Thanksgiving Dinner at Ronda and Chad's house

Ronda with her best helper Chad do the finishing touches. I know Ronda would weary very fast cooking Thanksgiving dinner every year if she did not have his help. He cleans up and washes dishes, too! I made the fruit salad, but otherwise not worth much.












Gary is keeping an eye on the game. He drove Dan and me out there in his work truck. No traffic like last year!





















Ronda set her brother Dan to work. He keeps the patter going.
















Jamal and his girlfriend (drat, I got her name and forgot it again) but she's a cutie. She goes to nursing college and he to business college at ASU. She takes all her classes downtown just down the street aways from our complex!







Here I am with Ethan. A great day was had by all.

We thought of you in Austin, Raymond, and hoped you found some turkey. Scott we found out from Dan motored to San Francisco to have Thanksgiving with his mom, Linda, and sister Carissa. Dan and Gary are trying to figure out how to put his pool table back together again which had to be taken apart in his move from the other house. Gary was talking about lucking out and getting a job in Lake Havasu coming up. He works in the office on the bidding, a job requiring considerable skill, especially now days with construction jobs scarce. Chad told us that next year he will be traveling to China, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, and Europe, etc. on his new job as general manager of his company in Phoenix. All I can say is wow. Ronda is presently working at her nurse job, giving swine flu shots right now to elementary school children. Dan has the weekoff from his job at the Sheraton. I am so thankful everyone is working.
We arrived early, by 12 and left around 3 as I did not get much sleep last night and badly needed a nap! I like it when everyone seems to enjoy each other, and I was very happy that Gary joined us this year.

Arizonans beside themselves with excitement over a great football win

Above is a photo of Phoenix abuilding which we are still doing, but everybody stops to enjoy great football of which we have had far too little in past years. So I have never witnessed such frenzies of excitement as are going on here now. A great football game to me is like a great night at the theater. And this one had everything. Our quarterback performed like the old pro he is and all the other stars never had a better game. Everybody did what they came to do spectacularly well, and the poor Panthers looked like they had been blindsided by a foe that nobody expected to win. We didn't even expect it after a dismal record in the last few games on the east coast. A few weeks ago I thought one of the cardinal players who said last stop superbowl was flying a little too high in expectations for his team. But now that they are just one game away from going to the superbowl they have made a believer out of me.
I learned to watch and enjoy football with my sons, so I am just about as excited as they are. My sister Linda is a fan, too, and was having a football party to her house with her companion Leo and some of his family. Linda has been in an uproar for some time so this game was a welcome relief, as it was for many with bad economy troubles in Arizona. Her house is going into foreclosure. She is unable to work because of a mysterious ailment, so she can't pay the mortgage. She is getting ready to move to San Francisco, and will be leaving her partner Leo of four years. So leaving a house, a companion, and a city where you have resided for many years is not easy. She has acquired a lot of 'stuff,' and should not be lifting much at all to move it. We are going to be holding our breath to see if she gets through this move without injuring herself worse. Many and many a person has hurt themselves moving. Linda hates to ask people to help her, but she has got a strong son and a nephew, my son Dan, to do the heavy lifting. Dan has moved 3 times this past year, and he will move out of Linda's house when she goes, where he has been living to try to help with the mortgage, but Linda was one of those whose mortgage is just too high now to keep up.
I am looking forward now to watching the rest of the playoffs today. I was thinking of going to a mantinee movie but football will be a great show, so I better not miss it.

Happy New Year to you all from Gerry and Doc

Thanks, Connie, this certainly was a drinking year for Doc atleast, as always, if not for me, so this graphic is apropos. The big photo is of Doc and me the first year we celebrated New Years together. He looks older and I probably do, too. A photographer was present at the last New Years Party I remember them having here, and took our photo. This year no one else has been around to take our photos as we do not get together with family on New Years. The drinking buddies were not around, celebrating somewhere else no doubt. Doc is down to one drinking buddy so he is either doing better or worse.
We had another karaoke day and will probably have another practice session tomorrow before I bring Ronnie the Robot back home, but I have got some ideas about how to practice here in my apartment. I plan not to let so many months go by without trying to sing. I have managed not to binge too badly today, or through Xmas. I had a candy bar and a diet coke as my treat a little while ago. As usual my resolution is to struggle on with exercizing and trying to lose.