Friday Things
1. How was your Thanksgiving holiday? Tell me what fabulous things you ate! We had an awesome day at home with lots of family, a massive turkey and more desserts than we could possibly consume; which is to say, we had an absolutely fantastic holiday. I spent most of my time after dinner on the couch, with my feet up, because that’s what pregnant people are supposed to do, right?!
2. Thanksgiving prep did not go off without incident, however. I almost ruined Thanksgiving. Seriously. True story – I take my garbage disposal for granted. I throw a lot of stuff down there. Full disclosure: my husband has warned me multiple times not to put potato peels down the garbage disposal. I keep doing it because I’ve always done it and I’ve never had a problem. Well, on the night before Thanksgiving, it finally became a problem. My mom had spent all day at my house helping me prep for Thursday and around 6pm the kitchen sink totally clogged. My father-in-law made a 50-minute drive to try to fix it, saying that this was his third Thanksgiving in a row trying to fix a clogged garbage disposal. Long story short(er), he was not able to fix it and said the clog was too far down and we’d need to call a plumber.
Nothing like setting your alarm for Thanksgiving morning to let the Roto-Rooter plumber in and praying that it will get fixed and you’ll actually have access to a kitchen sink on Thanksgiving. Luckily, he was able to get it in working order in less than an hour, and said that Thanksgiving is their busiest day of the year; he had 6 more service calls after us – all clogged kitchen sinks. Oops. In case you’re a garbage disposal abuser like me, here is an article on what NOT to put down the garbage disposal.
3. While we’re still on the topic of Thanksgiving, did you do any Black Friday shopping? My mom braved the mall, but I stayed firmly planted on my couch the entire day and ate leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and pecan pie. We did, however, shop online for new health insurance which is very, well, grown-up and boring.
4. A few nights ago, we caught a “behind the scenes” type of show on REM, which included a snippet of the band playing “Losing My Religion”. It immediately reminded me of high school, and also, as an extension, the show “My So-Called Life”. Oh how far Claire Danes has come!
5. Speaking of which, I was beyond agitated that Homeland was off this past week. I didn’t realize they were on a week break and spent ALL DAY looking forward to watching it after the previous episode. Then we went to turn it on and… nothing. Ugh! So frustrating! Needless to say, I’m really ready for this week’s episode.
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6. While Homeland is the only series we’re currently watching right now, I was excited to see that The Americans will be coming back at the end of January and that House of Cards will be released at the end of February. I’m sure I’ll be a sleepless, walking zombie at that point, but I’m still looking forward to them nonetheless!
7. My husband and I went out this past weekend and stocked up on some newborn clothes since most of the baby clothes we’ve received as gifts are all larger sizes. Oh my goodness, every outfit was more adorable than the one before it! We had to seriously restrain ourselves, but got the little guy a nice assortment of starter clothes. Things are definitely more and more real by the day… I’ll be 35 weeks on Monday!
8. If you love holiday music and haven’t heard of them yet, you HAVE to check out Straight No Chaser. They are an a cappella group that formed in the mid-90’s at Indiana University. They have some amazing Christmas music that I just love. I think they tour every December, and really wanted to see them in Pittsburgh this year, but just didn’t think that I could sit comfortably through an entire concert. Maybe next year!
9. Do you have a list of holiday cookies that you’re planning to bake? Lay ’em on me! I’m planning to do a little more meal prep for baby time than extra holiday baking this year, but I’d love to live vicariously through you :)
10. TGIF! Duke just loooooooves sleeping next to his big brother!
I put very little down the garbage disposal. I’m so glad you were able to get it fixed quickly on Thanksgiving. I had a fuse going bad on my refrigerator awhile ago on a Sunday. It took forever to find someone to fix it. It was such a relief when it was mission accomplished.
I love your blog. I happen to be up late reading it and came across your garbage disposal story. I have too clog ours up with potatoe peels twice. Finally learned my lesson after two visits from the Plumber …so no more potatoe peels. However one year on my Birthday I was cooking a big dinner….homemade lasagna, homemade spaghetti sauce and homemade meatballs….cooking up a storm and one box of lasagna noodles exploded over the sink. I picked up as much as I could but some of the noodles ..well slipped through. Needless to say we had to call the Plumber again on a Sunday. Well I think they took pity on me when they found out I was cooking my birthday dinner and they showed my husband a trick. Take a washcloth and stuff it in one side of the sink drain then take the plastic drain clog and just create the suction several times and viola….drain unclogs. in fact we’ve had a couple of issues since and we just do that little trick and literally no more plumber!!!! I still don’t put potato peels down the drain but we haven’t had to call the plumber when the sink gets clogged. We always wonder why they would show us that trick but we’re glad they did!!! Oh and I was happy to cook my own BD dinner….hubby got me a new stove and double ovens that year so I was breaking it in with a big Italian meal!!!
