The turkey was good!

The turkey was better than years past. This was our first Thanksgiving in the last 4 that we stayed home. Last year we did the Portland whirlwind tour to test drive spinning wheels. The year before that we spent in the Bay Area so it was nice to enjoy the relaxed pace of home. After a wonderful dinner I sugested a walk on the Seal Beach Pier to get some ocean air and walk off the meal.
The Christmas lights were already up and it was very quiet tonight. One of the first times I've walked the pier and didn't see someone surfing the North side.

We decided to hit the jacuzzi after we got home and before the home made pumpkin pie. All relaxed now and full of comfort food but I'm afraid we'll have turkey for a long time. I haven't had the appetite that I used to but that's ok. The 14.02 pound turkey was the smallest I could find and it'll probably yield 4 to 5 meals disguised at burritos and who knows what else in the next week or so.

Turkey day is behind us and "Black Friday " is in progress. Are you going to fight the crowds for the that super deal? We have a Mall that opens at Midnight in an attempt to steal the shoppers from the big places. I'm not even going to venture into the fray. If you do I wish you well.

Life is Good

Happy Faux Friday

First and foremost I want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

I do some reflecting at times like this and feel grateful for having two wonderful, healthy teen "children" who are the most special gifts a parent could hope for. My loving wife who I share my life with and puts up with all my faults. I feel thankful for my contact with all of you. We exchange comments on our blogs or other social network places. The ones who I have met in person are warm generous people who inspire me to new heights in my craft or share a friendship that is priceless. My life is better because of you all.

Today was a productive and good day.
Let me hit the bullets

• Netflix fiasco
• AT&T negotiations
• Finding missing yarn
  
• Finishing a book and started the next
  

Netflix had some issues and my account was put on hold for no reason at all. I called and they said it was resolved and the next day it wasn't fixed. I called again and the person closed my account and lost my whole queue. 156 movies lost, but after a 3rd call and some raised voices this too was resolved. but wait, it goes on... When they reinstated my account I was double billed, yes not only did they mess it up they double billed me for it. My 4th call resolved the billing, I will have movies on Friday and the billing cycle was moved two weeks to compensate for their error. Score one for the Twisteds.

A week ago AT&T sent me the online bill for my phone and internet. They raised my bill and it wasn't pretty. I called the customer service today and once I was able to get them to transfer my call back to the USA from India I inquired why my service was raised. After they went through the whole "rates have gone up for everyone" song and dance I quoted the advertised prices that are in the TV commercials and then told the person I was ready to cancel my service and move to cable. All of a sudden she was helpful said she could offer me a new plan and reduce the price by almost half. Funny how when times are tough and you have an option to move your service they are willing to work with you. Score two for the Twisteds.

Tonight I was watching public access and saw someone who looked like someone I went to High School with. Googled his name and the position and found out his middle name. Then went to a sealed box that contained my HS yearbooks and sure enough it was him. The surprise was when I opened the box and found a yarn kit that was missing since we moved here last August. I never opened the box because I thought it was just the yearbooks but this was in there to fill the void in the box.

Mrs. Twisted was thrilled at the discovery. Score three for the Twisteds

My last bullet was, I finished the much often interrupted Jules Verne classic Carpathian Castle. The ending was extremely good and not what I expected. For those of you who appreciate the forward thinking of Gene Roddenberry, you would love Jules Verne. He was in touch with the inventors and the dreamers and he wrote about the future or the cutting edge technology before it was common knowledge. This was his one love story that he wrote over the stretch of 30 plus years. Not like the science fiction style of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or his other adventure novels. Moving forward, I started the Complete Short Stories of Marcel Proust. I'm intrigued by the attention his novels attracted in the early 1900's and the praise of his contemporaries. This looks to be a long and hopefully enjoyable journey through his catalog of work.

Last and not least, I saw that today I passed 20,000 hits to my little blog. Still amazing to me that people read my ramblings about the crazy things that appear here. I could never predict what will inspire visits or comments. Thank you all for the visits and your comments mean so much to me.

To those of you traveling tomorrow I hope you arrive safely and everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Life is Good

Oregon Visit part 1

Day one of the Trip that almost didn't happen

We had some excitement at the airport. Arived in time to make the plane but they changed gates after we made it through inspection. So after a quick inquiry at the TSA counter we took the tunnel to the other terminal and made it to the gate in time ( 5 mins to spare). so close to just going home but we made it. We relaed and enjoyed the 70 minute flight with a little knitting on the way.

