Thanksgiving 2016

One week ago last night (19 November) found me at Yemanja Brasil Restaurante (http://www.brazildining.com/) in St. Louis' Benton Park neighborhood. I came for a delicious Brazilian dinner and a concert by Brazilian musician and movie director Gustavo "Buda" Acioli (https://soundcloud.com/budasongs; http://www.ouvirtopmusicas.com/musicas/gustavo-acioli.html). This evening was presented by the Viva Brasil Association of St. Louis (http://www.e.vivabrasilstl.org/home), and a few people I know from that group were also there. It was a wonderful show--even though I did not understand most of the words, I understood the passion and feeling "Buda" put into his music. (He played an electric guitar.) For my meal, I had an entrada (appetizer) of torradinhas, followed by the prato principal (main course), piscado miranda, which features cod. I washed those courses down with two caipirinhas. Overall, a very good night.

Up early the next morning, I was at World Wide Technology Soccer Park (http://saintlouisfc.com/soccerpark) in Fenton, where I officiated three youth soccer (football) matches. These were all under 12 boys, 9v9 matches, on the final day of the Premier League fall season. My matches went well, including my middle in the second match.

This past week at the car rental branch was rather busy through Wednesday night, as quite a few customers were renting out for Thanksgiving Day weekend travels. Our branches were closed on Thanksgiving Day itself, and I was back the next day (25 November) for a rather quiet day, especially in the late afternoon. Same for yesterday morning, when I worked. Tomorrow will be a different story, for sure.

I flexed out of work on Tuesday afternoon (22 November), and came home. That night, I was at Brad and Julie Vaughn's house in House Springs for this month's IPMS/Gateway (http://www.ipms-gateway.com/) business meeting. After enjoying a supper of red beans and rice, prepared by the Vaughns, the club executive board (eboard) planned the December general and business meetings, and discussed some other club business.

Thanksgiving morning found me at home, watching parades on TV: The Ameren Thanksgiving Day Parade in St. Louis, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Mom and I had a nice, if low-key, dinner with turkey breast and trimmings. That afternoon, I camped in front of my computer, watching the annual Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) Turkey Day Marathon on MST3K's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/mst3kofficial). It was fun watching these classic episodes of the show, especially "Manos: The Hands of Fate," one of my (and many other show fans') all-time favorites.

I skipped shopping on Black Friday (as I was working), and Small Business Saturday (working, and not having my shopping lists in yet). Maybe something will happen tomorrow, Cyber Monday.

Later.