thinking and planning

Laurel was here for the Thanksgiving weekend and we managed two days out that completely confounded my planning. I imagined that Friday on the Mall would be a good idea since I didn’t imagine many visitors to D.C. for Thanksgiving and I envisioned all the locals out shopping. Bad idea. For the record, this was the first time I’ve stood in line at museums since I’ve live here – and that includes the height of the summer tourist flockings. We had the best luck at the Museum of Art since not many kids enjoy strolling around art museums. We did the zoo yesterday and I planned on being a small cog in a huge wheel but the place was near empty. The weather was glorious and all animals were out playing in the mid-50s, beaming sunshine, Sunday afternoon. Absolutely the best day spent wandering around and chatting. She’s back in Omaha after her evening flight last night and should be sitting in school listening intently to an Algebra or German lesson.

Thanksgiving Day turned out just fine – turkey, cranberries, deviled eggs (argh!), stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, biscuits, pie x 2, and whatnot. The two most important things I learned from my first full-frontal attack on a T’giving meal are these: you’ll be cooking all day and you need a solid plan and, a big 11 lb. turkey breast is all you need for a whole lot of people. An 11 lb. breast with all the other deadweight elsewhere ends up providing about 10 lbs. of meat. The dark meat loving folk might give you a hard time but they can always be uninvited.

So, Trent Lott is re-elected to his Senate seat last year and now decides that he has other stuff he wants to pursue and will leave office “by the end of the year”? Interesting. The Governor will get to appoint someone to serve the remaining five years of his Senate term. There also seems to be some little law that says former congressmen must wait two years from leaving office to become lobbyists – unless, they leave office prior to the end of this year and then they’re grandfathered in to the older one year waiting period. Good work Trent! (chest thump!)

That’s all for now. Still getting back to real life after the long weekend.

T.