Ho ho ho... Merry Christmas!

How was your holiday? (You can actually answer too... just leave a comment!) Mine was aiight. Bad side: I didn't get an elctronic dart-board. Good side: everything else. I had a grand time with the folks, great food, lots of great gifts, and for the first time in a couple years I was able to buy some nice stuff for them too.

I sat around and ate a bunch, and read one of my favourite new gifts, I'm Just Here For The Food, by Alton Brown, host of the Food TV show "Good Eats." It's a fantabulous how-to manual for cooking. He's got quite a brain packed into that grape of his, and he has a working knowledge of the checmical and physical changes that food undergoes when it's cooked by the various methods used in the kitchen and over the grill. I'm going to peruse the sections on pan-searing, deglazing, and braising before I under-take a nice, semi-traditional beef stew. I'll do the stew beef in my stainless sauté pan, and deglaze with.... beer! Yes, I'm selecting Southern Tier Brewing Co. porter to do the job of dissolving all the carmelized sugars and other assorted brown, yummy goodness sticking to the bottom of the pan. Unless I go nuts and buy a new stockpot (which I'm considering doing... a 6 QT. stainless Cuisinart, of course) I'll be using my 6 QT. slow-cooker for the stewing bit. After I deglaze the pan, add some aromatics and reduce the sauce, to intensify the flavour, I'll dump the works into the slow-cooker with the beef, potatoes, carrots, pearl onions, and other assorted veggies. Add to this enough liquid (not sure what I'll use... stock or broth, perhaps?) to almost cover the meat and veggies, and let it go for about 6-8 hours. Sound like a good plan? It sure does to me. When it's all done, I'll serve it with some hearty bread and hearty beer... the very same porter I used in the cooking.

Not sure what in the hell is going on with hockey this sunday. We played last sunday and took a 7-3 loss. Not an ideal way to kick off the season, but it happens. I played better last weekend than I did in last season's final, but we just didn't generate enough goals in last sunday's game. We teams were supposed to collectively decide whether or not to play this coming sunday, because of the holiday weekend. I suspect most people will be in town, so I bet we'll play. Ben's in New York, so he cast a vote to reschedule, which would be on a saturday. Which would likely interfere with my work schedule, so I voted against rescheduling. We'll see, hopefully by tomorrow.

Grades have arrived. It turned out to be a pretty lack-luster semester, all in all. Grades were as follows:
Music Theory III: B
Jazz Band: B
Chorus: A
Applied Music III: I(ncomplete)
Piano Minor III: F

Yep, I bombed piano minor. I'm sweating a little on this one... I wonder if it'll keep me from getting into Fredonia. I kinda doubt it, but we'll find out soon enough. I went online to MCC's website and dropped piano IV and registered for piano II... might as well go back and get my ass in gear. This officially shoots the shit out of my chances to graduate with my associates in music this spring. Another year without a commencement... good job, jackass. The situation may get more complicated, depending on how a certain faculty member reacts, as he's made it plain he wants me to graduate... and he may all but make me retake the final when we get back to school. I don't regard this as even remotely fair, but if this is the way he wants to play it... at least I can get a degree and walk the stage in May. I'll keep you all up to speed on this situation if it develops in that direction.

Dinner's ready at the folks' here, so I'm off. And thence to my friend John's sister's place, since he's in town from San Francisco for the weekend and I just gots to visit him.