Kurt didn't get home until 6:30pm yesterday, and because we were sort of fussin', I didn't know he was on his way home till he walked in the door. Usually he calls me when he leaves the base, which leaves me roughly two hours to figure out what I want to have for dinner and to get it on the table.

Yesterday, for whatever reason, I felt like absolute poo-poo. I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and I got up early (for me) in order to get to the commissary right as it opened. Finally I succumbed to my exhaustion and fell asleep on the couch for an hour as Gracie "took a nap" -- which is code for "play in the crib and try to take all her clothes off." Once I woke up, I felt no better.

I knew I had to make SOMETHING for dinner. Since Kurt hadn't called me all day, I was thinking he was either getting home extremely late or not coming home at all. Apparently he was *this close* to not coming home because he had so much work to do on the ship. Around 6pm I got out my cookbooks to find something to whip up. I keep my cookbooks in my little laundry nook/closet on a shelf above my washer and dryer, which makes it convenient to flip through cookbooks. I just open one on the dryer, look through it, put it back if I don't find something, and repeat the process with another one. Last night as I'm standing at the dryer trying to find something to make for Grace and me, I kept feeling really dizzy, and like my brain was going to explode out of my head. So finally I gave up and laid on the couch.

Grace was hungry; she opened the fridge a couple of times. I had just summoned enough energy to get up and make her a sandwich for dinner when Kurt got home. He decided that we should go to the Chinese buffet for dinner, which was fine by me as it let me off the hook for cooking. He would have cooked anyhow if I had asked him, but I didn't really have anything to make. Ironic, isn't it, when I had just gone to the commissary to stock up.

Mmmmm Chinese food. They have this awesome shrimp dish at the buffet called Spicy Salted Shrimp that I can't get enough of. Also the crab legs last night were fabulous. Sometimes they're really salty and oversteamed, but last night they were just perfect. Yum yum yum!!! Grace eats for free, although if they knew how much that little girl can pack away, they probably would charge us!!

I felt a bit better after we ate, but I'm not sure if it's because I ate or it's because I didn't have to do anything for the rest of the evening since Kurt was home and had taken over command, as it were.

We found a good price on a fresh turkey breast at Safeway, so I guess we will follow the trend and have turkey for Thanksgiving. A turkey breast always make more sense for our family because we all prefer the white meat. They were selling whole frozen turkeys at Safeway for 25� a pound. I couldn't figure out why people were buying them, unless they were stocking up for Christmas. The turkeys would still be frozen solid by Thanksgiving! I would have gotten one if Kurt were going to be home for the holidays; I've never cooked a whole turkey yet, and I'm sort of looking forward to the challenge.

My poor stepmom... I love the lady to death, really I do. But she always took food safety a little too much to heart. When she cooked Thanksgiving, which was frequently once we moved away from the East Coast, our turkey was always dried out because she would make sure it would hit the proper internal temperature before she took it out of the oven. Stuffing was always baked in its own dish, never in the bird's cavity, so it too was always dried out. But I never really realized it was dry because it was all I'd ever had. Besides, a little cranberry sauce cured all!!

I hope Kurt can get off work early today. Apparently the ship has to get underway for a few hours just for a particular qualification before they leave on deployment next week. It's been postponed so many times already because of weather; the Puget Sound has been hit hard by the storms we've been having, and if the seas are too rough, they can't take the ship out without damaging it. If he gets off too late today, he'll get caught in holiday traffic on the ferries. When my in-laws were here two years ago, we went to "the other side" for some reason the day before Thanksgiving, and then we had to wait in a two-hour line to get on to the ferry to come home. It would suck if he had to wait in that line tonight, especially since he has to work tomorrow.

Geeeeeeeeeez, we're up to nearly 18" precipitation now for the month! Yesterday we got almost two inches of rain. I swear I'm about to float away!!