Today was our belated Thanksgiving feast with Char, our 79-year-old pal.

It was such fun. We had gluten-free pumpkin pie. You never forget your first gluten-free pumpkin pie. Amazingly good. And I won’t miss two days of running because I ate it (did I mention last week was kinda brutal?)

(sidenote: Brother Rick, who taught me everything I know about puns, damn him, posted today on our Twitter account that  “You are a gluten for punishment.”)

We ate too much, and weirdly enough, even though we delayed our Thanksgiving four days, I’m still lying incoherently on the couch watching football. A proud Thanksgiving tradition continues thanks to a wretched excess of sports on cable TV.

Char used to live in the apartment next to us. Although I’m a bitter recluse, we instantly became pals. She’s been a treasured friend ever since.

Once during our time as neighbors, Mo left town for a week. I’m a pretty trustworthy guy, but Char’s got a window facing us and an uncanny ability to keep an eye on me, so I was used to getting phone calls saying, “I see you went out last night. Where’d you go?” If I had attempted hanky panky it would have been impossible. I was always on her radar.

So it was with great surprise that I brought Mo home from the airport, walked into our apartment, and found a bra draped across the chair in the living room. I had absolutely no idea where it came from. Mo’s eyes got really big. Suddenly I was Lucy Ricardo and Mo was Ricky, saying “You got some ‘splaining to do.”

The trouble was, I had no idea what to say. I found myself muttering the usual guy excuse, gee beats me why there’s women’s underwear in the room after you’ve been gone for a week. It was not going well. The room was spinning. I wasn’t even believing myself. Mo has an unshakable trust in me, but still. There’s a bra in the living room.

Then, a knock on the door. Char, who has a key to our apartment, had stopped by earlier to check on our cat since I had been at work all day. She was doing her laundry at the time and had  left a soggy bra draped over the chair. I have never been so relieved in my life. And I remain married to this day.

So today we celebrated Thanksgiving with our dear friend. We are so thankful to have her in our lives.

And I am so thankful that she kept her underwear on throughout the meal.