Home for the Holidays 2011

I consider myself fortunate to get so much time off to see friends and family for Christmas and New Years. The one thing I will say about being a perpetual student is that getting a nice long winter break is... nice. Far less stressful, and I can't begin to imagine what it would be like trying to squeeze so much into a shorter break. Having three weeks definitely takes the stress off of me. I don't like it much that Matt's family and my family will probably never or rarely get together for a holiday, but having the time to commute between various states makes it okay after all.

I spent an evening in Pennsylvania with Matt and his family, and then drove him back to CT. His parents always go to visit with his grandfather, and Matt went there again this year. We've been in a relationship for three years and haven't had a Christmas together, but maybe next year. My aunts are starting to get disappointed, since they are the only family members who haven't met him yet, ha. I at least get to spend the beginning of the new year with him, and we're going out with my friend Jenn and some of her friends.

2011 has been an okay year. Nothing really bad happened to me personally, but I know it was rough for a lot of people I know and care about. I'm always happy to see a new year go, actually. I have no sentimental feelings in particular for the passing of time. I don't like looking back and realizing that it's been so long between events, though. It doesn't feel like that much time has passed, even though I know it has. Hell, I've been in graduate school for a total 4 1/2 years already. That's nuts.

The only resolution I'm making this year is a very broad one, I'm going to start taking better care of myself. No more going weeks without going outside and getting some exercise. No more eating badly. No more drinking a lot. Less coffee, unless it's to catch up with friends. Eliminate an much stress from my life where possible. That last one is the biggest thing.

Wrapping up the Semester

It's that time of the semester, where I'm in a perpetual state of "just about finished" before the break. I have three class sessions and two assignments left before I am done with Fall 2011. I finished my paper for paleoclimate seminar that is due tomorrow... the other project is for PiBBS and is really poorly defined. This is lack of instruction has made it annoying and difficult to do, and I just don't feel compelled to do it since the instructor didn't take the effort to assign a clear project. I will, of course, do something just to get through this.

It's also that time of the year where it's really hard for me to find the motivation to get through the last bit of the semester. For one thing, it's starting to get colder, and it would just be so easy to stay in bed in the morning. Fluffy blankets and pajamas sound much better than getting on a dirty city bus to go sit in my office. I'm also usually fried by the end of November. This fall has been very busy with submitting fellowship proposals, developing my dissertation research, and taking classes.

Felisa is gone this week to a conference in New Zealand. It's really bad timing. We have a book chapter due NOW, and we haven't even put together a first draft. I'm getting nervous, but there's really only so much I can do. While she's gone I'll continue to write and edit my part, and I'm also trying to figure out a conceptual diagram to include in the chapter. If I have that finished for when she gets back I'll feel confident that I've done all I can.

As I wrap up this semester, I'm thinking about what I'm going to do when I get back from winter break. What are my goals for the spring? By mid January I hope to have a manuscript submitted, so I'll be dealing with the fallout from that project. In all likelihood the paper won't get accepted right away, and so I'll be spending time editing the paper for resubmission at other journals. Not all journals use the same format, some are REALLY different, so the amount of effort will depend on where we send it and what the reviewer comments say.

My committee expects that I will give a department talk on my master's research some time in the spring, so I want to get some preliminary data on some of my research. It will be easier to talk about future research directions if I can make a little headway on some projects between now and then. The projects that will involve going to museum collections or doing field work will obviously not be something I can talk too much about, but I have some data from databases I can play with in the mean time.

I'm really eager to get home to Connecticut. I miss everyone so much, and it's always too long between visits. I'm excited that we're getting a tree this year, we haven't had one in 4 years. I get anxious when I don't see my family for long stints, especially with my grandmother not doing so great. I think if I manage to not get sick this year, it's going to be a really nice Christmas. Last year was awful, I picked up a stomach flu right after the holiday and Matt and I were sick for most of the break.

