A Thanksgiving Miracle!

 Today is Thanksgiving in the USA. Our family gathering today will consist of just Shane and myself. We are staying home and cooking a somewhat traditional Thanksgiving meal. We are having turkey, but we're not cooking a full turkey. I bought turkey breast slices, which I will basically fry, but will make a bit better by adding a raspberry sauce. We'll also have mashed potatoes (microwave), stuffing (Stovetop), glazed carrots, macaroni and cheese, and yeast rolls. It is a very starchy, unhealthy meal, but it's Thanksgiving, so it is fine. 

The best part of the meal is dessert. Shane will be making an apple pie from scratch this morning. Apple pie isn't my favorite, but his apple pies are usually very delicious. We have good vanilla ice cream and whipped cream also. 

My favorite item for Thanksgiving is pumpkin pie. Our local grocery store here in Maine offer very good "Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pies" for just $2.99! I know they are good because this isn't the first one I've purchased this season. I have never made a pumpkin pie myself, but know it wouldn't be much better than these $2.99 pies. And these $2.99 pies are a lot less trouble. Anyone who knows me knows I like a bargain, and in my book being able to get such a delicious dessert for under $3 qualifies as a Thanksgiving miracle. 

It's a rainy, dreary day here in Maine today. We'll be watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV and I will try to offset our meal with a run on the treadmill. 

We do have so much to be thankful for this year. We are alive and healthy (but somewhat less healthy after today's meal). It looks like our president's days in office are numbered, next year will be better with the hope of vaccines, and we will soon have a new president that isn't insane. 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating! 

Overdue Update

It is apparent that I am fairly horrible at keeping a blog. The first clue is that I haven't posted since forever.

Since my last post, we got our puppy, Dinah, and she is awesome. We have continued doing our radio show... a three hour eclectic music show on Tuesdays. We bought a house in my hometown of Rising Sun, MD, which needed lots of work. So we have been busy. 

It would be impossible to do a complete update of everything that has happened in the last 7+ months, so I'll just leave you with those highlight right now. Above is Dinah at 8 months. She just had her operation to remove her lady parts on Tuesday, so she has been recovering from that. Luckily she has been doing extremely well. Yay!

Back to Blogging Cuz We're Taking a Road Trip

Today is a new start to this old blog. I had previously created it a couple of years ago and it kind of fell by the wayside. Since Shane and I are about to do a cross-country trek in a few day, I thought this might be a good time to restart the blog to make a record of the trip.

That is me, Mark, on the left in the photo above. I'm with my husband, Shane, in a recent shot. We have retired to Stonington, Maine. I retired from the Federal Government in August 2017, and Shane retired November 2018. We officially moved to Maine on January 1, 2019. Yes... we are very young to be retired, but retired we are.

We are considering getting a dog soon and decided to drive across the USA before we get one. We are leaving on Tuesday, February 4. We have no reservations or set agenda except stopping in Kansas City to visit Shane's step brother and his wife, Trent and Laurie. Trent, a trumpeter, is playing a gig with Michael Feinstein on February 9, which we will be attending. In addition, we plan on going to Santa Fe, NM, the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, and LA (Shane wants to see the Griffin Observatory that was in Rebel Without a Cause and La La Land). On the way back we will be going through Texas, New Orleans, Memphis (Graceland), and Nashville.

Shane and I are volunteer DJs at a local community radio station (WERU). We do a 3-hour eclectic music show on Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. called On the Wing. Here is a link to listen online. If you are in Downeast Maine or the Bangor area, you can hear the show live at 89.9 FM. We will be taking several weeks off from doing our show while we travel across the country.