Behold! They Mystery, the Wonder, the POWER OF THE INTERNETS!

This has got to be one of the coolest things I've seen on the internet in a long, long time - "Best thing since Strong Bad!"

Pandora is a part of the music genome project, which is a collection of music and analysis. The cool thing about pandora is that you go there, type in a band or a song you like, and it'll make recommendations for other music you may like, based on info on the music genome project. THEN - and this is the really cool part - it will create a streaming radio station* for you from which you can listen to selected songs, in their entirety, to determine if you do indeed like the songs.

ISN"T THAT AWESOME?!?!?! Holy crap!

*You prolly need a fast connection for the streaming radio, and I certainly don't condone streaming media at the workplace :)

11.29.05 8:33am(0 comments)

Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance to the music!

Thanksgiving is that very special time of year when Americans casually forget about Whitey coming to America, bringing disease, oppression and the onslaught of genocide to the native peoples, to remind ourselves of how thankful we are for whatever it is we have, for also not being Native American, but first and foremost, to eat ourselves into tryptophan stupor and watch football. God Bless America!

As in the new thanksgiving tradition, Tom and I are cooking again this year. However, we're not just cooking for ourselves, but for the 10 or so folks of the board game group! It just so happens that everyone will be in Chi-town for thanksgiving, and I have this crazed desire to cook up a big feast, so it works out rather well. Fortunately, Chris, the guy who usually hosts the board games at his place, is opening up his huuuge apartment for said feasting - because we sure as hell can't fit 10 people into our apartment.

Here's the menu:

Bread horn of plenty with crudite, cheese, and dip

various pre-game snacks

Pumpkin Shrimp Bisque

Field Greens with toasted pumpkin seeds and Cranberry vinaigrette

Honey-Brined, Herb-Roasted Turkey Breast

Turkey Gravy w/ White wine

Gramma's Celery stuffing

Mashed Redskins with Sage and Goat Cheese

Famous Boyer-Mancine Cranberry Ginger Chutney over Brie w/ french bread

Roasted winter vegetables

Green Bean Casserole

Rolls

And for Dessert... PIE!!

Apple, pecan and pumpkin with homemade cinnamon ice cream, courtesy of Chris

w00t!

As you can see, there are a few additions and subtractions from Last year's menu, but I think we're honing down the perfect thanksgiving feast, year by year. Also, I thought about linking all the recipes I used for inspiration for this food, but I really don't follow any of them exactly, except for the pumpkin shrimp bisque. If you are epicurious, you can go look them up yourself. Tom and I made the brine monday night and started the birds yesterday. I think that with the cranberry honey, kosher salt, and addition of brown sugar, this year's brine is better than ever before. Probably starting it early, giving it time to cool,and allowing it some time to soak up all the aromatics probably helped too. Let me tell you, it's incredible smelling! I cannot stress enough how excellent and moist brined turkey is. Both Tom and I weren't big turkey fans until we started brining. If you want brining tips, lemme know. Also, since Sybil decided to lick me from dreamland into the waking world at 4:30 this morning, I'll probably go make the bread horn of plenty after this post is over.

11.23.05 6:41am(3 comments)

Meme-a-go-go

TEN FIRSTS:

First Best Friends: jenny, julie, jocelyn, michelle, andrea and sandy

First Hamster: not applicable

First Piercing: ears

First Crush: I can't remember

First CD: DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince

First Car: 91' Mazda-rati 626

First Love: food

First Stuffed Animal: the white kitty maybe?

First Kiss: Just ask her and she'll tell you - My Gramma gave me my first kiss just behind my left ear

First Concert: Beach Boys - Kings Island

NINE LASTS

Last Alcoholic Beverage: Caucasian

Last Vehicle Ride: the el this morning.

Last Phone Call: Mom

Last CD Played: I don't play many cd's but Tom and I popped in the Mix CD that Julie's friend Max made for her (It was really good but definitely made me wonder a bit about Max).

Last Bubble Bath: I have no idea

Last Time You Laughed so hard you cried: This last weekend, Tom recalled the 'The Great Tom retard stranding of '04' - it was pretty funny :)

Last Shit: Last evening sometime

Last Breakup: oh god, it's been yeeeeaaars

Last Movie Watched: Primer

EIGHT HAVE YOU EVERS

Have you ever dated one of your best friends: Yep.

