Happy Thanksgiving!

I ought to be in the kitchen finishing up my carrot souffle and making sure the gravy that I forgot to start hours ago is coming along okay. But I needed a break. Really. I've spent most of the morning in that room, rinsing a turkey, stuffing it with lemons and thyme, piling sage cornbread on top of white bread and herbs for the oh-so-yummy sage stuffing, trying to catch glimpses of the floats in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, feeding Kate breakfast and taking her outside to burn off some energy, and obsessing about how we're going to fit 8 adults at our table that seats 6. Tim's been a great help, playing with Kate, feeding her lunch and putting her down for her nap (she is now officially -?- taking 1 nap a day), playing poolboy, and cleaning up the yard. Now most things are done and I just have a few loose ends to tie up.

Kate slept in until 8:15 this morning. At least I think she did. That's when I woke up and heard her talking. She cried for 2 seconds at 6:30am, but seemed to go back to sleep, so I decided that was a good idea and did so as well. It was like the first real vacation we've had since she was born!

My sister wasn't so lucky. She and Mike live next to DV8 nightclub, a lovely Tucson establishment that frequently causes problems. I called her at 11am this morning to get a heads up on when they and Mike's parents might be headed over, and found that she was just waking up. "It's 11am! Sleeping in a little?" They had a rough night, as she put it. At about 2:15am when the club let out, they heard some noise outside, close by, and Mike got up to investigate. He looked out their front door and saw a big white SUV parked in their driveway. He grabbed his gun and walked outside, much to my sister's dismay. She thought it would just be a better idea to call the cops. Mike walked out to the vehicle and there was someone in it. And he was loading a shotgun. Mike asked if he could help him and the guy said, "No, my gun's jammed." Mike promptly walked back inside and called the police. They showed up minutes later, with a squad car and a helicopter. How Fun. So that was my sister's night last night. Oh, and they arrested the guy. Crazy, huh? Us, we just have barking-ass dogs behind our house. I'll try to stop complaining about them for a few days.

I realized that I haven't posted any photos of Kate lately, so here are a couple of her in San Diego. I'd post some of the 2 of us, but I think my face is starting to get that 'huge, I'm pregnant and retaining all fluids I ingest' look, and I don't want to ruin your Thanksgiving.

Standing at Mission Bay park.

I think I'll have a beer.