Turkey in May

As I write this, I have a turkey in the oven. It's a nice, big Thanksgiving-size turkey. It's going to be offered up as the main dish for dinner tonight as we all gather round to have a last family dinner with Austin before he goes to Iraq next week. Emotionally, I'm torn. I'm happy to have all the kids but one (Shea has finals, plus a nasty case of bronchitis, so she stayed up north) home for the weekend, but I'm unhappy about the reason they're all here. I'm still not thinking about the whole Iraq thing. Yes, I am well aware that denial is not just a river in Egypt, but at this particular moment in time denial is my friend. Let's just leave it at that, shall we?

I also have a terrible head cold. I haven't had one in quite a long time, and the timing of this is aggravating. I read somewhere that the older we get, the less colds we catch because there are only so many cold germs out there and as we go through life we eventually expose ourselves to most of them, so when we meet them again it's kind of a "been there, done that" thing both for us and the germs and we don't catch colds. So how did this particular cold germ that I've never met before manage to track me down? It's so unfair. Getting fewer colds was one of the aspects of getting older that I was actually be happy about.

I have recovered from Wednesday night's scare when Adam was in the bottom two on American Idol. I got so panicked, I went to the live website to see the final results. I normally don't do that since I (usually) enjoy watching the show unfold. But when it was Adam in danger, I couldn't help myself. Probably a good thing I don't live in the Eastern Time Zone - I might have worked myself into a panic attack. I'm still not sure I believe he was actually the second lowest vote-getter; a cynical part of me thinks that it was all done for drama and ratings. Whatever. With rock music the theme for the coming week, he should be back on top in no time.

On the knitting front, the guy blanket is now completely finished!!!! I did a couple of rows of single crochet and one row of crocheted shell stitch around the edge and called it good. It survived a trip through the washer and dryer and is now draped over the bed. I decided to take a quick break from the other things waiting for me to finish them and make a few dishcloths for the kitchen instead. When I got a clean one out the other day I noticed I only have three that are in decent shape. I have at least four skeins of Sugar and Cream cotton yarn so it makes sense to whip up a few instead of going out and buying any. I have never made a dishcloth before but over the years I bought them at various craft fairs, and they seem to last longer than store ones.

Even though it's now May, our weather is back to cloudy and much cooler. Thursday afternoon it was sunny and close to 80 and today it's in the low 40's. The Blossom Festival Parade is today and I feel bad for the marching bands - it must be even harder to march and play when your fingers are turning blue. This parade is in its 72nd year and it goes on no matter what. Some years we worry about the marchers passing out from heat stroke and other years we worry about frostbite. I've seen them march in everything: sunshine, cloud cover, light rain, heavy rain, wind, snow. On a personal note, I'm glad my kids are older and can get themselves downtown. I have no desire to sit and shiver while watching a parade.

The aroma of roasting turkey is making its way through the house. I love that smell. To me it means family and I'm going to do my best to focus on that rather than the actual reason for the dinner.