-groan- Black Friday ...

Yup, we've made it through Thanksgiving without exploding from food consumption ... go figure :) ... I have no regrets ... well one - I shouldn't have eaten so much chocolate mousse pie!! Sugar and I don't get along so well ... and I ate WAY too much sweet stuff (cola, pie, sweet-potato casserole) and am in sugar-hangover mode. The turkey, made by my in-laws (the 'Jaques Pepin & Julia Childs' way) was superb, moist and delicous. The stuffing was savory with fresh sage, sausage, mushrooms in a cornbread base. There was the "schluckque-pop!" style (canned) cranberry sauce (jelly), sweet potato casserole (southern style with nuts, butter, and brown sugar), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, and a cranberry chutney (divinely sour!) ... oh! and the most divine whole-wheat rolls (made by my lil' sister-in-law) and croissants (made by ME!).

All in all it was a delicious spread, and an amazing feast ... and is greater tradition even than the turkey on Thanksgiving, there are a TON of leftovers :).

Traveling Thanksgiving day morning was lovely as well. It was like a Pittsburgh ghost-town as nobody was on the roads at 8-9 in the morning. Our trip was fast too, we made excellent time as we hit most of the green lights and clear roads all the way to our destination. We are getting very good gas-mileage on the new SUV (I LUV my SUV!) and haven't sacrificed much in that area with the upgrade, which is, of course, a nice change of pace considering the gas prices are still a little on the high side (well, they are improving, but still not below $2 where I'd like to see them!).

Oh, and the WEATHER, was almost balmy! Chrystal clear sky, warm, bright sun, and the air was DRY. The traditional Turkey-bowl game was played with minimal mud and NO jackets, gloves, scarves, ear-muffs, hats, or SNOW! Are we going to have a mild winter? or is this just the weather's way of holding off the inevitable until it decides to dump the LOADS of snow on us? Though I can't speak too loudly - we've already felt the 'wrath' of the snow belt :) ... and even then we didn't get near what Buffalo, NY did just before Halloween - 2ft in about 6 hours!

To make this knitting related ... have I mentioned that I finished the second 'footie' for my DH? He loves them, and so do I! They are a little long for me though, and he gets quite upset with me when I wear them :). (Oh, well ;)). I started another washcloth - HAVE TO KNIT ... I really want to do some more socks, but the yarn for them is so expensive ... I can't bring myself to spending that kind of $ on yarn right now (though I'm going to have to take the plunch sooner or later simply because I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to make some cashmere or wool blend socks for myself, and a wool sweater for Dave (oh, yeah, I have a pattern that is knit in the round - NO SEAMS that is going to be GORGEOUS in a soft green or vibrant soldier blue fingering wool.

My trading is going well. the recent holiday has spurred on the $ weakness across the board, and I've profitted from the move - though it is $1 at a time (/pip) in the mini account right now it is still $1 at a time! and + pips is always a good thing!!!

Well, I'm off - I have some general shopping to do - yup, I said I was going to go shopping on Black Friday! I am NUTS, totally INSANE, and just a little titched! but that is just too bad, because there is NOTHING like the sales on Black Friday or the weekend after Thanksgiving ... and as I am totally into saving as much $ as possible - I absolutely want to take advantage of some of those sales and savings - though I don't think I'm going to get to close to the mall, on principle ... then again, Michael's is having a huge sale right now and there are coupons in the paper ... AND there is a Dolman sweater at Khols and I think JCPenny's that I covet - almost 70% off with the sales going on! Who could pass that up????

Oh, well, :) ... I'll catch y'all later with more news from jus'anuther Knitter.