So with having some extra time this weekend I looked a little deeper into Thunderbird and some of the new features that you can add to it.  One nice new thing is that you can install a plugin called Lightning which will add an Outlook type calendar to your Thunderbird install.  After installing Lightning as an add-on you can then download a Google Calendar plugin.  This plugin will allow you to select Google as an external calendar.  From there you re-launch Thunderbird and go to the calendar menu and add an external calendar.  Tell it you want to add it from your network then add the private calendar address you can get out of Google’s calendar settings.  This is a nice feature and brings Google calendar to Thunderbird and is always up to date.  Plus with Plaxo now syncing my work calendar and my personal calendars it is a very powerful addition to Thunderbird.  My only complaint is it is a bit slow.