We had a little issue with SFO airport because the car rental was off site the the sky tram kept breaking down but we finally made it. I saw this plane on the tarmac as we waited for them to fix the tram. Never seen a Salmon on a plane before. gives a new meaning to Flying Fish? Was that a rim shot? Ba da bump :)

If you have any thoughts of running from the police in San Fransisco think again. We saw this parked in the parking lot of the McDonald's where we tried to get a quick breakfast.

Sorry Stacy we didn't think you wanted to get up really early on Thanksgiving morning for a quick visit as we were trying to escape the city for points north. We both wondered if Randy was up putting the turkey in the oven though. :)

No not this really, even though you don't want to see this in your mirror.

Not going to out run this car.

Added the GPS that I brought and plugged in my MP3 player and we were set. I didn't leave the MP3 player on the dash it was just there for photo purposes.

The goal was to escape before the traffic got bad. We hit a little traffic about an hour north of the city just before the interchange to I-5.

I love to read the bumper stickers on cars in traffic and this one made me wonder, was this person a sheep for putting this on his car? You know he wasn't the first one to put the sticker on his bumper.

This was Mrs Twisted's first trip north of San Fransisco so it was just fun to see her face as the scenery changed.

From Farm land to olive and almond groves. We finally see Mt Shasta but we are almost a hundred miles away.

From what we could see of Shasta Lake, it was about 15 feet lower than normal. The drought is still pretty serious here.

Higher and higher into the trees and we get to see the mountain as we weave through the hills blocking the snow capped peak.

Not too bad through the windshield zoomed in a little. When it looks like we can get a good picture, I pull off into the next rest area and we stretch a bit.

Our little red rental car

Then a little zoom and the mountain feels closer

and in the same place but now it fills the shot with just a little more zoom. Love the camera!

OK I know it's just a mountain but it was so much fun to share this with Mrs. Twisted as we would see it get closer and closer and then repeatedly lose sight between the mountains until we were in the valley just in front of it.

It's 37 deg F and I'm outside in the cold after filling the gas tank in plaid Dad comfy shorts. I love to drive in comfort but it was really cold here.

We arrived in Ashland just before dark and what a wonderful little town. It reminded us both of Stars Hallow.

More to come... We visited a blog friend for the first time. Did some shopping and enjoyed the little town so much!

Thank you Punkin!

Happy Thanksgiving (were going on a road trip) Yes that means yarn shopping!!!! :)

I hope all of you have a wonderful and joyous Thanksgiving. Like most people, I do a lot of reflecting and pondering about life and the holiday season just cranks up the memory machine for me. I think back to all the Thanksgivings we had when I was a young boy. So vivid and lifelike are the images in my head. The perfect Turkey, home made pumpkin pies with home made crust that we made together. We had a round table with a clear Lucite top and it was one of the few times each year that we would bring out the "Lazy Susan". Never did understand the reason for the name but I won't digress at this juncture. Oh yes back to the story… My parents wanted a round table so we could all see each others faces when we talked at dinner. As the years went on and we all grew up, dinner conversations were often very open and opinionated between my oldest brother trying to convince my conservative father that he was wrong. Politics and religion and the end of the Vietnam War were easy buttons for the oldest brother to push. This was the late 60’s and early 70’s here. Yes I’m that old……. Mom would interject and change topics when she was tired of the rhetoric. How many of you are old enough to remember the movie “Yours, Mine, and Ours” with Lucile Ball and Henry Fonda. That was the only place I saw someone else use a Lazy Susan till much later in my life. We never really used it so I would always have to wash the individual dishes that would hold the pickles, olives, carrots and such. I wonder if my father still has that. A little detour down memory lane…..

Tomorrow we are going on a little trip, Flying to San Francisco in the very early morning and driving north to see the sights. Debbie has never seen Mt Shasta or Mt Hood or the Pacific Northwest. We will drive as far as Portland Oregon and maybe venture to Seattle if the time and mood strikes. Probably stop at Portland and see Seattle next time. The Glass Museum is one of our goals in Tacoma. Woodland Woolworks outside of Portland has an extensive selection of spinning wheels so I can try them side by side. And last but not least we are making a stop to see a wonderful lady in southern Oregon, Punkin who is going to join us at her local yarn store. We plan to have brunch and maybe a walk through the park and chit chat. We have been looking forward to meeting her in person since we made plans a few months ago. I will try to blog and read my e-mails while I’m on the road and rest assured we will have lots to share and beautiful pictures to remember the trip by.
Happy Thanksgiving to all

Mr. & Mrs. Twisted