Reservations.

Six of us are headed to the buffet in a beautiful, old San Antonio hotel.  We’ll get dressed up and drive downtown.  Someone else will do the planning and cooking and cleaning and flower arranging.  Someone else will worry about oven space and fret over how to keep everything warm.  Someone else will wash the dishes.  I’ll miss it all.  Well, not so much the dishwashing, but the rest from the run to the wholesale florist to the after-dinner Frisbee football on the playground at the end of the street.

Through the years, the planning has gotten easier.  I learned to say “yes” when someone asked, “Can I bring something?”  The list of must-haves kept growing until there isn’t much menu planning left to do.

One year we had two sweet potato dishes alongside the mashed potatoes.   Don’t ask.  (Here’s a tip.  Put the mashed sweet potatoes in a large baking dish.  Make a ring around the edge of the pan with the streusel topping.  Fill the center of the ring with marshmallows.  Bake.  Two groups satisfied with one dish.)

To satisfy two camps we have both homemade cranberry orange relish and the cranberry stuff out of the can.  But I draw the line at opening both ends of the can and sliding the “sauce” out with the little can lines still intact.  (Isn’t this an everlasting food, sort of like Peeps?)

The Thanksgiving memories add up over the years, such as the year we discovered The Stuff, the Cranberry Orange Relish quest, the year of molded butter, the broccoli and Cheese Whiz concept, and the year we lost my nephew’s fiance.  (We found her.)

We’ll make other Thanksgiving memories.  This will be known as the year we ate out.  And in time this holiday will find its way to another generation of hosts.  We’ll ask, “Can we bring something?”

And according to Emeril (so it must be true), we each eat 130 pounds of potatoes a year—that would be every last one of us. So I’m thinking, how does my life measure up.

I have lived 32,368,200.01 Make that 9.43 minutes. It took 9.42 minutes to write this. (These deep and insightful posts don’t just write themselves. Heh.)

In my adult life, I have eaten 207.56 pounds of chocolate: 134.91 pounds because I’m stressed; 41.51 pounds because I’m happy; and 31.14 pounds because I can.

I own 29.7 cubic feet of fabric, and I don’t sew. Anymore. But I might. That’s why I bought more fabric just this month. And the fabric looks wonderful with the beads I bought last month and haven’t made into anything yet. But I will.

In my closet there are 19 many (I’d rather not be too specific) pairs of jeans in four colors and three sizes.

I own 2.3 pairs of shoes for every pair of jeans.

In my adult life, I’ve gained 143 pounds and lost 118 pounds. A little up, a little down. More up, more down. Way up, way down. Starting up? I started skinny, but it’s still a 15+ challenge, my own very slow yo-yo. (Two of those pounds are explained here.)

According to Professor Irwin Corey,

“If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going.”

So here’s a plan. As of today, I’ll be more sensible about shoes. Uhmm, make that tomorrow. Today I’m going to a trunk show at Dillard’s.

I will forgo the next 223.11 chocolate candy bars, thus alleviating the 15+ challenge.

Then I will buy these . . . because I can.

ROT Warning!  That would be Really Off Topic.  Don’t you just love it when someone just says it’s a holiday and, thanks to the Internet, it is?  Holiday Insights says that teachers started this day back in the 1980’s to encourage students to ask more questions.  This is a problem?  (Question #2)  But back to the off-topic topic.  The folks at Well Cat are always creating holidays and they copyright them.  So here’s Question #3.  How do you copyright a day?  That means no one else can what on this day?  (That must be Question #4.)  Should the rest of us just hold our breath on the copyrighted holidays?  (#5!)  Actually I really like the WellCat holidays.  Thanks to them, this is also Fish Tank Floorshow Night.  Back to our regularly scheduled blogging . . .

The best thing about this day is that it gives me a reason to use a quote from Scott Adams that I’ve been saving just because:

“If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask?  Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?”

Heh.  In the spirit of today’s observance, here are a few questions that no one wants to ask . . .

How many teaspoons in a tablespoon?  That would be three.

How many tablespoons in 1/4 cup?  That would be four.

How big is a coffee measure?  That would be two tablespoons or 1/8 cup.  It’s a handy addition to your measuring cup set.

Why isn’t a cup of coffee one cup?  Don’t ask me.  Actually the cup is was (as in your grandmama’s china set) one cup.  But if you fill it to the tippy top, there’ll be a big mess so a “cup of coffee” is really 3/4 cup or 6 ounces.

It’s Friday with sunshine and lunch possibilities and Springsteen and the E Street Band playing in the background.  So go Ask a Stupid Question or four and have a great day.