Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!

The turkey I roasted came out great this year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The All-American Holiday of giving thanks, being grateful for what you have, and spending time with family is now here.

The turkey is just about ready to come out of the oven, and I've made some excellent homemade cranberry sauce to accompany it.

May you and yours enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Thanksgiving meal has now been had as is tradition.

The turkey I made came out great, being roasted in the oven.  

The sides from mashed potatoes to corn mush, squash, green beans and more  also were all very tasty.

Birthday cake will follow momentarily, after we have a break.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lots to be thankful for this year.

The turkey is now roasting happily in the oven, and all preparations are underway for a proper Thanksgiving feast.

I hope you and yours enjoy this most wonderful and American of holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and the quintessential American holiday.

The turkey is in the oven.

Yes, that is right, roasting happily at 350 degrees.

Other dishes are being prepared for the feast accordingly.

Unfortunately, it won't be like other times. Due to the border with Canada still being closed, the restrictions on number of guests, and the loss of a good friend and cousin this year, who had graced our table with his presence last year and made our celebration then far better than it would have been without him.

This year will still be family but it will be just us around the table.

May you all have a Happy Thanksgiving, and take a moment to be thankful for all that you have.

Happy Thanksgiving And A Great Ammo Deal

Classic Arms has Federal 115gr 9mm FMJ for $124/1000 after rebate and free shipping, which is one heckuva great deal If you shoot 9mm.

I hope all of you had a peaceful and enjoyable Thanksgiving with your families. We had a nice one with family and friends over to enjoy the festive meal.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Teenager Day

Not only is today Thanksgiving but is also a momentous day for Abby.

Abby turned 13 today. Yes, my house now contains a teenager. It's amazing how time flies.

We had a surprise party for her yesterday. When she came home form shopping with Tash, she was surprised by her friends popping out from the kitchen yelling "Happy Birthday!".

Then we took all seven kids to Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them in 3D.

It's a darn fun movie and if you like the Harry Potter series, this one will fit right in as a prequel of sorts. Worth seeing and enjoying in 3D at the theater.

Then we came home and made homemade sushi (no raw fish though, just make your own rolls). The kids all enjoyed rolling their own dinner. Then dessert which was apple pie and ice cream.

After that, the kids had a sleepover in the family room and Abby woke up this morning to a Happy Birthday song and the traditional cherry cheesecake, and presents from her friends and family.

A great time was had by all.

Now we're cleaning up from the party and preparing for Thanksgiving.

May you all have a very happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The house is cleaned, the turkey is in the oven, and my parents are now on their way driving towards us for a festive meal.

The quintessential American holiday, it's a fine time to sit around a table with family and/or friends and enjoy a fine meal together.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and your families.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you're all enjoying this wonderful and most quintessential of all American Holidays.

May you have a great one.

Now back to the family day stuff.

Thanksgiving And Jett's First Real Snow

While it's still November and Thanksgiving Day, thanks to the powers of Al Gore, we've received our first decent snowfall of the season.

Where's your global warming now, you jerk?

At least Jett enjoyed it profusely, skidding and slipping on the Driveway of Doom™ and sampling the taste of fresh snow.

Thank goodness his hair is growing back.

He's one happy dog, and in a few more hours, when the Thanksgiving turkey is out of the oven, I bet he's going to be even happier and thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Hanukkah and Happy Thanksgiving

Last night marked the beginning of Hanukkah, and today is one of the very rare occasions where the first day of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving coincide, currently being given the appellation “Thanksgivukah.”

How rare? Well, we won't see this convergence again until the year 79811 CE.

It's a nice convergence of two holidays that both celebrate religious freedom and thanks for deliverance.

So last night, we gathered with some friends and celebrated the first night of Hanukkah. We then said the prayers and all the kids from the families lit the menorahs/hannukiahs for the first night, including the one made from mini flower pots that Leah made and decorated all by herself at religious school just for the occasion.

In addition to the normal huge batch of potato latkas, Tash also made sweet potato latkas which were awesome. She also made a cranberry relish to go with the standard sour creme and apple sauce for condiments for the latkas.

The kids had a great time together as did the adults and it was

Tonight will be our traditional Thanksgiving feast and the second night of Hanukkah. To celebrate the convergence, challah stuffing is called for, and more of those awesome sweet potato latkas.

So a very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, and have a very Happy Hanukkah.

The After-Turkey Online And Offline Day

Recovering from the fine Thanksgiving meal (Natasha truly outdid herself and it was a feast beyond feasts) and having some good friends over last night, it was time this morning for a little online shopping in between kid events:

Brownells is running its aptly named Black Rifle Friday, offering 10% off most stuff, which is a very good deal, plus Bornwells has a great online shopping setup. Lots of stuff caught my interest.

I picked up some PMags, the allen key I need to complete the trigger guard install on the AR lower, some reloading dies, and something else that will hopefully get its own post after it arrives.

