It's only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate, tastes like chocolate never tasted before. Or, alternatively...

Thank you. It's not exactly important to the plot, but it does help me picture what they are doing.

There's a comic-con this weekend in Dublin? How long are you going to be here?

Yup. In the Temble Bar Music Centre, so far as I know. We're getting the bus up after work on Friday, and then getting it back down on Sunday. Blergh.

Any of the Dublin comic shops should be able to tell you about the con. It's on Saturday, and Ireland's first, which means it will be small and crappy, but still.

Perhaps?

Woohoo!

Mmmmmm! Cadbury's Flake!

I've been saying for years that they should make Flakes in different kinds of chocolate, the way that Aero does. I think that the Snowflake should simply be a white chocolate flake, and that there should also be an orange chocolate flake and a mint chocolate flake and a dark chocolate flake and possibly even a mocha flake and oh my god now I am ravenous!!!!!!!!

runs away to buy a Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks.

How about a proper middle-of-Europe F2F?

Munich!

Munich!

Yes! It being only a couple of hours drive from me 'n' all. Hard for me to go much further afield with the two wee ones.

Also, kudos on the tag.

Love that Numberwang. The whole show was pretty good; perfectly pitched to my silly level.

You know, they introduced Flake in Canada a few years ago and it was not well received.

Aero makes these great little mint balls now. Bad for my waistline, great for my tastebuds.

Guys, I'll call up about renting a car next weekend and let you know--should we refer this to email? Profile addy's good for me.

SA, Happy Thanksgiving to you.

Did you get your pumpkin with which to make pie? Did you end up having a Thanksgiving dinner?

Thanks Cindy! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone too!

I didn't get pumpkin, though Lee was kind enough to send me some. It hasn't arrived yet, which I blame on the Irish post. I checked M&S, Dunnes, Tesco, the health food stores--there's no pumpkin in this entire country, I think. I asked one of the folks in the Tesco, and he asked if I'd just inquired someone else about it--apparently there were lots of Americans looking for it because when I asked in M&S, the girl said someone had just asked her too, a second before! Oh well. If the pumpkin does arrive--hopefully before I leave--I'll make a pie just because I love pumpkin pie.

But I did have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do the whole thing, but last month I was in the grocery store and they had turkeys for €10 off, so I figured it was a sign and went ahead and bought it. My friend Tom is also American, and when I told him I wanted to do Thanksgiving he offered to go in it with me. We went shopping on Wednesday, and because it's not Thanksgiving here, all the food was still there that we needed. No fighting with other shoppers for the last potato!

We invited our friends and flatmates, and it was going to be somewhere between 10-15 people. It ended up being more like nine for dinner itself, but it was great because all of our friends got on really well--a very nice mix of cool and interesting people. I made herbed-butter turkey with roast vegetables, heart-attack mashed potatoes, mushroom and italian sausage stuffing, homemade mac and cheese, brussels sprouts, roasted green beans, roasted fennel, and broccoli. With fresh bread and herb butter. So much food! So everyone ate and drank until they were stuffed, and much to my pleasure went back for seconds. My friend Naomi made raspberry crumbles, with custard or ice cream for dessert, and we had coffee with Bailey's too. In short, no one walked away hungry.

And then! It was also my flatmate Fabio's last night in town, along with our friend Eduardo--they both went back to Brazil today. So around eleven or so they came back with a bunch of their friends to spend the last night with him, and his friends mixed with our friends, and they had some food too because there was so much food! and it just felt awesome to be there, you know? And Fabio broke out the champagne for a good-bye toast, and we all toasted him and Du. It was really sweet.

Tom and I had to explain the whole idea behind Thanksgiving at least four times, because everyone was very happy to celebrate with us but no one knew what it was for! Trying to conceptualize the Puritans for foreigners was an amusing experience. I made everyone give thanks, as it were, which was endearing and funny both.

Really, it was just the perfect dinner party and possibly the best Thanksgiving I've ever had. (And this was a way longer answer than you expected, I know! But I had such a good time I wanted to share it.)