Gobble gobble ~

Thanksgiving Day here in Brentwood has been memorable, and we haven't even had the Great Feast yet. Holly has brined the turkey and he's now in the oven, all 20lbs of him. Numerous side dishes are poised to go in the oven etc shortly, as the entire ballet is choreographed towards Dr Brado's arrival from his day shift in time for our 6:30p dinner. By working today and New Year's, he'll get a week off at C'mas.

Tuesday M&I came over the river and thru the woods, having a comfortable trip in the V-Van despite a dead battery at start-up and then a puzzling electronics failure in my newly-wired 12v sockets which deprived me of all my little travel aids. We made it here in a little over 12 hour despite a goodly number of stops and about an hour worth of snow squalls near Bristol. Welooked around Abingdon VA and marked it for a stopover on some future trip; the Virginia Creeper bike trail and the fancy Geo Washington Inn and the historic Virginia Theater are all there.

Yesterday M did some shopping while I played w/J-Man and Natalie and then we swapped roles. I had a new battery put in the van at WalMart since it seemed to have it original one still in it that had lost its oomph, and then did a complete re-wire of my auxiliary power system to correct whatever it was that was causing both my GPS's plus a new one I bought for troubleshooting to go dark. Imagine my surprise this morning when I discovered that whatever gremlins had worked their mischief before were stil present after my re-working. Colour me Not Pleased. I'm still thinking it thru.

Jacob, Nat, M and I all rolled to BNA to greet the arriving Caroline last eve, who appeared fresh from a day of horse-riding and an effortless flight out of Midway. On the way to the airport, I was enthusing to my young audience about the incredible speed of air travel, noting that C would accomplish what would be an all-day trip by car in the time it would take us to drive to the airport. The ever-circumspect J-Man thought for a moment and said, "Well, it IS a bit of a drive to the airport . . ."

This morning C&I were up by 0630 to head out for the Boulevard Bolt, an annual T'Gvg Day 5-mile race thru the gorgeous Belle Meade part of Nashville that is sponsored by several big churches and a synogogue that benefits the local homeless. It was a clear and crisp morning and almost 8,000 runners had signed up; C was sporting number 23 and I had 7728! The course ran along a gently-rolling divided parkway lined by homes that looked like an amped-up version of Old Upper Arlington (OH), with huge stately homes and mansions on both sides. C finished in 42+ minutes and I in 52+. I managed to lose my second iPod shoe amulet along the way, but otherwise it was a lot of fun and by far the largest group I've ever run with. When we got home Dr Brado was still here; things were slow in the ER and they told him to chill with the fam until things ramped up, which they did around 10:30.

It hit 60F here today and I washed the van, for the second time since we've had it. Holly and M took Brady Ben for a stroller ride while the older two napped, and then I got to hold and feed Young Master BB, who is a real sweetheart -- despite the fact that he spit up on me rather dramatically a couple times. M then took the older two out for some YardTyme to work off their energies. Now the Kitchen Work is proceeding with deliberate speed.

We miss Corelyn and Rew but look forward to the fact that in less than four weeks we'll all be back here. Woo hoo!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Turkey Day!