Much to be thankful for

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. Just like last year, we had planned to go to my boss's house for a potluck. Unlike last year, I was able to contribute. I cooked up two batches of Dubuisson sweet potatoes, and Bobby made a Mt. Dew cake. Also different this year: we brought a friend! I am grateful to have made friends over the past year, and it was wonderful to share Thanksgiving with them. Dinner was a nice mishmash of good food, good liquor, conversation, and karaoke, which I'm finding is a fixture at all parties in Korea, American or Korean. Here they call it norebang (karaoke is a Japanese word, which Koreans try to avoid).

My birthday is tomorrow, but I've already received my presents. I got some fabulous boots from my parents, along with some clothing and an autographed copy of Greg Mortenson's book. Greg is a personal hero of mine; he is fighting terrorism in the middle east by building schools. I firmly believe that education is the key to a free democratic society, and Greg is trying to prove that. My dream job is to one day help build libraries where Greg builds schools. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

This morning, Bobby retrieved an Amazon box from base. It was kind of slim, and I opened it to find a bread machine cookbook. Bobby told me he would get me the bread machine for Christmas. I was actually kind of fooled, but then he got the machine from the car.

I have wanted a bread machine for awhile now, and it was astute of Bobby to decide to get me one now. I used to live two doors down from a bakery, and now there is almost no source of good, fresh bread. Sure, Korea is littered with bakeries, but they concentrate on Korean pastries: sweet cakes with bean paste or cheese and sausage laden crusts. There are no baguettes or artisan breads. Now, I can make my own with little effort.

Clearly, I have much to be thankful for. Here's to another year in my fortune filled life.

My bread machine

These boots were not made for wearing in the house,  so don't tell my landlord