November break

November is drawing to a close. We are on Day 2 of the 9-day Thanksgiving break and everyone is still happy and speaking to each other. I am in a pretty good mood, heading into the holidays. Rocket Boy started his job for real this week, commuting to Aurora early in the morning and back in the early evening, AND his first paycheck landed in our account on Friday. For the past six months or so I've been taking monthly distributions from my old TIAA retirement fund, drawing it down to zero before we decide which account to tap next. It will run out in January, I believe. Just in time, Rocket Boy started this job, so we won't need to get into any other money for now. And for about two months, we'll have extra money. We'll be rich! (For two months.) Actually, since RB's paychecks come every two weeks, we'll be rich even after those two months. But for two months we'll be REALLY rich.

I mean, not really. It's not like we can remodel our house or buy a new car or anything. But what it feels like is this: I can buy tickets to the CU Holiday Festival without stressing about the $52 per ticket. (I did that yesterday -- RB and I are going to it on December 6th.) Last night we ate dinner at the Teahouse and I told Teen B that we should come back and go to their Holiday Tea in December. That's expensive, but we could afford it (but I just checked and they're already almost sold out). Teen A plans to take his girlfriend to Blossoms of Light at the Denver Botanic Gardens this coming week and I'm going to pay for that ($25 per person).

There isn't much stuff I want to buy, to be honest. We don't have room in our house for any more stuff. I did get a new coat from Lands End, and I've bought myself some used shirts on eBay. I need a new pair of sneakers (mine have holes in them). The kids always need new shoes, new socks, new underwear, new pants -- but not all at once, there's just this continuous stream of purchases, mostly from Target. We don't buy a lot of Christmas presents anymore, mostly just food and joke presents. There isn't some fancy kind of food I want to buy for our holiday dinners, just the usual. I'm not going to start doing all my shopping at Whole Foods.

One thing we thought of: we're going to get a transponder for Rocket Boy's car so that he can use E-470, the toll road, which should make his commute more bearable. That definitely seems like a worthwhile expenditure.

I'll try my best to save some of the extra money -- so that when Rocket Boy retires again, we can take some trips. And I'll give some of it away. Colorado Gives Day is December 9th, so I'll focus on that. And I keep thinking I want to set up a regular monthly giving thing, like maybe $50/month to EFAA (Emergency Family Assistance Association). But then I think, should it be to them, or maybe it should be to someplace that helps people in Denver. Or St. Louis! I do give money every year to Mission St. Louis. I could give them more? It's really hard to know what to do. But I'll do something.

***

This past week was a very busy one, as I knew it would be. We kicked off the week with me getting an implant in my jaw, to prepare for a fake tooth at some point in the future. I was dreading this, but it was fine. The worst part was the anesthesia -- one of the three shots she gives me hurts so much. But then it was over and I was numb. She had to drill and drill to get the implant in, because (she said) my bone healed so wonderfully well that it was really hard and strong.

They took an x-ray of the implant once it was in and showed me. It looks exactly like a screw. So I go back on December 2nd to check and see that it's healing the way it's supposed to, and then I go back 2 or 3 months later for another check, and if that's OK, then I can tell my new dentist I'm ready for a fake tooth. Such a long, complicated process. But think of the alternative! What if I had done nothing, and all that rot was spreading to my other teeth and they were all hurting and falling out...

Modern dentistry is a miracle. Keep thinking that.

We went to two concerts last week: orchestra on Tuesday and band on Thursday. I love the high school orchestra -- they have a great teacher and they play so well. For their last number, all three orchestras were on stage together and they performed "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne, NOT what you expect a high school orchestra -- or any orchestra -- to perform, ever. It was fantastic. Oh, and for that last piece they also had four electronic instruments: a cello, a viola, and two violins. The cello looked like a praying mantis.

Afterwards there was a bake sale and I bought $5 worth of brownies and cookies. 

The band concert was less wonderful, but I enjoyed the jazz band performances more than I usually do. The band teacher obviously has a preference for his jazz band classes -- Jazz 1&2 played 5 numbers, as did Jazz 3, compared to just three numbers for Concert Band and Wind Ensemble (which Teen B is in). 

And afterwards there was another bake sale and I bought another $5 worth of baked goods. Have to support the kids! 

This afternoon there was a free tuba concert on the Pearl Street Mall at 3:30, so Rocket Boy and I went to that. We parked at the library and then walked over to the courthouse where the concert was. 

