The night before, Ian picked up a turkey and a box of Stove Top. The day of, we took it pretty easy, getting Bertha (the turkey) ready after lunch. Mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing would wait until right before dinner. Bertha, however, required some extra attention.
Here she is oiled and massaged with some sage.
And here is Bertha and I before she indulged in her sauna. Please pretend I look perfectly domestic.
The whole meal turned out great and we had lots of fun catching up with Caleb. We haven't really spent any measurable amount of time with him since spring break 2005 (me)/that summer internship in 2006 (Ian). Then all in one week, we go with him to see a screening of The Road (well done but very depressing), join him and some of his friends for his belated birthday lunch at The Gourmet Dumpling House, and spend Thanksgiving together. It's been lovely. (Fox went home for Thanksgiving, in case you're wondering why he was not also with us.)
We packed up the rest of Bertha... the turkey (too weird using a name post-roasting) and froze it. We've got four bags of what we're guessing are a pound each, and we sent home a bag with Caleb. How's that for frugal meal prep! We'll probably do it again, non-holiday, to have some cheap and pre-cooked meat in the freezer.
Friday, i.e. Ian's last pre-work weekday, we wandered around a bit, took a test commute on public transportation to the office, and stopped at Sovereign Bank to start a checking account. I realize Bank of America is the go-to bank for people of our age here, but I researched and we decided the free checks and waiving of the fee for using "foreign" (non-Sovereign) ATMs would come in handy when we go home, where some places don't take plastic (debit or credit) and where there are no Bank of America OR Sovereign ATMs. We can work around their Monday-Friday work week, as we're used to banks like that anyway. And I appreciate they give their employees the weekends off — why should I make people work weekends for my convenience when, given the choice, I'd pick weekends off? Anyway, our decision was reinforced by Connie, the very friendly and helpful bank officer who helped us set up our account. Sold!
Sunday, Fox took us to Reunion, and we're very excited to get plugged in. It's a very passionate community and they care about the issues that are important to us — relief work, relational missions, fair trade, the environment, AND they're doing Advent Conspiracy, which I learned about last year and am excited about.
Monday was Ian's first day of work. As requested, I took a photo of him before he left. Not a great photo in terms of composition, as I was still in the process of waking up while I was attempting to take the photo.
On Wednesday, our Verizon internet modem arrived (we ordered internet over the weekend) and it miraculously worked — our official start date was supposed to be today. Super exciting and I have catching up to do (like blogging...).
Today, I applied for a job at a local independent bookstore, and also explored a bit. I accidentally got on the outbound green line car, so I decided to ride it to the end of the line. Interesting to see more of our surroundings and get some ideas for places to apply if the bookstore doesn't work out. I'm hoping it does though, because it's like ACME Gift and The Dusty Bookshelf smooshed together. I then rode the train inbound all the way to Copley Square to get a library card at Boston Public Library. Which closed 10 minutes before I arrived. So instead I took a photo of the Copley Christmas tree. They perhaps call it a holiday tree. I won't.
By the way, I took this photo around 5:15 p.m. It gets dark that early here. Lots of things to get used to, but I think I'm adjusting!