Pat made a very tasty thanksgiving dinner tonight. It has salad, turkey, grill mushroom and japanese tea rice, quite an interesting combination. After dinner, I baked cookies for the WYD auction, where each of us promised to take turn and bake two dozen of cookies each month for a whole year. It is my first time making cookies, I cheated a bit by using ready made doughs bought from super market. The only thing I did was use cookie cutter to make the shape. The first dozen looks pretty good, it has two kinds, round and heart shape. The second dozen is looks quite odd, since I underestimated the expansion of the cookie in the oven. The cookies turned out filling all the empty spaces on the plate and pressing each other. Oh well, although the shape is irregular, the second dozen actually taste better, because I used a named brand instead of Superstore brand in the first dozen. Last month Pat baked some really fancy pretzel-like cookies and raised the bar of our donor’s expectation. This month my first-time cookies should set the standard of our donor back to normal.

For the first time, my group of friends at work had organized something that interested Pat. We had been saying to have a wine and cheese party for quite quite, and this Thanksgiving weekend I push it to become reality. The most important thing is the wine and cheese, which is taken care of by Steven who is our culinary expert. Jackson offer to host the party and Ivy taken care of the sushi dinner and head counts as usual. Steven bought six bottle of wine, three white, three red to the party. He also prepared matching cheese, bread, biscuits and dry fruit. We played foosball, pool and NHL 06 while tasting the wine. Steven also gave us a brief tutorial on wine pairing. The principle is very simple, strong taste wine pair with strong taste food, vice versa. After the wine tasting they start the poker game, but I have to go home early since Pat is getting tried. The party is very fun, much better than just the usual eat and then gamble party. Most important, Pat enjoy coming along to try something new and play with snowball.

Today I have accompanished many things, I also helped Pat fixing her sink. The sink is clogged for a few months and draining very slowly. Finally Pat can’t stand it anymore, bought a home maintance DIY book and make me do the work. Fixing the clogged sink is easier than I had expected. Just unscrew the drain at the bottom of the sink, take out the cock to remove all the hair clogging the drain. Pat said that I am very man while doing the plumbing work. The upper stair toilet is now officially reopened.

I went for dancing shoes shopping today. Since I had started learning ballroom dancing with Pat, she always wanted a proper pair of dancing shoes, so finally we decided it is time to buy one. A dancing shoe is very different from normal shoe. The bottom of the shoe is made of leather instead of rubber, the purpose is so that you can slide easily on the dancing floor to perform the turning moves. Originally I only want to get the cheapest pair to get by, but the economy one is really uncomfortable. I have flat feet, so the top half is very tight. I ended up buying a Diament pair, which is made in Germany, and doubled my budget. With this expensive pair of dancing shoes, I must learn to dance well so that I could match up well with my shoes.

Last night I went to Eucharist adoration at St. Mary with Pat in the evening. After the adoration, I followed her to the coffee house of St Mary’s young adult group. They have meeting every month on the first firday night and it is lead by Fr. Mark. Last night is theme is having a discussion on controversial subjects regarding the Catholic faith. Topics selected including female priest, the meaning of scaraments, confirmation at young age, allow priests to get marry, decline eucharist to pro-choice politicians. The atomsphere is very friendly, although people have different point of views, we have lots of laughts making ridiculous comments. Also it is very informative to have a father giving us background on the church’s official teachings, regardless of wether we agree with them. I always thought only converted priest from the Orthodox church allowed to stay marry, but it turn out this rule also applied to protestants. There is obviously a loop hole in the system to allow someone have all 7 scaraments. The disscussion makes me feel like a uncle Victoria Park, which is kinda fun. I won’t mind if Pat ask me to go with her next time.