The big thing I am looking forward to when I get back in January is the kitty Matt and I adopted. He will finally be coming home with us. We went to PetCo last week and we found such a wonderful cat, we adopted him even though the timing isn't right. Luckily, his foster mommy is willing to keep him until we get back from break, so he can stay comfortable at her house. He's so sweet and handsome!

Thanksgiving 2011

Here's the menu from this years feast:

Organic free range roasted turkey, basted in butter and white wine - Fred and Me
Salad - Christian
Two kinds of stuffing - Fred and Me
Gravy - Me
Mashed potatoes - Jason
Sweet potato casserole - Fred
Green bean casserole - Christian
Roasted squash - Jason
Collard greens - Christian
Orange ginger cranberry sauce - Matt and Me
Fresh baked rolls - Mouse
Pumpkin pie - Me
Pecan pie - Matt
Apple and pear pie - Mouse
Home brews - Christian

I don't know if I missed anything, but Thanksgiving was delicious, I can't wait till next year!

Melissa, Matthew, Christian, Fred, Jason, Mouse, Dave, Nicole, Bob

Bring on the next holiday, I want to do some more baking.

Whirlwind Tour East: Fourth of July and Some Lobby

Normally I don't like abandoning my blog for long periods of time, but I've been traveling to visit friends and family for the past couple weeks. Shortly after returning from the mammal conference in Portland, Matt and I headed to Connecticut and Virginia.

There never seems to be enough time to see the people I care about. That's true regardless of if my visits are a week or a month long. I haven't been back home since Christmas, which thanks to a stomach virus, wasn't the most productive trip. This time no one got sick, my mom took some time off of work to be with me, and I feel like we got more out of my visit.

On July 4th I met up with Jenn to go to the annual Willimantic Boom Box Parade. We got there early to get a seat on the porch at the Willimantic Brewery. It was so weird, and also fun. The parade has no marching bands, but a radio station plays marching music and people bring radios, and there were also some speakers set up at the parade itself. It also seems like just about anyone can march in this thing, and there were individual people marching, church groups, political groups, and businesses that participated. It's kind of hard to describe, because it's such a random assortment of entertainment. I'd like to be able to go again next year.

In the afternoon Lura and Steve stopped by to say hello, chat, and make plans for later in the week. We sat out on the patio, drank Hosmer Mountain sodas, and caught up. Later in the afternoon Grandma and Uncle Dave came over and we grilled some chicken and enjoyed other cookout stuff. I really value even these short visits with people, I've always liked just sitting around, being with people, talking. Sometimes I feel like there's an expectation to always be "doing" something, but to me this counts as "something". I did it more in high school and college with friends. It's sad it doesn't happen more often, because graduate school has made me into an accomplished breeze shooter.

On Tuesday my Mom, Matt, and I drove down to Abbots in Noank, CT for a lobster lunch. It might seem silly to make a trip like that, but after being in New Mexico, and no where near an ocean and reliable seafood, it isn't weird. We enjoyed some steamed mussels while we waited for our lunch, and took in some nice scenery. We sat out on the dock that looks out over the marina nearby.

CT Holiday Recap

Despite my best efforts to keep up with my blog, the past week has been kind of a train wreck, so I haven't been up to the task. This is also supposed to be a blog about my PhD, and currently, I haven't done anything academically related since I'm on break.

After Christmas I had a couple of days of just hanging around; the blizzard we got made travel extra exciting and I had to postpone my trip to PA to pick up Matt by one day. On the day of the blizzard, before it got really bad, I managed to meet up with Lura for some coffee. I tested the road-worthiness of my mom's little Ford Focus, and I have to say, it isn't nearly as good as my station wagon for managing winter conditions. I had a nice visit with Lura, although it was short, and made it home without incident.

