Randoms

We have nearly finished our leftover turkey.  Turkey sandwiches, Pecan/Cranberry/Turkey Salad with Orange Poppyseed Dressing, Turkey Pot Pie, Turkey Noodle Soup.  Not bad for a 20 lb bird I bought that originally fed 3 adults and 2 children.

Today I drove by my childhood home – the one when life was most chaotic.  It’s tiny.  I remember it being small, but not that small.  It’s listed as 735 square feet.  I felt anxiety…and dissonance.  I drove a few blocks further to my other childhood home – the one my dad died in.  I only felt sadness.

On Friday I got my A Tree Grows in Brooklyn inspired tattoo on my ribs/back.  I would post a picture, but it really needs to heal a bit so I can show off the detail.  It looks more amazing every day.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month.  You can read Charlotte’s Adoption Story here.

We put up the tree and brought out Mr. Elf over the last couple of days.  The tree has a proper top hat.

My new snowman ornament this year:

Charlotte picked Mater and Cooper picked a pencil.  I bought them a soccer ball.

Chris got Star Wars themed ornaments.

And Mr. Elf seems to like my new animal décor I bought when we went camping in Ouray.

Bookworm

I am a list maker.  I often find myself adding 5 things to the list for every one I check off.  I am a bookworm.  I read somewhere around 70-80 books a year, which means I keep a long list of books to read.  If I was a librarian or worked at a book store I would probably be fired for reading instead of doing my job.  I need more life to live so I can read all the books. 

In no particular order, and not sorted by any genre, here is my latest list of BOOKS TO READ:

1. Touching the Void
2. The Climb
3. Call the Midwife
4. Brainstorm:  The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain
5. The Giver 
6. Situations Matter:  Understanding How Context Transforms Your World
7. Mindset:  The New Psychology of Success
8. Riding in Cars with Black People & Other Newly Dangerous Acts:  A Memoir in Vanishing Whiteness
9. Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
10. Self Portrait as Your Traitor
11. Time Warped
12. This Explains Everything:  Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works
13. On Looking:  A Walker’s Guide to the Art of Observation
14. Dreamland:  Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep
15. Tales From the Perilous Realm
16. Mapping of Human History:  Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins
17. The Tender Bar: A Memoir
18. A Short History of Nearly Everything
19. A Walk in the Woods:  Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
20. Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid:  A Memoir
21. I’m a Stranger Here Myself:  Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away
22. Before I Go to Sleep:  A Novel
23. Above All Men
24. The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicle #1)
25. The Wise Man’s Fear (Kingkiller Chronicle #2)
26. The Tree of Liberty
27. 1493:  Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
28. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
29. Poor Economics
30. Nickel and Dimed
31. Wolf Hall
32. Bring Up the Bodies
33. The Sex Lives of Cannibals
34. Getting Stoned with Savages
35. The Art of Racing in the Rain
36. The Dove Keepers
37.  Syndrome E
38.  The Book Thief
39.  11/22/63
40.  The Night Circus
41.  Alif the Unseen
42.  The Fever Series
43.   Joseph Anton
44.   Far From the Tree:  Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
45.   The Painted Girls
46.   She Woke
47.   Before I go to sleep
48.   Shift (Wool Book #2)
49.   Dust (Wool Book #3)
50.   Letters to a Young Scientist
51.   This Will Make You Smarter:  New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking

Last year of Santa?

Cooper asked me the other day if Santa is really real.  I told him I thought so, because I believe in magic.  He seemed to accept that answer but this might be the last year for Mr. Elf and Santa.  That makes me a little sad.

Thanksgiving

We stayed home this year and only had a couple of visitors, my sister (Charlotte's birth mom) and Gigi.  I spent 5 hours cooking food that was delicious and then we watched Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets because we finished reading book 2.  I fell asleep and took a long late nap.  It was a fantastic day.

Microwave drama

In other non-important first world problems, we had to buy a new microwave.  The magnetometer went out on our 4 year old microwave, which just means that it stopped heating and cooking food.  We found it that it would cost $500 to replace the part vs. $150-$300 for a new microwave.  In the meantime we brought the one from the basement upstairs, which is about 7 years old. 

We went to Best Buy because it’s convenient and we’ve accumulated enough coupons/points/whatever thing they offer to make it the best deal.  We pick one out, and they tell us it will take about two weeks for delivery.  The plan is that it would be here the Friday before Thanksgiving.

On Thursday before it’s supposed to be here, Chris receives a phone call from Best Buy telling him that the microwave wouldn’t be in the next day, but would be in the Friday AFTER Thanksgiving.  Welp, okay that’s not going to work.  I use the microwave during Thanksgiving and I need the counter space the one we have is currently taking up.  So Chris walks the guy through his options: 1) The microwave needs to be here by Wednesday before Thanksgiving AND 2) We need a discount of at least $100 because now we have to install it ourselves OR 3) Cancel the order and refund our money.  The guy stumbles and Chris says, I’ll have time to wait for you to solve this for me.  If you can’t solve it, I won’t be buying that TV over there from Best Buy.

So the guy figures out he can ORDER IT ONLINE and have it shipped to arrive Monday and he gave us a $125 credit, which covered a 10 year warranty on the magnetometer.  Good, great, awesome.  Chris goes on Monday to pick it up and IT WASN’T THERE.  They took it out on a truck accidentally (??) and told Chris to come back a few hours later to pick it up.  Finally Chris gets the microwave home.

Our friend Mikael came over to help Chris install it and he opens the box to find out that THE MICROWAVE IS DENTED.  I just threw my hands in the air while some profanity tumbled out of my mouth, and said a small thank you that the kids were in their rooms. 

Chris called a local company, Appliance Factory Outlet, and they had a similar model available at their Westminster store.  So Chris and Mikael drove up there and brought home a non-dented, working microwave and installed it.  I have a microwave and counter space for Thanksgiving and we won’t be shopping at Best Buy for any major purchases again.

(I also have it good authority that you shouldn’t buy cameras directly from Olympus because you have to wait longer than 2 months and still never get your camera.)