We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Grandma D., Grandpa T., and cousin L. joined us. I spend pretty much the whole morning making the traditional turkey (butterflied), dressing, and giblet gravy, plus pumpkin pie with real whipped cream for dessert. Yum, I don’t think I ate anything after that meal until dinner the following day.

Friday morning, Jennifer and Anna drove Grandma D. and Grandpa T. up to L.A. to visit Grandpa T.’s grandkids. I spent the entire day, and most of Saturday, and part of Sunday doing work, mostly the sort of stuff that I can’t do when my customers are working.

Saturday everybody was tired. Jennifer and Anna were asleep by 7:30pm, and I was down at 9:30pm. Everybody slept until 6:20am and all was right with the world.

Sunday, Jennifer officially joined the ranks of soccer moms by buying a minivan. She’s out in the garage playing with it now. The thing is just enormous; it will take some rearranging of stuff in there to make getting in and out of the house possible with that monstrosity in the way. The old Blazer looks downright petite by comparison.

I also put up the Christmas lights and the Christmas tree; since we’re actually going to be here this year, I invested in some new lights, and have more lights up than we have had in the past.

This morning we found ourselves up fairly early, so we packed up and were on the road shortly after nine. When we reached Jean after about 20 miles, we saw a sign saying the 15 was closed between Baker and Barstow. Since there had been a lot of rain, we figured there might be a pass closed until the plows come. We pulled off in Barstow just in time to avoid the long backup of people taking the detour. During a short stop at the Mad Greek Cafe, I surfed around on my phone until I found some news indicating an underground gas line had exploded and resulted in the freeway closure and some evacuations. The detour took us through the Mojave National Preserve, which was pretty with the cacti blanketed in snow. We arrived in Barstow almost two hours behind schedule, and Jennifer is now driving. Hopefully another two hours will have us home, unless there’s an earthquake, or a plane crashes into the freeway or something.

We’re driving back from the Hoover Dam. It’s very impressive. The tour takes you down to the level of the generators, which you can see spinning, but apparently the tour is not nearly as cool as it used to be before September 11. We also have tix to the Guggenheim Hermitage museum, which we should visit today, but I think the first priority should be lunch. Although I’m not thsat hungry. The weather is cold and rainy, so walking around is out of the question. There is a Chargers game on. What else is there to do in Vegas?

We’re waiting in line for the buffet at Bellagio. I have never seen the line this long, but it seems to be moving fairly quickly. Last night we ate at Aquanox, which is a very swanky and expensive seafood place. Jennifer had a lobster which I think was stuffed with crab and hundred dollar bills. I had two martinis and I forget what came after that. After dinner we’ll see O.

We’re officially on vacation. I’m surprised a nice fancy hotel like this doesn’t have broadband, and local calls are a buck, so I’ll be using gprs for the most part. We’re kicking back in the room trying to figure out where to eat dinner.

Last night, I realized that my daughter has a defining characteristic; that is, if you had to pick out a simple phrase to identify her in a crowd of children, she would be “the funny one.” She would be the one getting a laugh out of people. I think the sentiment most often expressed about her by other people to me is how she makes them laugh. My girl is going to be the class clown. I see parent-teacher conferences in my future.

This morning I rode my bike to Del Mar, and on the way back I was riding around a speed bump on a residential street, when my front wheel slipped in the wet leaves in the gutter, and I was suddenly traveling at 20 mph on rough pavement, sideways. Say what you will about bicycle seats, but they’re significantly more comfortable than rough asphalt. I was only five miles from home, but was still glad to have my phone on hand to call the cavalry.

The damage: left leg from shin to thigh, left elbow, heel of right hand.

Currently, we have both cars in the garage, something which has not happened since July 15. Since then, the garage has held my office, a bedroom, a makeshift workshop, a loading dock, and at almost all times, a big pile o’ junk. I’ve chipped away at it the last few weekends, and a final effort this morning has both cars inside.

Jennifer is traveling for a few days, so it’s just the two of us for a while. This will be a little different because I usually have her for a weekend; this time, Jen is traveling for business, so I have her more during the week. Not a big deal, but we won’t have as much time for the projects around the house.

Anna helped me make apple & pumpkin muffins today (picture forthcoming), and she did a really good job of scooping muffin batter into the paper cups. With each large spoonful, she’d use her finger to scrape the batter into the cup, saying, “Ewww, gross!” every time. Pretty funny. Eventually, she just gooshed her fingers into the batter bowl and I decided to cut my losses and put the muffin tins in the oven.

I got a new camera, and I really really love it. It’s just @#$@# awesome. There was nothing wrong with the old one, but the new one is newer and faster and better in every way. The old one is headed for ebay soon. I really didn’t mean to get a new camera this soon, but now that I did, I couldn’t be happier with the choice. The entire month that I was waiting for the new cam to be delivered, I was having buyer’s remorse about spending the money to upgrade, but the day before it showed up, I got a very nice bonus at work, which takes the edge right off. It must have been meant to be.