Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Random thoughts before the holiday gorging begins!

So I was checking statcounter.com to see how many people actually have popped by and I was flabbergasted to find that on Monday I had 867 unique visitors to my blog. I did some digging and I found they had all came from this link. The MSN Tech and Gadgets site. So how cool is that? Maybe not so cool that they are all going to this page but, well, ok - I'll take any kind of publicity I can get!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's to family and friends gathering around a beautiful table filled with delicious food. A table groaning under the weight of a perfectly basted turkey, mashed potatoes with homemade gravy, hot rolls, corn, stuffing, cranberry sauce, glazed sweet potatoes and heavenly pumpkin pie. Luckily for me, I am not cooking or hosting Thanksgiving. WOO HOOOOOOO! Hurray for me!!!

I am the queen of reheating. I haven't made my own turkey since my first year of marriage, where the defrosting of the turkey debacle left me in tears on the kitchen floor. Nevermore! From that moment on, stores that sold a full Thanksgiving feast for me to pick up and reheat were my best friend! Between Balducci's and the local Giant, I have not had to cook anything myself for nearly ten years! And that is how I enjoy my holidays. Although, if truth be known, reheating all that food can be quite an ordeal also, but nothing like the actual cooking of the feast. So this year my sister has decided to host Thanksgiving. Since this is her first time cooking a turkey, I will be feeding my family some sandwiches before heading over. Just kidding. i hope. But I'll bring sides and dessert so that if the turkey comes out inedible, we will not go hungry. Just kidding sis.

I hope all my American readers enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Since this is a crazy week, I will begin the story prompt next week and have already selected the picture for it. This time, I am picking the genre for the story and just so you all can think about it, it will be Humor! We shall see how wacky we all can get!

Meme me again!

Before I go, my pal Precie has tagged me for a "Four things you don't know about me" meme. I always find it fascinating to read little snippets of other people's lives. Here's hoping you will find mine just as interesting:


A) Four jobs I've had:
  • lawyer (boring but good paying job)
  • Adjunct faculty at university (work too much for too little pay job)
  • waitress - (hardest and most thankless job)
  • internship at the NY City Morgue - (smelliest and most disturbing job) Cyn has asked me to blog about this and I will have to dig into the recesses of my mind to remember all the stories that have previously been blocked from my mind.

B) Four movies I would or have watched over and over again:
  • Godfather I and II - From I - Leave the gun, take the cannoli. From II - Fredo, I knew it was you! You broke my heart, you broke my heart!
  • Gladiator - Are you not entertained!
  • The Princess Bride - Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die.
  • Forrest Gump - Stupid is as stupid does.


    C) Four TV shows I watch
  • Law and Order SVU - I admit to having a thing for Chris Meloni
  • Top Chef - Chefs cooking good food in a crazy competition forum? Love it!
  • Project Runway - Tim Gunn is hysterical!
  • No Reservations - Anthony Bourdain is a cooking God!

D) Four places I've lived
  • Brooklyn - I lived in the one Jewish block nestled between a fairly Italian neighborhood. At Christmas time, you would drive down all these brightly lit and sparkling Christmassy streets before you turned down my dark one. My parents would buy the brightest lights and Christmas toppers that blazed til your eyes hurt in their quest to light our entire street.
  • Queens - I don't remember much about living there. And that's the way, uh huh, uh huh, I like it, uh huh, uh huh.
  • Manhattan - Technically I never lived there myself since I moved out before my parents moved into the city. But, since I go and stay with them for many weekends over the course of the year, I like to consider it a place of residence. I can only say that I wish my parents had moved into the city way earlier.
  • Washington, DC - I lived in Georgetown and then on Capitol Hill. Georgetown is a nice place to live, but when I lived on Capitol Hill our neighborhood was a bit scary. We lived a block away from a crackhouse and my brother-in-law, who lived seven blocks away, woke up one morning to find his car riddled with bulletholes.

E) Four places I have been
  • St. Peters, Barbados - recently for a wedding. Lovely place.
  • La Manga Club Spain - Two of my best friends and I celebrated our 40th by going away to a tennis resort. We had the best time in southern Spain.
  • Cannes, France - for work to Mipcom, but it was definitely a great experience.
  • Montreal, Quebec - for work twice a year at least regularly for 8 years. I always enjoyed my stay and hope to take my whole family up one day soon.


F) Four people who e-mail me regularly
  • My husband
  • My sister
  • My best friend (who hasn't emailed me since her Barbados wedding, hint, hint!)
  • Publishers lunch and the spammers who keep sending me emails for penile implants

G) Four of my favorite foods
  • Steak
  • Really good Peking duck
  • Osso bucco
  • Kal bi - korean barbecued short rib
  • Notice the lack of vegetables...

H) Four places I would rather be right now
  • some place tropical and warm with a cool drink in my hand
  • back in NYC - enjoying a slice or a Gray's Papaya hotdog
  • enjoying a fabulously delicious meal at a great restaurant with terrific service with my hubby and kids
  • sleeping in my comfy, cozy warm bed
I) Four things I am looking forward to this year and next year
  • I am looking forward to a positive resolution to my quest to getting published
  • I hope to finish my second WIP next year.
  • I am looking forward to our family trip next year because we have discussed doing a big Club Med vacation somewhere tropical and warm with babysitting service.
  • I am looking forward to the new season of Entourage, f**king June 2008!

