First?? (probably not)

Holy cow?! I was first!

Ok, thanksgiving related comment.

My thanksgiving was surreal. We invited my dad's little sister to go to dinner at a local restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. It was weird. She was nice to me. Very pleasant, and didnt start a fight. Strange.

Then, she talked me into taking my parents over to my cousin's house to see the rest of the family that we havent talked to since the wife of one of my cousins tried to get another aunt (who was not involved in yesterday's get-together) fired from her nursing job.

We all chatted, everyone got along, and no blood was shed. It was really kind of creepy.

Dinner at the restaurant, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and corn, were almost as good as family t-giving dinners used to be when I was a kid...there was just no family angst or bloodshed going on.

Very very strange. Seems like a dream now.

Please note the "FU" in the middle of Drunken Roadmaster's license plate. It made me laugh out loud to see that after I made out the little tiny effer-man finger in his window.

Glad to hear you had a good Thanksgiving.

*singsong* I see a big can of Tony Chachere's.

Hee!

I have the same one. My apartment is not a home without a big-ass can of Tony's in the spice cupboard.

I LOVE your dad's Texas Flag Bag for Cooking Necessities. Awesome! :)

Thanksgiving enchiladas, I'm so jealous!

People need to learn to chill out with their cars during the holidays. That sounds scary with that guy on the freeway. Although 911 was probably busy saving people from their house fires after they tried to deep fry their turkeys.

That was the Best Video I've Ever Seen. Even better than Duran Duran's "RIO", which I recently rediscovered on YouTube and am driving everyone crazy with.

Incidentally, this is why you need to move to Canada, honey: all the bugs are dead this time of year.

Leslie, "Rio" is a classic!!! I was a total Duran Duran freak in junior high. I was CONVINCED I would marry Nick Rhodes....

Oooo, so close to the top. What is it about holidays that makes people think they own the road and no rules apply to them.

I believe I may have cursed a few people with:

"May your turkey be toxic, your cranberry caustic and your sweet potatoes sour so that you toss it."

Very ominous :)

I'm so glad you and your family had a good turkey day! The enchiladas look delish. I've moved a 1.5 miles from work, partly due to the crazy insane Atlanta drivers that try to kill you. I can see the highway from my desk at work and everyday I don't have to drive in that mess is one I'm thankful for.
I've also been massively enjoying the sweater pictures- my little dog is that much more likely to get a sweater for xmas now!

Glad you had a good Turkey day, mine, not so good. Went into the hospital Tuesday evening, had my gallbladder out Wednesday morning, was stuck in hospital till Thursday afternoon.

Someone tell me why the day shift nurses are all crabby old things who ignore you when you tell them you are in pain???

er... anyway, I'm so glad to be home and reading CAP!

I too drive stick. That's why I have a headset for my cellphone. It got a little too hairy trying to call 911 while driving. I did this once before as I was crossing a bridge and noticed a guy standing on the edge. At that time, there was no pedestrian walkway on that particular bridge.

Looks like you had lots of good eating for Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving! Bet you had a lot of things on the "to be thankful for" list this year, in addition to the usual stuff, and an awesome family to top the list.

I also missed my dad's great cooking gene, while my brothers both got it. I make a lot of casseroles with ground hamburger with recipes I find on the internet (my poor kids) but have to call one of my male relatives to find out how to properly reduce a sauce or thicken a pie filling.

Your videos on the sweepstakes list had me ROFL.

Enchiladas sound so much better than turkey and stuffing. I hope I can talk my family into a new Thanksgiving tradition next year!

Love seeing your happy family!

My first Thanksgiving with MY family in... oh, over 20 years, so it was wonderful.

And all the food was awesome and I just ate some dressing and gravy for lunch.

Roll me away!

Glad you had a good one, too, Laurie!
.

Your brothers are hot AND can cook? Are they single?

But where are the Thanksgiving Cheetos in that picture?
:-)

How did your father get that stuff past the TSA?

I love that Boston Baked Beans are a part of your tradition. Where did you find them? I haven't had those since 1994

Get this: the husband asked each of us at the table to say ONE thing, just one little thing, that we were thankful for this year - and I said "YEAH! When Crazy Aunt Purl said MY NAME right there in the Mall of America!!" and my Lovely Daughter nodded really hard! Ours was what they call in French "TRES interessant"! Partially usual cast of Characters - the daughter, Number One Son with lady and two little boys - and Number Two Son (in throes of divorce) with his friend and her pretty young-teen daughter. The ladies were a bit awkward (no idea why, just because I worship everything and all the gods and trees and stuff and we live in the 18th century most of the time and I knit and our two cats leave lots of hairs around) but the food was delish and fine, and it was pretty much a Good Time was Had by All. Mostly. Thanks for asking. {GRIN}

My Thanksgiving was doubled. Two dinners: one at noon, one at six, a half hours' drive apart. The families of friends welcomed me into their homes this year. It was largely uneventful, considering that meal #1 was held at the home of my Ex BF's mother, and the Ex (who had invited me specifically) also brought along his current GF (whom he claims is boring and she invited herself). Despite his strategy of largely ignoring her in favor of lavishing attention on me, there was an absence of airborne food and only the turkey saw the sharp edge of the blade, so all in all, a good holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving Laurie, I am suffering from Enchilada Envy! Enchiladavy?

