Music meme!

Stolen from the lovely Trillian42

The rules:

A.) Go to musicoutfitters.com
B.) Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year
C.) Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate and underline your favorite. Do nothing to the ones you don’t remember (or don’t care about)

(eta: I have to use colors for mine...stupid blogger. So blue for ones I liked, orange for hate, and green for favorite. )

(eta again: damn the music when I was in high school was total shit. Realistically most of this list should be orange. I'm just lazy. )

1. Candle In The Wind 1997, Elton John
2. Foolish Games/You Were Meant For Me, Jewel
3. I'll Be Missing You, Puff Daddy and Faith Evans
4. Un-Break My Heart, Toni Braxton
5. Can't Nobody Hold Me Down, Puff Daddy
6. I Believe I Can Fly, R. Kelly
7. Don't Let Go (Love), En Vogue
8. Return Of The Mack, Mark Morrison
9. How Do I Live, LeAnn Rimes
10. Wannabe, Spice Girls
11. Quit Playing Games (With My Heart), Backstreet Boys
12. MMMBop, Hanson
13. For You I Will, Monica
14. You Make Me Wanna..., Usher
15. Bitch, Meredith Brooks
16. Nobody Keith Sweat
17. Semi-Charmed Life, Third Eye Blind
18. Barely Breathing, Duncan Sheik
19. Hard To Say I'm Sorry, Az Yet Featuring Peter Cetera
20. Mo Money Mo Problems, Notorious B.I.G.
21. The Freshmen, Verve Pipe
22. I Want You, Savage Garden
23. No Diggity, BLACKstreet Featuring Dr. Dre
24. I Belong To You (Every Time I See Your Face), Rome
25. Hypnotize, Notorious B.I.G.
26. Every Time I Close My Eyes, Babyface
27. In My Bed, Dru Hill
28. Say You'll Be There, Spice Girls
29. Do You Know (What It Takes), Robyn
30. 4 Seasons Of Loneliness, Boyz II Men
31. G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T., Changing Faces
32. Honey, Mariah Carey
33. I Believe In You And Me, Whitney Houston
34. Da' Dip, Freaknasty
35. 2 Become 1, Spice Girls
36. All For You, Sister Hazel
37. Cupid, 112
38. Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?, Paula Cole
39. Sunny Came Home, Shawn Colvin
40. It's Your Love, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
41. Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit, Gina G
42. Mouth, Merril Bainbridge
43. All Cried Out, Allure Featuring 112
44. I'm Still In Love With You, New Edition
45. Invisible Man, 98 Degrees
46. Not Tonight, Lil' Kim
47. Look Into My Eyes, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
48. Get It Together, 702
49. All By Myself, Celine Dion
50. It's All Coming Back To Me Now, Celine Dion
51. My Love Is The Shhh!, Somethin' For The People
52. Where Do You Go, No Mercy
53. I Finally Found Someone, Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams
54. I'll Be, Foxy Brown Featuring Jay-Z
55. If It Makes You Happy , Sheryl Crow
56. Never Make A Promise, Dru Hill
57. When You Love A Woman, Journey
58. Up Jumps Da Boogie, Magoo And Timbaland
59. I Don't Want To/I Love Me Some Him, Toni Braxton
60. Everyday Is A Winding Road, Sheryl Crow
61. Cold Rock A Party, Mc Lyte
62. Pony, Ginuwine
63. Building A Mystery, Sarah McLachlan
64. I Love You Always Forever, Donna Lewis
65. Your Woman, White Town
66. C U When U Get There, Coolio
67. Change The World, Eric Clapton
68. My Baby Daddy, B-Rock and The Bizz
69. Tubthumping, Chumbawamba
70. Gotham City, R. Kelly
71. Last Night, Az Yet
72. ESPN Presents The Jock Jam, Various Artists
73. Big Daddy, Heavy D
74. What About Us, Total
75. Smile, Scarface
76. What's On Tonight, Montell Jordan
77. Secret Garden, Bruce Springsteen
78. The One I Gave My Heart, w Aaliyah
79. Fly Like An Eagle, Seal
80. No Time, Lil' Kim
81. Naked Eye, Luscious Jackson
82. Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix), Los Del Rio
83. On and On, Erykah Badu
84. Don't Wanna Be A Player, Joe
85. I Shot The Sheriff, Warren G
86. You Should Be Mine (Don't Waste Your Time), Brian McKnight Featuring Mase
87. Don't Cry For Me Argentina, Madonna
88. Someone, SWV
89. Go The Distance, Michael Bolton
90. One More Time, Real McCoy
91. Butta Love, Next
92. Coco Jamboo, Mr. President
93. Twisted, Keith Sweat
94. Barbie Girl, Aqua
95. When You're Gone/Free To Decide, Cranberries
96. Let Me Clear My Throat, DJ Kool
97. I Like It, Blackout Allstars
98. You're Makin' Me High/Let It Flow, Toni Braxton
99. You Must Love Me, Madonna
100. Let It Go, Ray J

Dear Daily Show,

Thank you for pointing out hypocrisy on both sides of the aisle, and helping us to laugh about all of it.

