An American Thanksgiving.

In past years, we've had rather unconventional Thanksgiving meals with fellow diaspora students and we had served protein like Cornish game hens, drumsticks, and ribs in place of turkey. However, this year, we were graciously invited to join our friends in Brockway (Spousal Unit's former Roommate & Family, henceforth abbreviated as the "SURF") to celebrate Thanksgiving, and it was an all American feast!

The celebratory meal involved the Mrs and I and three generations of our hosts' family! SURF-mom got up and started cooking before sunrise, even though she was battling a cold. The turkey was cooked slow and low, was honestly the best turkey I've ever had!

What can be more American than Thanksgiving with turkey and stuffing, gravy, coleslaw, sweet potato casserole, mash potatoes and dinner rolls?!

The feast began a little after noontime, which I thought was a brilliant idea because it gave one less time to spoil one's feasting appetite than the stereotypical dinnertime feast. It also gives you more time to eat, nap, go for a walk and tour of town, recover, and eat some more!

The table talk was also fun and entertaining! SURF-grandpa told us that each of the four B-29 engines (which individually produced 2200hp at takeoff) only used four steel bolts to install and shared some humorous stories about his time in Okinawa.

For dessert, SURF-grandma made two pies, a cinnamon pumpkin pie and a minced meat pie. I attacked both with gusto, and the minced meat pie was particularly good with Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum!

Our host also made a red, white and blue surprise jello to celebrate my naturalization! The red layer included yummy strawberries, the white was a composite layer created from lemon jello and vanilla ice cream, and the blue was blueberries! It was yummy and disappeared without a trace before the day was done!

We spent the remainder of the evening chatting, drinking tea, watching Galaxy Quest (in which Adrian Monk was always eating) and an episode of the BBC's The Supersizers!

All in all it was the most memorable Thanksgiving yet!

Stay tuned for the part two writeup of our pilgrimage to St. Mary and a celebration of  Brockway pizza!

Tremble and Weep Yinz. Tremble and Weep.

Let it be known that I can now commit felonies with no fear of deportation. 

Oh and I bought a new watch! It is a Citizen BM8180-03E, which is the entry model of the light powered Eco-Drive powered watches that ought to stay ticking for at least a quarter of a century without a battery replacement. If we ever have kids, I intend to pass this watch to the future generation. 

The Quartz time keeping has been perfect so far, and has stayed accurate to within a second of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology's atomic clock after over a month of ownership.