Here is a little story about how technology and the Internet saved my thanksgiving.

 This year, my cousins (all 3 of them) and I decided to take 'take over' our annual family Thanksgiving dinner.

During planning, we generated a list of what we wanted to make for dinner and divide it among each other. As T-day grew closer emails started going out asking for others to pick up ingredients that were not available in our local grocery stores.

Finally Thanksgiving was here! And everybody had what they needed...except me. I was missing some ripe plantains (which somebody forgot to pickup for me...).

Being in New Jersey... I had no clue where to go and some family members were 'less than helpful' since most of us are not from the area or just moved there recently. 3 hours until dinner is served and I'm missing ingredient! What do I do?!

Not a problem. With the use of a little iPhone magic, I was able to find three grocery stores within a 2 mile radius. Guided by built-in GPS, I reached the nearest one in about 8 minutes.

 I asked a worker if they had any ripe plantains...to which his response was "ripe what?". With a bit more iPhone and Google Images magic... I pulled a picture to show him. He told me they didn't have any but gave me the name of a smaller, more local store that would more likely have it.

As I ran out of the store, I realized that he didn't give me an address. The Maps app saved me on this one. Reached the next grocery store and sure enough! They had a ton of them. Hooray! Thanksgiving (and my reputation) was saved! And I was left feeling like I was in some type of real-life iPhone commercial limbo...

In the end it all turned out perfect and the feast was a success! Similar to Matt, we had left overs for day  ;-)  Next event on the list: food comma followed by Black Friday shopping

PS: for those who don't know what ripe plantains are or used for, check out the wiki article or, and if you want to know what I was making with them, here is the recipe.