Andrea's stalking me

so I'd better blog to get her off my back.

So, lots of changing of points of view lately. At first, I was going to knit G's teacher a pair of sock for Christmas. But since I'm just at the heel of the first of the socks for my mom, and have doubts that they'll get done in time, I decided instead to make a shrug out of some bright red mohair yarn I was given. After knitting a few swatches (I hate knitting swatches, but I needed to make sure it didn't turn out linebacker-sized nor doll-sized), I set off on the work. I knit through "City of God" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," finishing late Sunday. Was never sure of the needle-size choice, so tried it on before cutting the casting-off yarn. The size seems OK, but the cast-off edge is WAY too tight! Damn. So I have to rip back about 125 stitches and re-cast off. Oh, well, at least it's close to done and it's still before Thanksgiving.

As for Thanksgiving, I am about to spend my first Thanksgiving ever without family. (sigh) Was feeling despondant, but I decided to invite friends and am thrilled that we'll have 8 for Thanksgiving dinner (room for a few more if anyone wants to come--let me know). Since I realized early on that I have control issues around Thanksgiving dinner, I'll be making what I see as the Required Dishes and friends can bring the rest (e.g., we must have Pumpkin Pie, but I don't care how it's made, really). I'm really looking forward to it. I'm doing lots of stuff ahead of time to make the Day Of as stress-free as possible. Wish I could make the gravy ahead of time. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to it while missing family like crazy. My sister will be driving at 5AM (and she has taken on Andrea's expression of the Buttcrack of Dawn) to take her kids to Klamath Falls to take Amtrak to Portland to have Thanksgiving with their dad and his family. I worry about ice. :( She'll have Thanksgiving with my dad and stepmom; she was going to hide in her new office and paint it. She's so funny; social and antisocial, both. If God loves me, Dad will recreate the infamous Fat-Free Thanksgiving he thrust upon me and my then-girlfriend years ago. Someone else should encounter that hell. Mom is having Thanksgiving with a friend and is quite content.

G is generally getting good notes from school on his behavior. I'm trying very hard to clamp down and insist on good behavior all of the time, with support from good friends. It always stuns me that he doesn't crumple when I snarl "No!" or "Stop!" as I think he will. But he stops and is fine. Weird.

Tonight, I'll cube bread and cut up the already-baked cornbread for the stuffing, and make the mashed potatoes, which will reheat in the oven tomorrow. I love to cook and to eat, so Thanksgiving is, I swear, my favorite holiday. Have a good one, everyone.