how was your thanksgiving (part 2)?

part 1

the next day was a little more straightforward. hops and i woke up, watched what passes for news on the tele, had a breakfast sans bananas, and went to her folks house to see what was happening in the world.

after a good deal of back and forth i convinced hops to go for a run before lunch, which we did. i'm very glad to be back in running shape. it takes so little to get an exercise fix when you're an uninjured runner. just some warm clothes, a pair of shoes (or not), and off you go. that's what we did, with some laps for distance. back to the hotel for a quick shower, and hops revealed her brilliant plan for lunch: dr. phil's catfish and ribs, on account of their catfish is friggin awesome and her mom doesn't eat meat on fridays.

so we packaged up the old folks and drove to dr. phil's. hops stayed outside to call our hotel in STL and cancel a night, so we could stay with her sister a bit longer. i went in with the old folks to order. i ordered two catfish plates, and then it was their turn.

"ooooh, there's nothing i can eat!" exclaimed the mother-in-law. i pointed out the catfish, which was (surprisingly) hard to see on the menu, and told her we came here just so she could have her friday fish.

"i see it, but i hate catfish!" she said. oh crap.

so, eventually we ordered three catfish plates and one side of green beans. i'm sorry to say dr. phil's ribs are not worth ordering, but the catfish is perhaps the best i've ever had, and he didn't let us down. the side of green beans was pitifully small and pathetic, but had no ham in it.

then it was back to the sister's house to hang out. Earl stopped by at some point and gave me a pair of camo hunting moccasins a-la-wal-mart, just like his. ha! very nice, and very warm. i wore them later to the funeral, as they were nicer than my flip-flops and they were greatly appreciated by all the hunters in attendance.

after an afternoon of really just hanging out, we went to a local korean food place that was surprisingly good. we had fun hanging out with the nephews. in all, a decent distraction from the stresses of the previous day, but things were not really over yet.