The Thanksgiving Eve Sushi Boat

A large group of us crashed Libby’s turkey day eve dinner with her mother tonight. Amy ended up with this boat o’ sushi. Yum!

The Grand Thanksgiving Eve Eve Shopping Extravaganza

Mom, Dad, and I went grocery shopping today for Thanksgiving on Thursday. I’ve never actually gone shopping before, since for the past umpteen years I’ve flown to Minnesota the day before Thanksgiving. This year, my folks are here and Amy’s folks are coming tomorrow. So I got to shop!

In putting together the list, it seemed like the bulk of what we needed to buy was in the vegetable family, so off to Russo’s we went. Amy and I once made the mistake of going shopping there the day before Easter; today wasn’t quite as nutty, but I’m sure tomorrow will be.

If you’re in the Boston area and you’ve never shopped at Russo’s before, I encourage you to check out the calendar, make sure no major holidays are happening around the time you want to go, and then hit the place up. It’s truly an amazing operation. They stock vegetables I wasn’t sure even existed, despite the fact that I was looking at them. The number of varieties of mushrooms they stock? Requires at least two hands and one foot to count. They make their own bread. They make fresh pasta (try the spinach cheese ravioli – YUM!). They make pickles. They have a deli. And they keep everything stocked despite the massive number of people shopping there.

Here’s Dad as we waited in the line that was about 20 people deep. We were in one of 5 lines feeding into at least 10 cash registers. Our wait wasn’t too bad though, maybe only 10 minutes.

Here we are almost at the registers – Mom had to go on a mad dash through the store to find heavy cream – but fortunately she made it through the crush of people before we had to check out. All told, we spent about an hour there.

I can’t even imagine what this place is going to be like tomorrow on the REAL Thanksgiving Eve. Imagine 20 people around my mom in that final photo… it’s probably going to be something like that. CAH-RAY-ZEEEEE!

Dogs like Lefse

Who knew little Maggie liked lefse? Apparently she has Scandinavian genes just like her Mamom!

Otter’s Love Affair

Maggie and Otter have had the best weekend with Jen being here.

That blissful, expectant look on his face? Happens every time she walks into our house. (Which she slipped and called “home” the other day….. as in, HER home. I’m just saying.)

There are a lot of us – human and canine alike – who would be thrilled if she were to make Boston her home.

40 for 40

My friend Libby celebrated a significant birthday this year. In preparation for it, she spent a year doing a number of things that celebrated her milestone birthday. In May 2010 I will enter my 40th year (i.e. I will turn 39) and in honor of that, I plan on doing 40 things before I turn 40 in May 2011. Here is the first half of my list:

1. Bake a pie.
2. Compete in a Crossfit event.
3. Fly a kite.
4. Get a massage.
5. Get another tattoo.
6. Go to a movie at a drive-in theater.
7. Go to the top of Mount Washington.
8. Kayak on the Charles River.
9. Knit a pair of socks.
10. Read 52 books.
11. Ride a rollercoaster.
12. Run 5K.
13. Save $20 for each item on this list I complete. Donate the money.
14. Send 40 postcards to 40 different people.
15. Snowshoe in the Blue Hills.
16. Swim in the Damariscotta River.
17. Travel to one of the states I’ve never been to before (Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming)
18. Try snowboarding.
19. Volunteer 4 times at Waltham Fields Community Farm.
20. Watch a meteor shower.

What else should I do? I want to make sure I can achieve all of the things I set out to accomplish.