Black Friday

We had a full turkey dinner around 4 p.m. today. Yes, I know. Thanksgiving was yesterday. We had THAT full turkey dinner at my sister's house yesterday. Remember when I mentioned GG was home for the week? Remember the post saying I was cooking a turkey and then going to read? GG decided he didn't want turkey last Sunday and ordered from Roadhouse Grill. Side note: I'm shaking my head and rolling my eyes...again...into the back of my skull. End side note.

Then come Tuesday this week GG decided we needed to have left overs. I explained that you can't have left overs until you've had the meal to begin with and since he'd changed his mind about the turkey last Sunday the only way we would end up with left overs was if I cooked a turkey and if I was going to do that we might as well stay home and eat it.

Ever the problem solver, my man is, he concluded if you have turkey dinner the day after Thanksgiving it's still left overs since you didn't eat it on Thanksgiving Day. All of which translates into me preparing a turkey on Thanksgiving so we could have the smell in the house and have the full turkey dinner today and call it leftovers. It's a good thing he's such a sweetheart because sometimes he drives me nuts. A cuckoo and a nut. Now theres a couple for you.

Couldn't we just have saved the turkey and eaten it another time? Noooooo. Anyway, now we DO have leftovers and of course all the grunting, testosterone-laden types who live here are thrilled with turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and stuffing being at their fingertips to microwave at a moments whim. Look away while I roll my eyes again. Hey, I like turkey as much as the next person, but I wouldn't have argued with anyone who wanted me to skip cooking one this year.

All joking aside, I'm glad I cooked the dinner for my guys. It's good to have traditions like having your own turkey dinner no matter what and it's a small price to pay for their happiness. So much joy over mashed potatoes and gravy. It's mind boggling really.

GG and I went for our swim this morning. I got stopped in the middle by my kids' pediatrician and we chatted a moment because his youngest is a senior this year and goes to school with Shmoo. Naturally GG kept swimming without me. He hit his 50 lengths today. I ended with 46. The weather this morning was just awesome, crystal clear blue skies, about 50 degrees and the water was about 80 degrees. Really it was just sublime.

Then we had a few errands to run and ended up in Target. The new Super Target. Which can I say I expected to be brimming with people. The only truly crazy place was electronics which is where we wanted to go of course.

Check this ad out. See the 19" flat screen TV with DVD player for $199?

Well we bought it. Our anniversary is next week, our birthday is in 3 weeks on the same day, and Christmas is in 4 weeks. So we gave ourselves the TV for anniversary, birthday and Christmas and put it in our bedroom. GG is setting it up as I type this. We're going to watch NORTH AND SOUTH. Again. What can I say? I have a Richard Armitage crush. Of course, I'm not in Kristie's league, but nonetheless, I've gotta crush.

The other truly awesome thing I've discovered this holiday season? These babies.

As a person who is neither a white chocolate nor candy cane fan, I'm crazy for these chocolatey minty candies. So much so that I count out 5 to eat because if I have the bag I'm gonna eat til I'm sick and since these candies are sweeter than regular Hershey kisses I think I would get sick...eventually. But what a way to go!

Instead of candy I'm going to brew myself a nice cup of tea and go watch NORTH AND SOUTH with GG. See why made the man a turkey? He's going to watch NORTH AND SOUTH with me. Beanie is working, Shmoo is out with friends, Emily is warming my feet and GG is getting the TV fired up. The only downer is no reading again tonight. But life is full of compensations...Richard Armitage will be in HD. It's hard to argue with that.

North and South

No not the American mini-series with Patrick Swayze based on the books by John Jakes. Although, if you like Civil War stories I recommend the books. GG and I both loved them when they came out some 18 years ago. Since they are historical they stand up pretty well.

No I'm talking about the BBC series. I just ordered the DVD from Amazon. KristieJ wrote about the series last week and it piqued my interest. Today I read her post insinuating that Richard Armitage, the male lead in the BBC North and South is her idea of Derek Craven from Lisa Kleypas' DREAMING OF YOU. You may have heard something about the current blogosphere debate about Derek versus Sebastian and who is the more fabulous of the two. Being firmly in the Sebastian St. Vincent from DEVIL IN WINTER camp Kristie's pictures and teasers nudged me to further check out this guy, Richard Armitage and the series. All of which lead me on a North and South google odyssey culminating in my ordering the darn thing. In the name of research people. It's in the name of research.

This long movie, or short mini series, looks very very good. Just how many times do you see a 5 star rating at Amazon when there are 216 reviews? Not many. About as often as I spend an afternoon googling and then providing more links in a single post than anyone would possibly bother with. Obsessions are a bitch aren't they? Or should I say curiosity killed the cat. Either way it isn't pretty.