Thanksgiving was fun. Marna and I made the mistake of taking the kids up to my father's place on Wednesday night. I didn't stop to think what the traffic might look like on Route 84. An hour into our voyage, the kids were chiming in with "Are we there yet?" from the back seat, the rain was coming down heavily and we were stuck somewhere between Danbury and Waterbury in a virtual parking lot. Eventually, things eased up on I-691 and we made it there in time for a late dinner.
Every year on Thanksgiving I make my special green beans with garlic and country ham. This year, we also did the desserts - a marvelous pumpkin pie and a so-so apple crisp with Grand Marnier (the Empire apples didn't give up enough liquid during cooking). The meal was excellent, the football games were terrible, but the company was good. Marna and I returned home with the kids that night.
On Friday, we took advantage of having the kids in daycare to catch a movie. We chose to see Sideways in Bethel. For some reason, the movie theater in Bethel attracts more than its share of bluehairs. Every time Marna and I see a movie there, we feel like we're caught up in some sort of reverse Logan's Run. It's almost like being at the opera.
In any case, the film was very entertaining. Paul Giamatti plays a sad, middle-aged, divorced wine fanatic named Miles who takes his best friend and old college buddy, Jack, to California wine country for a final week of freedom before Jack gets married. Miles, who has basically shut himself off from the outside world, is looking forward to marathon wine tastings. Jack, meanwhile, who doesn't know the first thing about wine, is looking to get himself (and Miles) laid. It's the first movie I've seen that really gets the somewhat sad mentality of the wine fanatic. There's also a lot of great dialogue, and the scenes between Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, who plays Jack, are very entertaining. Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh are also terrific as the two unfortunate women on whom Miles and Jack focus their attention. Giamatti has cornered the market on characters who have been beaten down by life. Miles has a lot in common with Harvey Pekar, the cartoonist played by Giamatti in the outstanding American Splendor, which came out last year.
No shopping was done on Friday (I've made that mistake before), but we did do a little bit on Saturday, including buying a new refrigerator at Sears, which should arrive this Sunday. The salesman took forever to get us the information on the Maytag model we wanted. To kill time, I took Kieran over to look at the lawnmowers and snow-blowers. He was in hog heaven. The riding mower with the canopy and snowplow attachment was a particular favorite.
If I can work up the energy, I'll try to get the rest of my Christmas shopping done this weekend. Who knows? I may even go nuts and buy a tree. With Marna's piano now dominating our front hallway, I'm going to have to find a new place to put the tree this year. Now that Kieran's moving along with potty training (slowly but surely), we may be able to break down his portable changing table and put the tree in the corner of the living room currently dominated by the kids' toybox.
9:32:09 AM 
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