Turkey, Ham, Pie . . .Sounds about right.

Hope your Thanksgiving is as good as I hope mine is going to be.

7:00 a.m. and the ham is on. Well, it's not really a ham as I only cured it
for about 36 hours but it is still going to be smoked pig when I am
done so good enough. I beat the sun up this morning to get started on
the fire and the glazing in the hope everything will be done at least
30 minutes prior to our 5:00 p.m. start time. The turkey is next in
about an hour.

The Big Game was truly big last night as a number of players dropped big money just in time for the holidays. Be thankful for juicy games I guess. My reputation is such that a player folded a full house to me last night. Of course I did have a bigger one but that a pretty astute play at our table. I did try to bluff at one big pot
and ended up getting called by two better (but still crappy lows) that
split half the pot. My pair of 6a took the top half. I said I was value betting.

I'll be here all day.

We did have some bad news on the music front after a spectacular weekend of reunion and fellowship at the Rockafella's Reunion. Chris Conner passed away last night, leaving a little boy behind. Chris probably toured in your town with his old band, href="http://www.myspace.com/sourwoodhoney">Sourwood Honey
or his new one, The South.
Please feel free to stop by and donate some money or your condolences.

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11:00 A.M.

I really need to buy a grill thermostat for my smoker. All morning long,
I have been worrying over the fire, trying to get the temperature up. I
was using the thermostat on the top wall of the smoker understanding
that the grill temp was going to be a bit higher. Unfortunately, I
completelymis-estimated and, as a result, I have a cooked ham and Turkey
six hours before meal time. Oh well, they are wrapped in towels and
sitting in the cooler to keep their temps up for a few hours before I
pull them out to get back to serving temperature. Everything still
looked juicy. Now, I just have to stop bacteria from growing.Mmmmmmmmmm. . .bacteria.


Earlier this week, I was sitting in Carolina Wings eating lunch when I overheard the one-way conversation between a young (mid 20's) lady and her two male co-workers. It was hard to miss as her volume was
outstanding. She told her co-workers she didn't dare smoke nor drink in front of her Daddy because he put her on a pedestal and to see her drinking or smoking would just break his heart. She said she went out behind the pool house to smoke whenever she was at her parent's. When asked if she was hiding her habit, she replied that her
father knew she smoked but she just had too much respect for him to
allow him to see it. Once again she said, he put her on a pedestal. She gave
that as the reason she would never get married, "Because no other man
could ever live up her Daddy." The kicker was the next statement. "It
just broke his heart when I called him and told him I was pregnant."

Just then, a report came on one of the news channels that was on in the
dining area (normally a sports bar, they show a menagerie of shows
during the weekday). It was a report of Jonathan Rhys Meyers (no idea)
getting arrested for something or another. She looked up and said,
"There's my guy. Oh, he's in some kind of trouble. I hope it isn't for
child sex abuse."

That made her prior comments even more creepy.

A creepy Thanksgiving.