The Rest of the Story

So I meant that last post to be only about Guitar Hero, but it wound up being a recounting of my Thanksgiving trip AND GH3 AND the list of happiness related items because I was worked up about it and started writing it out longhand then gave up and threw it all here. All evidence to the contarary, I do at least try to stick to a theme in each blog, despite my tendency to spew about everything. I'm going to go way over the top for this one, though, if you consider that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is the rest of that last entry.

What I don't have a picture of my face or my parent's faces when I asked them if they liked my blog. I'd intended for them to read the pioneer woman food blog with lots of pictures (I like the butternut squash entry) but there was something lost in translation when I asked my brother to show it to my mom and they came looking here. Eit! Dad said, "it's a rather public diary." Mom said, "you sure write a lot". Mom always wanted me to be a writer, but it wasn't a compliment. I assured her that my blog has outlasted the attention span of many a fine reader. As I write partly for me and partly for an audience, some entries work better than others. I'm not sure they expected me to talk about my sexuality in public, about not caring about others' sexuality or, if it was just the amount of me I put out for public consumption, which was greater than usual this last month, I think. Maybe I use too many joining words like "so, but, since, although, and then". I'm still confused by their notably lackluster (but completely neutral) response, because I've written way worse garbage before that they thought was great (it was garbage). Since Dad even defended the reading of "My Two Dads" to an elementary class during his school board tenure, I hope it wasn't about my politics. Also since I talk about them here, I didn't intend for them to get ahold of the blog. It is public, but they spend little time online. What with all the "this is me and what I stand for" going on, maybe it was a good day for it. Still and all, they shouldn't have been surprised, they raised me this way. Of course, maybe they just don't like me hanging my every last opinion out for all to see. And all was not lost, as the bro and I changed conversational course and got them started watching Firefly.

Anyhow, onto the CrankyOtter Thanksgiving show, in the style of a pioneer woman recipe. I had to leave out some great photos of my dad in order to omit faces though. He's always happy around food. I'm putting the captions before/ over the pictures so you know what you're getting into. The new game is see how long you last...

Terducken! Who can resist? 12 pounds.


This terducken, a deboned duck crammed in a chicken, crammed in a turkey, is also crammed with shrimp and crawfish jambalaya. We overcooked it a bit to avoid germs but the baking bag mitigated the damage. It was de-lish-ous.


We put it on this festive table in my brother's Austin home, which has been decorated much more than mine. Not that there's any brother sister competition or anything.


Dinner started out like this, including the Star of Texas sweet potatoes with pecans and marshmallows.


And after a little reshuffling, it turned into this on my plate. Clockwise from top: Sweet sweet potatoes, mixed greens, stuffing with gizzards, mashed taters, terducken shrimpen, my favorite cranberry relish. Served with red wine and followed by pumpkin pie. Much, much later.


The next day, we had Rudy's BBQ for breakfast. This is not at all the same as getting 3 dogs for a dollar at the Chev.ron.


The day after that, brunch was Funnel Cakes. I think I didn't cook enough water out of the batter because there was an itsy bitsy issue with about a cup or two of oil escaping the pain in a violent foam. But tasty they were. Next time, a deeper pan is in order, just in cases.


In between the copious amounts of food, we watched Firefly, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (extremely funny), and played a bunch of Guitar Hero III.

Look, I can use the whammy bar!


This is more about the sales awards my brother won, on the table. And me rocking out to Weezer, most likely.


After I started playing songs I knew, I stopped getting booed off the stage and did really well! Still not ready to graduate to medium level though.


My brother has been playing a LOT of GH3. I think he needs to move to medium level now. Multiplier 8.


I finally got a 50 note streak on "My name is Jonas". My brother got them all the time.


But he got his 100+ point streaks and 2 perfect songs after a Trudy's Mexican Martini (Limit 2).


There. He wins the decorated living room competition and does better at GH, but I could hold my own after a while. And I have the cool shirt which I don't think I'll sell after all. I enjoy wearing it.


Now to figure out what to bore you with blog about next.