Thanksgiving and beyond

Thursday morning we arrived quite early (for us) at the butcher where we had ordered our turkey, only to discover that it hadn't yet arrived. He thought the poultry man should arrive before 11.00. We left our phone number, did the rest of our shopping, and went home. So much for an early Thanksgiving dinner. Just after 11, we got a call to say it was ready, and Kaye went to get it. It was still being prepared. When she asked for some giblets, it seems the turkey's were already spoken for, so the butcher opened up two guinea hens, one from the display case and another from the locker, and removed the heart, liver, and gizzard. The weather was lovely, so after getting the turkey ready to bake, we took ourselves out for a walk. Don't miss these opportunities!

We had asked our nearest neighbors for dinner, but they couldn't come. Madame had a fall a couple of weeks ago and it still not recovered. We agreed that they would come next year. Instead we asked Sally and Mike, who are still finishing off work on the house, and a visitor staying with them. And had a quite merry Thanksgiving dinner. Ed's pumpkin pie was quite yummy.

We dropped by our local vet to get a sack of food for Lydia and get started with them. They don't have the brand that she's been eating and seems to like, but gave us another one. This one smells like the flakes you used to feed your goldfish. Lydia ate it enthusiastically the first day, but has been fairly standoffish since then. We're not sure if it's I'll-starve-to-death-before-I-eat-more-of-that or just part of her normal up and down eating pattern. She's almost out of one of her medicines so we'll have to make another trip soon.

The weekend was cold and Kaye spent a lot of time in the kitchen dealing with the turkey carcass and baking. Saturday night the wind blew and blew and seemed to take all the heat from the house, so we were really cold on Sunday. With the wind and rain and gray, we skipped shopping in the morning and decided not to go to see the Bach cantatas at the cathedral in Angoulême. Brr ...

This morning we got a tankful of fioul for the heater. This was getting really low and we were getting worried with the continued cold. It's forecast to freeze tonight, with a high of 3C tomorrow -- but we may see the sun, hooray! Rain again on Wednesday, but warming a bit, and perhaps we'll see a bit more sun in the following days, depending on which forecast you believe.