Our friends N&S invited us over for Friends Thanksgiving today. N spatchcocked a turkey according to Bittman’s guide. I have to tell you, this turkey was one of the best I ever recall. Mi compadres had not learned the term spatchcock yet. So that was fun. Somewhere, someone mentioned it the week before when describing their great Thanksgiving festivities. I’ve tried to track it down, to find out who to thank, to no avail.

Mr. T made mashed potatoes, sprizee made pie, her dude made stuffing, I made sweet potatoes, and we stayed from 1 until dark. Awesome, all of it.

My old colleague Todd (sometimes called Toad in these parts) had a birthday last month, but events kept us from celebrating til today. C combined the birthday celebration with a holiday open house.

For dinner, we stopped at Aloha Ramen. I had the spicy tan tan men and Mr. T had the Kimchee Ramen. We’ll be back. So good to break up my pho habit with a little ramen.

Then, we had Mr. T’s colleague’s birthday party. Lovely home, good chitchat amongst his new teammates, and I met someone from my hometown (though she’d been born in…Thibodaux). I gave her my deets so we can keep each other in the loop on any crawfish boils or Louisiana happenings in the PacNW.

An impromptu dinner invite took us to the Geraldine & Rand‘s for dinner. They taught us to make orecchiette (little ears). Dinner was amazing & since we couldn’t go without dessert, Geraldine baked up a chocolate cake in what felt like 5 minutes. We spent hours talking with friends and watched Community for the first time.

Great show. Great evening.

A lunchtime errand brought me to Queen Anne. I presume this is a prank on the van owner, but in looking closer while taking a picture, I see the Po-Po left their calling card.

This evening, I attended an early dinner with a lecture by a UW professor on managing massive amounts of data and another on Neurobotics. Both fascinating talks were given by brililant, inspiring, tech women. I left UW feeling very grateful to be living in this century, and in Seattle.

Our neighborhood’s official elementary school sells Christmas trees every year. We haven’t gotten one in recent years since we’ve been in Louisiana. This year, we’ll be around so the option’s on the table. Will we get one or will the silver tree suffice…?