What's everyone doing for Turkey day?

jj said:

I’ll be experimenting with a dry brine. Previously, the standard wet brine drew complaints that the turkey was too moist 

You don't need family like that. 

NOT A TA said:

If weather co-operates I'll likely install a bollard at a vigilante landscaping project I'm working on. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when some day the heads of various public departments realize none of their departments installed it. After that I expect free food I can't identify (and that's probably a good thing) from various immigrant neighbors I'm constantly helping.

If your immigrant neighbors are anything like mine, it's all delicious (and mostly chicken or pork)

Going to do some repairs to the e46 exhaust then eat a ton of food. Should be a great day 

Im fixing to go to mom and dads while the girls finish getting ready. Do a little work to the miata, eat a bunch of food, get family portraits made, fall asleep early.

Brined the turkey overnight, it's cooking away on the Weber.

The whole fam damily is going to my aunt's house about 45 minutes from where I live.

Gives me and Mrs. Salty a chance to listen to Alice's Restaurant, our yearly tradition. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Terry

Mostly I am bitching about people who call it "Turkey Day" instead of recognizing it as a secular holiday observing thanks for the help we get from other people to get us through tough times.

Woody said:Heart attacks start rolling in around 3:00.

My oldest aunt had a heart attack a week before Thanksgiving a couple years ago.  At Thanksgiving dinner that year, my grandmother started showing signs of the kidney failure that eventually took her life a few months later, while said aunt was still in a nursing home for convalescence related to the procedures to save her from the heart attack.  (Gangrene at the site where they harvested an artery from her leg to save her heart, it wasn't pretty...)  Of course, since she started having UTI problems on a four day weekend, we couldn't schedule her (my grandmother) for a doctors' appointment until it was far too late to do anything,

Same aunt started having diabetes-related complications yesterday.  I'm starting to find that this time of year is not very good.

My girlfriend and I are going to work on our newly acquired house. Peeling wallpaper, and other paint prep. It would be nice if primer flew today, but we shall see.

Sausage biscuits and bloody marys for brunch, her stuffed pork chops with green beans and mashed potatoes for dinner. Stella and Jameson will be joining us. Happy Day, everyone.

We're all hanging out with the wife's side of the family. I keep retreating back to this bed as much as I can but she keeps calling me out to be social. I guess she's about to win. Afterward I'll be glad, of course :)

I hope you all find time to be thankful for every blessing today.

and keep in mind those like my friend who is still waiting to hear back about his family in Paradise, CA

Hiding from my wife’s family north of Detroit for the next 8 hours trying to not hear their politics or views or stupid Cleveland jokes and worn out Browns takes.  At about 7 we hit the road for home, aboot a 4 hour ride with bathroom stops and likely one diesel stop

Woody said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Not a joke. It's the busiest day of the year, followed closely by the day before Thanksgiving, when everybody cleans their oven for the first time since the previous year.

Oven fires will begin around 10:30 am. Turkey fryer accidents and 911 calls from panicked neighbors who think that the garage next door is on fire but it's really fryer smoke will begin around noon.

Heart attacks start rolling in around 3:00.

Porch fires from visiting relatives smoking outside usually happen around 7 pm.

Thanksgiving is a very predictable day around the firehouse, although one year I did get to deliver a baby right after dinner. That was unexpected.

10:50 am ...First oven fire. 

I “assumed” that we would be going to my parents for dinner and my plan was to get to the shop early and put in a few uninterrupted hours working on the Corvette Kart. I was informed that we are going out for dinner with the family at 12:30 which totally screws up my plans for a day in the shop.

That’s fine as it’s Thanksgiving Day and we all need to look inside of ourselves and our lives to think and remember what we are all thankful for. Members of my family has been battling numerous illness for the last few years and they are all still here and doing well. My fiancée is 4-1/2 years post-surgery for stage 3 brain cancer/malignant tumor and doing incredibly well. I thank God every day for having her by my side. I’m truly blessed and especially on Thanksgiving Day, will hold her just a little closer tonite.

