Subject: Thanksgiving Dinner Invitation
[UPDATE 20 November: our gmail addresses mentioned below are dave.bakken@gmail.com and beth.bakken@gmail.com.]
Dear Friends, Romans, and Countrymen; CptS 224, 464, 564, and 500 Classes (and fearless TAs); GridStat grad students; colleagues; and man-in-the-middle principals:
We are having Thanksgiving dinner Thursday November 27 at our home, and inviting over some students as we do every year. You would be quite welcome to come if you like. We fully understand if you cannot make it. There is no obligation to come, and we will not be offended if you cannot. Typically there are 10-20 students who come, mostly international grad students (since most undergrads live nearby and go home to family that week). And we are blessed by the diversity of their backgrounds and heritages.
If you would like to come, please reply by Monday noon if possible (“RSVP”) so we know how many to expect, but if you do not know until later than reply when you can and just come. If you do reply, please reply to me at EECS (where I sent this from) plus to myself and my wife Beth at home (cc'd). There is no need to micro-spam everyone this was sent to with your reply! J So don't hit "reply to all" accidentally.
You are free to bring any family members with to the dinner. If you do RSVP, please have the subject line be "Thanksgiving Dinner RVSP (X)", where X is the number that will attend in your party. In your email, please be sure to mention the names of everyone coming, and the ages if they are children (children are fine, we will have older kids to help play with them etc). If you are arriving more than about 30 minutes late, please call us so we know you are still coming; we will probably start eating about then.
Note: please don't wear a tie, or I will tease you without mercy like I did one of my students when he did this his first Thanksgiving at our house. J He has come later times but never ever again with a tie. We will be providing the food and drink, so there is no need to bring anything. If you are a good cook, and want to bring a dish from your home country (especially holiday food), you are welcome to, but this is not required. And almost all students who come will not bring anything (which is probably fortunate, at least if their cooking skills are anywhere near mine -- I am strictly a hunter-gatherer).
(FYI, in American culture, it is not appropriate for a student to bring a gift to a professor (a former student its OK, but not a current one), so please don't bring a bottle of wine or a gift of some kind.)
We will start at about 1pm, and go into the evening with playing board games etc. We will probably be done about 7, though you are free to leave earlier if you wish or if you are asked to leave because you rooted for the Huskies or even just came dressed in purple and gold.
A map to our home, as well as parking notes, can be found at: http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~bakken/BakkenHomeMap.pdf.
FYI, more on the history of
Thanksgiving can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving. It started with early settlers held a feast
(including Native American "Indians" who helped them) to thank God.
In
Also, note that the Apple Cup football is noon this Saturday on Fox Sports Northwest. If pigs fly and the Cougars somehow lose, the game will NOT be a suitable topic of discussion at Thanksgiving. Need I say more? The game is in Pullman, and the weather is looking reasonable (40 degrees and no rain), so if you have not been to a game yet in person, this would be a good one (it should not be that hard to get tickets). Its quite a cultural experience, not just the game but hanging out with fans ahead of time in the Field House (big brick building by the track and football field, next to Bohler Gym).
Let me know if you need a ride or can provide one to another student. I can do a run with my minivan to pick up folks at the department if needed. Again, if you are coming please reply no later than Monday noon if you at all can. But if you don't know you will come until later, just tell us as soon as you can and just come.
Thanks,
Dave
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David E. Bakken, Associate Professor, Computer Science School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Postal Address: PO Box 642752; Washington State University; Pullman, WA
99164-2752
Shipping Address: 102
Phone: 509 335 2399 Cell: 509 592 0238 Fax: 509 335 3818
Email: bakken@eecs.wsu.edu
www.eecs.wsu.edu/~bakken & www.gridstat.net
