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All the stuffing
Dec. 24th, 2004 01:34 amIt’s been an interesting few days. Half of my student loan money finally came through Monday, but I wasn’t able to deposit it until Tuesday (the other half should be by mid-January). There were two major goals for this money, (a) buy a new laptop and (b) register for the spring semester. I had already selected the laptop and from whence it would be ordered, an IBM Thinkpad T23 (an older but eminently serviceable model, and leaps beyond my current laptop’s capability) and being an impatient prat, I talked a friend of mine into letting me use her credit card briefly to order it. It is en route and I’ll probably get it on Monday. I’d prefer a Friday delivery, but it left Brooklyn at 9pm Wednesday, so it’s doubtful it’ll be this week. Yes, I could have paid an extra $30 or so for next day, but it wasn’t that huge of a hurry. I’ll have plenty of time to get it loaded and configured before training starts the first week of the new year.
Monday also saw the delivery of the subject of tonight’s feast, the turducken. It is a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken, all of which is stuffed with Cajun sausage and cornbread stuffing. We had a big dinner party tonight and a huge amount of fun, more on that later.
So I picked up the turducken and popped it in my fridge to thaw. They’re smaller than I expected, about 12 pounds even with all that meat. They’re not cheap, locally they’re $100. If you get it mail-order, expect an add’l $25 or so for express shipping. You’ll need a gourmet shop or similar grocer to order it, in Phoenix you can order them at AJ’s. They’re online at www.turducken.com.
Sunday night I spoke with my girlfriend, Russet. Her last night at work until January 2 was Saturday, the original plan was for her to sleep Sunday and drive down late Monday after doing errands. That didn’t quite work out, she ended up driving Tuesday night and arriving 4:30ish Wednesday morning. I worked that afternoon, that evening we went to the Biltmore to descend upon the Apple Store and California Pizza Kitchen, also a leisurely time was spent at Border’s Books. The unexpected aspect was finding a small store that bakes dog biscuits on-site. Russet dropped as much money in the store as the dinner for three cost, sans tip.
Very fun store to cruise. Russ bought several biscuits along with several dog toys. They also had the green dog biscuits that Celeste, Russet’s poodle, really likes. Celeste has teeth like a wolf and can tear things apart with great aplomb. On the way home from tonight’s dinner party she chewed about a third of the way through one of the shoulder straps of my Camelbak backpack that serves as my laptop bag. I pulled on the strap to see if it was in imminent danger of failing, it showed no sign of tearing further. I think it’ll be safe as long as I make sure to use the chest strap. There’s a local place that I think can probably repair it, I sent them an email to see if they think repairing it is viable.
Thursday was party night! It wasn’t a holiday party per se, it was just a party that occurred near a holiday. I had spoken with Michelle (an ex-girlfriend) at some time in the past and told her about turduckens and that I’d love to have one some day. Well, she made that day Thursday. Since it is likely that before another year is out that I’ll be living in New Mexico, she effectively gave me a turducken for Christmas. I was thinking entirely too small of scale and in terms of Michelle, Audrey, Russet and I having a small dinner. We then added Bear & Felicia, and turned it into a full-scale dinner party. In the end, we had 15 or 16 people and everyone invited, save one, attended! Everyone brought one or more add’l foodstuffs, and boy, did we feast! The turducken cooked pretty quickly, it’s recommended for four hours at 325, or until internal temperature hits 165, then remove the foil and brown it for another hour. Well, it hit 165 with 40 minutes left on the initial 4 hours! We removed the foil and did the additional hour, the bird(s) was at almost 200f when that was over. Russ made a great gravy from the juice and drippings, Bear & Felicia provided a ham, and I can’t name all the other good stuff that people brought. Many wonderful things from Trader Joe’s, without which life as we know it is not possible. Well, perhaps it’s possible, just not nearly as pleasant.
Russet played her harp, something that's always cool. She hadn't been practicing but still managed to crank out a couple of Christmas songs.
So, the role-call was: Michelle, Wayne & Russet, Bear & Felicia, Rich & Karyn, Chuck & Tracy, Ann, Audrey, Ben, Dan, Liz, Jason, and a special guest appearance by Mac. Sixteen people, wow!
AND I DIDN’T SHOOT A SINGLE FREAKIN’ PICTURE! ARGH! I am soo ticked off at myself, I was so busy hopping around, getting food prepared and out, it never crossed my mind that I should dig out my camera and do some shooting. I had planned to, I had brought my camera, it just didn’t happen. I know Chuck got a shot of the bird either before or in the very initial stages of its dismemberment, though Rich dedicated its sacrifice to Cthulhu, so perhaps dismemberment isn’t quite the proper word.
It was a great dinner. I’m hoping maybe we can turn it into a semi-annual stone soup party and perhaps add a person or two to the guest list. It was nice having a (mostly) zero pressure holiday party, no gift exchanges, nothing like that. Though I forgot to give Audrey the check for my new laptop.
Friday’s plan is to go to Game Depot and maybe get a game or two, then cruise on out to Bookman’s for a well-deserved used book crawl, so that should be fun. We originally were going to spend Saturday evening with my parent’s, but it looks like they may be out of town. My Texas cousin is in Tucson right now having undergone some sort of medical procedure, and my parent’s were going to cruise over and see him and whoever else went down with him. I tried calling them tonight from Bear’s and got the answering machine, so they might have already left. So I have no idea what’s up for tomorrow. Russ and I may end up ordering a pizza and watching movies.
