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Thanksgiving Dinner

Mmmmm, turkey‘s in the oven, cornbread (Jiffy cornbread mix and a can of corn kernels), sweet potatoes (just plain roasted) are done and there’s an ice cold 6-pack of Molson Ice in the fridge. All that remains is the gravy, dressing and macaroni and cheese. The mac and cheese is half done. Just need to toss it into the oven to finish. Gotta come up with a tasty veggie dish now.

Oh, this is gonna be soooo good…

Spent most of yesterday cleaning the apartment. Boy, did it ever need cleaning. Vacuumed corners that probably hadn’t seen the business end of the vacuum cleaner since we moved in. Scary sight. But the place looks better now. Still cluttered, but clean. We just have too much junk in our apartment. One of these days, we’ll have to go through and decide what’s junk and what isn’t.

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Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Maple LeafMonday is Canadian Thanksgiving Day! Not quite as big a holiday as it is in the US, nor does it mark the start of the holiday season. But it is a big holiday, with lots of food and family.

My mom usually baked a ham for Thanksgiving, instead of turkey. Once in a while, we’d do a turkey, but we usually preferred ham. For me, it was mostly a day off from school. It was one of the last holidays we could spend outside before breaking out the heavy coats. As I got older, I tended to spend most of my Thanksgivings on my bike cruising through the bike trails back home enjoying the spectacle of fall. Most of the trees turn colour by this time, and there are lots of nice crunchy leaves that are fun to go stomping through. Of course I’d be back home in time for dinner. Usually it was just me, my parents and brother and sister. Sometimes my aunt and uncle would have a big dinner at their place with even more family.

CBC would air It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! in the evening, which was always fun to watch. There was always a football game to watch in the afternoon.

So now that I live in the US, I get to celebrate 2 Thanksgivings. My regular Thanksgiving in October, and the US Thanksgiving in November. Double the fun and best of all, double the food 🙂

And while writing this, I also learned that Martin Frobisher, an English navigator, celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Canada back in 1578, 43 years before the colonists at Plymouth Rock did. Betcha didn’t know that Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving first!

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New eyes

Picked up my new glasses yesterday. The new glasses are amazingly light compared to my old pair, which were even lighter than the ones before that. My new glasses are Easyclip titanium frames with these nifty little magnets designed to hold some clip-on sunglasses. The sunglasses just stick to the magnets, so no fumling around to slide them on, or prongs poking me in the nose. The lenses are high index glass with UV, anti-reflection (AR is a must-have) and anti-scratch coatings.

Over the years, my wife has been slowly migrating my glasses to smaller and smaller sizes, which runs counter to my preference for larger frames that preserve my peripheral vision (which now falls outside of my glasses). The smaller frames look more stylish, but now I’m limited to just detecting large blurry moving objects with my peripheral vision.

One of these days, I’ll have to talk to my optometrist about maybe getting some LASIK or some other laser surgery done on my eyes. My glasses are pretty pricy at $450 a pop. If laser surgery can improve my vision so I don’t need as strong a prescription, I’ll be happy.

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Friday Five

1. Do you watch sports? If so, which ones?
I usually don’t watch sports. I prefer participating rather than watching. And I find watching sports to be pretty boring.

2. What/who are your favorite sports teams and/or favorite athletes?
The Edmonton Eskimos and the Edmonton Oilers naturally.

3. Are there any sports you hate?
Well, I’ve never really be terribly fond of pro wrestling. Baseball comes to mind as well. I find golf to be pretty dull too.

4. Have you ever been to a sports event?
I’ve been to a few Oiler’s and Eskimos’ games. Almost went to a Red Wings a few years ago. I also saw the South Carolina Stingrays play a couple of years ago.

5. Do/did you play any sports (in school or other)? How long did you play?
Can’t really grow up in Alberta without strapping on a pair of skates. I spent most of my childhood winters on the ice rink playing pickup games. Played a lot of soccer in elementary, and some volleyball in high school. Did track and field in high school and university and played intramural hockey in university.