GrillSgt's Firepit

Holidays 2008

Thanksgiving was very quiet for Stephanie and I. Since we weren’t traveling for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and had no weary visitors, we decided not to cook Thanksgiving dinner. After all, it’s just the two of us. We would have had plenty of leftovers to eat ’til they came out of our ears; the rest would have gotten thrown away. Then we’d have done it all over again for Christmas. So we went out to a German restaurant, The Bavarian Chef, that’s about 15 miles north. They had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in addition to their regular menu. It was fantastic, and we still had leftovers! But just for one day instead of 7!

For Christmas, we did the usual spread: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, jello salad (we skipped the sweet potatoes since it was just us). This year I brined the turkey overnight, then put it on the grill to smoke. I used the charcoal grill because it smokes better. I didn’t realize that the turkey was going to take significantly longer to cook. It was worth the wait, but I definitely will have to start the bird much earlier if I use the charcoal grill for turkey again. The turkey had a nice smoke flavor to go with the cranberry and herb brine and was extremely moist. Didn’t need gravy on the turkey at all.

As I said, we had no guests, so it was a nice quiet Christmas. I completely surprised Stephanie with an Invicta watch that has very small diamonds around the face (I got a great deal on it too!) and an original seatbelt purse. I also got her the rest of the Fiesta flatware she wanted. Mom and Dad helped by getting her the second hostess set she wanted. She also got a book of the events for 1968, another Invicta watch, some Zune MP3 player accessories, and the slippers she got me because they were too small (don’t worry, I’m getting another pair). Besides the slippers, Stephanie got me a pair of hiking boots. I also got a new bathrobe, that my Mom made herself, The Dark Knight DVD, a second pair of hiking boots, a couple of accessories for my Dremel and some Zune MP3 player accessories. My brother gave us a Chili’s gift card, which we used for dinner last night. My aunt and uncle sent us a Target gift card and we also got some cash from both sets of parents. Pretty nice haul.

New Year’s was also quiet. No invites to friends’ parties, which turned out to be a good thing because, as it turns out, Stephanie has the flu. So we stayed home, snacked and watched The Twilight Zone marathon on the Sci-Fi channel. IMO, it’s still one of the best TV shows of all time.

Happy New Year everyone!

Moved In

So to continue my updates, after Stacey left to go back home to Las Vegas, we moved about 12 miles away to Stanardsville, VA. We now live in a tri-level house in a community called Greene Mountain Lake. It’s quite peaceful, usually, except when the hunters and target shooters are out. We live across the street from the lake. In the summer, we don’t have a very good view of the lake and Blue Ridge Mountains, but in the winter, when there are no leaves on the trees, we do. We can hear the geese on the lake at night, and sometimes ducks too. I’ve seen a couple of white swans on the lake occasionally. It’s been unseasonably cold so far this winter, although there have been some warm days; I noticed the lake has had a very thin sheet of ice several times. I took some photos of the lake and the outside of the house when the leaves were turning colors this past autumn, but I can’t find them. I guess somehow they got deleted. I’ll have to take some more, sans leaves, when we have a nice sunny day. I’ll have some pictures of the inside of the house soon.

Monticello Revisited

While Stacey was visiting we also made another trip to Monticello. Our tour was a little earlier in the day this time, so we had time to see a few of the things we missed last time like the kitchen and cellars. Here are some new pictures of Monticello. Again, you can click any photo to see them full size in my Picassa album.

Washington DC

Been a while since I made a post, so I’ll start with the older stuff first. Back in August, Stephanie’s sister, Stacey, came to Virginia for a visit. We had a good time while she was here. Stacey and I spent a day in Washington DC. We took a boatload of photos. It’ll take you a while to get through them all. We had a fantastic time. We took a trolley tour around the city; the first half took us through the city and Georgetown. Saw a lot of the foreign embassies. The second half of the tour took us around the mall. That’s where we started getting off the trolley and observing the sights. My favorite memorial was Lincoln Memorial. It awe inspiring. We were running out of time so we missed the FDR memorial, WWII memorial, going up in the Washington Monument and a few other things. Stephanie wasn’t able to go this time, but it looks like Mom and Dad will be coming out in the spring and Michael and Stacey will be visiting in May, so we’ll be going back. Enjoy all the photos. PS — you can click any photo to go to the Picassa album and see larger photos.