The joys of a long weekend.

For those of you who aren't aware, tomorrow the US celebrates Thanksgiving. This will be my first big American holiday, already I can see that it's a bit different to the Canadian style. See it's not like the idea is completely foreign to me, after all Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving as well, only we do it a hell of a lot earlier in the year...it's something to do with an earlier harvest time, go figure.

I really have to say that I am somewhat stunned at how big this holiday is down here. For the past couple of the university campus has been nearly deserted, even though classes are still running. I know classes are on because for the 4th or 5th time this year a demonstration in on of the chem classes has set off the fire alarm and caused the evacuation of the building. I really wonder if this prof even bothers to test the experiments before doing them in front of a class. This morning the radio news explained where everyone was, in the form of a warning to travellers to expect delays at airports and all the usual obvious advice. It's kind of funny to me that people will seriously consider travelling across the country to spend the weekend with family. Not that I don't love my family and all, but I don't seen a single meal being worth the hundreds of dollars for a plane ticket. Hell at that point you may as well take some cute girl out to a really expensive restaurant, after all the kiss good night from her is likely to be more fun than the one you'll get from grandma (if it's not something is seriously wrong). I also find it particularly odd that it is such a big issue for some to get home, after all, you are likely going to be seeing the same people for Christmas, and that's only a month later. But that's just me, as you all know, I look at the world a bit differently.

However since Deirdre's family lives in St-Paul, the 30 minute commute won't prevent us from going over to their place for a family dinner. I'm really looking forward to it, I have had a lot of fun with her family and I'm kind of curious to see how a family dinner like this will work out. We figure that there should be about 20 people there.

Of course this being such a large dinner I had asked Deirdre if we needed to bring anything, at which point I was told that we would be told if we needed to bring anything. So I was caught a little off guard a week or so ago when I was over at the parent's house with Deirdre. Her mother said that she was looking forward to the "gourmet dish" that I would be bringing to the dinner. My response was something like: "Ok, sure, I can do that." I hadn't been told up to that point that we were going to bring anything. Not that I mind, many of you know how much I love to cook. And I guess the little cooking that I have done for Deirdre has received good reviews. Hopefully the Tunisian recipe for spiced potatoes goes over as well.

Though the nicest thing about this whole holiday is the long weekend, and I'm talking a 4 day weekend! Beyond the dinner not too much has been planned for the weekend, but it's more fun that way. We may end up going out to a museum, we will probably catch a movie or two and hopefully we can find some time to get out to the rock climbing gym to try out Deirdre's new shoes (I'll see if we can get some pictures if we go). But other than that it's going to be a nice long weekend of no responsibilities and relaxation. Hopefully heading out to the Dakota grill tonight will kick things off properly.