Spare ham, missing cheese and the traditional Thanksgiving Coop

I didn't chase the Snowy Owl the other day. And I am glad I didn't because there have been no further reports of it.
The reason I didn't chase: As I was getting ready to leave that morning, Geoff and I got into an argument. About cheese.


Yeah, I said cheese.



Two minutes before taking Lorelei to school, he said to me, " Remember the cheese. "

Me: "Cheese? For what?"

G: "Lorelei's class feast today. It was on the newsletter. We need to bring in a bag of mild cheddar cheese, cubed."

Me: "Is there a particular reason you waited until now to tell me?"

G: "I thought you knew about it."


Well, we didn't have any cheese. Cubed or otherwise.

I threw him a seriously dirty look and a few choice words, grabbed Lorelei and flew to the local convenient store and paid $4 for a block of cheese. The teacher could just cube it herself.

All the life-bird-chase was just wrung out of me, so I went to Armleder and walked.

Here's the kicker: When I picked up Lorelei from school, I asked if her class enjoyed the cheese. I was thinking, "They better have shouted to God and the World that it was the best damn cheese they have ever been given."

Lorelei said, "We didn't eat the cheese."
Me: "What?! Why?........wait a minute. Did you tell your teacher you had the cheese, like I told you to tell her?"
Lorelei: (sheepishly) "No."

I looked in her bag. No cheese. What. The. Hell.
The cheese had been absconded.

So here's what I think happened. The teacher took my FOUR DOLLAR cheese home and served it on crackers for her family on Thanksgiving. That's what I think.
: )

My walk at Armleder did yield a life bird.
While taking a deer path to the river, I flushed a bird (more like nearly stepped on a bird!) in the underbrush. I saw brown and a reddish tail, a bird the size of a quail. I looked it up in Sibley's and found that it was a Northern Bobwhite. Life Bird #207!


Tuesday was Swami's birthday, and Swamette asked me to make a cake for him. The girls helped me (yeah, right. Lorelei made an egg explode all over me, the floor, herself...) make a square, two-layer chocolate fudge cake, with milk chocolate icing.

To cut all that chocolate, we crushed Mint Oreos and sprinkled the middle and the top of the cake. I have to say, it was pretty damn good.


(We didn't count out all of the candles to represent his age. Their smoke detectors are sensitive)


Thursday:
In what seems to now be a tradition, we were visited by the Thanksgiving Cooper's Hawk:


A most cooperative bird...sat there in a patch of sunlight, with a good background, for about 15 minutes.



A Ham Story:
Swametti, Swamette's mom, was supposed to bring a baked ham for Thanksgiving, to have alongside the turkey. She forgot to bring it (we forgive her....she's in her Eighties, for goodness sake), but Swamette just happened to have a ham in the fridge. This is testiment to just how organized she is.
Maybe you have to know her to appreciate the story, but it just blew me away. Just happened to have a big spare HAM.


(Swami and my Mom carve the Spare Ham)


I begged for the turkey carcass (how many times will you hear that sentence?) and right now, I am simmering fresh turkey noodle soup.
Hooper has gone postal about the aroma filling the house:

GIVE. ME. TURKEH.
NOW.
BEFORE I KEEL YOU.