MidwayUSA is running some specials, but I'm pretty set for what they're offering this year.

And of course, Amazon is offering many deals, some of which are darn tempting.

Shopping done,now time to have some fun with the family.

So, I hope you've recover from your Turkey-induced coma and enjoy this fine day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

One of my favorite holidays of the year is now here.

On top of that, Abby's birthday is but a few days away as well, so its a very celebratory time of year for us, with much to be thankful for indeed.

I hope all of you have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving.

Black Friday Browsing and Family Time

We did not brave the malls on this beautiful day. In the high 50s and sunny it was time to go outside and go have a nice long nature walk.

Lunch was scrumptious leftovers from last night including the best roasted turkey ever (the secret is butter and kosher salt slathered on the skin after washing and drying it well, and using the convection setting on the oven), mashed potatoes, squash and the last pieces of apple and pumpkin pie.

Instead of standing in line, I went online:

Midway USA is not only having select specials all week, but also offering $15 off any purchase of $100 or more of their regularly priced stuff, which is easy to do when you're looking for firearms accessories.

It was at MidwayUSA that I picked out Murphy's Law's Christmas gift. It's a secret but I'll tell you what it is in three words:

SWJIWRJXBDFRS.

Yep, encoded for your pleasure, answer to be revealed on Christmas.

If you figure out what it is, send me an email and I'll let you know if you're right, but don't tell him.

CDNN Investments also has some great deals going today on mags including AR-15 PMags for $11.

After all that shopping its was time for a snack and then taking the kids to the library to play and get some books and DVDs.

Not a bad post-Thanksgiving day by any means.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday, and one of my favorites. A mix of religious and secular themes, with family and friends coming together to celebrate.

So the turkey is roasting to perfection in the oven, the sweet and the savory squashes are cooked, the stuffing is done and only the mashed potatoes remain to be finished.

I took the kids on a nature walk and now we're back and Abby is playing away on her Kindle and having a great birthday. Leah is busy drawing with her new markers, and all is right with the house.

Friends are due over shortly for the feast to begin.

Happy Thanksgiving, and may you have a great one.

Cold Turkey

This morning was our group's annual Thanksgiving Day Dive.

The weather was cold, wet, with some cold rain coming down as all six of us pulled into the boat dock parking. The rain was bad because we could get cold and wet.

Another group was there as we arrived, donning their equipment and getting ready to go in. After exchanging some hellos, we started to gear up as they went in. Since they were diving in wetsuits, they were coming out pretty quick from the 45 degree water.

The visibility was really terrible today - the rain and a fair bit of wave action dropped the viz near the boat dock to a few feet. Once we got farther out to the northern boat it cleared up a bit but was still like diving through pea-green soup. Rob's light conked pout so he had to go to his backup but no big deal. Chad was wearing the vest today and on medium it kept him nice and warm the whole dive. now to figure out how to lock it in to the medium setting and we'll have some nice heated vests to make diving more enjoyable.

After a while, We then headed back, did a slow ascent and came out 35 minutes after we began and another Thanksgiving tradition continues. We then changed, stopped for coffee, talked about diving and future plans and wished each other a happy Thanksgiving and then headed off to be with our families for the rest of the day.

A very nice, albeit cold and wet, way to start the holiday.

Thanksgiving Dive 2009

So while most of you were still snug in your beds on this cool Thanksgiving Day morning, I joined the fearless (or folhardy) few and at 8:30 am began our traditional Thanksgiving Day dive.

The water was a brisk 42 degrees and 46 at the surface.

We had an excellent turnout and the dock was packed with cars with over 20 divers in the water during the morning.

One diver on the way as we were going in was moving like a train wreck, while towing a float with 3/4" thick bright yellow polypropylene floaty rope - yes the rope that has "major entanglement hazard" as its main selling feature - the stuff is designed to ensnare you and really wreck your underwater day. Of course he's blissfully whipping through our formation like were not even there while towing this rope that is just everywhere. That guy had the situational awareness of a dead water-buffalo.

Once we got past Mr. I'll entangle you in my line, the dive was great. Some nice big Bass were frolicking by the sunken boats, buoyancy and trim were decent and a good time was had by all. Rob was getting a little low on air while diving an AL80 so I shared hair from my double tanks and we swam around some more.

48 minute dive. Started with 3000 psi in my doubles, ended with 2000 even after the air share. Also met and dove with Scott and John for the first time- good guys and nice new additions to our dive team.

The tradition continues.

Happy Thanksgiving

I had a great Thanksgiving.

We had some friends over and Natasha made a wonderful feast. We're still dealing with a few days worth of leftovers but I was restrained and didn't eat myself into a stupor.

We do have much to be thankful for. Even with the economy in this state continuing to amaze us all by continually finding new lows, I've still got a job, we've got a (massively depreciating) roof over our heads, food on the table, two healthy happy kids and a good bunch of friends. Many people have much less and the majority of the world would be thrilled to have the opportunities we have living here and now.