Gingered yams dominated my Thanksgiving experience. How 'bout you?

I am never eating yams without ginger ever again. They are amazing. My friend Shannon, who hosted dinner this year, says you simply prepare mashed yams as you otherwise would, but add carmelized onions and garlic, ginger POWDER (!!) and dried currants. Fucking delicious.

Other highlights:
_ Stephanie bought new brown boots. I happen to have a huge fixation on brown boots and am really, really jealous.
_ Steph and Andy would not tell me who wins Project Runway. Apparently, they won't know until like a week before the rest of us (you mean it's not fixed?!). Last year, Andy was nominated for an Emmy for his editing work on the show (Screw you, Amazing Race!). He said that two seasons ago, he also cut the final Runway episodes, but had to do it around the clock over a period of 3 days, and then he came down with rheumatic fever.
_ At one point after dinner, three people were on Mac laptops and one person was on an iPhone. The room was completely silent. That made me feel uncomfortable, sad and nostalgic for the days before social networking sites. It also made me wonder how many kids think Steve Jobs is president.
_ Friend Shannon is a theater professor at Cal and she's up for tenure this year. I'm thinking about starting a letter writing campaign to the department head. Something along the lines of "Shannon Steen is the only thing standing between your program and irrelevance." Wanna lend your voice? Please direct all letters here.
_ Andy pointed out that me and Stephanie always say "No, yeah" or "No, it's true" when we agree with someone. No, yeah, it's totally true. Is it a Midwestern thing? Are we retarded? (Incidentally, using the word "retarded" in casual conversation is something we also do frequently. Midwest thing, or just insensitive?) We finally decided that we just really like saying "no."
_ Um I should probably post photos or something. I forgot to take any.