11/26/2020> Last night we were going to a restraunt + there was this massive spider web blocking the entrance that we had to navigate to get in, but we became so fascinated by the web that we didn't go in. There was a massive black widow that was solid red, like the hour glass comprised her entire body. Then dozens of flies hit the web all at once + all these other smaller black spiders ran over + started wrapping 'em up. At first we figured they were parasitic free-loaders taking advantage of the massive web... the big red female ran over to them + we thought she was gonna kill them but it appeared she was just taking a sip of each fly, like she had outsourced these little males to do her dirty work + she was taking her cut, a kickback tax of sorts... we know there's pseudo-social spider species that form colonies, but w/ a black widows as queen? What does it mean?

Thanxgiving morning. We're actually cooking a bird, for the 1st time! In the past we always liked to give the birds a break, but when the 1 guest we're having over (who like us never leaves the house) heard we were doing a vegetarian thanskgiving she was like fuck that so we said ok, ok, but we're thinking this might be the last bird we ever eat (the only land animals we eat right now) + going forward into 2021 only eat animals from the sea... + ok, eggs + dairy, so we'll be lacto-ova-pescatarians, like we was for the 1st decade or 2 as an adult. So this might be the last bird we ever eat. Smallest bird we could find was 11 pounds (organic, free-range), yesteday (after thawing) we brined him in a concoction of salt water, spices, miso paste, lime, pickle + kimchi juices + whatever random stuff we could find laying around.

Obviously we're making this up as we go along... don't worry, we flipped him every few hours + left him breast down overnight. This morning we drained it, patted him down + now he's in the fridge drying out. We havn't talked much about what we've been cooking since our cooking under covid post... we've been to an outdoor restaurant 2 or 3 times (+ we never get takeout) since March, otherwise we've cooked every meal. Last night was porcini-lemon pasta w/ (leftover) squash + mushroom quiche + buffalo mozzarella. The night before was trout spiced w/ thai red peppers + tamarind + brocolli over rice. Can't remember beyond that, probly black bean tacos.

Once the turkey dries out, we aim to jerk the turkey, make a jerk sauce (of habanero, green onions, all spice + more of the same stuff as above, including O'bay as a nod to our current DC home) to baste the bird with. Then in a few hours we'll stuff him (w/ green chili stuffing) + pop in the oven, but this comes after (drumroll please)... the infamous "turkey dance". Our bedder-½'s family has this time-honored tradition of doing a turkey dance but since no 1 is getting together this year in person we figured we'd do 1 of our own to share over zoom. The dance typically involves dressing the turkey up—Donald Drumpf would have been the obvious choice for 2020 but her folks already did a Drumpf turkey dance, in fact it may have even been before he was prez. So then we got to thinking that to honor the Mexican origins of el pavo (the country of Turkey has no geographical relevance as to the source of turkeys except it was the port the new-world bird passed thru so Europeans assumed it was a new type of bird from Turkey + called it that). We ain't gonna dress the pavo up (we thought of this yesterday so just have to make-do w/ what we have on hand) but our bedder-½ is gonna play a Frida Kahlo puppet master/dance partner so guess u cd think of el pavo as Diego Rivera, who resembled a turkey so the bird don't need no disguise + can dance in his birthday suit. We were gonna be all fancy w/ still-frame animation + make the turkey + various objects dance around to the beat but then in the interest of time decided to just go w/ the raw footage. Feliz thanksgiving!

[sorry, we ended up keeping the video private + blurred out the face to protect our identities]