If a prank happens to a clueless sot, is it still funny?

Answer: Yes.

Okay, today my daughter was fiddling with the buttons on our land line phone and managed to play our outgoing message. To E's surprise it is in the voice of our friend R (married to my man C) saying

You've reached [murph's family], they've been incarcerated for insider trading. Please leave a message.

Needless to say, I'm a bit embarrassed. R stayed at our house over two months ago.

I knew nobody ever called our house, but now at least we know why - everyone thinks we're in prison.

Good one, R&C. You totally win.

(And god help you if you ever let us stay at your house.....)

*grin*

A genuine Thanksgiving

This past weekend was the annual Thanksgiving Thing, courtesy of Ms. No-H. As pretty much everyone who reads this stuff was there (save for a certain New Yorker who was missed), and No-H already recapped it, I’ll skip the summary.

Since the addition of kids to any social setting nullifies adult conversation I’d like to say a number of things to the attendees that I would have said were I not trying to stop the boy from running out into the night without a shirt on.

To wit-

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to invest in our mutual friendship.

Back in the day, we used to call this event “the Fake Thanksgiving,” because it wasn’t the real holiday. I used to describe it to people kind of sheepishly, “yeah, my college buddies all get together and pig out.” We were all pretty young when this got started, and more than a few times it felt like we were playing grown up.

But every time I tell this story to people – I get the same reaction. They’re impressed. Most of them wish their group of friends did something like this, a few have told me they’d try starting one. This event keeps us in touch with distant friends and gives us a reason to shake off the routine.

Thank you to everyone who comes from out of town. It’s asking a lot of people with kids to road trip. U&S, A&C, and C&R piled kids and babies and their requisite gear into the car and came down to see everbody. C&R did over nine hours of car time to have two meals with this group. (I hope we were worth it. Makes me wish I had a house with enough couches for everyone, so we could indulge in those other Thanksgiving traditions: passing out, gabbing, and watching our team lose.)

U&S and A&C had new babies to show off and I just couldn’t be happier for them. There was no adequate way or opportunity to say it then, but congratulations (can I get a ‘Hell Yeah?!’). It’s just so good to see you as parents.

I’ve commented before on how something C (of A&C) told me – about how important people are. Such an obvious thing, but it’s pretty easy to miss. Knowing my own tendencies, this is something I would miss. Without an invite, most times I’ll just sit at home.

And that brings me to the reason I’m posting.

Thank you Ms. No-H.

Thanks for sending those invites.

Thanks for booking the room,
for setting the date,
for setting up,
for tearing down,
for putting up with this gaggle of humanity, and
for refusing to let us go our separate ways.

For fifteen years.

Thanks for everything.

Perfect storm

There's a big storm a coming
Of this I've no doubt
That storm's gonna blow
your little world inside out
When the wild winds let up
When the violence wanes
You'll think of me then,
when you're watching it rain
It ain't the wind, it's the rain
-Mary Gauthier

This afternoon I got to have lunch with LB, a friend from my previous life in the nonprofit sector. They're just about to make the leap into CorpWorld, into what looks to be a superb opportunity, and this was a congratulatory/catch up kind of thing.

The weather is going to turn Biblically bad this afternoon, so it's good to get out and about before things go bad.

Lunch with LB is always a good time, they have a wicked sense of humor and a great sense of fun. We chat about things that drive us nuts, and grouse about work- it's therapeutic without being a pep talk.

The conversation tuned to a friend of theirs who'd lost their mother - and quite unexpectedly, I started talking about dad. This is not something I do often, and it would appear that it is not something I do often enough. Outside of this blog - and a wonderfully cathartic discussion with my wife a week ago - I doubt I've said more than a few sentences out loud on this topic for quite some time.

Well, the words just kept coming out, and soon I'm pretty well screwed up. It manages to be embarrassing and enormously comforting at the same time. LB mentions asking their friend how they were doing and they had been so grateful to be asked.

I'm pretty much in the same boat. I don't want to talk about it, but paradoxically it is is so nice to be given the opportunity to do so.