Once the blizzard let up I made the four hour journey to PA to visit with Matt and his family for an afternoon. Then, the two of us started back for CT. Somewhere past Scranton I started to feel a little queezy. 2am rolled around once we were back home, and I was violently ill for a good 12 hours. I figured it had to be food poisoning, since it came on so fast and I felt a little better once I was thoroughly empty. This turned out to not be the case, because two days later, on New Year's Eve, Matt became violently ill with all the same symptoms. So far, thankfully, no one else I was around has gotten sick. This is especially important for my grandmother, who isn't in the best of health anyway. Hopefully no one else catches it. It was absolutely no fun, and the end part of my visit in CT was spent sick. Rather than visiting with people I had been waiting months to see, Matt and I were eating applesauce and broth and watching horrible daytime television. But, that happens, sometimes breaks are spent sick. I can vividly recall spending a couple Christmases as a child with the flu. In a lot of ways, I'm glad I was home with my mommy and Matt, instead of trying to find people to cover me at work back at school. This could have happened during the semester, which would have introduced a whole other dimension of annoyance.

Yesterday we took the train in to DC to visit with Matt's family and friends for the rest of the break. Matt still isn't back to eating regularly; I am, but with some mild discomfort. The next couple of days will only bring better health. The train ride into Virginia was pleasant, it was nice not driving and I'll definitely use it again for this kind of trip. I think the train is seriously underrated as a means of transportation in this country. It's not always the most convenient, but when it works out it is great.

As for the people I didn't get to visit with at home, and the plans I needed to back out of, I'll definitely be back for a visit in the summer. That's such a long ways off, though. Spring break in March is still uncertain, I was hoping to go somewhere in the South to visit friends down there. The invitation to come see us in New Mexico is still open, however, if anyone wants to take us up on it.

An Upbeat Christmas

Today was Christmas, and the family grouped together last night for our annual Christmas Eve party, here are the highlights:

We spent most of yesterday at my grandmother's house cooking, getting her ready, and visting with my mother's aunt and cousin. There were no big problems this year, and we all got out the door on time.

My uncles Dave and Johnny went in one car, and were supposed to follow us in my mom's car. Somewhere on route 2 we started questioning whether or not they were behind us. We got off the highway to get some coffee, and they were nowhere to be found. Neither of my uncles had their cell phone, which was highly unusual.

Dave and John, running out of gas, got to a McDonalds and finally called us. The two trouble makers were having a grand old time. Once everone was back on track, my mom went out to meet them and retrieve them. So dinner started late, but here were plenty of snacks to hold everyone over.
Dinner was great, as usual.

Present opening happened promptly this year. My poor grandmother's bad memory meant she couldn't remember that she had gifts for all the grandchildren. This meant that every 5 minutes or so we were weepily informed that she had nothing to give anyone. It's heartbreaking that 1) she can't recall anything 2) she can't figure out that we'll make sure she's got everything she needs and 3) she doesn't realize that all we really care about is her being there.

Lauren and I exchanged gifts with each other this year. I got cookie cutters and a new rolling pin. I gave her the card game "Fluxx", the version that has a zombie theme. Very holiday appropriate, I must say.

For the first time ever, Lauren and I interacted with our other cousins Sydney and Hannah. Buying that game was the best thing ever, the four of us played for the rest of the evening. Lauren's parents were in a rush to get home, so I told them I'd get her back so they didn't make her leave. I didn't want to cut down on the already short time we had together. This was the best part of the evening, for me anyway. It really meant a lot to have all the girls doing something together.

Matt wasn't there, which I think really dissappointed Aunt Kim. Neither of my aunts have met him yet. I don't know when we'll finally have the family meet him, officially; but, first we need to sort out the technical details of the holidays a little better. Matt has already said that next year, we're traveling together. I concur. An impending snowstorm for Monday is going to spoil my travel plans, and it looks like I won't get to PA or see Matt and his family until Tuesday.

This morning mom and I exchanged gifts: I got a really cool sweater and a jewlery organizer that was shaped like a tree. The sweater is really great, it's warm and looks awesome. I need to cull my sweater collection when I get back to school, I have too many old and out of date sweaters. I'll probably donate them, there isn't anything structurally wrong with them, and I'm sure there are people that could use them. I keep seeing nice sweaters that I would like but that I refuse to buy. I have nowhere to put them because the old ones are taking up too much space.

