November 2005 Archives

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving today. Amy and I had some of Amy's friends over for a mid-day lunch. Things went well, except that I burned the stuffing, and the stuffing is our favorite part. Ugh!

Our oven is too small to fit anything other than the turkey in it (well, we did get a 20-lb turkey), so I used the grille to cook some things while the turkey was in the oven. I've always relied on the little dial thermometer that sits in the lid of the grille... so, when it said the grille was only 250F, I cranked-up the heat until it read 350F. Problem was that 350F on the dial was really more than 600F... so, the stuffing burned.

We did manage to not burn the rest of the meal, so we had: turkey, garlic buttermilk mashed potatoes, cranberry dipping sauce, roasted green beans, corn, and wheat biscuits. For desert we had an apple and pumpkin pie (both homemade). We also had a 2000 Chateau Cantemerle Haute wine - it was pretty good, but a bit young. Probably should've gone with a 1996 or 1997 Meritage... oh well.

Afterward, we went down to the theater and watched Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. We just got done cleaning up, and are probably going to go to bed early. I'm working tomorrow as is Amy, so we probably shouldn't stay up too late. I did see that Amy's on round 2 of the dinner - one of her famous "mash-ups" (take everything and mash it together, then eat it like a casserole).

Here are some photos:

Turkey:

Gravy (pretty much the best ever):

Wine/Table:

Another table shot (we used our China and new silverware):

A plate:

The clean-up crew:

I guess it was "finger licking" good, eh?

I used to love Northwest airlines. Their service and response was phenomenal, their flight attendants were top-notch, and every agent I dealt with was friendly and helpful.

But now, I've read that Northwest is laying off 2600 flight attendants and will replace them with foreign workers who are willing to work for less money and reduced benefits.

This announcement comes AFTER the United States government granted Northwest $249-million in bail-out money. That money was promptly used to buy 10 Airbus (built in France) aircraft, rather than for paying employees and keeping things on the up-and-up with the people who make their airline function on a day-to-day basis. Northwest then declared bankruptcy, and has now announced they plan to layoff 2600 American workers.

It's ridiculous. I'm sooooo sick of the way companies abuse us that I'm ready to move to Canada. And worse yet, our government will probably try to bail-out Northwest again... afterall, it's only our tax dollars, right?

I e-mailed Northwest and told them to take my WorldPerks airmiles and shove 'em. I'm done with them. They acted as though they were shocked that I'd leave their airline over this "standard business practice." Ugh.

And how about we nuke China? That insane government of theirs insists that their people "Enjoy democracy and freedom of religion," yet 250,000 Chinese citizens are in "re-education through labor" camps for not following the government's political and religious agendas. Add to this the fact that China is a Petri-dish for the Bird Flu and the government refuses to admit that there's any evidence of the bird flu in their country, and I say we just give Russia a beautiful south-eastern oceanfront view.

And, did you hear that 125 illegal immigrants were discovered working for a certain US company today? A same company that has repeatedly denied that it employs illegal immigrants? These aliens were building a distribution center.... for Wal-Mart.

Amy, Brian, and I went to Eureka Springs today with the intention of shooting some pictures for Brian. For those not aware, Brian has a website that includes a blog, and links to various other projects he's working on.

I had a blast - it was really fun to walk through Eureka (a place we've been to dozens of times) while looking for locations to shoot pictures. Brian wanted pictures that had texture and "feel" to them. Other than wanting them shot in black and white, he didn't have many requirements, so we just went walking and shooting. His ultimate goal for the pictures is to use them on his website and as part of some of his music/movie projects. Hopefully there'll be a few good ones that he can use.

Here are a few shots that I pulled out at random - I hope he doesn't mind that I posted them here... :-) If you do, Brian, just let me know, and I'll take them down.

(click to see each photo larger)

This photo was taken in a stairway just off the "main street" in Eureka. There was a single light bulb above the door in this stairwell, and it gave a great effect to the photo.

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This photo was taken on the stairs to the Crescent hotel. I was sitting about 20 yards away from Brian, and zoomed in on him and the guitar. I tweaked the exposure just a bit to give the guitar a bit of a glow.

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This was taken at the church just below the Crescent Hotel. I overexposed it one stop to exaggerate the contrast, and then tweaked the levels a little in Photoshop.

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This is a cat that we saw at the Crescent Hotel. I loved its markings, so I snapped a few shots of him.

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The Crescent is supposed to be a haunted hotel (it's been featured on various TV shows), and there's a church across the street from it... we thought these statues were interesting.

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We had great weather today - it was in the low 70s, sunny, and gorgeous. We ended the day with dinner at a great little bar/pub called "Big Dawg." We had some burgers, some fries, and watched the Packers get beat. :-)

Thanks for asking me to help you out today, Brian. We (Amy and I) enjoyed it!