Ed changed his medical thing, so we are having a Thanksgiving after all. We have invited a couple we know -- other people who might have come are off to visit family in other parts of the country. Even if we had no one, Ed would still want the dinner. It means a lot to him. And he wants a large turkey because then he can eat it again and again …

Ed ordered German Stollen (one with marzipan and the other with rum, to appease me) from the Vermont Country store and I bought a pumpkin pie and a cherry pie. Cherry is my favorite. Nadine and Mickey are coming -- she is walking with a cane after shattering her knee cap a couple of months ago. She is bringing some leftover icecream cake from Mickey's birthday dinner. All in all I will have to really monitor what I do.

Neighbors are coming for dessert only. She is quite ill and didn’t want food. And so young to be so fiercely diagnosed.

I am making modest side dishes – nothing with pearl onions, no creamed anything. But there will be turkey and cranberry sauce and sweet potato casserole and mashed potatoes and Ed will make those because occasionally he wants to be chef for a day. I will steam asparagus with chicken broth and butter. Nadine is bringing little spinach pies that she makes. She is from Egypt via Canada. She is aWesome. The large W is for Wonder Woman.

I had a genius moment and took my wet Swiffer mop, the kind which squirts cleaner fluid, and used it like a squeegee to clean the glass pool doors. I got the inside done in 10 minutes – it worked like a charm. Later I did the outside part. I am overcome with delight since one year Ed and I spent all day, one on each side of the doors, wiping with paper towels and glass cleaner and still missed spots. We have 60 feet of glass on the bay side. The task used to be daunting until I got the light bulb over my head. Ed sat on the sofa and applauded. Encouragement is always appreciated.

After trying a loan from Nadine, to see how it worked, we went to Kohl’s and bought a Shark steam cleaner. It picked up stuff off the tile that you can’t see well but had built up over the years. Now the tile shines and I feel like a page-boyed retro housewife from the 50s, the kind with the upturned little nose, the flouncy apron and she cooks while wearing high heels (yeah) and I am blethering about my floors.

We have the kind of carpet that leaves holes when you move furniture. Although the steamer will not clean carpet, you can set it on a little raised platform, and let it hover over the holes and steam up the indent. However, we are not moving furniture so everything goes back into its little holes after vacuuming.

Our New York friend, Terry, who toils in a pricey art gallery on Madison Avenue, sent Ed a catalogue from an antique gun dealer and Ed is salivating over a Type Two something or other that is “only $900” and worth a lot more, a real steal, wow, what a buy, geez, how great. I murmured something like “mmm, fancy that ...” Am I noble, or what? When I first knew Ed, he had just started learning a great deal about antique guns – Civil War and Revolutionary War – and a fortune went into the 40 muskets that wound up in our bedroom along with some peripherals. Later he consigned them to Greg Martin, major antique gun dealer in California -- and they sold, but the market had gone a bit sour (I hope he doesn’t read this -- when he thinks of it, he gets stomach pains) and we didn’t recover what we shudda.

But we have the collection in the catalogue and he shows it to people. They are identified as “from the collection of …”

Elsewise, they are useless against an intruder (unless he is so dumb that the mere sight of a long arm will give him pause). To start, you need to put the ammo into the muzzle, and tamp it down with a long thingy and by the time you are ready, the intruder has slit your throat. And they only shoot the once, and then you have to do the whole thing over again. Also an unshot gun is more desirable, so doing this at all lessens the value. I hope I have given you all the information you need to pursue this noble hobby.

Meanwhile, my E mail is full of notifications of posts numbering at least 30 and have all of you gone nuts? You can't shut up till I catch up? I'm working through.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

xx, Teal