Somethings and Nothings

The trip home to WV was fabulous. The first part was difficult for me without dad around. Although it has been nearly 18 months since his passing it wasn't until this trip back that many unreleased emotions came out: anger at dad not being around, sadness of time lost, sense of not knowing what to do with tools, projects, etc..
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Turkeys: they turned out fine. The one at the VOR's mother's house worried me a bit, the meat thermometer was made in about 1953 and took about 15 minutes to before it would register a temperature. But I figured that the VOR's family had tough stomachs and could take their dark meat a little on the underside of well done.

The turkey at my mom's turned out pretty good. Only pretty good because it wasn't grilled - can't match the heat from a grill nor the smoke from wood chips.

Get this: wine is at least $2-3 dollars more a bottle in WV than RI. I bought an inexpensive Pinot Noir for dinner at mother's, went over well.
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St. Albans will play Parkersburg this Saturday for the State Championships.
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Nephew has an office and his practice is up and running.
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This weekend WVU will play Pitt. The game has national championship implications for WVU but for me it is an even bigger game. Why? It is the only weekend when it is permissible for the entire state population (children included) are free to curse. They are free to say Eat synonym for scat Pitt. Dr. Burg, in an email I received last night, said:
In 5th grade we all made signs for the WVU-Pitt game. The kid who made the "Eat *&%$ Pitt" sign did not get in trouble.
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My brother-in-law shot a yearling buck while we were in and gave me a hefty portion of the meat. I froze it and placed it in the van, despite my best efforts to keep it cool the meat thawed after 15 hours in the car. So yesterday I cooked the sausage, the shoulder, roast and steaks and gave the rest to some folk from church. I braised it all in a pot, it was even better than I expected. The VOR, #1, #2, & #3 all ate it! Oh yeah. I also tried the five minute loaf that was in the NY Times Wednesday. It was a hit. I made two loaves and have the dough for two more in the frig.
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Story of the week. As you may recall I mentioned in an earlier post that my sister-in-law (from now on the PostMistress) and her undisclosed "friend" (from now on: The Presbyterian) came up for a visit. The PostMistress gave the VOR some clothing (they are always swapping clothing). On Thanksgiving day the VOR wore one of her new outfits. The PostMistress wore black as did the VOR. As the VOR was washing dishes the Presbyterian came up behind her, and put his arms around her waist and said "hey honey." The VOR turned around with a what are you doing and talking about expression. The Presbyterian turned a new shade of red and quickly exited the room. You would think that was end of the story but later on in the afternoon The Presbyterian did it again.
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Coal River will be released on 08.Jan.2008