I wish Turkey only Cost a Nickle Oh I love turkey on Thanksgiving

Merry Thanksgiving one and all. Our Thanksgiving was wonderful and I hope yours will be too.

We had a big gathering with lots of friends from the ward. We all gathered at the High School Cafeteria, its nice knowing the HS principal. Now we are home and Em is asleep early on account of either having eaten too much or having finally contracted the family illness that has been going around for the past week. Historically for the past 7 Thanksgivings we've shared together she has been mildly ill for about 4, moderately ill for 1 and severely ill for 2. (I made the exact statistics up. 90% of statistics are made up 60% of the time anyway.) I think she mentally blocked out all sickness, except for her lingering sore throat, so that she could enjoy this glorious day of thanks she has been planning for a long time. Then once all was over she opened herself up to embrace the suppressed virus/bacterium (not sure which it was, we didn't obtain a culture).

Anyway, she is asleep, but before she drifted off she exercised some of her motherly inspiration and suggested I keep our eldest up late tonight. So we came downstairs and while Max made a bed out of the couch cushions, I found the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on UTube and we watched it together. Then we played UNO for about an hour. I think he is in Heaven. It was really fun. He has gotten good enough that it is a competitive match between us. Now he is on the floor behind me playing UNO against himself. It's really cute especially when he suddenly calls out "UNO!" at himself and has to draw two more cards.

So for what am I Thankful for this year?

Not Being a Student or a Resident ANYMORE!!!!!!!!

The Bean

Here is the picture I took that I liked a lot. It is a giant reflective bean in Millennium Park in downtown Chicago. Very cool.Oh...and the most delicious breakfasts...Eva! (It even rivals Pipes!)

Banana Bread and Cheesecake filled French Toast

Colorado Omelet and a gravy eggs Benedict

oh... and the cutest little niece Thanks Dubs!!!

I Love Chicago

I am currently trying to trick my body to get back into GMT +9 hours time. Right now it is somewhere in between GMT + 9 hours and GMT -6 hours and +9 hours, which puts me somewhere in Europe I think. Hey maybe I should stay where I there. So if you haven't heard or figured it out by the title of the post, then you may be a little daft, I am currently in Chicago (actually in Buffalo Grove).

Why am I in Chi?

Well, it all started at 10 am on Thursday GMT +9 hours when I departed Misawa Airport to Haneda Airport (1 hr 20 min) and then transferred to Narita Airport via Airport bus, about an hour ride (both airports are in Tokyo). Then I flew for about 12 hours 15 minutes to Atalanta Airport, having watched one episode of the Office, half an episode of Pushing Daisies, The Incredible Hulk, Diminished Capacity, Journey to the Center of the Earth (having forgone Hancock and Indiana Jones and Momma Mia since Em wants to see those) and finishing Brisinger (my latest book, yes Cosmina it was about a Dragon!) and I took a nap for an unknown # of hours. At which point I went through customs and boarded a new flight to Chicago O'Hare. I then found myself riding in a taxi to my hotel. So I left my house at 9 am and arrived at about 7:30 pm, which is only a short 11.5 hours, until one adds on the 15 hours time zone difference and one sees that one has been traveling for 26.5 hours!!!

Why did I do all this?

So I could fight jet lag during a two day AAPD (American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry) Dental Trauma Symposium. (I did pretty well staying awake too, better than during residency.) It was a conference I had been dreaming to go to and was lucky to be approved by my Dental Squadron Commander to attend. The best part though was being able to hang out with my buddy Matt G. from residency. The conference was good. Most of it was a review of what I already knew but I did learn how to transplant a immature premolar to the position of a missing front tooth as well decoronate (cut off the crown of a tooth) in order to preserve bone height. (Feel free to go back and skip that last sentence or two.) Some cool techniques that I knew about but had no clue how to do. So now I need to wait for a kid to need some of these cool techniques and hope at the same time that my poor patients won't traumatize their teeth. What a paradox I live in!

I did get to make a trip to Costco, after which I realized why we have been able to save a lot more money now that there is no Costco/target/walmart nearby! It did feel nice to be there again! I love you Kirtland Signature!!! I got to eat a lot of yummy American (and Mexican food too while I was there. The best part of the trip was that I got to see Dave, my brother, and his family. Especially their cute little/huge daughter. She loves me know!!!!! They picked me up after my conference and after driving around such an awesome city, took me to a yum yum Mexican restaurant, That Little Mexican Cafe. They make fresh guacamole table side!! Nice!

So there you have it. It's almost 1 am GMT -6. Time to check Sports center and read a bit more and then take a power nap (still trying to trick my body). Whereupon we will patron the best breakfast place I've ever frequented, Wildberry and then its off to Tokyo. If you ever come to Chicago GO THERE!!! I'm overnighting in Tokyo and will try to find the Tokyo temple and also tour the imperial gardens. I'm doing a little reconnoitering for future trips to Tokyo.

Synopses: Chicago rocks, I love visiting this city. It has jsut an amazing feel being out on its streets. However, I think I'm over America. I don't think I miss it as much as I thought. You are great and all, but I can't wait to get back HOME!!! (It was wicked awesome to see my family and some friends though, can't take away from that.) I miss my kiddos and my gracious adorable Wifey.

P.S. There will be more blogs to come. I plan on writing a couple while I'm over the Pacific Ocean. Plus there is an awesome Chicago picture I need to download when I'm back to Misawa!

P.S.S. My sis-in-law has the coolest print of Chicago. It's from Ork Posters. It shows all the neighborhoods of Chicago.

How Did I Vote

Well, actually I unfortunately did not get to vote. Its harder than I thought to get an absentee ballot and to figure out where one's home state is. That aside, how would I have voted. By "how" I mean how would I have decided who was best to lead our country. I have been keeping current on my politics by watching SNL's presidential bash 2008. It's on right now on AFN, which is the military TV network. I haven't been too impressed with the Barack Obama, although I did enjoy the "Solid as Barack" song he sang during his infomercial. I mostly have been impressed with Sarah Palin, especially as she is trying to use a "Life Line" with her interview with Kattie Couric right now. LOL. I didn't really like the Biden impersonation either. So my vote for President goes to Tina Fay! She is so good/funny. I really like Hillary too. Don't tell anyone but I actually turned it from the real candidates on FOX news to the SNL candidates. Good switch if you ask me. I think I get the same info if not more accurate then what the real people are saying since you can't believe what any of them are saying!

Side note, on the way to the commissary today, Max asked me "who do you like dad Barack Obama or John McCain?" He said their names perfectly and we've never mentioned them to him. (I know Emily too said we should have been talking politics a bit more with him, but I think there are more important things to talk to him about like how to eat with a spoon!) Anyway he choose Obama at school. So I guess his school held elections today, I wonder if they will count for the real election!