Thanks

Today I got to do what I like best: cook all day with my darling in our kitchen, with my dog by our feet, and spiked chai and mimosas always within reach. I loves me a Thanksgiving…especially like the one today.

Our day was modest and sweet. Get up, down some coffee and homemade muffins, before beginning a full-day of cooking. On the menu for today was beer bread made with a cherry stout, mashed potatoes with roasted garlic, roasted carrots with shallots, herb-crusted whole-roasted chicken and for dessert, chocolate Kalhua cake. Somebody say amen! Praises be to the Prickly Pear of Creation!

Outside, the air actually cooled down as the day progressed, a dark dreary haze holding tight to the city, threatening rain, but possibly our first snow.

But we stayed in mostly. Cookin’, drinkin’ and snackin’ throughout the morning and into the afternoon and on past dark. Cozy as cozy can be. And oh-so thankful.

Thanks to the Cosmic Cactus for luring us to our little adventure in the Midwest. Thanks to distant friends in Singapore, London and Finland. Thanks for the twins in San Francisco. Thanks for talented friends in Sacramento. And thanks for all our pals in the Bay Area who we think about every day.

Thanks for a dream-job come true, but thanks especially for a week off work. Thanks for time with my sweet pooch and thanks for long lazy nights with dearest Toku-chan. Thanks for a new kind of winter outside our home. And thanks for heat included in the rent!

Thanks for glowing achievements for my brother and his two sons. Thanks for long calls to my mom. Thanks for good news in Yasuura.

Thanks for streaming videos and TED conferences on demand! Thanks for my tiki bar. Thanks for pink mammoths on top my TV. Thanks to deer and gnomes everywhere. And thanks for FFFFound to keep me inspired.

And, of course, thanks for the burn on my palm from cooking today that can only be soothed by holding an ice-cold beer in my hand! Funny how things work out.