Oh goodness…I’ve always wanted to cuddle with your puppies! :)
Hi Michelle, I read the link to what not to put down the disposal and thinking a list of what you CAN put down there would be shorter!!! Lettuce???? Egg shells??? I have a friend that NEVER uses hers…why have it then??? We compost most stuff but in the winter it is not so convenient to schlep the scraps thru the mud to the composting bins :(
Have you tried The Newsroom? It’s my new favorite right now — HBO. I think the final season just started, but we’ve been watching the previous seasons on On Demand. And good for you showing restraint in purchasing baby clothes. I still can’t seem to get a handle of that ;-)
I am hysterical at the garbage disposal bit! Hahahaha. My husband keeps putting banana peels down ours and I keep telling him to STAAHHHP because the maintenance guy has been here 3 times and we’ve only lived here 9 months. Good thing we rent!
I love reading your Friday posts! Several months ago I spent a week in bed sick and remembered your comments on the show Scandal. I saw it on Netflix so I decided to give it a try. I was hooked by episode 3 and have since got caught up! Go Team Fitz!! That said, we have very similar taste in TV shows. I love Homeland, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, The Americans and so on. I was wondering if you’ve given Newsroom a try? Or Downton Abbey? I remember you posted a while back that it might be too girly for your husband, but I can assure you it’s not!
Other contenders: Justified, Shameless, White Collar, Revenge and Nashville.
We LOVE Straight No Chaser!! My fiance is actually doing his Ph.D at IU right now (so we live in Bloomington!) and we have tickets to see them this Thursday! I can’t wait!!
I’m so with you about Homeland! Really disappointing.
My favourite Christmas cookies are savoury ones…Macadamia Cheese Biscuits (in Australia that’s a cookie)…they are buttery, cheesy, nutty bites of deliciousness…and they go great with a glass of champagne! I also love shortbread cookies. My fruit for my mother’s White Christmas Cake has been soaking in brandy for the past week and I’m going to make your Maple Walnut Fudge recipe again this year. And if I find time, Butter Tarts (my Canadian heritage). Happy Christmas preparations!
Michelle,
We had a snow storm the day before Thanksgiving. We knew it was coming, so we postponed the Thanksgiving feast until Saturday the 29th. My hubby didn’t get home until 7 AM on Thanksgiving after working 23 hours. The power was out from 12:30 AM to 1 PM on Thanksgiving. For the postponed feast we had antipasto, homemade mozzarella and pizza to start. Then we had lasagna, turkey and ham with roasted yams, candied yams, turkey gravy, sausage and bacon corn bread stuffing, broccoli, 96 stuffed mushrooms. For dessert I made an ultimate crumb apple crumble and brownies. My sister brought a store bought cake. My other sister baked some cookies and my brother-in-law brought some cannoli. I think that’s everything,
Annamaria
I look forward to your Friday posts, so I can see the “boys”. You will have to start including them during the week…especially when the new boy arrives…PLEASE!
Congrats on your upcoming baby! You look wonderful. Love your blog. Today I made toffee almond bars and Italian anise cookies for a party I’m going to tomorrow night. My girls and I think baking is one of the best parts of Christmas and we have at least 8-10 types we make every year. Keep those feet up.
A plumber told me that the only things that should go in the garbage disposal are the scraps on dishes, mixing bowls and so on. Now when I’m doing food prep I put a colander in the sink. All peels and scraps go in it and any liquid drains out. When I’m done the contents of the colander goes in the trash (or compost heap if you have one).
I was a garbage disposal abuser in the past. Until I clogged my mom’s sink! She was not happy! Have you thought about composting? Potato, carrot, apple peels and egg shells are all good for composting. For Thanksgiving, I made Pumpkin Creme Brulee. Yummmm! And I had a blast playing with the torch! Congrats to you and your CCC on your expected baby boy–we’ll want pics you know!
Oh I can’t tell you how many times I thought I destroyed my garbage disposal because of vegetable peels! I did the same thing last Thanksgiving with potato peels and I thought everything was over! My aunt was there thankfully with her genius idea of unclogging a garbage disposal…A PLUNGER! Oh my gosh it changed my life! I now keep one under my kitchen sink that is just for unclogging the garbage disposal. Plug the other side of your kitchen sink to create a suction and slightly fill the garbage disposal side with water (it’s probably already filled at that point) and plunge until it goes down then run your garbage disposal with water until it’s completely clear!
We totally tried the plunger to no avail before we called my father-in-law, but yes, if it’s not a bad clog, it definitely works!