Tinsel Trifecta part 1...

Rob and I have the good fortune to have three Fancy Parties to attend this year. I'm a contractor, so two of them are mine -- one at the home office in Detroit and one with my clients here in the DC area.

First up in the Tinsel Trifecta was my home office party. Rob was a trooper and flew with me to Detroit very early on Friday morning since I had important tedium to attend to before the festivities, and he flew back Saturday afternoon. I stayed until Monday for still more meetings.

Unfortunately Detroit had hardly any snow for us, but it's always good to visit the Great Lakes State and see old friends! And also to have cheap breakfast at a coney island in Dearborn. There aren't any $4.79 breakfasts to be had in Northern Virginia, unless it's just toast and juice.

Our first Thanksgiving

Rob is out of leave days this year to go visit family, so we had our first Thanksgiving dinner for two. It was also our first vegan Thanksgiving. I wouldn't call myself vegan, but I tend to cook that way at home. We had lentil loaf, mashed potatoes, candied yams (complete with vegetarian marshmallows), stuffing, cranberry relish, and dinner rolls -- all home-made! And a bottle of lovely Michigan wine, of course. Rob had pumpkin pie for dessert and I had a home-made cinnamon roll.

Even though we were only cooking for two, it still took about 3 hours of work in the kitchen to get everything on the table! And we still have abundant leftovers to last for a couple of days.

The big tree is all decorated but I don't have a good picture of it yet! Just this one of Miss Zellie resting underneath it. It's her favorite place -- and we can't begrudge a kitty for loving velvety hiding places.

November in Virginia = awesome.

Yesterday Rob and I went for an autumnal saunter at the C&O Canal NHP, on the Maryland side of the Potomac. It was in the mid-60s, sunny and golden! There was quite a line to get into the park as DC-ites squeezed the most out of the glorious weather. I didn't take any pictures of the throngs since we opted for wooded paths -- I still can't figure out why more people don't venture into the woods and stay on the towpath instead. The trails are well-marked for the most part, there are no bears, and the spongy dirt is much kinder on the knees. Come on in, everyone!

Then we came home and started putting together our 9-foot Christmas tree. We have tall ceilings that come with living on the 4th floor, so we figured why not take advantage of them? For those of you who think it indecent to deck a tree before the carving of the sacrificial turkey (or lentil loaf, in our case), we don't have nearly enough lights to have it decorated too much before Thanksgiving. And it gets dark so darn early here since we're so far east in the time zone, so it's soothing to have the lights on when we get home from work.

Good job Rob!

It's almost time!

The Michigoose Blog has been on hiatus while we moved to our new apartment and got ready for the wedding. Now it's almost here! We have our license and family is going to start converging today. Then we are heading north to Mackinac Island for a few days of relaxation before driving back to Virginia.

We are enjoying the cooler weather and the people who are Midwestern-nice wherever we go! Forgot about the hungry Michigan mosquitos though.