Another pic of the troublemaker...

...and by troublemaker, for once I don't mean myself. ;)

My first Thanksgiving away from Michigan and my family was... full of GUNS! The night before, I whipped up my little yams side dish for the huge party at Tea and Chuck's (Tea is sisters with Kerri, whom I watch the Eagles with Bruce and Tim every Sunday - for some reason, lots of people out here are from Pennsylvania, including all those guys and Tim). I guess a lot of people really don't have family or anything else to do on Turkey day, so they just start inviting people over... and suddenly there's 15-25 people showing up at their place. Since I had my "kitchen duties" taken care of, instead of slaving away and doing the domestic thing with the other girls all morning... I got to go out shooting with the guys! Yeeeee haw! Hey, I have a little bit of Pennsylvania in me too so I guess it's in the blood or something. ;)  Mike, Doug, Chuck, Scott, Bruce, and Tim... and little ol' me. We had pistols, revolvers, shotguns, rifles... specifically, an AK 47 assault rifle. As in, do some damage. IT WAS FREAKIN' SWEET! (Thanks dad for making me part redneck.) I was RIGHT ON with that rifle and took out all the targets we set up. Heh heh heh. With the shotgun, Tim pulled the clay pigeons for me... and I've never ever hit a moving target... And I hit my very first two! I impressed/scared the boyfriend... But then when I couldn't hit anything else after that, he felt a little better. ;)  He was probably one of the better shots of the day.

We showed up to the house smelling like gunpowder and PBR while the girls were still busy peeling and chopping potatos. It was a great dinner, with 4 turkeys and just insane amounts of mashed potatos... lots of alcohol of course... It was just a great way to spend thanksgiving, with many of my new friends out here. As the night went on, people started getting tired and leaving, but the real troopers stayed and eventually Celine started a dance party in the living room - the best of Squeeze, the Buggles, 80's hits mix - and soon it was just Chuck, Tea, Tim, Celine, Melios, and myself still bouncing around while the kids were upstairs trying to sleep and the rest of us (except good little designated driver me)got schnockered.

The next night - the biggest bar night of the year, of course - we went to the Rock Inn for the post-Parade party (we didn't make it to the parade... sick of tourists!!) and it was freaking insane. Needless to say, it was another late night. Saturday, Tim and I didn't even get up until almost 1:30 and spent the day watching Seinfeld and Northern Exposure. It's been a pretty sweet weekend...

Until I came down with the flu on Saturday night. Figures - everybody else is getting drunk and I'm drinking water... and I'm the one that ends up puking. It's just not fair, ha ha! So I didn't get to watch the Eagles get annihilated by the Colts last night, but I did discover this great online "Game Center"  on CBS - I don't have TV channels, but I did get to watch each drive and it even announces fumbles and touchdowns. Pretty handy! Pretty depressing game from what it looked like. At least Tim can't say they always lose when I watch the game with him! ;)

I just might be working for a couple weeks here soon... getting a job with Mike's Tree Service helping out with a thinning project if I'm lucky. A little extra $$ never hurt anybody. Besides that, just keeping busy, working out, hanging out, and watching lots of Northern Exposure. The finer things in life. :)  I did have a dream last night that since I spent all my vacation money on fixing my cars, I decided to hike from here to Glacier in the winter. If you've ever read "A Walk Across America", it was kindof like that.

We haven't had any snow in quite a while now. Sounds like MI has gotten more than we have! Nothing is even on the ground. But over in Summit County, they're constantly being hit. Which is great, because my friends are officially getting that huge condo and at least 8 of them will be out here to party and ski. That's about all for now!