Some things.
Firstly, Thanksgiving is fresh on my mind because Stephen told me yesterday that his mom can for sure come up for it, which means that I can start planning everything now! It’s probably just going to be the three of us for dinner, plus Cathy during the afternoon (but she has family dinner) — unless anyone reading this wants to come too, in which case you are welcome! There will be an awesome lot of food. So far all I know is we’re doing a charcuterie and cheese platter again, and will have a crock pot of mulled wine and a crock pot of mulled cider. And obviously there will be turkey, stuffing (which Stephen can make), Aunt Carol’s sweet potato casserole, yeast rolls, mashed potatoes of some sort, gravy, Grandma’s magic chocolate pie, and maybe some green beans or something. That green bean casserole that Katie made last year was really good, come to think of it. May do that. Hm.
ANYWAY. I should really NOT be thinking about all this right now because I have to wait until 1:30 to go to lunch (normal time is noon) and I am already SO hungry. Made some cabbage soup last night – I think it’s the same soup that Mom and Dad made a few times when we were little. It’s not terrible, but it’s certainly not loaded potato soup, or broccoli cheddar. At ANY rate, thinking about Thanksgiving food is making my stomach very angry at me.
So tonight after work, I have to glaze those skull cakes. The cakes themselves are lemon flavored, so I was thinking that I might do a lavender glaze. Dammit, talking about food again.
I will probably put on a good horror movie tonight too. Maybe…Rosemary’s Baby? Or the Ring? If I’m going to be glazing cakes, it needs to be one that i have seen before. And I’m waiting to watch the Changeling with Stephen, who has finally agreed to watch it with me. 😀
Been doing a terrible job of making leather stuff lately, let me tell you. But I have been baking cakes and reading more, which are both good and productive. Bought Stacy Schiffs new book, The Witches: Salem 1692, which is about the Salem Witch Trials (duh). I’m just a couple of chapters into it, but it’s really good so far. We read an excerpt from it that was published a couple of months ago in the New Yorker, and have been waiting for the book to finally come out since then.
Anyway. I feel more organized now. Don’t forget to let me know if you want to come for Thanksgiving.
No Promises This Time 
I would love to come to your house for Thanksgiving, but, you know…I can’t. Maybe you can do two Thanksgivings, and I will come to the other one.
My American Lit class is getting ready to start reading The Scarlet Letter. In preparation for that, I’ve been looking into Nathaniel Hawthorne and his life and writings. I came upon Young Goodman Brown and was looking for an audio recording of it online that we could listen to during class this week, but none of them sounded very good…not very good, interesting readers. I was getting annoyed about this when the thought came to me that I, myself, could read it aloud to the kids! I am at LEAST as good a reader as those audio guys, I believe. The fact that this semi-scary story is coming to my class on the day before Halloween is purely coincidental. Some of them might like that, though.
Anyway, I am learning more about the Puritans, who figure largely in some of Hawthorne’s writings, and what they were like. I think my earlier view of them has been swayed by reading what biased people have written about them. (Broken record–I’ve done that with so many things, I am sad to say.) They were a pretty darn exclusive lot, and I mean that in [almost] the worse possible way. Did you know that Nathaniel Hawthorne had a relative who was a judge in those trials? His great, great grandfather, if I have been correctly informed. He was ashamed of the way his family had been back then, so much so (supposedly) that he changed the spelling of his name from the original “Hathorne” to “Hawthorne” to put distance between himself and them.
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Well, now I really want to come. Bah. You should do it on friday or saturday. Honestly. Also, I really love your new cover picture at the top! The lavender glaze with lemon cakes sounds fantastic.
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