This morning started off far too early for a weekend morning, but that is because it was time for round two of the Good Day Sacramento reporting on that wacky Nanowrimo thing. So we got up and ate the last of the bagels in the fridge for breakfast and then we packed up our laptops and headed off to the designated meeting spot, and it wasn’t too long before everyone else, including the reporter and the camera man, arrived.

Because I know you are all dying to see it, here is the clip from this morning’s show (they got this one up a lot quicker than they did the time before). Hey this time, I think I actually show up in the background (when she’s talking to Richard).

After the Good Day Sacramento spot, we came back home and spent an hour or so giving the house a badly needed cleaning. We met my parents for lunch and they came back to the house to check in on the kittens (who have probably doubled in size since they last saw them, which isn’t as alarming as it sounds because kittens are prone to do that at this age).

And speaking of the kittens, yesterday, along with cooking up the turkey and all that that entailed, we also dragged down all the boxes of holiday decorations from the attic, including the tree. We put the tree together and plugged it in and then stood back to see what the kittens would do, fully expecting that one or both of them would immediately try to scale it, because that is exactly the sort of thing they (well, at least Rupert) would do. Except that we forgot that one of the most predictable things about cats is that they are always unpredictable, and the kittens were more interested in trying to gnaw on the branches than climbing them. So this afternoon we decided to tempt fate a little further and we went through our box of ornaments and picked out all the ones that are unbreakable, and put them on the tree. The kittens definitely thought those were interesting (although it is still a tough choice for Ingrid, between chewing on the tree or batting at the ornaments).

I made an apple butter pie, because we have a lot of apple butter and I had an extra pie crust in the freezer that needed using up, so we ate leftover turkey and trimming for dinner, and had apple butter pie for dessert. Basically the idea is that you follow the pumpkin pie recipe exactly, except in place of pumpkin, you use apple butter, and you then adjust the sugar and spices accordingly. It used up two full jars of apple butter, which is a good thing because there were two in the fridge (that hadn’t sealed from the last batch I made) so it was nice to clear those out of the way. It has a similar look and texture as pumpkin pie, but there is an apple pie tone to it instead. Richard and I have decided that this recipe is definitely a keeper. Delicious!

The only problem with going to someone else’s house for Thanksgiving is that you do not end up with leftovers. So today Richard and I decided that the only way to remedy that was to go get ourselves a turkey and cook it, and then whip up a few of the easier sides.

The smallest turkey we could find at the store was about 13 pounds. That is a lot of turkey for two people, but hey, turkey freezes, and it would definitely give us leftovers. Thankfully the whole turkey was not frozen, so as soon as we got home from the store, we opened it up and pulled out all the giblets, and rigged up a roasting pan out of the pan we normally use for lasagna, and that worked out just fine. I stuffed it full of chopped onions and gave it a quick massage with some oil, and then popped it into the oven, and a few hours later, it was done.

The turkey came out absolutely perfect. We ate it with mashed potatoes and walnut-topped sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. The cats were all quite certain that turkey was a Thing for Cats, but we cleverly distracted them with plates of wet food in a different room and managed to get through dinner without any ‘assistance (the kittens are still learning the concept of ‘no paws on the table’).

As for the leftovers, the two of us stood at the kitchen counter, side by side, once the turkey had cooled a little bit more, and armed with a large knife and a large fork and our bare hands, we managed to strip it bare. There are now two large bags of turkey meat in the freezer. And then I decided I might as well take advantage of having all those bones, so I rummaged in the fridge and pulled out some carrots and some celery that was starting to go a little limp, and I put the bones in a big pot and covered those with water and added the celery and carrots and most of the onions that had been stuffed inside the turkey cavity, and covered it up and let it simmer for a few hours, and then, once I drained out the stock and dumped out the random bones and veggies and such, I finally decided to give my pressure canner a try.

