hair trim today (still long, still looks kinda like a girl), and then to the Gap for some clothes and Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Big suburban day!