I'm so glad that you had a great Thanksgiving with your adorable family!! It's quite evident where you get you extreme cuteness from!!

I hope that your feeling better from your icky thing.

Glad to hear that you had a great Thanksgiving. Having to put your PJ pants on proves it. LOVE seeing pictures of your family. And I too noticed the jerk's license plate lettering. How appropriate! :)

How could I not know that Boston baked beans are part of a traditional Thanksgiving feast? Duh.

Wow, you drove past my home when you took that photo of the jerky driver. I drive that freeway daily and that stretch of the 5 is always really bad like that during holiday travel time. There are always bad drivers coming through here tearing things up. Good for you for trying to report him via 911, but sucky that they left you on hold. Geez, what a great 911 system we have. [/sarcasm]

Glad you had a nice visit with your folks and got there and back safely despite the hatty jerk with the FU licence plate. (how apropos). I would have said chuck that bottle of wine at his car, but why would you want to waste a perfectly good beverage like that? :D

Oh yeah...Hoilday driver are the worst...we were were having my 36 pick up towed (It was leaking at an alarming rate) and this guy in a Scion realised he was 3 lanes aweay from the exit he was about to miss and CUT OFF the giant tow truck that had another 1/2 ton pickup truck on top on it then slammed on his brakes till he went from 70 mph too 20 in front of the tow truck, in the span of say 3.5 seconds nearly causing a huge accident then cut across 2 more lanes of traffic on the 10 (and cutting off several unsuspecting motorists and then he...you guessed flipped everyone the bird, ... the tow truck driver was still shaking when we got to our destination. crappy asshole drivers are what make be say I love LA even though mine was more in the Pamona area.

I had a teeny little Thanksgiving with my 16 yr old son Tony (aka Toenail or Nail), my not-boyfriend Byron and our Three Pekingese: Pearl, Bootie and Rockie. We didn't even bother getting dressed - we stayed in sweatpants all day. We watched a bunch of movies and ate about every two hours! It was a wonderful, lazy day.

But alas - I had to work today (Fri) and could not shop because of that and the fact I didn't get my check yet. (Argh!)

I am happy that you all had a nice day as well.

Love to all,
Martha With Chaps
Jolene

Okay - tosssing in my two cents on the issue of 911 putting you on hold.

I used to work as a dispatcher for an alarm company -you know, the person that wakes you up in the middle of the night to tell you that someone has broken into your store and the police are on the way, or your office is on fire and the fire department is on the way, etc., etc. We even handled dispatches for places such as liquor stores and banks that had the "panic button" hidden under the counter so that they could surreptitiously push it during a hold up.

And yes, even we got put on hold when we were trying to dispatch. Mind you - we were doing an alarm dispatch, which uses a computer auto/speed dial and comes in a little differently that when you dial 911 from your phone. But we repeatedly got put on hold, while some poor guy was standing behind the counter of a mini-mart with a gun in his face.

Possibly the worst job I've ever had.

How funny is the FU on the license plate? That photo is priceless.

I hope they get the guy.

I am glad you had such a great Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving dinner with friends--well those kind of friend/acquaintances who say "Hey, is there enough booze for me to have some?" when we were the only ones who brought wine ( when we were expressly instructed to BYOB and we brought only two bottles.) Also my tomato aspic, which is a Southern holiday congealed salad where I come from, was universally snubbed because of the same girl who did not bring wine but drank ours did vomit gestures at the appearance of said aspic. It was delicious by the way--I think I should add vodka next time and make aspic shooters.

Also, I noticed you did not pixel blur out the license plate of the freeway asshole. YOU ARE ON NOTICE, ASSHOLE.

Oh, cornbread stuffing is the best. This year I put up my Granny's recipe here
http://wisdomofthemoon.blogspot.com/2007/11/grannys-cornbread-stuffing.html

'Cept if you don't have a working oven, it might be kind of hard to do.

Reading Madeleine's comment made me realize that for Christmas I'll have to do my recipe for margarita jell-o shots.

And I think there's another number to call for drunk drivers (at least in Colorado there is) besides 911. I just looked it up and California is 911. Bummer. And that's super scary about the 20 minute hold. Good thing you weren't getting stabbed.