I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Even though you don’t know me, do me a favor. Give everyone that you love a little bit longer hug and a kiss today and remember just how special they are. You have them in your life today, but you never know what might happen tomorrow.

11:22 am: Second oven fire. 

In reply to Woody :

Bummer. This is the first TG day in several years I havent been on call or at work for part od the day.

Do people still video themselves burning the garage/house down with those fryers?

My parents are in town with their chocolate lab aka brown bear. He's been pulling logs off the firewood rack as toys all morning.  Going to BILs house to watch the battle for psychosis queen btw my mom and MIL.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Turkey is injected and in the oven, child is off to her mothers. Pandora is kicking out some jams, and my hollow earth mission in terraria is about to start up again. 

In reply to XLR99 :

Battle for psychosis queen gave me a chuckle.  Mostly because I don't have to be there. 

1:04.  Oven fire. 

For the first time in 17 years, we are at home.  I don't miss the 7 hour drive each way to get to our normal Thanksgiving weekend "thing", but as I'm sitting here having just put the turkey breast in the oven I do certainly miss our regular "gang" and participating in the food prep with them...

Woody said:

Woody said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Not a joke. It's the busiest day of the year, followed closely by the day before Thanksgiving, when everybody cleans their oven for the first time since the previous year.

Oven fires will begin around 10:30 am. Turkey fryer accidents and 911 calls from panicked neighbors who think that the garage next door is on fire but it's really fryer smoke will begin around noon.

Heart attacks start rolling in around 3:00.

Porch fires from visiting relatives smoking outside usually happen around 7 pm.

Thanksgiving is a very predictable day around the firehouse, although one year I did get to deliver a baby right after dinner. That was unexpected.

10:50 am ...First oven fire. 

Damn that was accurate. 

Woody said:

1:04.  Oven fire. 

When you call it, you call it.

At the Oregon Coast with my wife, kids, a good friend, my Dad, his girlfriend and her step-Mom.  Its become a bit of a tradition for us to escape to a rental house on the coast for relaxation with people we enjoy to spend time with and there is a local restaurant that serves a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.

Dad's girlfriend has had health issues for many years as a result of a brain tumor while in college.  She's been carefully managing it all, but we're all aware of her limitations.  She still carries too much stress due to her short-term memory issues, lack of depth perception and perfectionism and this stress likely led to what happened Yesterday

Yesterday, after we arrived and settled in a bit, walking around chatting and snacking.  Dad's girlfriend had a bad seizure.  The first she's had in 12 years.  My wife (who has some medical training) happend to be next to her while holding our 3-month old and had to hold her up while calling for us to come help.  Dad was able to control her fall and my wife took over while I grabbed our son and the Step-Mom grabbed our 2-year old. 

The first seizure was followed closely by another, which is when the ambulance was called.  A third seizure followed by the time the EMTs arrived.  She was stable when they loaded her up, but she had another once at the hospital.  They didn't find anything in the CAT-scan and just medicated her before they transferred her to OHSU in Portland where her neurologist for the past 20 years is an instructor.

Dad and her Step-Mom packed up and went to Portland last night.  We heard this morning that she's doing much better and they're going to perform an EKG and likely discharge her late today or tomorrow.

Not the Thanksgiving we wanted, but the outcome is much better than we expected and we're certainly much more thankful this year than perhaps in years past.

Needless to say, we all need to take better care of ourselves and each other.  The Holidays should be fun and enjoyable, not stressful.  If yours aren't, find ways to make them better and help others make their's better.

Woody said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Not a joke. It's the busiest day of the year

I wasn't joking at all. Thanks to you I always think fire safety on the holidays. I just put a new battery in the smoke detector and have re-mounted the fire extinguisher in the new sink cabinet. 

3:20....Smoke from  turkey fryer, called in by neighbor.

Woody said:

3:20....Smoke from  turkey fryer, called in by neighbor.

You’re good