I got the pressure canner for my birthday, but until today I have not used it because to be honest, it scares me a little. I think the problem is that I grew up hearing stories about pressure canners failing, leading to messes of epic proportion, and so there is this tiny part of me that is sure that it *will* explode on me. But we dragged the canner out of the box and we read through all the directions several times, and I checked and double-checked the information on canning stock on the USDA canning sites, and then, I crossed my fingers and turned on the heat, and off we went. Midway through the process Richard headed off to a write-in, leaving me alone with a potentially explosive contraption (ha ha), but never fear, everything worked out just fine. All my jars sealed perfectly and nothing exploded. I am still trying to decide if this means that I can quit worrying about it, or if this is just the pressure canner’s way of luring me into a false sense of security so that next time I will be completely unprepared for it to wreak its chaos upon me. Hmm.

I reached my 50,000 words for Nanowrimo at about 11:30 yesterday morning. Richard got to his about an hour or so after that. So now we are both at least done with Nano, if not necessarily done with the actual stories themselves. Phew.

After Richard managed to hit his 50,000 words, we loaded up the car, did a last minute run around the house filling food / water bowls and scooping litter boxes and telling all the cats goodbye (naturally none of them cared, since they are cats) and then we headed off to Campbell for Thanksgiving dinner. I know we’ve driven down there on Thanksgiving day before but maybe we just headed out earlier, because I don’t ever remember the traffic being quite that horrible. After it took us a bit less than an hour to inch our way from Sacramento to Davis (a trip which would normally take about 15 minutes), we decided that hey, we have this nifty GPS device, and we know there are ways to at least get to Fairfield via the back roads, so why not see if it could give us a detour.

Note to anyone pondering doing this in the future. While yes, it was definitely off the freeway and there was no traffic on the route, meandering around the windy, hilly roads in Napa does not really classify as an acceptable detour to try to get from Sacramento to the Bay area. On the plus side, considering the traffic, I’m not sure the trip took us any more time than it would have done if we’d stuck it out on the freeway, but at least on the freeway, I might not have spent half the ride feeling vaguely nauseous (see earlier reference to windy hilly roads – ugh).

We made it down there, eventually, and still had an hour or two to sit and chat with the family before dinner was ready. It was a small group this year – one of the usually families that attend has been busily passing the flu around from person to person so they decided to stay home. There was turkey and stuffing and 3 or 4 different types of cranberry sauce, peas, rolls, mashed potatoes, a sweet potato casserole thing that was covered in buttery hazelnut streusel and which I am sure was not remotely good for anyone (but it was SO GOOD). And then later, after Richard’s mom and youngest sister introduced us to the funny that is Eddie Izzard, there was cake and pie.

Today started off with the traditional post-Thanksgiving breakfast out, which included a lot of desperately needed coffee, and then we all headed off to the Dickens Fair. Richard’s sister and parents have gone before, but this was the first time for Richard and I. It’s pretty much exactly the same idea as the Renaissance Faire, except obviously based on a different time period. Lots of people dress up in period garb, and there are singers and dancers and various forms of entertainment in the style of the day. Thankfully, considering the rain that had begun to fall, the Dickens Fair is held inside the Cow Palace, safe from the elements.

It was fun to wander around, watching shows, window shopping at all the booths, running into friends who worked there, listening to ‘Rudyard Kipling’ do a dramatic reading of “The Elephant’s Child”, and so on. But by about 1 or so everyone was starting to look pretty worn out, so there were hugs and goodbyes and we set back off for home.

This time there was absolutely no traffic (of course). There was a rather exciting sudden downpour en route, but luckily it happened just after we’d pulled off and run into a restaurant to get some (late) lunch, and by the time we were done eating, the rain has faded back to a mere drizzle again.

We made it home and came inside, and the cats all looked up like “oh, were you gone?” and so far we haven’t found any evidence that they even noticed our absence (if it had been more than 48 hours, however, I am sure something would have been shredded). Richard settled in to do some writing, and I sliced up some pumpkin bread and headed off to a friend’s house for another evening of watching Buffy and knitting and hanging out. We hand-picked some of our favorite episodes (“Once More With Feeling” and “Tabula Rasa”), and that was fun, since I haven’t seen those in years. One of the other Buffy marathon regulars came by with her brand new little baby boy, so we all got to take turns passing him around and cooing over him. In general, it was a wonderful way to wile away a few hours, and after all the hectic of writing and driving and everything else these past few days, it was just what I needed.