Glad you had good food, though.

So glad you had a great Thanksgiving! And thank you for continuing to remind us about the sweepstakes -- I'd forget to keep applying, otherwise!

Something I've noticed, at least on my computer -- I can't see the videos on your sweepstakes page when using Firefox as my browser -- they only work for me in Internet Explorer. Just in case anyone else has a similar issue....

And one more thing -- you're hilarious and a natural in front of the camera. You definitely need to go into show business! :-)

Hi grandma! The internet loves you!

And that driver? You do realize that all your LA-area readers are now on the lookout ... serves him right.

Enchiladas are my favorite food.

You do know how lucky you are to have a family that loves you so much?

I work for 911! As in, sending the cops and firefighters, and reassuring you we will tell the cops about the terribly bad driver you are experiencing. Although, its in another state and for an agency not nearly as large as LA- I can tell you that if you were calling, chances are that every other person on the highway was also calling about this very same driver- possibly leading to a clog of calls, and perhaps why they felt it ok to leave you on hold for so long. (Still, not OK, but maybe why?) But also THANK YOU for not hanging up- its so frustrating to call all those hang up cell phone numbers back one by one, just to hear "I just called again and got someone this time".

Ha! I had to change into my pajama pants too! Glad you got to spend T'day with your folks.

Laurie, You look great and so happy and sans scrunchies on the T-day picks with you family. First T-day without my MR.X, and also the children. I am so loving your book! Stuffing is THE only reason I even went out on T-day.

Happy Thanksgiving, two days late! Glad you had a wonderful time!

Happy Thanksgiving! Hey, I was going to tell you, I was in Walmart this week and double checked the book section for your book. The lady who stocks the books was there and I happily pointed out your book. She said she LOVED it and it so spoke to her. She was shocked that I've read your blog for so long! It was a mini divorce fest in the middle of Walmart, comparing cats and exes. Fun. You rule, as usual.

i'm so glad i wasn't the only one who noticed the "FU" in the license plate. you know the person at the DMV who gave him that did it on purpose!

glad you had a good holiday despite the crazed freeway driver!

yey I stumbled across your blog. Great to find another way of life. Glad the drunk didn't kill you! xxxxx

First time for the knitting - keep coming back for your crazy/funny life.

Looks like your cute family had a good time being with grandma. I was sick on Thanksgiving, so stayed home on couch watching "Anne of Green Gables" all day. (Kids aren't coming til Christmas, thankfully.) Was really kinda nice and restful--except for the coughing, sneezing, wheezing, etc. Neighbors who live down the road a couple of miles had their house burn down to the ground Thanksgiving evening. I'm staying in again this cold rainy weekend trying to get over this crud, trying to figure something I can do to help this couple that lost their home, and being grateful for my little home and a nice couch to snuggle down in.

I love the family pictures. I can't get over the fact that your dad travels with spices. This is a seriously cool man!

Yay for family and friends and Thanksgiving! We had dinner with both, and I made pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin (as opposed to the proper way, namely, opening a can, I cut a pumpkin in half, for I am knife-wielding woman, hear me roar, or rather shriek when I slice my finger instead of the pumpkin by mistake, baked it for over an hour, scooped it out, pureed it, and voila, pumpkin-pie filling), which strangely enough was quite yummy.

(Since 2005, really? How do you make pecan pie without an oven? Do you want me to send you one? I make a pretty good one, for a Yankee.)

And there was knitting and football, and knitting while watching football, my favorite kind of multitasking.

Only 31 knitting days until Christmas...

I have never commented on here, so forgive my newbieness. I want to thank you for being here and making me laugh weekly with you. I also want to thank you for putting my Sammy as the last photo in your Nov 19 posting of the contest winner announcement. (I would have posted there, but comments are disabled?)

I am glad you survived the holidays. Your family is cute! Yay dad and his spices.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I think it's awesome that you left the license plate in the photo. What an ahole.

Glad you had a terrific Thanksgiving!

xo

your dad is just like the guys on the chef show -- project runway chef ... oh top chef. they travel with their spices. you know, just in case they get to use them. does he bring his knives too?

glad you had a great thanksgiving. i have to say i'm a little jealous of your turkey (went to my sister in law's which is great but which also means no leftovers)

Glad you had a great weekend and sorry about not having a good Wednesday. I hope it works out in the long run.

Cornbread stuffing and turkey to go. That is a fantastic family.

So nice of dorktastic so give you a gesture while you are on ?hold!? with 911.

not only is he a bad driver.. he is sitting on the wrong side of the car!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't eat more turkey. Take a look at this instead:

http://ittybittykittycommittee.blogspot.com/

not only does the drunk's license plate have FU, but it's 4XFU. that's a lot of FU.

glad you had a great thanksgiving. family makes it so special :0)

mck.

