*Make enough room on drive to completely fill it up again
*Work on powerpoint thing
*Church at 6:30
*Pack for Stynx's house
*Shower
*Eat

1. Look busy at work, show my face, get ready to leave early.
2. Finish thanksgiving shopping for things we forgot; plates.
3. Straighten up, grab a quick bite to eat.
4. Make turkey brine and stow turkey therein.
5. Make pies.
6. Help MuddDude make cheesecake.
7. (maybe) make stock for gravy.
8. Clean and prep kitchen for tomorrow
9. (maybe) go out with friends.

work, work, work, drive, work more, eat, work more, possibly play the guitar/sing, sleep

1. Laundry
2. Order some Xmas gifts online
3. Clean litter boxes
4. more laundry
5. put the sweet potato souffle in the oven (partner made it, I'm just doing this while he's at work)
6. mail package that needs to go out (done, already)
7. run dishwasher so that partner will have a fresh slate when he does his other cooking tonight
8. chill w/ beer & video games (most likely)
9. go to bed in time to get up and head to Tennessee around 8 am tomorrow

Have an early night (satellite is down and they can't come and fix it for a week), while listen to the England v Croatia game on the radio. Up at 5.30am tomorrow for work.

1. coverslip slides
2. [redacted nasty thing about my job]
3. online xmas shopping
4. leave work early
5. buy milk, poppy seeds, rolls (too lazy to make own)
6. tidy apartment, vaccuum, clean bathroom
7. bridge tonight!
8. meet up with mr. gaspode and other friends for delicious delicious beer
9. Still get enough sleep that I feel like going for a run in the morning

1. get together with friends for wine tonight
2. chow down tomorrow, movie & beer w/ friends tomorrow afternoon
3. work out
4. rush to TN to sample BP's souffle. *drool*

1. Look busy at work, show my face, get ready to leave early.
2. Feed cat, collect booze, squash dip and flatbreads.
3. Go to Sister's, greet guests.
4. Collect next guest at CTA.
5. Drink, eat, play games, be merry.

plates.

Ack! Thank you muddgirl, I'd have forgotten. That would have been ugly. New adds to my list:

1. Borrow 6 plates and 6 water goblets from work.
2. Also borrow molasses from work.

1. Get the boys' hair cut. They look like wild men. I hope there is a walk-in somewhere. Everybody and their brother is probably getting their hair cut today.
2. Buy ingredients for pumpkin gooey cakes. It figures that I have waited until the last minute. The grocery store is going to be a zoo.
3. Go to wine store and pick out a couple bottles for Thanksgiving.
4. Go to the park with friend that I stood up at the gym yesterday -- check, done, completed!
5. Remove long overdue chipped nail polish from toes.
6. Laundry
7. Go to bed early so I won't look like hell tomorrow. I have two dinners to attend. I need all the stamina I can get.

1. Find work to do, since Access is broken for me.
2. Pick up my umbrella from a friend near Bryant Park.
3. Finalize contest rules/information for AnimeNEXT.
4. Wrangle the Katsucon guest list into more shape.
5. Finalize Green Room staff list for Katsucon.
6. Finalize Guest Relations staff list for Katsucon.
7. Bug the hell out of Greg Ayres and Mike Sinterniklaas for answers to questions.
8. Watch Project Runway, Heroes, and House from last week.
9. Watch tonight's Project Runway.
10. Sleep.

1. Look busy at work, show my face, get ready to leave early.
2. Look for a new job on company time.
3. Go to the post office to mail two packages: one to mom, one to boyfriend.
4. Go shopping for baked artichoke dip fixins for Melissa May and Sleep Pete's Jive Turkey celebration tomorrow.
5. Go home, play with gliders, cut cmonkey's hair.
6. Sleep.

1. Collect previous couple days' statistics.
2. Make up next week's desk schedules.
3. Process newly-arrived books.
4. Clean out work refrigerator.
5. Call B, see if she wants to hang out.
6. Stop by M/J's, feed and walk the dog.
7. Stop by house, get PS3.
8. Get gamepad working w/SNES emulator on laptop.
9. Buy some beer.

I've already finished the first few of these.

1. Go to bulk mail office, mail postcards for work. - done.
2. Go to laundromat, wash frightening amounts of towels and sheets and couch slipcovers and clothes and stuff. - done.
3. Go to regular grocery store, buy frightening amounts of groceries. - done
4. Come home, bitch about house, force son to unload groceries & laundry & bring trash can back. - done
5. Go to work, borrow table.
6. Go to fancy grocery store, get turkey and gourmet stuff.
7. Clean entire house until shining & spotless.
8. Make pumpkin pie from scratch (i.e., w/actual pumpkin), make bread.
9. BF arrives from SC, yay!
10. Maybe go out for pizza & beer. Maybe stay in instead, mmmm.

