An educational venture

My friend Ashley is a gourmet pastry chef, and I spent a good portion of today in the kitchen she shares with the most excellent catering company in town, helping prepare hazelnut dipping cookies for this year's annual Grape & Gourmet (which Mitch and I will be attending--oh joy! I will report back later). My assistance in the cookie preparation was minimal, but very fun, and began with an offer to chop chocolate. At certain point, I ended up playing DJ with the kitchen CD player and despairing a bit as I discovered that the music selection tended to feature such chart-topping favorites as J.Lo, Celine Dion, Nelly and Christina Aguilera. I thumbed through them hastily, hoping to earth up something listenable, though after a few times through the stack the new Justin Timberlake gave me pause. Ashley and I decided, as an educational venture to, you know, make sure there were absolutely no redeeming qualities to the music--just to be sure.

It was more fun than I care to mention. Though, of course, I don't like that sort of thing.