Mom and I were so busy yesterday that we didn't quite get everything we intended for dinner this evening, and absolutely no grocery stores were open today. No big deal, we improvised with what we had around the house and what we could locate at convenience stores. We ended up having roast pork tenderloin with squash and scalloped potatoes. For dessert, an apple tart. Everything ended up coming together well, despite the initial setback.

Dave, my cousin JP, and my grandmother all came over for dinner. The five of us had a really nice evening. I don't spend that kind of time with JP, ever. He's usually working or out doing something, and I only ever catch him briefly at my grandmother's house.

This year I not only got to spend time with the family I'm already close with, but I got a little extra with those I haven't interacted with in a while. I hope that we can repeat this next year.

Why I Keep This Up (Christmas)

The truth of the matter is, I don't know my family all that well. I mean I really don't know a good majority of them. Sure, I know their names, their rough ages, where they live, and a few other broad details. However, I know the same things about other people I casually interact with. In total, I probably spend more time with one random person at the bus stop every year than half of the people I am blood related to in some form or another.

I'm going to venture a guess that my situation is the same for many people, especially those who have moved further than 100 miles away from the place they grew up. I can only assume that part of this is because for seven years I lived over 300 miles away from home. Now, I'm a three day drive - 1700 miles. However, I felt this rift start long before I was even out of high school.

Blood relation doesn't guarantee a relationship. There is a degree of effort that is essential to building bonds. It's the reason that some friendship that lasted throughout 12 years of grade school can dissolve quickly after only a year away at college. Some family members have invested this effort, and I've reciprocated, and those relationships are strong.

I'm a picky person with friends, the people with whom I choose to associate with more than necessary. I can get along with almost anyone, but there are a select few that make the cut. Some happen to be family members, others I've collected from various places along the way. I like to think that I like people as a whole, this is exemplified by my annoyance with people who loath humanity.

I find it rather disturbing how little I know about some of the people I have a family relationship to. Shouldn't I know more than name, age, occupation? Shit, I'm not even sure I know occupation for all of them. I don't really know. I just know how things are.

So why do I, year after year, get together for Holidays with people I hardly know, that I hardly have anything in common with? I'm not even entirely sure that all of my relations give me a second thought, so why do I persist in this ritual? I've thought about this at length (especially after daydreaming about not coming home for Christmas and going on a cruise because Christmas in Connecticut it cold, and cold sucks). The conclusion I have reached is that, unlike the friends I have, many of my family members have been around for all or most of my existence. They can remember things from when I was too small to recall anything. They know about people that I never met, who in some way influenced my existence (deceased grandparents, for example). They hold all this information; and, if I lose them, I innevitably lose a part of myself. Maybe that's why every time I go away it's painful for me with the special ones, the ones that know me best, the ones I actually know something about.

I will say this: I spent my first Thanksgiving without a blood relative this year. I didn't have much of a shared history with anyone there; so, as much as I love them, and as nice as it was, it wasn't the same.

So, despite the fact that I don't know much about some family members, I'm going to keep up the ritual of getting together a couple times a year for as long as I can. I like rituals, they are predictable and they make me feel safe. Besides - despite the fact that I can't logically explain the warmth I feel towards these people, it is nice so who really cares? And it could be worse. Much. Much. Worse. I've heard about worse, and I'll take my chances with my own family, thanks.

So, bring on the perogies, and I'm sorry if the eggnog sucks this year.

Northeast For The Holidays

I've been slacking, as in slacking off on seeing people since I've been home. It's not that I don't want to see people, I do; this time of year, being home alone while mom is at work, and the chaos puts me in a droopy mood.

I am glad to be home though. It's so important to me that I'm getting to see my mom, Grandma, and Uncle Dave. I'll see the Georgiades clan on Friday evening, as per usual holiday plans. We pack the car up, and head on out to my Uncle Rob's house for a tall tree, fireplace, and more food than any human being should eat in one evening. I'm making egg nog again, as usual. I wonder if Mom has reminded Dave that he is invited? This year I think I'll make some cookies while I'm home: some to bring to Christmas Eve, some to give away to friends.

