Eat, Drink, Watch a Movie

I sincerely hope this is the last Thanksgiving I spend alone in Ann Arbor. I mean, yeah, two isn't exactly a pattern, but it's a bit sucky here this time of year. This wasn't really the plan, but things happened (mom's family decided not to do the get-together I was planning to attend, but didn't make this call until the flight to Sarasota with J was totally full).

Aside: here's another of my random but helpful tips based on experience--frozen turkeys take a long time to defrost. A really long time. To wit, if you buy a 12 lb. bird on, say, a Wednesday evening, and the thing's frozen solid, don't plan on cooking that sucker until Friday evening, and only then if you are committed to spending most of Friday with it immersed in cold water as you change said water every 30 minutes. And this water method? Will not so much work if your sink is the vessel in which the turkey and water are contained. Once you switch to a big pot, it'll work, but only after many, many water changes. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

I should really be working on my tax outline, but it's just not happening at the moment. The plan was to spend today finishing the statute tables that I've embedded in every section, but somehow there are still 146 bits of the Code to fill in that I haven't managed to tackle today. As I look at the copy of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King I just picked up at Buttbuster, I'm thinking the outline isn't going to happen today. I mean, if I don't watch a movie tonight I'll break my streak for the break, and I can't have that. So far, I've tackled:

1. Royal Tenenbaums
2. Bridget Jones's Diary
3. What Dreams May Come
4. L.A. Story
5. Lord of the Rings; Fellowship of the Ring
6. 11 episodes of Scrubs
7. Sliding Doors

I really wanted to see Love, Actually tonight, but it was already rented when I got to the video store. This seems like a lot of movies, but remember that I don't have TV. Some of this has been on in the background while I've done other stuff, like cook a pie that is now almost gone.

Sometime in the next week or so, I have to get serious about shopping for a dress. A friend of ours is getting married in January, and I have absolutely nothing appropriate to wear. Sadly, this is Ann Arbor, where shopping possibilities are stunted to say the least. I have a list of places around here to try, and failing that I'm going to start ordering things online, trying them on at home, and sending them back if they don't fit. I'm really hoping to find something locally, but who knows. I've been a little hesitant to get going on this one too early, as I've been steadily making my way through fall the Weight Watchers way with great success...and I don't really feel like shelling out a few hundred bucks for a dress only to be too small for it in January! BTW, the double W totally rocks and I have never had an easier time getting weight to come off in an even, reliable way. I do the whole thing online--so no meetings or anything--and it's a godsend. I have about 4 more pounds to lose before I'll have lost 10% of my body weight on this plan, and I started at the end of September. Not too shabby, I must say.
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I realize it's been a long time (again!) since I've posted anything, so here's a brief recap for friends in other places who haven't been here for the play-by-play of this semester. Plans for next summer have changed--J and I will be going to Los Angeles instead of Houston, and will both be working for downtown firms. Actually, we'll be about 2 blocks from each other, which is pretty cool. We plan to head back out there after graduation in 2007 and start careers in sunny, southern CA. My younger stepsister is getting married next August, and the other stepsister is having her first baby at the end of January.
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Happy Thanksgiving, all. For those in school, buck up and stay strong...exams will be over soon! For those in the working world, remember that nothing makes a good white elephant gift for the office exchange like a drainstop that begs for help.