I'm back in the office now, and the weather sites are predicting two-inch hail and tornadoes. The tree outside the window is whipping around like a palm in a typhoon. It's going to be a bad night for a lot of people. We're not used to this around here, weather that's a big deal is for other places. Just a confluence of events turned our usual weather into something called a Derecho.

Nature's getting something out of its system.

Lot of that goin' around, I guess.

Rock on!

C (of A&C) had a baby on April 11. All are doing well.

Best news I've heard all month.

Embarrassment of riches

Been awhile since I've come up for air – between trying to stay above water at work, doing the same at home, and just being unconscious - there hasn't been a lot of time for much else.

Putting together a decent meal is a time crunch most days – I doubt we’ve managed it on our own since baby E showed up. First, my mom was in town and she helped us out. Then we were on leftovers.

Then we were out of leftovers, and we’re dreading what we have in the cupboard – and trips to the grocery store have turned into quite the logistical feat.

So, I’m coming out of the garage, and who is coming up my driveway buy Ms. No-H, and she’s carrying pizza. Lots of pizza.

And not your schlock pizza, either – but the yummy kind. I’m way sick, so I munch and flop down somewhere outta the way, while E socializes.

It’s a great night. Some days, crossing off a seemingly simple thing like dinner is just the best thing in the world. So, thanks, Ms. No-H. Perfect timing. What a marvelous thing to do.

---

Rewind to the day after baby E is born.

A friend of ours, KB, asks if we like lasagna. “I’d make you some if you do.”

In my head, this triggers a brief, internal Q & A session:

Do I like lasagna?

I think so.

You think?

Okay, I’ll check its ranking…Got it! It was in the “Love more than life itself” folder, right next to sauerkraut pizza.

Y'know, I should eat more lasagna...

Damn right.

So, I say, “Um, yes.” and forget all about the discussion.

A few days later, I’m getting lunch at an Italian deli when-

Hey! I should eat more lasagna.

So, I go to the freezer and buy a massive pan of ready-to-bake lasagna. A pan I need to set down because my arm starts hurting while I’m getting out my cash at the register.

Fast forward to that night. Zagne’s in the fridge, cued up for tomorrow and then KB calls to tell us she’s coming over with lasagna tomorrow.

Hey! I should eat more lasagna.

Sure, we’re game – the deli 'zagne goes in the freezer, and we get ready for homemade Italian goodness.

Poof. It’s tomorrow night, and KB and family drop off the yummy. We bake, we scarf, we scarf some more.

That part of my brain that had been nagging me is now gloating:

Ya see, I told you…

Despite our best efforts, there’s half a pan left – which we’ll kill off tomorrow.

Next day, our neighbor, MG comes over with bread, salad and – lasagna!

Hey! I should eat more lasagna.

So, we’ve got two in the fridge, one in the freezer – that part of me that has been craving zagne will finally be sated.

---

And then, next day-

Mr. and Ms. U send us a box of cookies – and not your ho-hum sugar cookies with sprinkles, but exotic cookies you see on the food channel. The kind where every ingredient doesn’t have a brand name in front of it.

Bags and bags of them – and they are yummy. And I vacillate between hiding the box for myself, and setting them out for the family. As a compromise measure – I eat all the chocolate chip cookies.

Yum

---

Which brings us to yesterday.

I walk in and there in the middle of the floor is a large box with Styrofoam lining and plastic pouring out of it.

E’s sitting on the couch, big smile on her face. “G and T sent us some sausage.”

I look at the box. It dwarfs her statement. “Some…?”

“That’s just the box I left out so you could see it. The other one was just as big.”

My mind performs some rapid calculations. “Is there room in the fridge?”

“Not really, but we’ve got plenty to eat!”

---

So, thanks to everyone for everything – our cholesterol count is sure to spike this month – but it’s the holidays and it was headed that way anyway. The stuff we’ve munched already was way yummy – and the stuff we’ve got in the queue looks at least as good.

You people are great.

A margarita and a police state…

"You may be looking at four or five public polls a week that talk about attitudes nationally, but that do not impact the outcome... [the polls] add up to a Republican Senate and a Republican House.

