Thanksgiving 2006 Roundup

Hi y'all. Hope you all had a fabulous Turkey Day. I was planning on blogging while on the road ... but I never quite got around to it (as you may have noticed! :))

But I'm back now ... so let me give you a quick rundown on what went on....

I headed down to LA to be with family for Thanksgiving because my mom was going to cook her first ever turkey!

You heard me .... FIRST TURKEY. Can you believe that?? The woman is 83 years old! How she managed to avoid cooking a turkey all those years is beyond me (and kinda makes me wonder what Thanksgiving past dinners consisted of! :)). But at the same time ... ya gotta give her props - that's got to take talent avoiding that chore for 83 years, dontcha think?!

Anyway, she did a great job! And the turkey was delicious!

My sister J and my niece and nephew were down in LA as well. So we spent some time putting together a gingerbread house! I was so excited ... I had been wanting to do this for the past couple of years but didn't have anyone to do it with (alright, alright ....I hear you cuing the violin music! Knock it off! ;)). So YAY! And just look at this masterpiece!

Isn't that cute?? Even though the curtains I put in the front window look a bit like sagging breasts (I think we did a pretty good job of hiding them behind candy at least!).

Here's the back of the house. The smiley face was my niece's idea (was to!). And that little patch of color on the bottom right ....well that would be our pond. (*snicker*).

I know, I know ... this house won't be winning any awards ... but I still like it!

I also headed out to Citiwalk with my friends V and J on Saturday night. Here are a couple of pictures for those of you unfamiliar with the area. It's a little outdoor mall area right outside of Universal Studios. It has restaurants, shops, a movie theater, and lots of neon! ;)

And I hope you appreciate those pictures. I kept embarrassing V every time I took one. Hee hee. One of the joys of not living there anymore......being able to embarrass my friends with my Touristy Ways! :) (btw, J ... you handled it very well! Thank you! I'll be sure to send you that picture of you pointing out the Citiwalk sign. Too cute!)

We also had dinner at The Smoke House. Here's a blurb about it taken from their website:

Anybody who was "anybody" at Warner Bros. and in the entertainment industry frequently visited The Smoke House. It wasn't unusual to see Errol Flynn, Judy Garland, Milton Berle, or Robert Redford walk through the Smoke House doors and into the restaurant known for respecting their privacy. The Laugh-In show used to rent the restaurant for their parties, and Jack Parr even hosted the Tonight Show from the Smoke House in 1956.

I'm not sure I would necessarily recommend this restaurant to anyone else. The food was really good ... but I've had better service at McDonalds!

And what was up with the valet assuming that the extra 30% he received when I paid for parking was a tip?! Seriously. That was the smallest bill I had and perhaps I was expecting the change. (I wasn't .... but he shouldn't have assumed anything is all I'm sayin'). Sheesh!

And finally, I couldn't help but laugh when I received my "Departure Management Card" for my United airline flight.

I'm sorry ... what's that you ask? What in the world is a "Departure Management Card"?? Why that, my friends, would appear to be the new politically correct way of saying "Boarding Pass". See?

Isn't this crazy!?!

Seriously .. .who thought up this change?? Were we offending Boarding Passes by calling them "Boarding Passes"? They were, after all, used as a pass in order to board a flight. "Departure Management Card"?? ....are you kidding me?!! Is that not the perfect example of Management overthinking things?!! Aye carumba!

That's it for now! I need to dig through my purse to find my Vehicle Activation Management Tools so that I can drive home! (heh)

Oh, and wish me luck ... tonight is my cake decorating class. I baked the cake last night and have icing and some flowers all ready for decorating it tonight. So prepare for a good laugh tomorrow ... this should be a hoot!! :)