An Excellent Diving Thanksgiving and Abby's Birthday

An exceptionally fine weekend, and it is not over yet.

It happily started with Wednesday night going to the hockey game and watching the Red Wings crush the St. Louis Blues 3-0. Then on Thursday having the day off from work for Thanksgiving gave me much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving, which is perhaps the ultimate American secular holiday with religious overtones, where one can gather with family, relax and reflect and enjoy.

And as a diver's thanksgiving it began, I and the rest of my dive team hit the cool (46 degree F) waters of Union Lake for a 9am dive. The visibility was quite good, and as I had just purchased and installed (with the help of my knowledgeable dive team friends) a set of Diving Concepts dry gloves, the dive was much more comfortable. When the water gets this cold, dry gloves add to your comfort and overall feeling of warmth immeasurably. The viz was good, plenty of fish were about and I actually began to have a back kick, a technique I've been working on for quite awhile, and while I certainly don't have it down yet, its nice to know its finally starting to come together.

After diving I came home while my dear wife got some time off to herself, and then she went shopping for Thanksgiving Dinner.

I prevailed upon her to buy a turkey and she outdid herslf - she bought all the vital parts of a fine traditional family dinner- a 14 pound fresh turkey, squash, potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing and more.

She then made perhaps the finest most succulent Turkey yet. Interestingly enough the Turkey seems to have led its previous life as a far-left Democrat as one had to open the legs and reach into the nether cavity to pull its neck out of its ass, an affliction that seems to have taken over the Democratic left as of late, but I digress. Indeed it was a most noble bird, served perfectly and we're still eating excellent leftovers with no end in sight. Thanks for a very fine Thanksgiving 'Tash.

Then, today the 24th was Abby's 4th birthday, a day ful of great excitement, beginning with her waking us at 6am to announce it was her birthday. Much like the army, having little kids means you do more before 9am than most people do all day.

First she received her present - a Fisher Price real digital camera (in pink of course):


She then took 60 pictures in about as many seconds, getting better with the camera all the while. This is a great product for kids - pretty tough, very simple to use, and easy to take pictures including viewing them on an LCD screen on the camera and a USB port for easy transfer to the PC for saving and printing.

We then had a 4th Birthday breakfast, including a cake with layers made by her Baba (Russian for grandmother of course) and a cream filing by Tash.

After that we watched Raffi and then went to the Olive Garden for Abby's favorite lunch - a cheese and black olive pizza.

We then drove to the Livonia YMCA and fulfilled her next birthday wish - she wanted to go swimming and swimming we went, and everyone had a good time.

She was then officially tired out and proclaimed it the best birthday ever. She gets a party tomorrow, so this weekend is not done yet.