I have been successful in seeing Jenn. We had breakfast together my first morning back. We went to the Glastonbury Coffee Shop, one of the best places to get breakfast. It's kind of small, which means it can be kind of drafty in the winter, but it has a charm that is quinticential to this area. And it's been around forever, I've been going since I was an infant. My family used to go every weekend.

Jenn and I met up again this evening to puts around the mall area. We hit Target and Red Robin, and then went to the dreaded mall. I promised myself I wouldn't go to the mall until Christmas was done, but we met up with Katie and she needed to return something. I didn't have any shopping to do, so I figured wandering around and looking at sparkly objects wouldn't be too bad. It was a nice evening; homefully I can see Jenn again next week before I head out to Virginia.

I haven't seen Lura yet, but we've made Facebook contact. It's just a matter of time, and not having work or something else in the way, until we hang out. Maybe this weekend? If not, it'll have to wait until I return from PA with Matt on Tuesday.

Being back home where there is TV is SO dangerous. I've been wasting my life watching stupid things, and it's really rather pathetic. My mom and all my friends aren't available till the evening, so I've just been kind of vegging out. I did go out yesterday to try to complete my Christmas shopping. I'm about 98% done. I found a really cool shop, but I can't talk about it yet, or people will know what I got them for gifts. But it was so neat!

There was coffee and cookies with Uncle Dave on Sunday, and lunch with Mom today. So, I guess after the final analysis, my break so far has been fairly productive, after all.

I should be getting my publication together. Hmm, yes.

Cookies!

So despite the bah humbug feelings I was having earlier this month, this past week I've been attempting to get into a better mood. How, you may ask?

Cookies!

And I made a WHOLE bunch of them, too. This past Tuesday I had some of my favorite UNM girlies over (with their boys, whatever, ha!) and we had a cookie swap. A cookie swap is where you bring cookies, and you must leave with some that others brought. I figured out a way to make vegan gingerbread cookies, which was good because Meghan was back! She and Jason are looking for a place to live next semester. Actually, seeing her and seeing that she was okay really picked up my spirits. I was so excited when she showed up.

I also made some pretty delicious butter cookies. I put an orange glaze on them, and then sprinkled them with dried cranberry bits.

Matt and I also checked out Old Town while shops were still open. We stayed until it was starting to get dark. A lot of shops had lights on, and it was really pretty. Unfortunately, there were no luminarias out, which I still need to get pictures of for myself and for the blog, of course. As we were getting ready to leave I spotted this very huge, but oddly shaped Christmas tree.

Upon closer inspection, we realized this was actually a bunch of trees lashed together to make one monster super tree. Sort of like one of those Japanese super fighting robots, except a tree. So, yes, the top of this "tree" is a tree, and all the "branches" are trees too. Very bizarre, but still cool.

Tomorrow is my last day in ABQ before I head home for a long and much needed break. I have much of my shopping done, but there are a few things I still need to pick up. The only thing keeping me from going home at this point is A) proctoring a test, B) laundry, and C) packing.

Coming, Ever So Slowly, to a Close

It's been a while since I posted last, and there's a lot that's happened.

Let me start out by saying, I hate this time of the year. I love going home, and I love that I am going to be done soon with the first semester of my PhD. However, this is the worst time of the year for me emotionally, and the past week has been awful.

I'm no Scrooge, but I don't like Christmas. It arrives in October, I'm sick of it by November, it reminds me of my father's death, and I find that I become more and more bitter about how selfish and materialistic people are. It all comes to a head on Dec. 25th, and no one seems to recall why we even have this holiday in the first place. Here's a hint: the reason isn't to give snotty entitled brats (young and old alike!) gifts that they don't appreciate. Christmas is very much like Valentine's day, and I find it absurd that people need an official reason to be nice to each other. You can do that any old time of the year, and it would probably be a more sincere gesture.

I'm going to make an effort to get my mood in a better place before I go home. I'm just happy to be going home. That's all I really care about this year: seeing people.

