Ah, Nothing Like The Sweet Foul Stench of Holiday Spammers

Ring... ring... ring... ring...

Mrs. Dr. Phil is working on our Day-After-Thanksgiving-Movie-Day holiday dinner. Slow-Moving-Boy has to stand up from the rolltop desk, gather one, two canes, and slowly maneuver across the room, stop, set both canes in one hand and pick up the phone, which has already gone to the outgoing answering machine message. Colliding with An Important Message which is SO Important that not only is there no human being involved, it is too impatient to wait for the beep, colliding with the outgoing message. Brilliant.

"...mail provider..."

I think the recording was talking about e-mail provider. And amazingly, the recorded female voice sounded a lot like the spam recording from "Card Services" announcing a problem with our credit card.

We get that one a lot.

No doubt the message was along the lines that there was a problem with my e-mail provider -- or that my mailbox was full and some other provider was unable to send me an important message. Sure. Right. What info do you need to confirm it's me that YOU'RE CALLING? Name? Address? Phone number? The credit card for the billing department for sure.

Right.

First of all, our emails are all through Gmail (free), GVSU/WMU (free) and my website. Second, no one would use a spam recording to let you know of a problem. And if it's a sales call? Any way you look at it, we don't do anything by phone.

Period.

I hung up and returned to writing. I'm sure that the phone line was tied up for another minute or two, no matter what I did on my end. Fine, the spam machine can talk to the aether and let's see if I care.

Nope.

Don't care about them.

Not. One. Twit.

Merry Black Thanks Friday Giving Mas.

Dr. Phil

Our House Is A Very Very Fine House...

As mentioned earlier and in keeping with years past, we did our big Thanksgiving meal today. Last year's attempt to brine just dark meat -- turkey thighs and wings -- with the wings on the stuffing casserole and the thighs on a roasting pan to make drippings for gravy -- worked so well that we'd be silly not to repeat it again.

And earlier in the fall we had a pumpkin pie, because why not. Cousins Bill and Cindy send a box of cracked Arkansas pecans for the holidays, so I requested a pecan pie for Thanksgiving. That probably leaves pumpkin and mincemeat pies for Christmas and New Year's. (big-pie-eating-grin)

We ended up eating early for us, since not doing a whole bird really cuts down on the cook time, so we sat down around 5pm and put on Love, Actually on Netflix. *** (Almost couldn't find the pictures, because when I changed the Nikon D100 from EDT to EST, I must have accidentally changed the year to 2013.)


Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and root vegetables & beets. Just off to the right, two kinds of cranberries. The beer in the gravy was Leinenkugel's Helles Yeah -- really hoppy. The wine was a lovely Riesling. A technical note for me, used the Nikon SB-28DX flash in bounce mode on the D100 for the first time. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

We managed to keep things to a reasonable plate. At 7pm I took my usual nap, to elevate my leg, and then it was time for pie.


"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up," says the pecan pie. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


The pie is almost candied -- yum -- but you have to cut it with more skill and care than a pumpkin pie. Mrs. Dr. Phil demonstrates. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


As shown, one slice for you and my slice in the foreground. (grin) Not shown, the Hudsonville Vanilla Ice Cream. Later pecan pie sessions will feature whipped cream or Hudsonville Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Watching Kristen Chenowith: Coming Home on PBS from Broken Arrow OK.

Lovely.

Back to writing, grading...

Dr. Phil

*** For those keeping score at home, as a kid the Christmas season began when Santa Claus came at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on the television. As an adult, after the turkey meal. Anyway, Love, Actually is one of the handful of top classic Christmas movies we tend to see every year. The others are:
A Christmas Carol (Scrooge) -- the 1951 Alistair Sim version / Scrooged -- the 1988 Bill "I Can Do Any Holiday" Murray
A Christmas Story -- the definitive kid's view of Christmas
And two Jimmy Stewart flicks, the obvious It's A Wonderful Life and the wonderfully quirky 1940 The Shop Around the Corner -- if you have EVER worked retail, you must see this film. At Christmas.