34 quarts of deep fryin’ action just waiting for a turkey

I did it. Now all I have to do is start following NASCAR and western NY’s conversion of me to a red neck will be complete. Yesterday I became the proud owner of a 34-quart Turkey Deep Fryer/Steamer/Boiler purchased at Home Depot. Over the last two weeks I think I’ve checked out every fryer here in town. The entire process has put me into a strange state of both questioning my sanity and getting really excited at the prospect of next weekend. Why next weekend you ask? Because I’m hosting a “Red Neck/White Trash Thanksgiving Community Meal.” That translates to I’m deep-frying a 20lb turkey yeee-haaw!!!! The excitement around this event has begun to grow. Folks around here are really into the idea. Plus my friends from around the country have started to offer advice and share stories. I just got some great suggestions from Natalie and Cindy had posted some great turkey frying stuff on her blog a few days ago! Invites have started to go out. If you haven’t gotten one and you’re going to be in the Rochester area on Saturday, November 16 drop me e-mail and I’ll get you an evite (Alyson: your evite is in the mail, I know you will stop by for deep fried goodness)! This also will be a precursor to convincing my family to let me deep fry a small turkey as part of our home Thanksgiving celebration. I’ll keep you up to date on that.

my new pen pal

The other news in my life is I have a new electronic pen pal: *drum roll please* Henry Rollins! Yes, sensing my innate hipness during our brief conversation, Henry sought out this page and began writing me e-mails begging me to be an e-mail buddy. At first I pushed him away because he seemed so desperate, but after a while I took pity on him and chose to write back….

     …. what?….

                  … oh, the truth? …

         ……..sigh….. ok….

I’d better tell the truth before I’m hunted down by an aging alternative icon who, though being a very peaceful person, would kick my butt while Slayer blares in the background and then share the story with countless college audiences across the country. At the RIT show we went to he spend a long time talking about a recent trip to India. As part of it he spoke about the child beggars (often who were crippled) that he encountered there. He had mentioned he wondered how/why they became beggars. Being the trivia sponge I am, I knew the answer but when I got the chance to talk to him I wasn’t able to share the info. So on a whim, I dropped a note with the info to his website. Last night while going through junk e-mail I spotted a note from an address I didn’t recognize (not the usual porn services, get rich quick schemes or stock tips). Just as I was about to deleted it, I noticed the subject line “HR” and the e-mail address. One double click later and there it was: a short reply from the man himself thanking me for the info. How cool is that??!!! I had one additional question for him so I replyed to the note. We’ll see if he responds (though I fully expect he will ’cause he’s good like that).

So what have I learned from this experience?

  • That Henry Rollins responds to his e-mail faster than I reply to mine.
  • That he’s an all around cool and very gracious guy (I knew it before but he keeps proving it time and time again)
  • That if I can ever track down Alyson Hannigan’s e-mail I’ll be so in with all the practice I had e-mailing famous people.

    …. no Henry has not gotten an invite for the Turkey Day yet. But on the really off off off chance that you read this Rollins, you’re welcome to come and chow. Just drop me a note, you’ve got the address. ;-)