Round-up

There is some unposted business left to be discussed before the week ends in approximately 45 minutes. Two recipes, a quick overview of my first day as a Mac user and finally my Christmas roundup.

We shall start with the Mac. As noted this afternoon, the new MacBook Black came this after noon via FedEx. Extremely quick shipping considering I ordered it at 8pm on Thursday night. I expected it to be calendar refill I ordered for my planner or some of the text books I ordered earlier in the week, but to my (pleasant) surprise, it was my Christmas gift to myself.

Just like PC, the initial power-up required some housekeeping chores. User accounts, default settings etc. etc. had to be attended to first and foremost. I had been worried prior to my purchase that the MacBook would not interface correctly with the Windows Wireless home network we have here at the house. Blog posts and other ineternet stories suggested that connection *could* be made, but that it would be a difficult process. Wrong. An available network list came up, i clicked it and provided the password, and bam, I'm connected. It was that easy.

Next I set to task attempting to find a way to transfer my emails from the PC. After reading several highly technical articles, I stumbled on one which advocated converting from Outlook to Eudora for Windows, then transferring the files which would work with Mac's pre-loaded, integrated mail client. The address book transfered just fine; no such luck with the email. After several unsuccessful attempts which resulted in all the emails appearing in the box, but having no text associated with them, I went back to the PC and opted to save the very vital emails as text files and swap them to the Mac that way. I'll be holding on to the PC for a while anyway, as I still need it for our home business until we get a Mac friendly version of QuickBooks.

I've spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just playing around. I've been able to communicate from my computer to my cell phone via Mac's built in Bluetooth technology. Unfortunately, I can send data to the phone, but have yet to work out the kinks as to how to go from phone to Mac. The iPhoto software is pretty interesting, too. It's straight forward and much more functional and user friendly than anything I ever used on PC. Acquiring images from my Cannon PowerShot A75 was also a cinch. The iWeb feature seems to be a quick easy way to build websites and even features software to build a blog. Sounds like fun. I might have to check into leaving blogger and finding my own domain. Any suggestions?

I opted to download Firefox over the Safari internet browser provided by Mac. My old Newsgator client was not Mac friendly, so I switched to one called Shrook. So far so good in that department as well. Overall, I must say that I am quite pleased with the switch. We'll see when I get back to school and the Mac gets put through the vigor of day to day usage. I have to say that I'm even a bit ashamed of my unwillingness to have explored this option earlier, but I will also admit up front that I am NOT one of these hardcore Mac only types that laughs at folks who use a PC platform. So that is that...

Next up: Recipe time.

For our Christmas celebration, I cooked for the girlfriend. She came over, we ate and exchanged gifts. I made Chicken Francois from the Healthy Eating Cookbook. It was delicious. The chicken was pounded to about 1/4" thick, then coated lightly in flour, then dipped in a mixture of egg substitute, cheese, salt, pepper and a few other odds and ends, then lightly fried in olive oil. To round out the meal, I served risotto and steamed brocoli.

After the meal, we headed to a nearby town to see The Nativity which was quite a lovely movie. The writers really did an effective job of capturing the majesty of teh event as best could be expected. Furthermore, the interwoven humor provided by the Magaii was very enjoyable.

Christmas treated me well. Clothes were the big-ticket items for me this year. I received no shortage of sweaters and winter clothes, which were appreciated as my wardrobe needed to be boosted a little bit. A new leather jacket headlined the gifts from the parents, which also included the DVD of Les Miserables performed by the so called dream cast. Watching it again gave me cold chills, and Valjean's confrontation with Javear made every hair on my neck stand at attention. Rounding out the gift giving was a new leather planner (which was highly needed) and a mug which reads: "I'm a scary conservative with a hidden agenda..."


Christmas went off without a hitch. Considering that various members of my family (on both sides) have had health issues (from kidney stones, to liver transplants) it was good just to be with the family. We even had a new baby on my dad's side. While I don't have any pictures of the big Christmas meal, I assure you all that it was delicious and beautiful.

Last night, everybody was in a sort of "no need for a 'big dinner'" mood, so I put my parents new Cuisinart Griddler to work making panninis. They were delicious: Capricola, baked ham, prosciutto, tomato-garlic pesto, pepper-jack cheese, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, thinly sliced red onion and semolina bread come together to form the "perfect panini." Here, the mega-sandwhich is enjoyed with toasted butternut squash (I had some raw left over from Christmas eve dinner) and one of my first (and favorite) legally-enjoyed alcoholic beverages since celebrating my 21st on Tuesday: The Hornsby Hard Cider. Yum.

So this has been a long entry about much of nothing. For those who read all the way to the bottom, I apologize for being length and for any hunger pain that reading or seeing about these two meals may have caused.