You have a great site! I especially like the cats in sweaters! :) I'm partial to dogs in boots too!

LOVE the Texas bag! Where did your dad find that?

I am thankful that my daughter is a lucky pants winner in the new CAP contest! I am hoping she saves some of the special Cheetos for when we see her during the December holidays.

Our Thanksgiving was lovely, with a lifelong friend and her family. Though we didn't have the joy of having our daughters with us, we did have fun inventing a new word, or at least a new use of a word - pie as a verb, as in "pie me, please" or "we can pie out here in the living room". While it's literal meaning is to serve or eat pie, I also use it to mean "make me happy". So I hope the coming month pies you all to pieces.

Oh, and Jeanne B., could the term you are hunting for be envychilada?

Hey, I just got an email announcing that CAP is the star of the newest Knitpicks podcast! Check it out:

http://www.knitpicks.com/content/index.php/archive/episode-27/

Ohhhhhh, Boston Baked Beans - the Candy, right? Love those. Haven't has those forEVer.

Dear Laurie,

I so had a "southern" moment at work Friday. I work in a book store, and I was shelving the millions of books that we put on shelves when I ran across a very, very familiar title. There I was exclaiming to one and all that "Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair" is simply the best book and should be on everyone's Christmas list. Then I had to tell everyone who was within ear shot that the author is totally great and she drives in traffic in LA and takes pictures of the jerks who drive funny, has been battling downsizing her life and is insanely funny. And to think I did all that without one single glass of wine. Seriously, it was like seeing an old friend come out of that box. I've read your blog forever, almost peed in my pants in Portland listening to you, and now have bragged about you to all our customers, most of whom were backing up slowly from the deranged bookseller who was brandishing a book about drinking, divorce and cats? It was a moment only you would have appreciated.

Our Thanksgiving was also a family affair -- but son rather than daddy did much of the cooking. A budding chef and I was glad for it as my leg is "booted" right now for achilles tendonitis. (I now feel so badly for those poor cars in New York City.)

We have half a pie left. Don’t look at this as an awesome accomplishment of restraint. We started with five. Plan was to take some to the folks working on the base where we live, but there was a downpour that interfered with that plan — and the fact that several people in the household (who shall remain nameless) consumed more than a pie each…six people — five pies. There was much pieing.

Glad your Thanksgiving was a "Pajama Bottom" ended day!

Love your dad & his spices - how cool is that!

Love even more you got a picture of the guy flipping you off - great photographic timing!

re: crazy scary holiday drivers - where I live in Ontario, Canada the provincial police (OPP) have really cracked down on dangerous drivers on our big highway, the 401. It's a year-round 24/7 campaign to stop drivers who are driving really aggressively or speeding dangerously. People can have their cars impounded right off the road, and I've seen it just this weekend! It seems to be working, too.

That guy really was giving you the finger. Luckily you caught his license plate. Can't someone in this Blogonetosphere make a Citizen's Arrest?

Late Happy Thanksgiving!

I was in Orange County too, celebrating with the SO's family. And while I did not mention Porn at ALL at the Thanksgiving table, I did manage to describe how to make Meth. Which I learned about on Frontline.

But it wasn't my fault. My SO's dad started it!

I'm glad you had a truly Happy Thanksgiving. Luckily we ran into no traffic on the way to my boyfriend's parents house. Even though it's two states away, everyone else must have stayed off the road on Thursday!

Thanksgiving goldfish crackers? Well, the pilgrims did cross the ocean (where goldfish live) to get to this new land where they gave thanks. Yes, that makes perfect sense to me. Should I be worried that this makes sense to me??

Oh my god! I wish I could give stupid people the power of scabies with my mind!

For Thanksgiving, I made a Turkey Roulade (I'm vegetarian so this is like work) that many a meat eater would love. Turkey breast, pounded flat, filled with homemade cornbread stuffing, rolled up and wrapped with bacon. Of course, I ate mashed potatoes.

The FU was the first thing I noticed, too!

Also, when I went to college in Louisiana a guy I knew carried around a bottle of Tony's in his backpack to "edify" (i.e., to make edible!) the cafeteria meals. Nice memory!

I know you know this, but your family is amazing. I love how you all love each other.

I haven't an iota of southern blood in my body, and my family (my generation on up) is not close, but I promise to emulate you all with my kids from here on out.

Thanksgiving, indeed!

inge

I just have to say WOOOHOOOO! I just saw my name on the list of winners for the signed book and Cheetos! That is the best Christmas gift I will get, hands down.

And also just wanted to say I love your family!

Hi, I'm a new reader to your blog. So, did I miss it? What does your dad do with the gumbo file? I hope he makes some darn good gumbo!?