Happy Thanksgiving?

The French CDs that I listen to on my way to work are doing their magic; my high school French is coming back to me and I will be able to order my wine, duck and oysters as needed. But the French have a different way of speaking. I can't describe it, but in order to make the French sounds and accents, you place your tongue and jaw in a slightly different position than we do over here. After my 45-minute ride to work, repeating the CD, my jaw and neck are quite sore.

Last night accidentally ended up being Thanksgiving at our house. With Paris coming up, we are not going out to eat (to save money). So we went grocery shopping. While at Kroger, on the hunt for a good comfort food dinner, and discussing that we would be in Paris on Thanksgiving, we ended up making Thanksgiving early.

Our 2005 Thanksgiving menu
Rock Cornish game hens, stuffed with garlic mashed potatoes
Acorn squash, baked in maple syrup

We brined the hens first, too. If you never tried brining a bird before roasting it, I have to say that I am now a staunch advocate of the process!

OK, it's not really the massive spread that makes up most Thanksgiving meals, but it was just the two of us, and we are usually lucky if our meals consist of more than one dish. Counting the potatoes, this had three!

We also had a great bottle of sparkling dry riesling from Shady Lane vineyards, located in Zilla's neck of the woods.

I realize it's been a while since I updated my list of blogs I frequent, so I wanted to give a shoutout to these guys, and I will be updating my sidebar soon:
Chepner
The Jamoker
Segue
FineArtist

These guys help me get through the day.

When I was in high school, before the advent of the Interweb, my friends and I put out a zine. For those of you too young to remember, a zine is an honest flesh and blood magazine, presented in a format that isn't hampered by things like production values, content editors, or common sense.

We cranked out one of these things once a month, focusing on punk and heavy metal music. We had about 50 readers, and the thing ate up money in printing costs and postage. But we did get a ton of free records and cassettes out of it.

Now we have blogs. This is like the zine, except it's slicker and less expensive. I also like to think that over the years I have refined my skills as well. I have more than 50 people who read it, and they are more intelligent and interesting than our former metalhead readership. And it's more interactive; we comment on one another's sites, and we all read each other's opinions.

Again, it's like a real magazine, except it doesn't rely on production schedules or the need to cater to advertisers.

If this is the future, I like it.