Saturday we’re going out to Jim’s for some Champions and perhaps some board gaming. Jim has posted a message on our campaign board so that it looks like the game will be at the company holiday party on the island that is our base, so it should be interesting, doubly so as there will be a lot of innocents/company workers and probably a few player-related non-player characters.
Sunday? Who knows. Laze about, no doubt, maybe take in a movie. We’d like to see Unfortunate Events, Audrey saw it and thought it was pretty good.
Well, it’s almost 1:30 and I think that about covers recent history. I’m off for bed.
Monday also saw the delivery of the subject of tonight’s feast, the turducken. It is a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken, all of which is stuffed with Cajun sausage and cornbread stuffing. We had a big dinner party tonight and a huge amount of fun, more on that later.
So I picked up the turducken and popped it in my fridge to thaw. They’re smaller than I expected, about 12 pounds even with all that meat. They’re not cheap, locally they’re $100. If you get it mail-order, expect an add’l $25 or so for express shipping. You’ll need a gourmet shop or similar grocer to order it, in Phoenix you can order them at AJ’s. They’re online at www.turducken.com.
Sunday night I spoke with my girlfriend, Russet. Her last night at work until January 2 was Saturday, the original plan was for her to sleep Sunday and drive down late Monday after doing errands. That didn’t quite work out, she ended up driving Tuesday night and arriving 4:30ish Wednesday morning. I worked that afternoon, that evening we went to the Biltmore to descend upon the Apple Store and California Pizza Kitchen, also a leisurely time was spent at Border’s Books. The unexpected aspect was finding a small store that bakes dog biscuits on-site. Russet dropped as much money in the store as the dinner for three cost, sans tip.
Very fun store to cruise. Russ bought several biscuits along with several dog toys. They also had the green dog biscuits that Celeste, Russet’s poodle, really likes. Celeste has teeth like a wolf and can tear things apart with great aplomb. On the way home from tonight’s dinner party she chewed about a third of the way through one of the shoulder straps of my Camelbak backpack that serves as my laptop bag. I pulled on the strap to see if it was in imminent danger of failing, it showed no sign of tearing further. I think it’ll be safe as long as I make sure to use the chest strap. There’s a local place that I think can probably repair it, I sent them an email to see if they think repairing it is viable.
Thursday was party night! It wasn’t a holiday party per se, it was just a party that occurred near a holiday. I had spoken with Michelle (an ex-girlfriend) at some time in the past and told her about turduckens and that I’d love to have one some day. Well, she made that day Thursday. Since it is likely that before another year is out that I’ll be living in New Mexico, she effectively gave me a turducken for Christmas. I was thinking entirely too small of scale and in terms of Michelle, Audrey, Russet and I having a small dinner. We then added Bear & Felicia, and turned it into a full-scale dinner party. In the end, we had 15 or 16 people and everyone invited, save one, attended! Everyone brought one or more add’l foodstuffs, and boy, did we feast! The turducken cooked pretty quickly, it’s recommended for four hours at 325, or until internal temperature hits 165, then remove the foil and brown it for another hour. Well, it hit 165 with 40 minutes left on the initial 4 hours! We removed the foil and did the additional hour, the bird(s) was at almost 200f when that was over. Russ made a great gravy from the juice and drippings, Bear & Felicia provided a ham, and I can’t name all the other good stuff that people brought. Many wonderful things from Trader Joe’s, without which life as we know it is not possible. Well, perhaps it’s possible, just not nearly as pleasant.
Russet played her harp, something that's always cool. She hadn't been practicing but still managed to crank out a couple of Christmas songs.
So, the role-call was: Michelle, Wayne & Russet, Bear & Felicia, Rich & Karyn, Chuck & Tracy, Ann, Audrey, Ben, Dan, Liz, Jason, and a special guest appearance by Mac. Sixteen people, wow!
AND I DIDN’T SHOOT A SINGLE FREAKIN’ PICTURE! ARGH! I am soo ticked off at myself, I was so busy hopping around, getting food prepared and out, it never crossed my mind that I should dig out my camera and do some shooting. I had planned to, I had brought my camera, it just didn’t happen. I know Chuck got a shot of the bird either before or in the very initial stages of its dismemberment, though Rich dedicated its sacrifice to Cthulhu, so perhaps dismemberment isn’t quite the proper word.
It was a great dinner. I’m hoping maybe we can turn it into a semi-annual stone soup party and perhaps add a person or two to the guest list. It was nice having a (mostly) zero pressure holiday party, no gift exchanges, nothing like that. Though I forgot to give Audrey the check for my new laptop.
Friday’s plan is to go to Game Depot and maybe get a game or two, then cruise on out to Bookman’s for a well-deserved used book crawl, so that should be fun. We originally were going to spend Saturday evening with my parent’s, but it looks like they may be out of town. My Texas cousin is in Tucson right now having undergone some sort of medical procedure, and my parent’s were going to cruise over and see him and whoever else went down with him. I tried calling them tonight from Bear’s and got the answering machine, so they might have already left. So I have no idea what’s up for tomorrow. Russ and I may end up ordering a pizza and watching movies.
Saturday we’re going out to Jim’s for some Champions and perhaps some board gaming. Jim has posted a message on our campaign board so that it looks like the game will be at the company holiday party on the island that is our base, so it should be interesting, doubly so as there will be a lot of innocents/company workers and probably a few player-related non-player characters.
Sunday? Who knows. Laze about, no doubt, maybe take in a movie. We’d like to see Unfortunate Events, Audrey saw it and thought it was pretty good.
Well, it’s almost 1:30 and I think that about covers recent history. I’m off for bed.
