What's That Sound ... ?

... why, I believe it might be "silence".

All of our guests are either now home (Susie, Joe and Joyce) or en route (Liz, Rhys and Dan). We miss them already and I believe the cats do too.

We had a great time, and everything over the past 8 or 9 days went extremely well.

Friday night before last, Susie and Dan came in. We had to pick Dan up late from the airport, because he had been "T-boned" in Columbia, MO by some guy in a pickup truck. He was unhurt, but his car was pretty messed up. We didn't really have dinner, just some snacks.

Saturday before last, we got a few things done around here and had a good time with Susie and Dan. We went out for dinner at a new restaurant for us, "Carraba's" (a pretty good Italian chain), and went to see "Borat" ... hysterical movie.

Sunday before last, Susie and Dan left in the morning for Torrington where they hooked up with David (Susie's "squeeze" in Dallas) and his kids and parents. They went down to New York City for an overnight, and we got in some last-minute cleaning.

Last Monday, Joe and Joyce got in, and Susie and Dan came back from New York. We had some chili - very basic - and Joe and Joyce got settled in.

Tuesday was not exactly a "banner day" for me. On the way to the office in the morning, I looked down at the radio in my car to make a station change, and "curbed" both passenger wheels and tires. I blew out the back tire completely, and put a large gouge in the sidewall of the front tire. Both alloy wheels were completely screwed up. I ended up working from home, since Audi didn't have the wheels in stock and had to be ordered from their parts depot in New Jersey for Wednesday delivery.

Tuesday night was our "official celebration" of Joyce and Joe's 60th wedding anniversary, and we had a great time listening to Jason Castonguay's performance of a number of hits from Joe and Joyce's era. He is an incredible kid of 27, and is a heck of a performer, blind or not. Joe and Joyce were both extremely surprised and were thrilled with our treat for them. Here he is, while Joyce talks to his personal assistant Ron Hughes.
We had very nice filets, mushrooms, baked potatoes, a nice chopped salad, and a small wedding cake for our dessert. It was a wonderful evening.

Wednesday, I again worked from home and waited for Audi to call with the arrival of the new wheels. Since all my tires were showing a good deal of wear, we decided to get a full set, rather than replacing the bad two. Lovely. At any rate, we had them mounted by 5:30 PM or so.

Wednesday night was filled with pre-Thanksgiving Day prep work. Pie baking (3 pumpkin, 3 pecan), appetizer pre-prep, cranberry sauce cooking, and turkey brining was the order of the night. It was nice to have the larger kitchen so everyone had room to work. It is a heck of a lot more efficient than what we had at the apartment ... no more "one-butt kitchen"! Yay! I grilled some pork tenderloins and we cooked up some acorn squash - yum.

Thursday ... Thanksgiving Day's weather really sucked. It started raining hard around 9:00 AM, and didn't stop until it dumped another 2.6 inches on us. However, I got both 12+ pound turkeys on the grill at 10:00 AM, to be timed with an expected eating time of 4:00 PM.

Liz and Rhys got in on time at 9:35 AM or so, but we decided to pop for a cab ride for them from the airport. It was a bit of a challenge to route the cab driver around all the street closings for the 70th running of the Manchester Road Race, since one of our main roads is part of the course. They got here fine, however, and it saved us a lot of valuable time.

Liz's friend Lindsay (originally from Phoenix and Tucson, now living in Worcester, MA) got in around 12:30 PM or so.

David, his kids Michael and Rachel, Michael's girlfriend Meghan, David's parents Frank and Pat arrived around 1:00 PM.

I am happy to announce that the turkeys were actually done ahead of the completion of the rest of the fixings - oyster dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, brussels sprouts, green beans almondine, cranberry sauce, rolls, and all the rest. We were only about 25-30 minutes late of our planned 4:00 PM "sit-down" ... not too bad, considering all the food.

Everyone had tons to eat, they loved it all, and everything went very smoothly. Since it was their "official anniversary", we even got Joyce and Joe to cut a rug:
Friday, we decided to go experience the lighting of the decorated trees in Constitution Plaza in Hartford and grab dinner out. We had a terrific dinner at a restaurant ("Spris" - pronounced "sprees") neither Janice nor I had ever frequented, and it was right on the Plaza. There were thousands of people out that night for the lighting, but we had the best seats in the town. It was really cool to see them flip the switch.

Saturday, we decided to get out again, and to take a drive down to the Connecticut shoreline. We went to "Bill's Seafood" in Westbrook, CT. They have a Dixieland jazz band there on Saturday nights, and it was a real hit with us. We even did a little dancing. :-)
Sunday, we did a Farmer's Breakfast, followed by football, and then I did my Fettucini Carbonara for dinner, with a nice chopped salad.

Today, I dropped Dan at the airport in the morning, Janice dropped Joyce and Joe at the airport later in the morning, then I came home for lunch to see the kids before Janice took them to the airport. Liz and Rhys both had a terrific time, and it was great to see them.
Tonight, it will be leftover Fettucini Carbonara, I think ... and a quiet night.

All in all, the whole time was a smashing success, and we had terrific times and good visits with everyone.

Only one problem ... I think I have now gained a few pounds. :-)