The end of a long weekend is always so depressing. It seems like such a long stretch when you're heading into it, but of course it passes by far quicker than you ever thought it could. We made the most of it though.

On Friday, we went out for our FIRST DINNER OUT since the beginning of August. Yes, we had DINNER in a RESTAURANT. We had a few drinks in the adjoining bar before enjoying an amazing meal and a beautiful sunset. It was awesome. And so worth the wait. Now we're back on the no restaurants train until my birthday in December. I have to say, not eating out did not actually leave us with any more money in our bank accounts, since we were obviously buying more overly-priced groceries. It did, however, leave me 9 pounds lighter.

The Rock doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving. They did, however, install a brand new national holiday earlier this year which happens to fall on what we know as Thanksgiving in Canada, the second Monday in October. I would like to think that they had us Canadians in mind when they worked out the timing for this holiday, but I highly, highly doubt it. Regardless, we are delighted to be able to continue on with our Thanksgiving traditions.

This was our first Thanksgiving on the Rock, and so we rounded up some other Canadians (we even rounded up some Quebecois), a couple of Americans, a Brit, a Kenyan and some South Africans and planned a big Thanksgiving Dinner. The South Africans bowed out at the last minute, but everyone else showed up, traditional (and non-traditional) dishes in hand, ready to celebrate all that is Thanksgiving. And since not one of the Canadians (or Americans, for that matter) could provide a satisfactory definition of Thanksgiving to our Kenyan and British guests, we told them that it is in celebration of turkey and Indians, which they bought. So, we toasted to turkey and Indians with a ridiculous amount of food, a bit too much to drink and a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to Kurt, when we surprised him with a birthday cake. All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving, though by the end of the evening, the thought of food made me want to barf. What is it about Thanksgiving that makes you eat far more than you normally would, anyways?

Anyways, good times.

Today was spent half on the couch, trying to sleep off the worst food-induced hangover I've had in awhile, and half outside, walking around the neighborhood. It's been awhile since I took my camera out, and we ended up staying out for hours. The weather has cooled off quite a bit since even just a few weeks ago we were still dealing with some fairly serious heat. Now it's cool, with a breeze and even a bit of a nip in the air at night.