I am, right at this very moment, sitting in a coffee house with Richard. My left wrist is very sore, in part because of all this typing I have been doing on a laptop and not on the ergonomic keyboard I usually use, and in part because I oh-so-cleverly managed to walk straight into the piano this morning and now there is yet another bruise to add to my collection. Hi. My name is Jennifer and I am VERY CLUMSY. Sigh.

In a little while we’ll pack up the laptops and head back home and do some last minute packing, and then head down to San Jose for Thanksgiving dinner with Richard’s family. But right now, I am still here, sitting in the coffee shop, feeling quite pleased with myself (recent bruise acquisition not withstanding).

Gee. I can’t imagine why.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US readers (and happy regular old Thursday to everyone else).

Nanowrimo update: Um. Really? The above was not enough of a clue?

Today I did exactly two things of note (poking the cats and getting dressed really do not count here).

1) I wrote – for a few hours during the morning at a local coffee shop, just me and my laptop and a large hazelnut hot chocolate, and then this evening, once Richard and I had eaten dinner and the bread came out of the oven, at a second coffee shop, this time with some decaf because I need to start cutting back on the caffeine soon.

2) I baked. My mom-in-law asked if I’d bring dessert for Thanksgiving this year, so this afternoon I headed off to the grocery store and braved the pre-Thanksgiving crowds to stock up on cans of pumpkin and evaporated milk and whipped cream. I made a pumpkin pie (My very first ever, actually, because to be honest I do not actually *like* pumpkin pie – it is the kind of thing that you would think should be good, except that it is squishy and *wrong*. Yes, I know, like you all needed any more reasons why it is that I am odd) and I followed the directions in the recipe very carefully, so it at least looks like it turned out just fine. I guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see how it tastes. I also made pumpkin bread, because my older sister mentioned baking it on Facebook and I was suddenly struck with a burning need to go do exactly the same.

Nanowrimo update: I feel like, now that this thing is actually wrapping up, I am finally seeing some direction in my novel. Nice to see that it only took me 40,000+ words to finally figure out that little thing called a plot. Anyway, with the two bouts of writing, I now have just slightly under 2500 words left to go.

The first thing I did when I got up this morning was to can the apple butter. Seven more jars, and this time only one of them didn’t seal. Now I must decide whether I want to turn the jar in the refrigerator into more apple butter cinnamon rolls, or else try making apple butter pie (just like pumpkin pie except you use apple butter instead of the pumpkin pie filling). Hmm. I think the rolls might win, but whatever it is the apple butter becomes, will have to wait until after Thanksgiving.

Anyway, today I’m going to share two videos with you.

This first one is of Rupert and Ingrid. It occurred to me that, while I posted about *getting* the kittens, and have been merrily posting pictures and stories about them to Twitter and Facebook, I never managed to transfer that sort of thing over here. So the first, and most important factoid is that when we took the two little kittens to the vet to get fixed, the vet called to let us know that Orpha was actually a boy. So Orpha (the crazy little tabby) is now Rupert.

They are very busy, very curious, very cute. They get into everything. There is pretty much nowhere in the house that is safe from them anymore. Anything and everything is a fascinating new toy – this includes knitting patterns (Ingrid has snatched papers straight from my hands), raw beets, shelled walnuts, cardboard of any kind, the drain cap for the bathtub, Richard’s sink, and on and on.

I heard noise from the kitchen this morning and came out to find them working industriously on a new project. This, right here, would be why it is that we are thinking that Christmas is going to be extremely…interesting this year.

