Blah.

I've got one or two oh god my job posts I could do but neither of them is funny so I'm gonna leave em lay and discuss my next experiment instead.

Fairly recently, DM turned me on to a wonderful drink called a Tom Collins, along with it's slightly less fruity cousin the Gin and Tonic. Until now, I've sort of been of the opinion that gin was nasty bathtub liquor that sat at the back of a cabinet somewhere. You never knew exactly where it came from, and when you poured the last few drops of the good stuff it stared mournfully at you, wondering why it wasn't good enough.

Now, I know better. But I still have a problem. I do enjoy an occasional Collins just to sip on, but I'm faced with the dilemma of deciding whether to have good flat tonic water, or not good fizzy tonic water. Because I won't use a big bottle of the good stuff before it goes flat, and the bitty bottles of the cheap stuff just aren't good.

So, my proposed experiment: See if I can make my own tonic water, using a seltzer bottle.

I know I can get quinine from the granola crunching supplement people. I can make simple syrup for sweetening without gumming up the bottle. The question is whether I have the ability to balance things and make it tasty, and how many ways I can flavor it.

More updates as I actually get the things needed for this experiment and attempt it. I do need a steady supply of decent tonic water.

What? I don't want to get malaria, do you?

Oh God My... Oh Hey Shiny!

So last night I opened a roll of quarters and there was a funny sort of sound when I dumped em in my drawer. When I had a moment to look, I found one that looked a little funky to the rest.

I wound up buying it out of the drawer along with a fifty cent piece (I have a standing bounty on dollar coins, fifty cent pieces, and two dollar bills with the fam) and when I got to looking just now as I transferred my pocket plunder, I realized that it's a 1942 silver quarter.

Value seems to range from a couple bucks to about forty, depending on where I quickly scan online.

One thing about this job, it gives me the opportunity to pick up oddball money here and there. I generally give the Canadian coins a pass but I've gotten an Indian coin and one that I'm not sure where it came from but the writing looks sort of oriental.

Time to be off to see what strange currency crosses my fingers tonight. Maybe I'll stumble on a coin worth a real chunk one of these days.

The Purse for Women Who Don't Carry Purses

So, I have a hard time carrying a purse. It just strikes me as a pain. I carry a bag to work but that's because I've started keeping more stuff on me than I can reasonably fit in my pockets.

When I carry a purse I'm likely to leave it sitting somewhere, or have to dig for ten minutes to find something, or, or, or.

But here is a purse that I at least wouldn't be able to forget in a restaurant.

I like that it's leather, because I like leather. The whole "made from recycled leather!" bit seems a little tree-huggery to me, but on the other hand I'm all for re-purposing stuff if it's still good.

The set up appears to be sensible and handy, with enough space to carry your junk but not enough to lose all of your junk in the other junk you throw in there because you have space for it.

Plus, it's a belt, too! Probably not sturdy enough to support a holster, frankly, but unless you forget your pants, you're not going to leave that one in the ladies' room. On a similar train of thought I'm really not sure how the logistics would work out when it came time to drop trou in the potty, but just like carrying a gun I'm sure something functional if not eloquent could be worked out.

I kinda want one. Maybe when my holiday pay from Christmas and New Years' Day comes in I'll splurge and get one in distressed chocolate, if only because the name of the color totally makes me think there ought to be an equal sign between the words... or evokes a mental image of a sniffling Hershey bar, take your pick. That is, if other expenses don't eat the time and a half before then.

A Whole New Year

Ups and downs and ins and outs and twists to make Stephen King proud populated the last year. Great friends were seen again, new ones were made, and towards the end I found a man who can make me laugh like a crazy person, smile like a fool, and who can also challenge me in several different ways.

I lost track of a couple friends, and lost a few to the grave, along with a near brother that I will spend the rest of my life missing.

2011 promises to bring a new set of challenges and decisions, its own collection of laughter and tears. Hopefully more of the former than the latter.

With all of the stresses and tears of the last year, I could very easily say "I can't take another year like that one."

But you know what? I can. It's what I do, I take everything life throws at me and I make things work anyway. Sometimes it resembles a simian making amorous overtures to a football, but it works.

And though I'll hope for a year with more joy than sorrow, I don't think it's so wrong of me to be proud of the fact that no matter what 2011 brings, I'll wrestle it to the ground and make it my proper little bitch, because that's what I do.

I'll leave you with an Irish blessing that I've always loved, as my wish for all of you for the new year:

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind always be at your back,
And may the Lord hold you in the palm of his hand.

Whether you're religious or not, that right there has a certain ring to it. Here's to a fresh year, let's make it a great one.

New Toys

So I got an iPod Touch for Christmas (thank you fam!) and I've been playing with it since. It's actually a rather handy little piece of tech, but so far, other than having a sound track at work to help me keep from losing my mind it's mainly been the world's most expensive Scrabble game.

I've been challenging everyone I can think of to games of Words With Friends, because it's fun, and because it also helps keep me from losing my mind at work. Of course Until recently I've also been on vicodin, so my skills haven't really been up to par.

This has resulted in me losing several games.

DM: You know, we really ought to up the stakes on this.

Me: You only say that cause you're beating me by a bajillion points.

DM: Yep.

It's a good thing I'm well versed in smartass and enjoy it, or he'd be toast.

QOTD: Christmas Edition

SIL: "No more automatic weapons until their ages are in the double digits, ok?"


"Santa" brought the nephews a belt-fed full-auto Nerf gun.... because Santa is awesome like that.

Merry Christmas, Everyone

I'm just going to do a quick update and let you get back to your holiday gatherings:

Thanks to a few very kind, very generous people, The Nephews will be getting some extra Santa gifts... I'll get pictures tomorrow when they're opened and post them.

Mouth is healing, slowly. Stitches inside the mouth feel REALLY weird especially when one is across the hole where a tooth used to be and vibrates like a harp string whenever you rinse, which is often because infections suck. When the oral surgeon says "you'll have some pain in the joint of your jaw" he ain't kidding, and I'm not sure if that's because of how the nerves in that area work or if he just pried my mouth open that hard. Most of the pain at this point is actually there, rather than in the area where the tooth actually came out... the teeth in front of the dear departed are pretty much only tender when I chew.

Vicodin is my friend. This is the first time I've had to take vicodin that I had to regulate things so that I was still functional, last time I was able to just say to hell with it, take the full pill and pass out for a few hours. There's been some trial and error finding the balance between being in pain and grinning stupidly at customers telling them their shirt is preeetttyyy.

Doing my cig count is kind of interesting too, since my attention span has shrunk considerably due to the drugs.

"Twenty two, twenty four, twenty six, man I want some steak but I can't chew it but I'm so sick of soft foods except we'll have pie at Christmas so that'll be good.... shit where was I?"

Anyway, I'm finding it way too easy to ramble so I'll end here and tell you all to have a Merry Christmas, hug your loved ones, and eat something crunchy for me.