    Open meme call to all who wish to play! Answer all or none or just a few. What four wouldn't you mind answering? Share - after all, tis the season.

I hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving - and for those who are not celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope you have a nice Thursday! Stay tuned for our regularly scheduled programming beginning hopefully this Friday, if I have not lapsed into a food coma. I shall leave you with one last parting thought.

Ohhhhhhh, the pleasures of Pumpkin Pie! Who cares about the turkey! Give me pie! I shall be bringing two large pumpkin pies to dinner. One to share and one to eat all by myself in my attempt to become a human pumpkin. Last year I was thwarted in my attempt when I entered into a dueling fork battle with my father for the last piece of pie. Only because my dad stuck his fork (unintentionally, so he claims) in my hand. This time, there will be no mercy!

24 comments:

moonrat said...

OH my god. the link is HILARIOUS.

happy thanksgiving!! you'll be having a slice and some papaya soon ;) and maybe some sushi and karaoke. and kalbi on 32nd street.

Steve H said...

that quote from princess bride is my favorite. happy thanksgiving!

March2theSea said...

have a nice holiday! and congrats on those hits!! That # is like 2 months worth + for me..with two blogs!

Robin S. said...

Happy Thanskgiving ello!

olufunke grace bankole: said...

happy thanksgiving to you ello! :)

Sherry said...

Loved your post..and I love pumpkin pie, can't stand turkey...so I'd be right with you at the pie line up!!! Enjoy your Thanksgiving ello!!

Bernita said...

happy Thanksgiving and Food Lust!

Melissa Amateis said...

Ok, funny story about The Princess Bride. When I was growing up, my younger brother and I used cardboard tubes from Christmas wrapping paper to stage a fight between the six-fingered man and Inigo Montoya. I think I was Inigo and I kept shouting, "HALLO! My name izz Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!" We fought all around the living room and my mom was literally laughing so hard her stomach hurt.

Good memory.

My older brother just called and asked me to bring The Princess Bride movie for Thanksgiving. His family has never seen it. Imagine my absolute shock! They have NEVER SEEN THE PRINCESS BRIDE. That will be remedied this week!!!

Have a good Thanksgiving!

Chris Eldin said...

Happy Thanksgiving!

The hits from the cellphone/potty page are funny! :-)

Anonymous said...

Frozen turkeys can definitely be evil.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Beth said...

It isn't right that I keep losing comments. I wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for stopping on by.

Also, I do all the cooking for Thanksgiving, including all the desserts. Most of today is spent doing all prepwork. Blech.

Lisa said...

This is so great! I loved the original cell phones in the bathroom and I'm laughing at the revisit. AND, you are one fascinating person. Thanks for sharing and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Mary Witzl said...

I almost never eat beef (perhaps once every three years), but when it comes to Korean food I occasionally crack. I love kalbi and bulkogi, with plenty of kimchee. I'd actually rather have those than turkey.

Sarah Hina said...

Happy Turkey Day, Ello! I will also be piggybacking on the cooking effort of others. ;)

Stephen Parrish said...

Happy Thanksgiving, Ello! I usually like my blogging buddies to have last names, but I'll make an exception for you. Thanks for introducing yourself and providing blog fodder for me to steal.

Merry Monteleone said...

Happy Thanksgiving, Ello!!!!!

I looooove pumpkin pie, the only time I ever have it is Thanksgiving, but it's a must. I also must mention - I thought I was the only one who had a thing for Stabler, don't know what it is, even when he's playing evil I like him... then again, I have a small thing for George from grey's anatomy and, hmmm... perhaps I'm sharing too much information here.

Oh yeah, I waited tables for almost a year while I was in college.... graveyard shift, horrible horrible job, but man do I have some good stories...

Happy Happy holiday and I'll check into the new story thing, I've never participated before so if there's a link to where you gave the rules let me know.

Precie said...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I take it you're wearing gauntlets to dinner this year?

Love those movies!

Charles Gramlich said...

The first year I made a turkey on my own didn't work out so well either, but last year it came off well and I was happy with it. I love a big turkey so that there are leftovers for hot turkey sandwiches.

Carleen Brice said...

I actually cook on Thanksgiving...the one day I year I do. :) Happy Turkey!

Cakespy said...

Thank you for finding my ode to the pumpkin pie! I like your Thanksgiving thoughts a lot. It sounds like you've had a lot of cool experiences, and it's nice to sit back and review sometimes. I am so freakin' glad that you're able to be thankful without being sappy too. This is a totally bitchin' blog, I have it bookmarked!

Sustenance Scout said...

Happy Turkey Day, Ello! It's always a riot to read your blog. Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Laurent loves your blog also! Hey, you're the best guest ever! You did all the clean up - THAT was amazing. It was so nice to not have a sink full of dirty dishes to clean!!!!!!! I can't believe how good that felt.
Man, you're the best! Thanks so much!!!
Love you!

SzélsőFa said...

It seems that at one part of another of life, everyone has been a waitress/waiter. Isn't that amazing?
Happy Belated Thanksgiving.
Do you eat your pumpkin pie sweet or salty?

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

Too much pumpkin pie! I am now sick of pumpkin pie and will not eat another slice til next year's gorgefest! Thank goodness it only comes once a year! And Szelsofa, I have never had salty pumpkin pie, only the sweet kind! The idea of having it salty is intriguing.