Have you ever skinny dipped: Probably.

Have you ever been on TV: WOOOOWEEE I's on the TEEVEE!

Have you ever kissed someone and then regretted it: Let's not talk about that

Have you ever had a sex dream about someone you knew: Yes, I know who they are but they never have faces. Psychoanalyze THAT!

Have you ever been in a fist fight: A few punches thrown in grade school and an attack by psycho former roomate.

Have you ever ridden in an ambulance: I don't think so.

SEVEN THINGS YOU'RE WEARING

1. Hand Knit Socks by Gramma

2. Strongbad 20XD6 shirt

3. Jeans

4. pig tails

5. Hello Kitty underpants

6. $.50 cent cz earings from claires that have been the most durable pair of earings I've ever heard tell of.

7. I'm not wearing my watch, claddaugh ring, or my charm bracelet because I forgot to put them on this morning. Grr.

SIX THINGS YOU'VE DONE TODAY

1. This meme

2. Cleaned and put together a computer

3. Played with my puppy

4. Blew my nose - a bunch

5. Work stuff

6. Ate lunch

FOUR PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL [ALMOST] ANYTHING TO

1. Tom

2. Mom

3. Joe

4. Loving readers of Kristyland :-D

THREE CHOICES*

1. eat or drink? fuck that - BOTH!

2. fast or slow? hrmph - BOTH!

3. pink or black? again, BOTH!

*There's nothing wrong with wanting it all :)

TWO THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE

1. Travel the world

2. Get a PhD

ONE THING YOU REGRET

1. waiting so long to move to a big city

11.18.05 3:06pm(0 comments)

Whatya gonna do with all that breasts?

Dear black eyed peas,

Oh black eyed peas... How the mighty have fallen. I mourn for the days when you weren't singing inane humpy songs, regardless of the camp retro value. Why, when I first heard the hump song, I had no idea it was you and was in disbelief when I heard it was indeed your creation. Please discontinue singing dumbass songs and actually use the talent that you were once so proud to showcase. The question remains, what are you gonna do with all that dumbass songs?

xoxo,

Kristy

So this afternoon I'm going to speak to an after school group of high schoolers about technology careers. On my list of things to talk about is why I chose a technology career, why I chose to work in a non profit over a corporation, and then onto an introduction to open source. Can you think of anything else I should talk about? Yes, I'm going to bring a bag of suckers - it's an old dirty trick, but it works soooo well.

I need to do something with my hair. Yesterday I looked like I stuck my finger in a light socket. You know it's bad when you look in the mirror and you're reminded of christopher lloyd from back to the future. I had it cut a month ago, but I'm still not quite happy with it. The cut I got wasn't bad, per se, juse bad for me. I'm thinking about going with this cut that I saw on the korean tv channel (Naturally, this is the clearest channel that comes in on our tv so Tom and I often find ourselves entranced by the korean prime time drama Wedded Bliss, which is apparently about two couples who are engaged to be married and their trials and tribulations, but I get a totally different vibe from the show.). The character's name is LeeNa, and while she's small and skinny, she has a round face. So, I'm thinking, hey, I've got a round face too - perhaps I could pull it off. One of the big reason's why I want shorter hair, other than it looking cute on me the last time I had it, is that it takes a lot less time to dry. With my new big city life, walking to the train every morning, there is no longer any 30 minute- dry my hair with the heater of the car, fans on high - time. In order to not "catch the creepin' crud" as they say, I need to dry my hair before I leave the house. Right now, my hair is just a little too long for the flip the head over and dry method (which makes me look like christopher lloyd). But, if I try to dry my hair straight, it ends up super frizzy - because I'm completely inept with my hair. So basically what I need is a hair cut for a multiply handicapped and mentally challenged person because that's pretty much my level of aptitude in respect to hair. I had one of those blow dry / curl brush wand things, but it ended up burning out on me. Plus, it took too long to use that thing although the results were quite stylish. Oh well, someday the perfect haircut will come, until then it's just me and christopher lloyd.

11.17.05 8:36am(2 comments)

Happy Veterans day!

LAF, why do you hate America? What kind of law firm has work on Veterans day? Surely you must hate America.

A special Happy Veterans day to Grampa and Larry! Thanks for serving our country, cuz I sure as hell wouldn't want to ;)

11.11.05 10:14am(0 comments)