We spent some time Saturday with my dad. It's always good to see him. Sadly, we left the cheesecake we had specifically made for him in our fridge. Yes, we'll enjoy it with tea this week, but the point was for him to enjoy it as that's his favorite dessert.

After getting decent chile rellenos for dinner, we decided to get ice cream instead. Yelp suggested a nearby gelateria - which turned out to be at an address that didn't exist. We ended up at a local Mexican ice cream (and torta) place for okay ice cream made in-house. (I had nutella and peanut, which was pretty good.)

I successfully pled hardship, since we have plane tickets for the wedding next weekend. I would have been fine with postponement, but I was dismissed. It was a three-week trial, which would not have been ideal given that I was just out for two weeks...

My alarm didn't go off today. I didn't wake up much beyond when I usually get up, but... with the wife on the other coast things are a bit disjointed. I decided to work from home today rather than rush to get out the door.

Miss Bea was willing to give me a few cuddles in the early morning. (I am hoping that loneliness and desperation make her willing to sit on me during the week.)

Thanksgiving was very nice. Our friends J&W invited us over; it was the four of us, my dad, and her mom visiting from the East Coast. We had lots of good chattage and food. I made a pecan pie, the wife cooked brussels sprouts and made hard sauce for the pie, and I made a radicchio salad.

While I didn't overeat, the richer food meant I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked. And while today was expectedly slow, I still had to show up to work.

We had dinner with my dad yesterday. I'm trying to schedule more time with him - not least because he's given up his car so he can't get out beyond his (now-reduced) ability to walk. He has been craving pizza, so we went to a neighborhood joint. It was fine; not spectacular, but perfectly serviceable for a local pizza place. For my dad, it's more about the memories. He used to go there regularly with his girlfriend and a next-door neighbor, both of whom are no longer alive.

My dad also mentioned that he'd kind of like to go on an Alaska cruise. We are at least going to investimagate that; it would be a good gift for him if it's something we can afford or at least swing. The wife also mentioned seeing if her mom would fly back here as we rarely see her, since she's on the other coast. That might require three rooms, a suite, or some combination. My dad might be okay with sharing a room with the wife's mom.

We visited my dad yesterday. He asked to go to a local Mexican restaurant that he had visited many times with his deceased girlfriend. I wasn't expecting much, but the important thing was his wishes.

I was very pleasantly surprised by their chile relleno. The batter was light, eggy, and fluffy; good amount of cheese stuffed in the pepper; and fresh out of the fryer. Honestly, the best chile relleno I've had in quite some time. The only thing that would have improved it is more heat - using a poblano pepper, perhaps. It was quite mild.

The lemon cheesecake with raspberry topping turned out quite well (we've pretty much got that recipe dialed in) and I promised to visit again in a couple months. I haven't been as good at that as I should be, especially since he's only an hour away.

Today I made yogurt rough-puff biscuits with homemade jam, and later today there will be boozy eggnog and finishing off our gourmet chocolate advent calendar.

Thanksgiving was good. I got up around the usual (non-work) time, did some kitchen cleaning, and made a pecan pie. It looked really good (I tried to make some effort on the aesthetics) and smelled fabulous. The wife prepped brussels sprouts; we already had a cranberry-apple chutney and hard sauce made the day before. Instead of going to my dad's, Wendy and Josh invited us to their place (along with Dani) so we didn't have to do anything else.

I snuggled with Miss Bea under the covers and read. Wendy asked to push back an hour for various reasons, which was not a problem. Eventually we gathered up our stuff and drove to pick up my dad. When we got there we had a mild concern because he wasn't answering his phone (or the knock at his door). I started to worry that we were duplicating a Christmas a few years back where he drove to our place as we drove to his. But it turned out that he had just been upstairs doing a jigsaw puzzle.

Easy 20-minute drive up the road to W&J's, and we socialized for a while before Dani arrived. Eventually we had way too much food: pumpkin soup (Dani), turkey and stuffing (that approximated my family's One True Recipe, so it made me happy), our sprouts with house-cured bacon, four (!) different kinds of cranberry sauce - one of which was served directly from the can with ridges for the one person who wanted it, but the other three were homemade; mashed potatoes, and sauteed kale. Then our pie and a lovely pumpkin cheesecake from Dani for dessert.

We introduced my dad to Cards Against Humanity. He didn't quite know what to make of it but eventually got into it and won a couple rounds. We left around 9 PM, because driving him home and then us was a 90-minute trip and I am working today.

I am thankful for family, friends, and food to share with them.

My dad lived in Greenville for nearly ten years, so I am familiar with many of the buildings that were just destroyed in the Dixie fire. His former house was within walking distance of downtown, so it's probably gone too.

I took yesterday off work for the wife's birthday. We had a relaxing day, punctuated by a drive down to a local open space preserve for a hike. It was a glorious day for it. I would have been happier with redwoods, but what we got was still nice - chaparral and a lake with ducks and geese.

We got to see my dad. For 45 minutes, 12 feet away, everyone masked for the entire time. But at least we got to see him. And we delivered some rye and pumpernickel bagels as a CARE package.