Early Thanksgiving

Molli's home! Yay! She arrived in Atlanta yesterday around 10 am, after her usual adventures bringing samples to Baltimore for her company. It is always a process, flying from Veracruz to a border town in Mexico, where an agent shepherds them across the border. This time, her first flight was delayed for a few hours and her luggage did not make it to the border in time to go through customs on Saturday, before they closed at 2. So the next day, she flew to Baltimore at 4 in the afternoon (the first available flight), delivered them and stayed overnight there. Then flew Monday morning--what a weekend! but the company is allowing her to stay here until Wednesday evening and we are all very happy!

Ray went to pick her up and they came to my office and we went to lunch at Last Resort, Captain and Vanessa coming to join us (in the truck). We had a lovely time. Ray went to a meeting at work. Vanessa went home to cook, and Molli and I followed after she went by the bank. Vanessa made the pumpkin pie, then we made the stuffing and put the turkey in. Of course, we were not very hungry after our lunch, but that was okay; Molli wanted Thanksgiving dinner (they don't celebrate it in Mexico). It looked like it might be 8 or 9 before we ate. The turkey was 11 pounds. I had started the squash the day before. Molli scrubbed the sweet potatoes (from our garden) and peeled the potatoes. We invited Janna and Ray brought her with him when he came. We cooked some green beans from the freezer (that we grew) and opened a can of cranberry jelly. It was before 8 when we sat down.

Molli's friend Adam arrived about 8:30 and we had a very pleasant evening. After the Cotes du Rhone, we opened one of the bottles Amelia brought from Spain and it was delicious, very mellow. It was a pleasure to have Adam here speaking about his research. My father especially enjoyed him; he is a delightful young man and a great listener. I almost would say that you can tell the difference between a Middlebury grad and a UGA grad in his intelligence and ability to converse--although I am sure there are exceptions in both directions. I might increase my gift to Middlebury this year.

As far as work, it was insane. I am making two copies of all resumes, cover letters, and answers to the questionnaire we sent out. This is without any screening by anyone to determine if the candidates are even qualified. This is a horrible waste of paper, not to mention the time it takes. One of the interns helped me some and I will need to continue today. I also printed off mailing labels for the postcards (2000) and they are hoping to have those ready to mail tomorrow. Except that the post cards aren't printed yet. Brandy and I also met with Erin at Our Daily Bread about having the Job TREC program operate out of their location. We are going to try it Dec 1 and see how it goes.