The whole death thing reared it's ugly head again last week. I was shocked and saddened to find out that the father of my friend / lab mate / cohort member passed away suddenly last week. The whole thing sent me into an emotional trip down memory lane complete with sadness and guilt that plagues me during this time of the year. And what's worse is I want desperately to do something to help her, but I can't. Not yet anyway. She isn't coming back until the spring.

In other news...

Mom is in the hospital, again. She ate nuts, so now she's undergoing treatment and procedures for ileitus. She's been in there for several days now. I feel awful. I wish I could be there. Although, she doesn't like company when she isn't feeling well, and this is the worst bout yet. She'd just send me home. We've been talking on the phone pretty regularly, though. At least there is that. I hope that she'll lay off the nuts and take it easy for the rest of the year. This is a bad time for both of us, and I wish I was going home sooner.

All this hospital time is taking away from the time she planned on spending with me before Christmas. We were going to see the King Tut exhibit. It's going back to Egypt for the foreseeable future. Maybe she and I could go during a weekend, instead of during a week day like we originally planned. Hopefully she'll be getting released from the hospital soon. I just hate being so far away and having her be there. It makes me nervous. She's in no mortal danger, but I can't help it. We'll just have to make up for it during the evenings and weekends I'm home.

In other, other news...

My teaching duties are coming to a close, thank God. I spent the weekend trying to grade papers that didn't live up to my expectations. I finally concluded that I would grade them tough, and then the lab coordinator and I would figure out a curve. It is VERY difficult for me to ease off on my standards for grading and still grade consistently, so this was the best way to go.

I made a student cry. I hate this.

Monday was the final exam. I was very pleased with it. It took me an entire afternoon to craft, and I think it was a challenging but fair test. It was mostly multiple choice, and I have the talent of being able to write multiple choice tests that are actually difficult. Most students think that they will be a breeze: not mine. I got what looks like a pretty good distribution of grades. Not too many A's, not too many F's. The average is a tad lower than I would like, but I'm trying to get these students to work at the university level. They fought me on that all semester; I don't hand hold. It's mind boggling that some people expect to do almost no work but get a good grade. That's not how I operate.

The beauty of designing a good exam is that it is a cinch to grade. I think in all it took less than 3 hours to grade all three sections and get everything into my spreadsheet. Matt helped, too, which was awesome. I'm hopefully meeting with the lab coordinator tomorrow to discuss appropriate adjustments to the overall grades or for specific assignments. Tomorrow is also my last class of the semester. After that, I have a take home final that is due on Tuesday and I'm proctoring a test on Friday. In my down time I'm going to: register my car dammit!, get the oil changed in my car, and do the little bit of shopping and errands I have in preparation for the break.

And a whole lot of nothing. Much needed nothing.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2010.2

This is the second post of my two post entry on my first Thanksgiving in NM.

The day after Thanksgiving Lev, Matt, and I went out and about to burn off some of the extra calories from the previous evening. We went to the west mesa volcanoes, which are part of the Petroglyph National Monument. It was refreshing to see that a lot of other people had the same idea; rather than go shopping like too many people do the day after Thanksgiving, they were outside enjoying the good weather. It was, indeed, a beautiful day, and the scenery was equally lovely.

Matt, Melissa, and Lev. Two paleontologists and an astrobiologist. In the background, a volcano.

We hiked around for a good 2 hours. From up on the volcanoes themselves we got a great view of the city of Albuquerque.

Far background: the Sandias. Foreground: west mesa. Middle and below: Albuquerque, NM

The mesa is made of a volcanic rock called basalt. Rifting in the area caused the valley and volcanoes to form. The rift is still somewhat active, so the volcanoes themselves aren't totally dormant. I seriously doubt, however, that they will be doing anything interesting in the near future.

The tall rectangle that is roughly in the middle of the picture is the Bank of the West building. I live about 2 blocks to the west of that building. In the far background are the Sandia Mountains to the east.

