Tofurky Time

After years of talking about it, we finally prepared a Tofurky Vegetarian Roast for Thanksgiving. I love turkey, and usually eat it during the holiday season, but I had a horrible and vivid dream a year ago after eating a lot of turkey while pregnant and seeing part of Palin's interview in front of the turkey slaughter on TV. Since then, no turkey. So L and I went to Elberts last week and found a Tufurky, on sale even!

It only took an hour and a half to bake, and came stuffed with wild rice stuffing. Meanwhile, I made sweet potatoes (with pineapple and a few marshallows, as the pilgrims would have enjoyed them), roasted potatoes, rolls, sauerkraut, gravy, cranberries with ginger, pumpkin pie, etc. The loaf looked like this after carving (those are onions):

Here is my plate. Yes, I'm on the sofa, as V was crabby (see feet) and needed a snack before she would attempt the Tofurky. It was very good!

Even L ate some, and the whole thing was gone within 24 hours (it serves 5 according to the box). Maybe we'll do this again at Christmas.

peanut butter

all aboard!

We recently returned from a trip to New Orleans; we traveled by train! We picked up The City of New Orleans from Chicago in Centralia, IL at 12:25 am. Of course I or the online booking thing screwed up the tickets and they were dated the day before, so our "Family Bedroom" sleeping car was occupied and we were stuck in a "Deluxe" room instead. It could have been much worse; luckily the sleeping cars were pretty empty and there was no problem finding us a room. The deluxe room had a bathroom but was still pretty tight; L refused to sleep on the upper bunk when we boarded the train and settled down for the night but loved playing up there the next morning.

We had two meals on the way down and one on the way back. The dining car was pretty cool and the food was actually not too bad. Plenty of pickles to go 'round.

The quarters were cramped, but there weren't so many passengers, so Vivi and Lilah could roam around in the halls. Clearly, someone was ready for a nap by early afternoon.

Success!

Here is the bayou or something as photographed at moderate speed. No gators were spotted.

We arrived at 3:30 the next afternoon and spent the following four days in New Orleans (details forthcoming).

The return home. The station in New Orleans was lost in time. Because we were first class passengers, we were welcome in the Magnolia Room, which boasted coffee, entertainment, etc. Well, we walked in and then walked straight out and into the neighboring Subway because the Magnolia Room was REALLY lost in time - it looked a 70s rumpus room, minus the smoke (but not the smell) and full of people with a TV blasting and coffee simmering in a pot. The murals in the spacious station were really nice.

Mark, our steward on both trips, photographed our happy family about to board the northbound train.

The family bedroom on the ride back was much better. It didn't take long for Vivi to crash that afternoon, and the girls both slept from about 9-4:30, when we arrived in Centralia, IL.

Overall, I recommend it. The sleeping car is an absolute must if there are kids involved, though.

a fine fall day

buglet at storytime

Here is the ladybug at storytime at the Central Library with Abba the week of Halloween (thanks Val!). Note how Abba did not bother to put a black shirt, tights, pants, whatever on under the costume to make her look more ladybug-like. Oh well. Today I went to my first library storytime with Vivi and it was fun! I was reminded of how some of the moms get sort of dressed and made up for these things, and put their kids in "outfits" with big hair bows, etc. We are definitely out of place among them (and there is no doubt that M is WAY out of place) but whatever.

It's also a bit depressing that we could easily be mistaken for Vivi's grandparents around here.

the wedding

Here is Lilah, her prince (with crown) and the cake. She plans to marry at The Centre in downtown Evansville, where she has seen brides on a runway at Superbride Sunday with Abba. Her prince is usually Noah from class, and her princess is Katherine.

post-Halloween roundup

Halloween was good this year! Lilah was Peter Pan for the Montessori cosume party (see also Bob the Builder and Katherine the Princess) and a bee for trick-or-treating. We had fun trick-or-treating around the neighborhood with Wyatt. Vivi was a ladybug, but she wasn't in the costume long. There is still a surprisingly large amount of almond joys and peanut butter cups around here, which brings me joy.

Shoko, we hardly knew ye

RIP Shoko

Our rabbit Shoko died on Sunday at the age of 8. She had not been doing well for some weeks, so it was expected. Her best friend Gabby seems to be doing ok with it, but who knows really? Anyway, I bought Shoko at a pet store in Herzliya Pituach, where we lived for two years before moving here, to be a companion to Daisy, my dissertation rabbit (who died 5+ years ago). She was kind of trouble from the beginning, giving us scabies, being generally neurotic, chewing the whiskers and even fur off of Daisy's face, etc. We brought Shoko and Daisy in a pet carrier on an Air France flight when we moved back to the States in June 2002, and her departure reminds me of how much our lives have changed since that time. She was like a tangible link to a past life, that Israeli shafan.

I am stunned that I can't upload a picture of her. We apparently haven't taken pictures of the rabbits in years and the pictures from our first crappy digital camera won't upload.

Lilah is doing fine with it all (she was basically scared of Shoko) and helped Abba dig a hole in the yard for her. We saw a cat mummy at the museum on Halloween so she had quite a lot of pet death this weekend.

Finally, the cousins

Long ago - or maybe it was just a few weeks ago - we were in Maryland hanging out with cousin James. Here are the three cousins together for the first time. Poor James!