Weekend in Connecticut

Melissa and I went to Connecticut this weekend to visit her parents and see a few of her friends.  The drive there was pretty stress free, compared to the last time we went which involved driving unfamiliar, crowded roads in the dark and the rain, which was no fun at all.  On Saturday, Melissa’s father Gene and I watched the Gators game on his wide screen tv while Melissa and one of her friends went to the Hallmark store to look at wedding invitations.  Now thats one of the reasons why I love Melissa so much.  She knows me better than to ask me to go to the Hallmark store with her, as I know better to drag her to the video game store in the mall.  She has her interests and I have mine, and they don’t have to overlap for us to get along.  The gators game was good in the respect that they won, but kind of boring since it wasn’t very competitive.  We decided not to watch the second half and went to Red Lobster had dinner.  Melissa, Gene and Caryl (Melissa’s step-mom) all had fish of various species while I had the Shrimp Linguini Alfredo.  I know that’s an awful lot like what I had at the Olive Garden the other day, but I know what I like and sometimes I go with it.  I like to try new things, but this time I went for the old standby.  It was excellent, of course.  This morning we sorted through some of the stuff that Melissa had in her parent’s basement, and I think we have it all now.  We then met Melissa’s good childhood friend and Maid of Honor Amy and her husband Brian for lunch at Panera Bread.  Amy and Brian seem very nice and I look forward to getting to know them better.  I had a Chicken Bacon Dijon Panini, which was great.  After that we drove home, which with the traffic, darkness, rain and fog was a real pain-in-the-ass.  Its good to be home though.  I prefer sleeping in my own bed whenever possible, as I suppose the vast majority of people do.  There’s just something about the Frank sized dent in the bed thats just the best.  Back to work tomorrow, I just hope there’s something to do.

Thanksgiving!

We had thanksgiving at our house for the first time ever yesterday afternoon, or perhaps I should say we hosted it since we didn’t do any of the actual cooking.  Since mom and dad are living with Grandpa now to take care of him, they couldn’t have it over there, so they decided to have it here.  Dad came over about 8am to stuff the turkey and get it in the roaster.  That was seemingly easy enough, then Mom and Dad came back around noon to do the dirty work, and do I ever mean dirty!  We had turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, rutabaga, corn, brociflower (first time for that), mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, apple pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bead, pumpkin delight, and real whipped cream.  I think thats all but I’m not writing down appetizers either.  I took some pictures of the food, as well as the aftermath in the kitchen, but I’ll get back to that later.

Dad carving the turkey.

 

Fran

 

Mom

  The food was great and the company was as well, as it was myself and Melissa, Mom and Dad, Aunt Fran and Uncle Jack, my cousin David and his daughter Kaylee.  It lasted from about 2 to 5 and then everyone went home.  Now came the dirty part, cleaning up after that mess!

 

 

 

Mother of God!

  I’ve never seen so many dirty dishes in my life!  It took about 2 1/2 hours just to do the dishes, not including over 2 full dishwasher loads!  Just got done this morning, as some of the pots needed overnight soaking.  Now thats done Melissa and I will be going to Connecticut to visit her parents and see her friends.  That should be a nice time, and we’ll come home Sunday afternoon in time to get ready for Monday.

The cat has (had) fleas.

Somehow, our cat got fleas.  I’m not sure where from, since our cat is of the strictly indoor variety, though Melissa thinks that they must have come from the dogs upstairs.

Our cat Pangu

  Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we didn’t want anyone to get fleas, we had to do something about it.  I picked up some flea shampoo and a couple of flea bombs at the grocery store and got to work.  The first thing we did was wash the cat, which as anyone with any cat experience knows, was no simple task.  I must say that she took it quite well though, all things considered.  I wish I had a picture of what Pangu looks like wet, because you’ve never seen a sadder thing in all your life.  Unfortunately, since we had a wet, cold and pissed cat on our hands, that picture will have to wait until later.  After washing the cat, we took her in her carrier down to mom and dads so they could look after her while we set off the bug bombs in the house.  While the bug bombs were doing their business, we decided to head out to Dickson City for dinner.  We had a very nice meal at the Olive Garden.  Melissa had the Venetian Apricot Chicken and I had the Chicken and Shrimp Carbonara, both of which were excellent.  I’ll try to go on the Olive Garden website and get a picture of them.

 

Chicken and Shrimp Carbonara

Venetian Apricot Chicken.

  When we got home with the cat, it seems as if the bug bombs worked.  I haven’t seen a live flea yet, and most importantly, the cat has stopped scratching.  Other than that, not a whole lot going on today.  Thanksgiving dinner is at 2pm tomorrow, so I’ll try to get pictures of everyone, and of course of the food also.  Hurray!  I’ll finally have some pics to post.