Happy Turkey Day!

Or in our case, Happy Chicken/Ham Day! No one in our family really loves turkey, so we did a beer can chicken in the oven and a ham in the crock pot. Jason and I hosted, and my parents and sisters came over for the feast. Here are a few pics from the celebration:

The food (ham, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole)

Dad and Mom (and Jason)

B and Sus

Me and Jas

Now we're all just sitting around and watching football. Pretty standard Thanksgiving!

Warm Woolies

Now that it's getting colder out, it's feeling like time to start knitting again! I just finished my first project of the season, a vest for a charity called Warm Woolies. After December 18th, some lucky child will be running around in this:

Next up, a cardigan for me!

Wow

According to a recent study, a medium-size movie theater popcorn and soft drink has the calories, fat, and sodium content of 3 Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter. I am so grossed out!

The kicker is, that stat (1,200 calories, 60 g of saturated fat, and 980 mg of sodium) is for popcorn WITHOUT the extra 'buttery topping.'

I guess this is all because the popcorn is popped in coconut oil. I know I never come close to eating an entire medium-size popcorn when I go to the movies, but I may have to switch to candy as my snack of choice from now on. What a bummer!

Congrats to Irina...I guess

So there you have it. Without a doubt, Irina had the best Project Runway collection and deserved the win. I just wish she wouldn't have been such a brat all season! As much as I hate to admit it, my cold heart warmed a little when her disapproving father came on stage with tears in his eyes to congratulate her. Even Nina got a little choked up!

This wasn't the best season of Project Runway, but I'll keep my fingers crossed hoping that Lifetime will pull it together for season 7!

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney

I really liked this book. Kind of a cross between Less than Zero and Catcher in the Rye, but with a more relatable main character and better ending. The book is short. It follows the protagonist through a week of partying and screwing up at work as he attempts to deal (or not deal) with his failed marriage and the death of his mother. Definitely worth a read if you've ever looked at your life and wondered, "how did I get here?"

Also, they made a movie based on this book in the 80s, starring Michael J. Fox and Kiefer Sutherland. It didn't get the best rating on imdb, but think I might still check it out!

The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie

I've been wanting to read something by Salman Rushdie for a while, and this one looked promising with its rock 'n roll plotline and 4-star rating on Amazon. It was definitely entertaining, though I should have read the reviews more closely...I didn't realize I was embarking on a 500-page journey in magical realism! I like magical realism in small doses, but find it a bit overwhelming in an epic novel. But then again, maybe that's the point!

Anyway, The Ground Beneath Her Feet tells the story of Vina Aspira and Ormus Cama, an Indian duo who become the world's most famous rock band. Rushdie basically recaps the history of rock and roll, keeping some of the details in tact, changing others drastically, and including so many allusions and references it will make your head spin. I actually gave up trying to figure the book out two-thirds of the way through and just kind of raced along to the finish.

I worry this might not have been the best intro to Rushdie, so I may still read one of his more famous novels, Midnight's Children or The Satanic Verses. I'll keep ya posted!

Agassi's flowing mane was a wig!

In his new book, Open, Agassi says he lost the 1990 French Open final because he was so nervous his hairpiece was going to fall off. Somehow this violates me more than the whole crystal meth thing. I'm horrified, but also can't stop laughing about it. It seems so obvious now! How could we not have known?

Man, that's one I would have taken to the grave! Poor Andre.

A new job for Jason!

Congrats to Jason for scoring a new sales job with Direct Medical Data: http://www.dmddata.com/. He starts the weekly commute to Des Plaines on November 9th and is very excited :)

I am too, although it means I will no longer be coming home to a gourmet meal every night. Looks like it's time for me to start digging through the cookbooks again!