It's amazing how pretty the high-desert is, desolation has its beauty.

One of a number of volcanoes. We wandered around this big one for a while, it was too tall for me to want to climb, as I was running out of water.

Sitting, watching the daylight run out.

Saturday was an entirely different adventure. For those of you who remember "Contact", the array of what looked like a bunch satellite dishes in the middle of nowhere was filmed for the movie at a real place 44 miles west of Socorro, NM on the Plains of San Augustine. The Very Large Array (that's its real name, also referred to as the VLA) consists of 27 209-ton antennas ("dishes") that can be moved around into different configurations to look at objects in space. This is similar to using a typical telescope, only light waves aren't observed. Objects such as planets, black holes, stars, etc. give off radio waves; these are collected by each "dish" and interpreted by a computer so that scientists can look at the images.

We were at the VLA right before dusk with Dave and Mouse, and I got some rather neat pictures before the sun went down.

Tracks which are used to move the antennas around.

National Radio Astronomy Observatory VLA.

Radio telescope sentinels, standing in a row

Sunset on the Plains of San Augustine

These a really rather large

Looking up

Thanksgiving Weekend 2010.1

I stayed put in New Mexico for Thanksgiving, which makes this the first time I've ever missed it with my family back in Connecticut. Thankfully, there wasn't a shortage of activity this weekend. So although I missed my mom, grandma, and uncles, I had a very good holiday weekend.

UNM was only closed Thursday and Friday, but all my classes were canceled on Wednesday, which gave me a jump on the weekend. The professors had their own families to prepare to cook for, and my adviser was entertaining about 10 people and needed to get ready. Lev was coming in later in the afternoon on Thanksgiving day, so we spent a good bit of Wednesday cleaning the apartment up so that he'd have a reasonably comfortable place to sleep. I also did some of my much needed grading, which is still ongoing because it is such a long, painful, assignment.

The morning of Thanksgiving I continued with the cleaning and got started on making our contribution to dinner. I had six sweet potatoes that I boiled and whipped up with orange juice and butter. We also experimented a bit and created a new dish which we have yet to come up with a name for. It was quinoa with dried cranberries, golden raisins, toasted pine nuts, caramelized onion and garlic, and citrus. It ended up being very tasty, at least by my tastes. It'll need a little tweaking, but I wrote down everything we did so that I can play with it in the future. Matt and I have become big fans of quinoa, which is a South American grain that cooks up very much like rice. It has a lot of nutrients that rice lacks, and it is a very good base for a lot of different flavors.

While I was cooking my mom gave me a call with everyone who was at her place for dinner. My family does more of a Thanksgiving lunch than a dinner; I guess the idea being that you can relax more afterward and you don't go to bed overly stuffed. They passed the phone around, and I got to briefly talk to everyone. I really miss being home, and I'm hoping that I can make it back for Thanksgiving a couple times during my time in NM. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, hands down.

Matt and I left for Socorro around 2pm, and got there a little after 3. Mouse had her parents over, and we were waiting on Lev who was driving in from Phoenix. He showed up a little later than we expected; that was okay, since the turkey was taking its sweet time cooking and he showed up shortly after the bird was done. Dave had put a glaze on the turkey, and the whole thing was tender and delicious. Actually, pretty much everything we had was delicious.

After dinner, we played a board game. About midway through we stopped to have some dessert, and I had a very satisfying piece of pumpkin pie. Mouse also made chocolate martinis. The game went of for a very long time, which sometimes happens with these German strategy games when you play with a lot of people. Matt ended up winning; I haven't won at Settler's in a while. We didn't get back to Albuquerque until 1:30am.

Unfortunately, neither Matt nor I had our camera for all of this. I had grabbed mine initially, but in juggling the food around I accidently put it down in the living room and didn't realize this fact until we were already at Mouse and Dave's house - an hour away. Matt didn't bring his because I was (theorhetically) bringing mine. So, there is no photo documentation of our first Thanksgiving out here. Thankfully, I did bring a camera for the rest of our weekend adventures, but that's another post.