A Great Thanksgiving

December 3, 2008
Peoria, AZ

We had a great Thanksgiving, and are starting to gear up for the Christmas season.

We accepted an invitation from our friends Ana and Larry to join them for Thanksgiving, and had a great time, as always. They were married on Thanksgiving Day in 1978, and always celebrate their anniversary on Thanksgiving. We were at their wedding down in Melbourne, Florida. I remember it being at a place on a bluff overlooking the beach. Geri and I had just gotten together at that point (we were married about 15 months later, in February of 1980). We were happy to be with them 30 years later!

Otherwise, it's been more of the same for us - pretty quiet. On Monday, Geri had another dental appointment, this time for the impressions on the crowns for her implants on the upper right side. All went well with this process, as usual, and the crowns will be completed in January. It's usually about a six week thing, but the holiday break will push this to 8+ weeks. Of course, the prostodontist indicated that they'll call her in early if the first cut of the crowns are delivered early and if they have an opening in their schedule before Christmas week. Too many "ifs" for me. I'm not holding my breath, but it'd be great to get this whole thing "in the done column". Especially since we've paid for the whole thing already (actually that was my idea, pushing the expense into 2008 when we can itemize on our taxes).

Speaking of itemizing, we've also been working on maximizing our charitable deductions by going through the whole house for items to donate. We filled half of the garage with boxes and bags and other items, and scheduled a local charity for pick-up. What an easy process! sign up online and a couple of days later, 2 guys and a truck show up at 8:00 AM and take everything away. We moved out several things that weren't practical to sell on eBay, like a 36" analog TV and all the wine racks we moved from the cellar in NJ (the buyer of our place there in 2005 didn't want them and I was too ticked off with him to just leave them behind). We even got rid of the snow shovel that got onto the moving truck in error (we were probably the only people in Phoenix with a snow shovel). We still have another load of stuff to organize and donate, I suspect.

And finally, we're in day 5 of "Santa Watch". One of our neighbors has attached a Santa display to their house, and we count the days it's still there whenever we walk the pups. Normally, we wouldn't pay much attention, but these neighbors have had awful luck with vandals and theives with their "yard art" in the past. They have a series of faux "tombstones" in their side yard to memorialize the decorations that are "no longer with us". We'll keep an eye on this one, and fingers crossed.

One final note: we've had some high level clouds over the last week, and this has made for some wonderful sunsets. Sorry for the low picture quality; it's the best the cell phone will do. (Maybe my vintage 2005 cell phone needs updating? Only when I can have an iPhone on Verizon.) Anyone ready for a winter visit to the desert?