5 Star

I just added a whole lot of new music to my computer in the last couple of weeks, and I've developed a totally new obsession with iTunes and my iPod. Of course, I have already knit my iPod a little cozy/sock thing, so you know I've got a problem. Admit it, you've knit one for your iPod, too! (I'm looking at you, Melinda.)

Oh, so my new obsession! The single greatest feature of iTunes is that you can rate the music. You can rate each song individually on a 1-5 stars scale. You can also rate entire albums or entire artist collections, but on a per song basis is so much better. iTunes will calculate out the average rating for an album based on your song ratings. It's wonderful and I love it and find myself rating every song I hear, if only in my head. 

So, for your entertainment value, I'm giving you some random information about my iTunes library, or at least the library on my laptop. We have way more music on our desktop computer; I only put my favorite stuff on the laptop. 

Please please please leave me a comment telling me your favorite band, or who takes up the most memory on your computer, or why you love/hate iTunes, or just what you're doing instead of working right now (which is not at all what I'm doing at 3:30 on a Wednesday afternoon. Of course I'm working. Stop looking at me that way).

Screen grab of my iTunes library. It won't all fit in one frame.

Total artists: 85

Total albums: 229

Total songs: 2941 songs, 7.2 days worth of non-stop music

Most songs and albums by a single artist: 

Green Day - 12 albums, 158 songs

Rancid - 7 albums, 122 songs

The Offspring - 8 albums, 100 songs

Genre with most albums:

Punk - 78 ablums

Alternative - 46

Rock - 31

Indie - 29

Genre with least albums:

Soul and Emo are tied with 1 album each

Soul - Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama

Emo - Jimmy Eat World

Genre with most artists:

That'd be punk, again, with alternative a close second. I'm not even gonna look that up. 

Artist with most 5 star songs:

The Beatles, if I had the whole collection on here. I haven't rated my entire library yet, but right now the winners are:

Kings of Leon - 23 songs 

Coldplay, Jason Mraz - 9 songs each

Jamie Cullum, The New Pornographers - 8 songs each

Counting Crows - 7 songs

U2 - 6 songs

Aqualung, Angels & Airwaves, Dear & the Headlights - all have 5 songs

Artist with highest 5 star percentage:

Kings of Leon - 23 songs from 3 albums. What? I love those guys and they make great music!

4 years

Well. Alright.

Today is promising to be an interesting one. Here's a list of the reasons why.

1. It's February and I am wearing a tank top and flip flops. It feels like spring, but it'll probably make it's way back down to freezing in a few days.

2. Wearing such clothing might not have been the best idea, since I have to spend most of today working in the cold room (read - walk in freezer). My toes may freeze off, and a lab coat doesn't actually provide much warmth. Also, I maybe should have taken the time to dry my hair instead of leaving it wet.

3. Apparently I accidentally texted someone this morning. At least she's my friend, and she called to check and make sure everything was okay. The text made no sense, something like "q2wk2" or other babble.

4. I also called some random phone number. I looked down, and my phone was calling someone. I hope it wasn't a real number, and I hope it didn't wake anyone up.

5. I spilled coffee all over myself. This in itself isn't that unusual, but I did manage to spill a record amount today. Really, if there was an olympic event for accidental coffee spillage, I would win hands down. It's like my one great skill.

6. I forgot to put on deoderant. I guess it's a good thing I'll be spending the day in the cold room and not the warm room.

Celebration dinner

In December, just before things got hectic with the Christmas holidays, a major thing happened in our lives here. GP graduated from undergrad for the last time! That is to say, with his second degree, this one a B.S. (in physics - we're science geeks, you know?) with a minor in math, because he is a little crazy. But what can I say, my minor was biochemistry. 

His Mom & Dad, brother & soontobe sister-in-law, sister, aunt and some cousins all came in to celebrate.  So of course I used this as an excuse to cook a big fancy meal and feed everyone delicious foods while also using the fancy crystal that we got for our wedding. We did not use the fancy china, however, because we didn't want to spend the rest of the night washing dishes!

Usually, the things I cook are simple and can be made in about a half hour or so. But when it's a really special occasion I'll do something that takes a lot of time and effort to cook. Often in these instances, I turn to one cookbook. Giada De Laurentiis's Everyday Italian. While not a huge fan of her shows, I adore this cookbook. The recipes are actually quite simple, even if they require more time and effort than I usually give. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. For GP's celebration, I used 3 recipes from this book, and added a fruit salad to the table to give something sweet.  Below are the recipes I used. 2 of them (the pork and the farro) are actually posted on FoodNetwork.com, and the third (grilled vegetables) is just a link to a similar recipe of Ms. De Laurentiis's.

