christmas was the usual whirlwind of cookie-eating, present-opening, church-enduring, christmas-cracker-pulling, poker-playing, and of course seemingly ceaseless driving. i happily enjoyed a quick 'n' easy ride down with tricia m., instead of the bus, which was nice. dinner at paul's, a last-minute christmas eve shopping afternoon, three stops on christmas day, and bang we're back. i got a lot of kitchen-based gifts, much to the delight of chef carl, who can now chop his garlic on grade-a bamboo cutting boards in his choice of two sizes, a last-minute regift from my mom (thanks mom!). we also got personalized aprons! and homemade hats! and colorful argyle socks! and of course books and cd's and an atari "flashback" system that's getting a lot of use already. gotta love those 1980 graphics. oh! and carl and i both won the lottery. well, scratch tickets from paul. i won 25 buckaroonies and carl won ten. good times. carl also got a cold from my mom: the gift that keeps on giving. thanks mom!

and my birthday, yesterday, was very lazy. paninis with dad and carl at bar toto for lunch, an afternoon of laying around, then cheese and the long-saved dr. frank's champagne at home, followed by dinner at blue ribbon with nate and holly. this birthday is a pretty anticlimactic thing after last year's milestone. yes, folks, once you hit 26 it's all downhill! yuk yuk....

Top 9 Best Sentences in Year-End Music Lists

1. From the Onion, on the Black Keys album: "Two aging bluesmen disguised in young white bodies, The Black Keys have conjured in Magic Potion a thunderclap of back-alley blues so dark, wretched, and negatively charged with Mississippi Delta voodoo, it's easy to imagine Beelzebub leaving the Detroit basement in which it was recorded, carrying two bloodstained IOUs."

2. From John Darnielle's list, on the Regina Spektor album: Well, yes, the album does seem to run out of steam at some point, but the high points ив you already know what they are, right? — are, like, drunken-priest-kung-fu kill-all-the-invaders-and-boil-their-bodies incredible.

3. from pitchfork's list of top 25 worst album covers: "Baseless egotism is by far one of the most entertaining possible traits of the human species, but if you ever realize you just Photoshopped yourself gazing lovingly into the eyes of a duplicate You, it might be time to take it down a notch."

4. from matt at the bm rant's list of favorite songs, on the strokes: "'Heart In A Cage' is just one example on First Impressions of Earth of why most indie bands would be working at Wendy's if it weren't for The Strokes."

5. from rolling stone's list of top 100 songs: "If loving Smashing Pumpkins is wrong, then Silversun Pickups don't wanna be right." (so true, i can't stand it.)

6. from the passion of the weiss's list of the most disappointing albums, on Birdmonster: "Rejoice, finally the indie rock version of the Goo Goo Dolls have arrived."

7. from yeti's sarcastic list of top ten albums for social and peer approval: "If your Top-Ten list doesn't have TVotR as #1, that's just dumb."

8. from marathon packs' well-written list of top 19 albums, on asobi seksu: "And while Citrus is as gossamer, in parts, as the Cocteau Twins, it's also about twice as fast and ten times as hard, letting more of the Blaine/Spector wallpaper show through as the My Bloody Valentine/Blonde Redhead wallpaper peels away from the wall that is Asobi Seksu (italics indicate improperly extended metaphor)."

9. from dan at said the gramophone's list of top 10 albums, on horse feathers: "Eat this album like a sad yellow breakfast." (what's dude got against bananas?)

i got sick of lists, so i stopped at 9. if you see an awesome sentence, stick it in the comments, won't you?

if you're a word lover like me, you will probably like wordie.org, which is "like flickr, but without the photos." it's pretty cool. i have started a small list of recent favorite words at my profile. i imagine i'll put hated words up there too when i run across them. fun for nerds!

soon i will be decamping to new jersey, but not before one last holiday party and subinev's holiday show at union hall, featuring our friends from mussels among other bands, happening friday. hooray, indie rock!

oh, what can i say about santacon that i haven't said before? if you missed it, and chances are you did, because i got not a single reply to my recruitment email (you're all on my naughy list), well, you missed out. and next year i'm making santacon my birthday party and all of you will be forced to attend. santa's going to bed now....

it has come to my attention that the old 97s have done a jingle for chili's baby back ribs. i've been known to sing the chili's baby back ribs song on occasion to horrified listeners (i find it very catchy), but rhett and co. have added a new dimension of hilarious awesomeness to it. watch the video, with their trademark twangy guitars. it's short. also, amazingly enough for fans of the chili's baby back ribs song, they are running some sort of contest wherein a bunch of people covered the baby back ribs song, such as it is, and you can vote on the winner. i picked #9, largely because of the "barbecue sauce" bit at the end. love it. you vote too!

