Knocked Up

My husband's coworker sent him home today with the movie "Knocked Up" for us to watch. I don't know why she felt the need to share a movie with us about a woman who gets pregnant during a one-night stand with a man she can barely tolerate – but I'm not sure I want to watch it again. I saw it when it came out on HBO. J was at work, and I figured it was a chick flick and didn't anticipate him ever wanting to watch it. I didn't particularly care for it, to be honest. And I can't for the life of me figure out why this woman loaned it to us.

Now, I know the coworker – both socially and professionally – and I'm sure she knows we're hoping to get pregnant sometime in the near future. By the way, she got knocked up – by surprise – at age 40. Who knows? Maybe I'm reading too much into it. She probably liked the movie and thought we would enjoy it. 

And any other day of the month, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it. But I'm pretty sure we're out of the running for this month – no early Christmas present for us this year. And somehow I'm looking more forward to a nice glass of wine tonight than a movie about an 'oops' pregnancy. Because I, for one, am not...

I have Wii arm

My husband and I decided to buy a Wii this Christmas as our gift to each other. I want Wii Fit, he wants the Star Wars Lightsaber game. I want to do yoga, he wants to battle the Dark Lord of the Sith. Whatever the end use, I'm excited to get a video game system that requires at least some mobility. As much as I love our Playstation, the most exercise we get with it is a mean world tour on Rock Band.

So, we got it two nights ago. They are in scarce supply, so when my husband found one, he snatched it up. Of course, being the extraordinarily patient people that we are, we had it unpacked and ready to go by the time we were done with dinner. Fortunately the system comes with a collection of sports games, so in a matter of minutes we had created our Miis (personalized avatars that participate in the games on your behalf) and were bowling. And playing tennis. And baseball. Golf. I even boxed, for crying out loud.

Unfortunately our dog is less than thrilled with the new addition to the family. This mellow creature that seldom barks (not even a peep when someone rings the doorbell) began barking violently at us every time we sent a bowling ball hurtling down the alley. We repeatedly tried to get her to chill out and lay down, but it wasn't until she reared into my backswing and got her head clocked with the controller that she decided to leave the room. (Don't feel bad for her. She's run into sliding glass doors at full tilt and it barely fazed her.)

Anyway, we had a great night breaking in our new Wii. The only problem is, I can now barely move my right arm. I guess that's a good sign, in that I actually used muscles while playing a video game. Hopefully when I get Wii Fit I'll actually work out some useful muscles – because at this rate, all I'm gonna have a right bicep that Mike Tyson would be jealous of.

But I bet I'll also swing a mean light saber.

My High Holy Day

It's official. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. 

This year we had twenty people for dinner, including my stepdaughter who flies over a thousand miles to be here, my parents, my big brother, my mother-in-law and Granny-in-law. The other twelve people at our table(s) were friends who are quickly coming to think of Thanksgiving at our house as a tradition. Ranging in age from 26 to 80-something, it's a diverse, lovely crowd of terribly fun people.

Every year we host, I learn a few new things. Here are the things I learned as a result of Thanksgiving 2008:

• 15 pounds of potatoes is too much for twenty people. Even if you want leftovers.

• Brining a turkey is a lot of work, and I didn't notice a difference in juiciness. It did cook faster, which was nice.

• Putting a turkey in the oven upside down for the first 1 1/2 hours will make the breast tender and moist. (And if you play it off right, no one will know it was an accident.)

• I am never going to use my husband's good Wusthof knife again. I've now used it twice and cut myself both times. This time I managed to chop a carrot the size of a small log, wash the knife, and then cut myself drying it.

• Watching my parents play Rock Band with my stepdaughter was the funniest thing I've ever seen.

I'm already looking forward to next year.