I'm getting oddly caught up on things that've been going on. The most recent big event was Thanksgiving, of course, the first time that I haven't flown in from New Jersey for it (and the first time I've not come here for Thanksgiving immediately after Midwest FurFest). We didn't have any fine amusing little antics like going grocery-shopping the day or two before Thanksgiving in search of cranberry sauce, though, and the plan to get a pecan pie from Uncle John's farm was foiled by the combination of how much sense it makes for 
bunny_hugger to get one as a brief stop on her way to or from work and Uncle John's decision to open too late and close to early for her to actually stop in there. We went with locally store-bought pies instead.
But there was plenty of good cheer to have, nevertheless. One is having her parents over and enjoying the day with them, and with enough food to keep us fed for another three days straight. And the record player which we'd sent with her father two months ago, to get repaired by one of those odd little local shops --- the kind with the staff that'll do work regarded well, but finished maybe sometime if ever --- came back, in outstanding shape. This let bunny_hugger play her vinyl of the Buggles's ``Living In The Plastic Age'' (her mother noted it sounded like very complex music for the era, and for 1980, it was), with outstanding results. We also got to hear Bruce Wooley's versions of ``Video Killed The Radio Star'' and ``Clean Clean''.
My parents, meanwhile, enjoyed their smallest Thanksgiving feast in ages, even counting times they were out of the country for it. (Even when they went to Turkey for Thanksgiving they went with friends, and tour packages aren't going to overlook the need to send turkey and stuffing and such to the American tourists come late November.) It was just the two of them, and their cats, and a meal that my father described as ``big enough for the entire family''. I suspect him to be exaggerating, but if come Christmastime they're still finishing off leftover pie I'll know.
I did tease my mother that finally she'd have the minced meat pie all to herself, but she didn't get one. I'm the only other one in the family who'll try it; I give a small slice a try every year and find that no, I don't really like it exactly although the taste is interesting. Maybe for Christmas.
Trivia: Around 1955 a rocket capable of reaching orbit was known euphemistically as a ``long playing rocket''. Source: Something New Under the Sun, Helen Gavaghan. (Looking at this I'm not really satisfied with the trivia point and I'd want to go back to the book to get better context regarding it. But it does feel plausibly like something that'd be the nickname for such a device in rocketry circles, too.)
Currently Reading: The Zen Gun, Barrington J Bayley.