I must say - this was probably the most organized Thanksgiving turkey dinner I've cooked. Thank goodness. My oven behaved - probably because I took care to tuck in the wings this time - so that the dripping grease wouldn't drop down onto the burners causing a bit of a "flare-up" which My oven is prone to do if something boils over. Anyway, I cooked the bird as I usually do - upside down on the "X" shaped rack that has been a stand-by for such an event each turkey day. The bird is then slow cooked at 250 degrees - not basting until the skin hardens a bit. This seals in the juices, making the bird more moist. About half way through after the underside is nicely browned, I turn the bird over, to brown and cook the breast. When the breast reaches 180 degrees internally, we grab the carvers and that beautiful creation soon becomes a mess. Everything turned out quite well - expect perhaps for the marshmallows that were put on the sweet potato/pineapple dish - they refused to melt and perhaps the toasting oven was a bit too toasty. Ahem. So - now for making the pies. I liked my scheme last year - freezing the turkey, dressing and gravy in a pie pan shaped container. Then it is ready for use - either put in a pie shell - adding frozen peas, and top crust and baking. Or - just heating it up for another plain meal. Either way, lots of good left-over eating in store. As luck would have it - I had lots of volunteer help with clean up - and yours truly was ready for early retirement. Hope you had a nice holiday. Soooo - on to the next big bash - right. What are you planning on eating for X-mas - another turkey perhaps/or? Oh yes - about the dressing - it was a bit moist - will add less moisture next time, but tasty nevertheless. Some sage would have been nice tho. Just my 2 c's. Bejay

I'm very fortunate that Mum will accept help from people, but she suffered a stroke and couldn't "work" her left side, so help was REQUIRED. And she was aware enough to know it. She has a tub in her bathroom. When she came home after close to 10 weeks in the hospital and two rehabs. we'd changed out the shower head for a shower massage, gotten a shower seat, installed handrails, put the arms on the toilet. I hired a woman to come thrice weekly to assist her with bathing. She went from the strict supervision of the NH to a private aid and there was NO FUSS. In fact, she LOVES the attention. Try the bath again and tell her it's a luxury to have someone help you bathe... all the great queens throughout history have had bath maidens... ;) The woman who comes to help Mum is very nice... chitty-chatty, efficient, and very patient. Whenever there is a Monday holiday I offer it to her. If she takes it, I pay her for it. She's earned that. We got off to a bit of a rocky start, but once I reminded her of what I expected, she did it. Reliability is worth a lot.

ok renaruto this may be a case in which you provided way too much info and details about your ex wife to your new girlfriend and now she is using that against you which imo is immature and only shows how insecure she really is, i only say that because this exact situation has happened to me before only thing different is that my son is 5 yo and is unable to keep a cell phone....women can be very good at hiding their true feelings about certain issues to get you to open up to them and disclose unnecessary information and due to their own insecurities will make you the bad guy when all you were doing from the get go is being totally honest ...i do believe that sometimes theres such a thing as being too honest...did you really have to tell your new gf that your ex wife still wants you?... by saying that you set your self up for constant drama and nagging everytime she contacts you whether it is important or not...any way the answer to your problem lies in your heart i made my decision to make my son a priority and had to break up with my previous gf the good thing was that i am now with a woman who understands and supports my decision to be a good father and doesnt question the communication between me and my sons mother it is truly a beautiful feeling to not feel like you have to choose sides between the ones you love if she really loves and respects you she will trust you and leave it all up to you to set boundaries with your ex wife without having to butt in...hope this advice is not too late

As far as what Moni said about their relationship not being anyones business...I agree with that, however, Tori wrote a book talking about it all, then did a reality tv show and still talked about it. And now Candy has a book. If they didnt want to air their dirty laundry, they should not have written books. There's always 2 sides to every story. Sure we hear what we hear from both of them but I'm sure there's probably alot more to their stories than what their books say though.