Oh my goodness, the concert was wonderful! This is apparently a thing, called Tuba Christmas, that has been going on for 52 years. There are Tuba Christmas performances all over the country and even in some foreign countries. There's going to be one in San Jose on December 14th, so, family, feel free to attend!

They played for about an hour, and our feet got tired of standing, but I still loved every minute of it. There were about 60 musicians there, but the director said that in New York they get as many as a thousand. The instruments represented were tubas, euphoniums, baritones, and a bunch of sousaphones played by CU band members. There were three high school students playing contrabass bugles aka marching tubas, that they hoisted onto their shoulders each time a new group of songs started. There were three double-bell euphoniums, which haven't been made since the 60s. There was a very old instrument in the front row -- possibly a Wagner tuba. Two of the players were only 12 years old, and two or three were in "their 8th decade." Oh, it was so fun. What a way to kick off the holidays.

Attending holiday concerts is quite possibly my favorite thing about the holidays. As I mentioned above, we're going to the CU Holiday Festival concert on December 6th, and then the high school choir concert is December 9th, the Lights of December parade (including marching bands) is December 13th, and the Harp Concert is at the library on December 14th. And if we want to go to the choir concert at the other high school, that's December 18th. And there will undoubtedly be more coming up -- maybe this year we'll go to some of the other things that you have to pay for.

I know there are people who don't like holiday music, who find it annoying. I just smile and figure it takes all kinds to make a world. More seats available for me!

***

It wasn't a great cooking week, simply because of all those concerts. Otherwise it was fine. No disasters.

• Monday I made Sweet Potato Soup with Corn and Chilies, out of the weird Hare Krishna cookbook that my brother-in-law gave us (I gave up on trying to buy asafetida powder and just have been making the recipes without it). This was actually delicious, my favorite of the recipes I've made out of it so far. Probably because I like sweet potatoes so much. We had it with sourdough bread.
• Tuesday was the orchestra concert, so we just had leftovers.
• 
  Wednesday Teen A was supposed to cook something for his LOYO class (Living On Your Own), so he chose his favorite -- Grandma Peg's Goulash. I had to help, but he did a lot of it himself, including cutting up the onion (that's Impossible ground beef in the pan, by the way, not the real stuff). He also went with me to the grocery store earlier that day to shop for ingredients. We had it with frozen mixed vegetables.
• Thursday was the band concert, so we had leftovers.
• Friday I made Vegetables au Gratin from that same cookbook, and it was tasty, but somewhat bizarre. Basically just a cheese sauce poured over vegetables, and I didn't have enough vegetables because Rocket Boy had taken some of them in his lunches. So it was mostly just cheese sauce. Very weird. I served it with soft rolls I bought at King Soopers.

And Saturday we ate out at the Teahouse and tonight is forage night. Rocket Boy and I finished up the cheese sauce thing for lunch today.

This coming week, hmm. Maybe I'll make soup again tomorrow night. Tuesday I have my book group, so leftover soup and foraging would work for the family. Wednesday, I don't know. Something light, maybe sandwiches. And Thursday of course is Thanksgiving. We're having our usual swordfish main course, and all the usual sides. Rocket Boy will make mashed potatoes and gravy, Teen B has volunteered to make the stuffing, and Teen A usually makes the pumpkin pie (but we'll see, this year). I'll make cranberry sauce and sweet potato casserole and spinach dish. It's actually a pretty easy meal -- none of the recipes are hard. 

We don't have anything special planned for the week, other than what I've already mentioned. Rocket Boy has to work every day except Thanksgiving, so we won't be traveling anywhere. Maybe Teen B and I will go to a movie, if we can think of anything. 

We're also trying to do homework every day, and finish up those college applications. 

The other thing that happened this past week is that Rocket Boy got cellulitis again. He came home feeling sick on Tuesday afternoon, took a dose of antibiotics (he always has some on hand these days) and went to bed. He was very sick all day Wednesday. Thursday he worked a partial day, maybe 6 hours. And Friday he was back to normal. So on we go. But that's why I don't really think we'll have this wonderful paycheck for long. He just has too many medical problems to work fulltime with a long commute.  

A week from tomorrow we see the orthopedic surgeon, find out what the prospects are for surgery. Hmm.

Well, anyway, here we go for the last seven days of November. I feel like I've boarded the holiday train and I won't be able to get off it until January. But it's fun. And away we go!