1. Look NOT busy at work so they agree it's dead enough to let me out early. (not tough, haven't had a real email in about two hours, phone call even longer)
2. Ideally, get out in time for my roommate to get me from work on his way home.
3. Liquor store run for wine and vodka
4. Panera bread for some breads for dinner (I have gift cards).
5. buy tin foil
6. Meet up with my friend Danielle who is acting sous chef this year.
7. mix turkey brine, get it in brine, put it in unheated back hall in cooler.
8. mix mac and cheese, toss in fridge
9. make asparagus, toss in fridge
10. cut potatoes, toss in fridge in water
11. de-vein 2 lb shrimp
12. clean living room
13. clean bedroom
14. wash hair
15. panic

1. Go grocery shopping for pie fixin's. (Must leave in next 10 minutes.)
2. Make pie dough.
3. Clean fridge and litter box.
4. Feed and water the chickens.
5. Pick girlfriend up from school, hit the farmers' market.
6. Drive to SF.
7. Curse holiday traffic.
8. Cook and drink; maybe talk gf into walking to the cool little bar with the great martinis.

3. Clean fridge and litter box.

Knew I forgot something...

1. Try to get back to sleep
2. Wake up at sensible time
3. Make web sites happen
4. Go have ultrasound
5. Make tentative reservation for clinic room to have baby
6. Get home and work again
7. Plead with Boy to get something for dinner

1. send meeting minutes, finish up some other work
3. hardware store
2. visit grocery for stuff for extra people coming to dinner and bringing their diet restrictions
4. clean and wax new kitchen floor now that it's had time to cure
5. clean up enough so we can use dining room table
6. walk the dog
7. bathe the dog if there's time
8. make cranberry ice
9. brine the turkey that I went home at lunch to remove from freezer
10. make curried squash soup.

thanks, that was quite helpful

1. Buy a mount so we can watch DVDs on our laptops on the treadmill again
2. Buy something from the sporting goods store, but I can't remember what
3. Remove air conditioners
4. Fix the downstairs sink
5. Eat something
6. Think hairy thoughts!

Man, y'all sure do a lot of brining.

1. Wake up – DONE
2. Eat breakfast – DONE
3. Walk dog – DONE
4. Feed dog - DONE
5. Nearly get creamed several times by brain-dead drivers on the way to the supermarket – DONE
6. Buy food – DONE
7. Nearly get creamed several times by brain-dead drivers on the way home from the market – DONE
8. Eat lunch – DONE
9. Walk the dog – DONE
10. Get ready for work
11. Nearly get creamed several times by brain-dead drivers on the way to work
12. Work
13. Drive home on the blissfully empty post-midnight roads
14. Give dog her medication-disguising meatball
15. Listen to music while having a beer or two
16. Go to bed

If I were being major d'oumo this year, I'd have an exhaustive to-do list I could cut & paste here, because I'm a freak like that.

But for the second year in a row, I'm not the master of turkey stadium! Woo hoo! Leisure!

How about today's done! list instead?

- Cursing at the alarm, arise from four hours' sleep.
- Punch down the chilled dough, and pop back in fridge.
- Prep dish of greens with mushrooms, so I can flash it in a hot pan just before dinner tomorrow.
- Clear the counters so The Fella can prep his Thanksgiving dish: roasted butternut galettes with caramelized garlic. Mmm.
- Meet Mom for lunch.
- Spend an unexpected hour at Lowe's while she considers buying a tabletop Christmas tree. Leave empty-handed.
- Ditto all that, but at the fabric store.
- Finally, lunch.
- At Mom's house, brief her on the task of brining, which she volunteered to undertake for the first time.
- Together, locate and scrub out a tub for brining the turkey.
- Go over the brine proportions again.
- Move tables, arrange chairs, help get the house ready for guests.
- Answer another question about the proportion of salt to water. Answer it again. Do some calculations on paper for her.
- Make the brine. Whatever. I still don't have to be up at six a.m. to take that enormous slippery pale-fleshed bird out of the icy cold brine. Yay me!
- Squeeze in a surprise haircut! I'm feel pretty!

Then home, do some laundry, and hope tonight's dinner will magically appear. That could happen, right?

Last year, we went to the Fella's family. Being a guest was lovely, and spurred my mother to realize how much organizing and prep work I've put into Thanksgiving dinners for the past decade. She thanked me from her heart, which is... unusual.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

1. Get up early and go to work for busy day (not done, had to call in sick because I was throwing up).
2. Take cat to kennel (done...he's not the kind of cat you can leave alone at home for a long weekend, unfortunately).
3. Buy pint size toiletries so I can take them on the plane because of our ridiculous security regulations (done, and really freaking expensive and my hair will look like crap the whole weekend because my products don't come in little sizes).
4. Return movie from last weekend (done).
5. Sit at home alone all night missing cat and boyfriend. Try to study for the bar. Try to eat something. Drink beer if not too sick.
6. Pack for incredibly cold weekend in New Mexico. It's only one state over, but much colder.
7. Remember to print out plane boarding pass and shuttle confirmations.