O Happy Weekend

Yahoo, it's the weekend! Should be a good one, too. A fun time to just enjoy some downtime together.

We're going to go see the new Bond movie tomorrow afternoon (I'm likin' what I'm hearin'...stay tuned for a review), then it's the Notre Dame-Southern Cal game in the evening. On Sunday, we've got the Bears in the afternoon, and the Colts in the evening. What a busy schedule we have! Honestly, we won't sit our butts on the couch the entire weekend. We have other little household chores and things to do. But I think the Butts-on-the-Couch part will be lots of fun!

Sometimes for games, we like to do snack foods instead of an actual meal. Our home version of tailgating, I guess. I like to get different kinds of cheeses (It's the Cheese Shop!), and my personal favorites are Gouda (especially smoked Gouda), Edam, and we tried some Swiss Emmenthaler recently. Mmm, good stuff! We usually have some crackers or little breadsticks, some mild and medium peppers, some summer sausage, some apples...gee, am I hungry, or what? This weekend, I'm going to try one of our favorite appetizers from Parisi's, an Italian restaurant right across from the Notre Dame campus. You can see the Golden Dome from the windows of the restaurant. They do a baked brie with caramel sauce and almonds, served with apple slices. Wish me luck, but I really think it will turn out very yummy.

Did you see the video of the wild turkeys standing on the platform at the train station in New Jersey on Thanksgiving day? I swear, they looked like they were just waiting there for the train. Who can blame them? If I were a turkey, I'd want to get out of town, too. We have a few turkeys here at Nutwood, but they don't seem to mind us too much. One year, I counted between 50-55 in the backyard, but that's the most I've ever seen. I saw several males displaying in the backyard one day, and it was amazing.

They really are pretty, and it's surprising how big they are. I've also seen a couple of males fighting, and I wouldn't want to mess with that. They're big, their beaks look to be very sharp, and I think they have nasty spurs on their claws that can really do some damage. Don't mess with a tom turkey lookin' for love. Just a little advice.