A Guam Thanksgiving

It's been a rough year in the Weaver household, but we're very thankful that we've been able to get through all these obstacles while also having some of the most life changing experiences ever.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Jason, Angela, Jerome and Lynn down in Jerome and Lynn's apartment. Stephen nominated me about a month ago to make the turkey - which turned out to be the best in my four years of thanksgiving turkey cooking. After 24 hours of brining the bird, it cooked to a beautiful golden brown color with nice glossy skin, and it practically fell of the bird while Stephen carved with out being dried out. In our group effort, we also enjoyed spinach and artichoke dip with chips and veggies, creamy hand mashed potatoes, from scratch cranberry sauce, cinnamon yams (I can't even describe how good they were), stuffing (with homemade wheat bread), some saucy gravy, Japanese and Filipino rolls, the ever classic green bean cassarole, fruit salad ambrosia, and chocolate chocolate cupcakes (the made from scratch frosting was to die for).

After multiple helpings to the main meal and dessert, we played dominoes for hours - 15s down to 7s for those who know the game...then we had to let Jerome get some sleep for work the next day.

In all it was an amazing day and we feel blessed to have been able to enjoy it with such great new friends. We hope everyone we know had a great Thanksgiving and that the holiday season finds us all in the spirit. It's definitely put me in the holiday cooking and decorating mood - so watch for some recaps of the Thanksgiving cooking (because I also made chocolate chip pumpkin bread and turkey soup for the weekend) and the decorating of the cutest little tree ever (thank you Karen!!!).

How to bust a (coco) nut in Guam.

Just prior to our weekend in Oahu, we took a nice little hike to a secluded little beach on the northwestern side of the island. I think it was about 40 min walk. Up and down some small coral rock formations that break up the sandy stretches and through the water around some others that didn't look as easy to climb, and we soon found our little sandy slice of Guamness.
Matt, Vic, and Katherine initiated the hike and KW and I thought it was definitely worth it. They all snorkeled and said it was pretty good (which translates to very good in other parts of the world). Something about a 75' anenome filled with clown fish....and chock full of other stuff. Three guys snorkeled by that were catching octopus. They were the only intruders into our day of sand and sun.

So, what to do after a good hike, and some sun and surf? How about busting a nut with Catherine, matt and myself. Sounds like fun? Tasty too!!

So, it's not really as hard as cartoons can make it out to be. First, try to climb the palm tree and knock one down. After that doesn't work, grab a large stick and knock a nice green one down. Smash it on a rock or log and taste it. Pretty nasty. Next, go take the stick and knock down a brown one that is ripe and infinitely harder. Spend a half hour or so cracking it on a coral chunk and a log. Don't bother with the Catherine-inspired sea shell cutting technique. No matter how sharp the shell is...it's a pain. Besides, the ever-prepared Matt had a knife.
Once you get the outer shell off, the inner nut is the good part. Surprisingly, the cartoons are inaccurate regarding this part too..... the three little dark spots don't wink at you. So, take a knife and stab two of the holes and cut the "eyes" out. One is for drinking out of, the other is for venting. Don't mix the blood from Matt's cut finger into the coconut milk though. That would be nasty. The eyes are the softest part, and make it easy to not spill the coconut milk. A Dewalt drill would be better, but the knife worked well. Once you drink the yummyness, smash the nut on something hard and eat the white part inside. Delicious and good for your hike back. A machete would cut your time from half an hour to under a minute. But, at least if you Gilligan Island yourself in the tropics without one, you can eat nicely.
Extra credit Bonus.....
Carefully crack the shell in half and make your female companion a coconut bikini top. She likely won't wear it, but at least the thought was there.

Getting off this rock for a few days!

Just wanted to say "YEA!!!!"

I'm getting off the Guam rock for a few days by going to work with Stephen tomorrow...how weird is that? I'm joining him on the island hopper to Honolulu (this being my very first trip to Hawaii - and probably one of the shortest any of you have ever heard of - we'll be on the island for 50 something hours).

I can't wait to just be somewhere different...I'm not feeling anything of the cabin fever I've felt at other times this year - but I do think I was going to be hitting a wall soon enough. A perfect break in the Guam life so I can come right back to it and enjoy some more. And with a car rental, we hope to check out the north shore and I'm hoping to eat a good burger and a sandwich from the Whole Foods (like back in the days of field work for ENSR).

Hopefully we'll get some good photos to share, and perhaps a funny story or two.