I could go off on a rant here, but won't. Mainly because my politics are none of anyone's business.

Aaaaaaand....we're back.

A little sunburnt (surprise surprise...or not), but if that's the worst thing that happened this weekend? Fine by me! Kate and I returned home today from 3 days on Martha's Vineyard, sans kids and significant male partners. Lovely, relaxing and fun doesn't quite seem to cover it. We stayed here which was just a stone's throw from a million places to eat, and the beach! (room 10 was our room..very cute, just the right size).
We spent quite a bit of quality time checking out the island's transit system (well run and low key, as far as I'm concerned), went to a couple of different beaches, saw Cordelia and Andy, and went to the agricultural fair where we saw piggy races! (truly, you haven't lived until you've seen little baby pigs race around a track for an oreo. really.) We went to the cliffs at Gay Head to see the colors and the sunset a bit, and walked a TON. We walked most of Edgartown, and a fair bit of Aquinnah (from Gay Head to the Chilmark police station, where we finally found a bus stop.) The great part about all the walking was the cool stuff we got to see that we would have totally missed by just taking the bus. We poked around an old cemetery, and walked past a Cattle Pound. We saw GORGEOUS houses and over all had a grand time. I'll hopefully have pictures up as soon as my camera pulls it's head out of it's digital ass.
For now though, check out Kate's blog. I'm sure she'll have much better pictures with her recap than I will!

Globe Trottin'

Ok. Maybe not *globe* trotting...more like upper Atlantic Coast trotting...but hey, I'll take it. Saturday begins the end of the summer weekend trips for me, with a day trip to Boston with Kate, Mary and the kids. Should prove to be a good time, and nice to get out of the house. The Boy comes home from CA that night, which will be wonderful. The following Friday Kate and I depart for the "no boys no kids just beach" Martha's Vineyard trip. Then a potential trip to the Highland Games again this year, probably some hiking in the Presidentials with the boy (I'd like to make an afternoon at Franconia Falls an annual thing...it's lovely there), and then October brings Rhinebeck (NY Sheep and Wool). So while I've had a reasonably low key summer, things are just about to ramp up...and not a moment too soon!

blueberry pie

Dan, Duane and I went blueberry picking on Sunday, just before heading back to NH. We got just over 7 cups of fresh berries in no time, thanks to antique blueberry rakes hiding out in the shed. Dan's first request for berry use was pie. Having never made a blueberry pie before (can't stand blueberries, personally) here's the recipe, just so i can't lose it. (ETA: Dan liked the pie. Guess the recipe is a keeper!)

5 C blueberries (fresh or frozen)
5 T sugar
4T flour
juice of half a lemon and a little lemon zest
1t cinnamon
1/4t nutmeg (really just a couple of shakes...didn't measure at all)
by rights there should have been a little butter under the crust, but i forgot it...

I used frozen pie shells, mixed everything together, dumped it in the crust, covered it, cut vents, sprinkled with sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
The end!

some news...

For those of you who don't know yet, the boy and I are engaged to be married. No big plans have been set, but it's looming. It'll be heavy on the DIY (too damn many crafty people around for it not to be! His mom bakes cakes, my mom is doing my dress, ciocia Theda will likely do flowers...) and very low key, hopefully. We're both very happy, and looking forward to this new chapter in our lives. We've actually been engaged for a little over a month at this point, but wanted to tell a bunch of people in person, rather than have them find out via the internets.
So...yay!

braised chicken and pasta

Posted here, mostly for posterity...

K and I went to the farmers market this morning in Portsmouth and picked up some awesome fresh produce. Dinner tonight involved a fair bit of it..

Ingredients:
5-6 baby carrots (real ones, not the machine made ones), sliced
6 roma tomatoes, diced
handful of cherry tomatoes, cut up (they were in the fridge...)
5 garlic scapes
2 breasts of chicken, sliced
splash balsamic vinegar
shake of onion powder
2T olive oil

combine everything except chicken in a saucepan, let simmer for about 2 hours. Add some water if the pot seems to be drying out. Put a little sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish, layer chicken on top, cover with the rest of the sauce, and bake, covered, at 350F for about 40 minutes. It won't hurt it any to go longer though. cook whatever kind of pasta you want, and serve the chicken over it.