You may end up with a different math, but you're entitled to your math, I'm entitled to the math."
--Karl Rove, October 24, 2006

A former co-worker of mine had bet a margarita that there wouldn't be elections this fall.

She'd said, "if I win, I get a margarita and a police state!"

(It's just one of those lines that is destined for greatness.)

Well, the results are flowing in and she'll owe somebody a margarita, but all things considered - I think she'll gladly pay up. Hell, I'd reimburse her.

MSNBC is predicting the dems get the house 233-202, and even factoring in their margin of error, it means that the White House can start practicing saying, "Speaker Pelosi," right about now.

VA, MO, TN, and MT senate races are still up in the air. The odds don't favor the dems, and there's still the possibility that DINO Lieberman will jump ship if the senate splits down the middle.

Even so, a worthy result from a country that seems seriously pissed off.

I don't expect the Dems to be brilliant, virtuous, and pure - but I do expect them to be adversarial and conduct oversight - something the current rubber stamp majorities seem to have forgotten how to do.

Rock on.

Yeah. What about that?

A friend forwarded me an editorial written by a former colleague of mine. He's saying something that needs to be said over and over until the glorified stenographers who call themselves a press corps finally get the message.

This man was a Vietnam vet, and he has lost all patience with those who view their role as journalists as simply providing a bullhorn for right-wing character assassins.

He writes:

...I ask: How dare these cowards attack our veterans in these underhanded, vicious and deceptive ways? How dare this bunch of chicken hawks, so eager to propound wars like Vietnam and Iraq, yet never fight in them, deride those of us who served and who may actually know something about body bags, and travesty and death?

To the reporters and editorialists and nightly anchors I ask: Where is the analysis of these accusers? ...

Had I been smarter, better connected, more politically astute, I may have managed to stay home myself. But no chicken hawk, able to avoid war service for himself and his family, should question the service, the commitment, the dedication and the patriotism of those who have faced the fear and the fire and who dare to take part in the democracy they believed they were sent to protect.

Read the rest here.

Sauerkraut pizza

I've got one last out, one last personal indulgence before tomorrow. Pizza.

When G called on Monday - I joked that if he came to the funeral, I'd make him go to the local pizzeria and have their specialty: sauerkraut pizza. "Least something good could come out of this, I could finally win you over." G said he'd try it, and I'd been planning for this ever since.

It's not as selfish as it sounds, I wanted to do something to acknowledge my out of town friends. These are people who've maybe spoken to my dad once or twice, but are coming up out of respect for the family. I wanted to make sure we had time to visit.

So it's pizza, sauerkraut pizza to be exact. A local delicacy that the mind recoils from and the taste buds adore.

When I was a kid, the only pizza we had at our house was those Chef Boyardee pizza kits, and mom always made them with cheddar cheese. Needless to say, the first time I went to dad's hometown pizza joint - I was hooked for life. Any other pizza I've had, at best it's a distant second to Frankie's on the east end of town.

C and his wife were delayed, they had a clothes mix-up and had to buy C a shirt in Duluth, so I start by connecting with G and his wife at their hotel. They're great, and I relax immediately. I love my family, but it's easier to feel normal around my friends.

C, his wife, and presumably his new shirt all arrive and we head out for za.

I've been talking the place up, and fretting about how we'll get in (I've called for pizza at 6pm and was told it won't be ready until 9pm) so I'm more than a bit surprised to see the place is deserted. All my life, this place is a place you need a crowbar to get into, and if the wait was two hours, you found something to do and came back.

As soon as we step in it occurs to me, I've only been here on the weekend - we've never lived in this town - so I've only ever come at peak days and times.

We're here at nine-thirty on a Thursday. Not even the local die-hards are here.

I order one with sauerkraut and one with everything else, and the gang gamely gobbles both down. All claim to enjoy the sauerkraut pizza - although, given the circumstances, I doubt any would complain if they were allergic.

It's great to see everyone, and they're all just like I remember them, only thinner. We have a good meal, goof off with the help, and are generally obnoxious. Hell, there's no one else there, we own the place. We break up outside and say our goodbyes 'til tomorrow.

'Best two hours I've had all week.

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