Pork loin with fig sauce  - Not a bite was left over! I didn't make the fig sauce, and the pork was just fine without it. Incredibly juicy and tender. It took about 45 minutes to cook, but was very easy to set up.

Grilled vegetables - This isn't the exact recipe, but one like it. I've used the book's recipe before, and it is always a crowd pleaser. It makes a ton, though, so leftovers hung around for awhile. This was also the most time-consuming part of the cooking, since we just have a small Foreman grill and had to do the veggies in batches. 

Farro salad with tomatoes and herbs - Okay, I wasn't really sure about making this one, but I had a lot of barley on hand (used in place of the farro) and wanted to get rid of it. It was great! I was hoping to have some of the leftovers with lunch the next day, but GP ate them all. Everyone loved it, including the picky eaters.

For the fruit salad, I'm pretty sure I just cut up some apples, strawberries, and bananas, then knock out a bunch of pomegranate pods. I may have put in some blueberries too, but I can't remember. No added sugar, just the fruit. 

Now we have another big occasion to celebrate coming up. Our 4th anniversary! GP has already gotten me a gift (how bad am I that I didn't even realize it was coming so soon?) and I have no idea what to get him. Suggestions? 

'Til the cows come home

The Bag Lady posted today about working with the cows. She knows I love cows and actually let me name one of her new bulls last year. After reading her post, I thought I’d share a somewhat humorous story with you. Sorry if you don’t find it too funny. Sometimes, you’ve just gotta be there.

The summer after I graduated from college I spent about 2 months at home with my parents before moving here to North Carolina. I mostly spent the time hanging out and taking afternoon naps (Dad on one couch, me on the other), and enjoying my last summer vacation for the foreseeable future.

We lived out in the country and almost always kept a few cows at the house. One day that summer, I don’t remember where Mom was, the cows got out. Now, if you’ve ever been around cows, you know they are fairly docile critters.  They know when you’re coming to feed them, either by the sound of the truck or the honk of the horn, and they come running like a dog when you call for it out the back door. Once they get out of the fences, however, they become like cats. You know, how when you call them they just look at you with disdain and then turn the other way? Yeah, that’s cows out of the pen. 

This particular afternoon, we somehow learn that our cows have gotten out and are making their way at cow pace (read: slow) across the street to the neighbor’s house. So here come Dad and I chasing the cows. The neighbors come out of their house to help by jumping on their horses, and their oldest kid gets on the 4-wheeler. Dad and I remain on foot because we only have a horse that tries to kill me when I ride it, and no 4-wheeler. Just imagine 2 people on foot, a 4-wheeler driven by a 12 year old, and two people on horseback running around in no particular order and you’ll get a good idea of how we looked. Oh, and add some pissed off cows into the mix, charging and changing direction every 20 feet or so. Sound fun?

After about 10 minutes a guy drives up in his Camaro and asks what’s going on. I would have asked too, because just looking at us you might think we were all drunk at about 2:00 in the afternoon and trying to catch a cow for dinner. Guy decides to help, so he maneuvers his car to sit right in the middle of the road, thereby attempting to block the cows from going that direction. In theory, this is a good idea. The thing is, if you’re going to attempt to persuade cows to stay away, the proper way to do it is a huge duelly truck that actually takes up the whole 2 lane road, not a little sports car that cows will gleefully step on, or more likely take a dump on. It isn't the most efficient tactic, but with Dad, me, and the guy from the Camaro standing on the side of the road to keep the cows from going around the car, they are persuaded to pursue other directions.

Right about this time, the cows start to cross back across the road into our yard and my phone rings. GP’s calling and we have this conversation:

Me: Hey! I can’t talk right now, I’m busy wrangling cattle.

GP: Doing what?

Me: Wrangling cattle. 

GP: {Silence. Then laughter}.

Can you tell GP grew up in town? Anyway, the cows finally get back in our fence and we find the hole they snuck out of. Dad and I fix it, then we take a nap.  

That there is one of my favorite stories about the cows getting out. The only other story to rival it is the time the neighbor’s donkey got out and we had to ride in the back of a truck yelling “ho ho ho” to get it to come home. 

PS - It's snowing like crazy here! If it's still around in the morning I'll take some pictures.