did you realize you can get pins featuring the mugs of all the hold steady band members? kind of ridick. kind of awesome. kind of like the hold steady themselves. i still like the hood rat sweatshirt. too bad it doesn't come in girl sizes. some of the hold steady have made comments about the number of girls at their shows being small. while that may be true, girls are cuter than boys and look better in sweatshirts! make girl sizes, dudes! gbv always neglected the female merch consumer, too, and it really burned my ass.

i love this christmas tree made of mountain dew cans. puts my DIY tree to shame.

question: should i get those grado headphones everyone is always raving about? so i can listen to "headphone albums" on the subway while i nod off? i kind of want to be a cool girl with big headphones and awesome sound. (did that sound dorky?)

i just realized that ok go have ANOTHER video where they are doing a tightly choreographed dance. with treadmills, people! omg. so best. it's nominated for a freakin' grammy! and it should win.

albert hammond jr. covers gbv's "postal blowfish" as a b-side. kinda sounds exactly like gbv. whatta fanboy. i think i need to hear the rest of his album. i need to hear SO MUCH, in fact, that i'm going a little big crazy. that's right, a little big crazy. i typed wrong, but you read right. i'm going crazy because i'm reading all these lists, and now they come with mp3s, so i'm also downloading like a madwoman, and it's making me want to go out and buy like ten million albums.

speaking of lists, what the fuck is the liars album doing on anyone's top ten?? why does everyone loooove to suck on joanna newsom's quirky little ears so much? my list is coming, don't worry. it'll be perfect. will sonic youth be on there? built to spill? the hold steady? who will make it? who won't? i know you're dying to know. check back here, uhhhhh, soon. no snickering at that last statement, please.

tonight i'm going to my boyfriend's and watching movies and eating his homecooked deliciousness. unusual? no. but still exciting. bye!

people sometimes ask me, catherine, what are you listening to right now? well, lately the party shuffle is where it's at. tonight i'm loving it: gogol bordello -> catherine wheel -> husker du -> get him eat him -> paul westerberg...and on and on. i haven't thought of gogol bordello in a while. i think it's about time for another visit to the bulgarian bar, some semblance of which i believe is now located on ludlow street (shame). or i guess i could/should go see their show at irving plaza on the 21st? anyone with me?

i watched my first netflix movie thursday night. it was the godfather. i'd never seen it. it was pretty good and held my attention -- nice control of mood, there, mr. coppola -- but i wasn't completely enthralled or anything. three stars! liked, not loved, not even "really liked." is that wrong? there were some great deaths, though. godfather part II sits waiting to be watched. the saga continues, both the corleone family's and my own....

i have also been watching quite a bit of food network at the behest of carl. the show semihomemade cooking with this crazy blond lady is pretty great. it's based on her 70/30 philosophy: 70 percent store-bought, 30 percent homemade. i'm all for that. seems practical. but this lady is pretty wackadoo. this artichoke centerpiece is just the beginning. she also did a very involved santa's sleigh party favor made entirely of candy. it was intense, people. but then, she unveiled the piece de resistance. her christmas tree, which she had decorated with all of her barware: wineglasses, martini glasses, the works, all hanging upside down on her tree! an alcoholic's dream, or possibly nightmare. what the hell do you drink your candy cane cocktail out of??

speaking of food, i recently scored a copy of real simple food in the recycling bin at work, and i don't normally find myself recommending magazines, but it was a quite a good read! it was geared toward the noncooker such as myself, instructing me to stock my kitchen with bread crumbs and eat more pomegranates. i bet you don't know what foods contain the all-important folate, do you know? (holly, you don't count.) i think it's just a theme issue rather than its own publication and won't be on stands forever, so get yours now.

okay, finally, here's a quick weekend report for those who are interested: got out of work semi-early on friday, met carl for a drink at barbes, then to meet brandon at great lakes, then to lovely italian dinner at al di la, reputedly one of the best restaurants in park slope. it did not disappoint. my dish featured boar. saturday: slept in and went running in the park again. should i get running shoes? suffered inexplicable allergy attack. cleaned both own and boyfriend's apartment, then went to the holiday party to start all holiday parties at erik and ellen's, which featured yummy almonds rolled in tasty stuff, baked ziti, and cupcakes. the bar has been set, folks.