The second video I wanted to share has nothing whatsoever to do with kittens. I know that most of the people in my generation probably associate Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” with the movie “Wayne’s World”. I, however, will always associate it with when my oldest nephew was a tiny little baby. My sisters and my mom and I were all together – I’m not sure at whose house – and we were all laughing and tired and getting punchy, and Bohemian Rhapsody came on, and my sisters and I started lip-synching and head-banging along. I suspect if someone had had a video camera it would have been one of those marvelous home movies we could have brought out to completely and utterly embarrass the nephew when he’s a teenager trying to look cool – irrefutable proof that his entire maternal side of the family is Just Plain Weird. But alas, such a video does not exist. So you will all have to make do with this version instead. I suspect my oldest nephew will prefer it this way.

Nanowrimo update: 43,010. This time last week I was despairing that I’d even be able to finish. Funny what cranking out more than 11,000 words in one weekend can do for one’s writing morale.

I already had today off – in fact, faced with a vacation balance that’s getting too high, I’ve taken the whole week off – but Richard took today off as well. It was a good thing, since we both knew we’d likely be tired and sleep deprived from the night before.

So today we’ve focused on having a quiet and slowish sort of day. He made a quick grocery store run while I stayed home and peeled and cored and chopped another small pile of apples and stuffed them into the crockpot to turn into more apple butter. One of our fellow Nanowrimoers gave me a recipe for apple walnut cake, since he knew I was looking for ways to use up lots of apples (note to self – next year, do not buy two huge cases of apples at one time), so I made a half batch of that. We had spaghetti and homemade meatballs for lunch, and then ate slices of the apple cake and oh wow is it good. That recipe’s definitely a keeper.

I didn’t do any writing while at home, but I did manage to get some work done when we packed up our laptops and headed off to Coffee Works (the new-to-us place) again for a few hours of writing time. I’m not sure why it never occurred to us to check this place out before, since it’s not that far away, but I’m glad we found it now. Lots of seating, plenty of electric outlets, and they make a wonderful hazelnut hot chocolate.

Nanowrimo update: Despite feeling kind of sluggish and unmotivated due to residual donut/pizza/caffeine hangover from last night, I still managed to keep myself on track – 39,165 words. Just a little over 10,000 more to go.

I’ve done Nanowrimo twice before – once I finished; the second time I got about 3000 words in and then gave up because life got in the way. Richard’s done it almost every year since 2001, and every year we’ve donated money to the cause. But this year we decided to aim a little bit higher, and try to raise enough money to attend the Night of Writing Dangerously. Last weekend we finally hit our goal ($300 – the minimum needed so we could both attend), and we’ve been looking forward to tonight ever since.

Richard’s co-municipal liason for the region drove down to our house, and then the three of us continued on to Davis to pick up another Nanowriter, and then off we set for San Francisco. We gave ourselves plenty of time because even though it was a Sunday afternoon, you can never be sure what you will encounter on the freeway between here and the Bay Area. If you allot out only about the amount of time it *should* take to drive, you will inevitably hit traffic / accident / rush hour / something, and be late. If you give yourself lots of extra time, it will be smooth sailing all the way, and you will be early. Naturally, since we gave ourselves nearly an hour to spare, we didn’t hit a single snag. Heck, we even found street parking less than 3 blocks away from the venue, which is pretty unheard of for San Francisco. It felt a little silly to be there so early, but it turned out to have been worth it; as we were leaving later we talked to a couple who’d left Sacramento just a little after us, and didn’t make it down until two hours after the event started.

Luckily there was a nice, comfy lobby for us to lurk in until the doors opened, and as it turned out, we weren’t the only ones who had erred on the side of caution for driving time, so there was quite a crowd gathered by the time 5pm rolled around and they finally opened the doors and let us all go inside.

The six-hour long event was an absolute blast. There were about 200 people all clustered around tables, typing furiously away on laptops. Every once in a while someone would go up to the front to ring a giant bell, indicating that they’d just reached their 50,000 word goal (one of those was the other ML for our region). They had word sprints where people tried to see how many words they could crank out in a set amount of time. Chris Baty (the guy who started the whole Nanowrimo thing in the first place) gave a talk. They had a room in the back where you could have your ‘author picture’ taken (Richard wore a Viking helmet for his. I did not). There was food and drink galore – a candy buffet to start us off, a full dinner, and then later on someone showed up with a mountain of pizza and a massive amount of crazy, giant donuts. Since this was a thing for writers, there was plenty of coffee and soda and anything else people wanted to drink. They had even set up free WiFi for us, which came in extra handy because I’m doing my novel in Google docs, which is all online.

The six hours flew by, and admittedly I did not manage to do as much writing as I did yesterday. But all I wanted to do was get a little ahead of the game, and I did. I’m not sure we’ll be able to do this every year (since I know Richard will keep on doing Nano, and I think maybe I’ll try it again next year too), but I’m really glad that we had a chance to do this at least once.

Nanowrimo update: 37,565 words, which means that not only am I ever so slightly *ahead* of the game for the next, oh, four minutes (until tomorrow hits), but that with all the coffee shop hopping we did yesterday, I managed to crank out about 11,400 words in the course of two days, and all on the laptop. Only one teensy side to all that crazy writing for the weekend: hello there, wrist pain, we meet again!

Okay. Enough is enough with this whole piddling around, not getting any writing done. We had a lot of chores we really should have been doing today, but…it is November, and the end of the month is approaching at a fast clip.

So today was all about the writing. Literally. We got up and ate bagels for breakfast and finished off the pot of coffee. And then we packed up our laptops and headed off to a coffee shop and found some tables near electric outlets (more of an issue for me than for Richard because my old clunker laptop no longer likes to hold a charge) and we drank coffee and we wrote.

We went home and ate lunch, and I swapped out the laundry between washer and dryer and got another load started, and then we grabbed our laptops and headed back out again, this time to a new-to-us coffee shop a bit closer to home. We’ve driven by this place umpteen times, but never when we’ve been thinking ‘coffee’, and prior to this we’ve usually just gone to either the places with scheduled write-ins, or to more familiar locations. But I’m very glad we finally thought to try this place, because it’s large and has lots of seating and the coffee was good, and I found a table with an outlet right away, and we got a lot of work done.

Back home, this time for another laundry swap over, and dinner, and then we decided to give it one more whirl and headed back out again. Took a few tries to find somewhere with open tables, but we eventually ended up at a Peets and we drank hot chocolate and wrote and wrote and wrote.

Nanowrimo update: Apparently spending all day coffee shop hopping was what I needed to get the creativity back in gear. Wrote about 7,000 words today, which means that even though I’m not completely caught up, I’m a lot closer. Phew.

Today was the start of ten days off of work. I suppose I really ought to have tried to do some writing, shouldn’t I? Ha, we all know how well that went.

I did, however, get some important shopping done, spending several hours camped out on my computer, pinned down by a slowly revolving cast of sleepy kittens and cats, working my way through wishlists and spreadsheets of ideas, firing emails off to people to double-check and confirm. The end result – a majority of the December holiday/birthday shopping is now done. It’s not complete, of course, because alas, my very favorite online shopping site does not yet offer *everything* (personal note to Amazon.com, please hurry up and finish taking over the online retail world, m’kay?), but considering that prior to today we hadn’t done a single bit of Christmas shopping, today counts as a success.

Aside from the shopping, mostly today I just read books and knit. And then, just about one minute after Richard walked in the door, I finally headed out, off to a friend’s house for another Buffy marathon. She had made pizza dough from scratch and we all stood around in her kitchen and chopped veggies and rolled out dough and assembled dinner. The pizzas and the bread salad were absolutely delicious (also, I now need to get the recipe for the salad!) and there was much talking and laughing, and by the time we finally all migrated to the living room to knit and watch Buffy, several hours had passed. So for a Buffy ‘marathon’, we actually only made it through two more episodes (we’re working our way through season 2 now). But it was a whole lot of fun, hanging out with friends new and old, eating delicious food, doing a little knitting and sharing the Whedon love.

Nanowrimo update: La la la I can’t hear you.