the wonderful world of cocktails.

Hey, Internets!  Let’s talk about alcohol for a moment.

Here’s a secret—just between you, me, and the 1,000 people who read this blog on an average weekday:  I don’t drink nearly as much as you might think from my Twitter and Facebook updates.  In fact, when it comes to hard liquor in general, I was woefully undereducated until recently.  I have to admit with considerable shame that I used to drink pre-mixed cocktails, and my main use for liquor was limited to Rum & Coke.  Now I understand that pre-mixed liquor is vile and abominable, and that the $$8-per-half-gallon Mr. Paint Thinner rum isn’t even suitable for mixing with soda.

In the last month or two, I started experimenting.  I bought top-shelf liquor, and then I mixed classic cocktails I hadn’t tried before, just to check them off my list.  And boy howdy, is there a difference between a Margarita made with good agave tequila, fresh lime juice, and quality Triple Sec, and the pre-mixed stuff that has that fluorescent shade to it.  The high-quality cocktail actually has nuances and flavor to it, whereas the pre-mixed stuff tastes like Margarita-flavored Gatorade.

I’ve also tried a White Lady for the first time, which uses lemon juice and Cointreau to give a citrus-y, sweet/sour/bitter edge to the gin.  Then there’s the Cosmopolitan, which I like a lot even though I am given to understand it’s a girly drink, and that I’ll get my Testosterone Club card revoked if I publically admit to enjoying a pink cocktail.  Lastly, I’ve finally mixed a proper Moscow Mule, which is the most refreshing summertime long drink ever. 

That’s my education on the subject of booze: buy high-quality components, mix your cocktails from scratch, and leave the pre-mixed crap on the shelf.  I’ve never been a fan of cocktails, but it turns out I just wasn’t ever properly introduced to this entirely new and exciting world of inebriation.

What about you?  What’s your favorite cocktail?  Let me have your recipe, so I can put it together in my little test kitchen.  (Maybe I should shop around the concept for a daytime cooking-related show?)

he can run a mean i.v., too.

Bors A. Dachshund, therapy dog, goes to work with my wife every Wednesday to visit with the residents of the nursing home.  He is quite popular there, and gets lots of attention, head scratches, and stealthy treats, but sometimes there’s a price to pay for all those benefits:

Thankfully, he has no dignity that could be injured.

two agents of chaos.

Apropos of nothing, here’s a picture of a little boy and his dog:

hooray for modern medicine.

Back from the Spine Center at Dartmouth.  Contrary to my earlier mental image of the place, they don’t have replacement spines hanging on the walls with price tags like some sort of Predator trophy supermarket.  Instead, the doc did a bunch of tests, looked at my MRI results, and recommended a laminectomy on my two herniated discs, so that’s what we’ll end up doing, hopefully by the end of the week.  Until then, I have a fresh prescription for hydromorphone, which is the most wonderful stuff on the whole planet when your sciatic nerve is being a little bitch.

(And yes, I’m higher than the Space Shuttle right now.)

On a side note:  I’ve spent the first twenty-four years of my life in a country with socialized health care, and the next fifteen or so here in the United States.  I’ve received high quality health care in both, but the German system can’t touch the service I’ve gotten here at the (private) Dartmouth-Hitchcock hospital.  I’ve been served more quickly, far more thoroughly, and in better facilities at DMH than at any doctor or hospital in Germany.  Yes, my co-pays are higher, but at least I don’t have to shell out a 17% VAT and eight bucks for  gallon of gas to pay for my “free” health care, and our health care contribution is lower than the German 7.5% of gross pay…

a spine like a model t drive shaft.

I’m heading out to the spine center at Dartmouth this morning to see about getting this defective spine removed and replaced with a titanium model that will increase my running and jumping powers tenfold.  (We have the gold-plated Cigna plan, the one for greedy plutocrats.  It was a paperwork accident, but I think I’ll keep it.  The helicopter service to the private suite at the hospital is nice, I have to say.)

Back pain is now merely at nuisance level, but since Saturday, I’ve had a whole new set of defects that have never manifested themselves before: numbness in my right leg, and a pain in my calf that feels like a permanent cramp.  Not pleasant at all, I must say.  While I can get around somewhat, I can’t do much else, because all my mind can focus on is ZOMG TEH PAIN MAKE IT STOP GODDAMMIT.

We’ll see what the day brings.  If I get that new cyborg spine, I’ll report back with my new numbers for the hundred-yard dash and the triple jump.

taxes are for chumps, not for champions of the working class.

Did you know that Senator Lurch (D-MA) owns a yacht worth 7 million smackers?

Did you know that he docks said yacht not in his home state, but in the neighboring state of Rhode Island?

Did you know that by docking his M.V. Red November in R.I., Lurch saved not only half a million bucks in sales tax, but is also saving about seventy grand a year in excise taxes? That’s a lot of hay. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts could afford to employ another one of Governor Patrick’s entourage as Assistant Superintendent of Navel-Gazing for that kind of money.

Incidentally, this news item serves as a great real-life example of tax policy consequences.  Lurch bought the yacht in RI, and is docking it there, because RI has abolished the tax in question.  MA politicians, on the other hand, are “common-sense” folks who would laugh in your face if you told them that lowering or abolishing a tax can bring more business and revenue to the state than jacking it up.  Now a RI business got to pull in a $7M contract precisely because of that lacking tax, a RI company gets to earn money with the maintenance on that boat, and another RI company gets to collect the slip and dock fees–all business that’s demonstrably lost to MA companies.  And the state of Rhode Island still gets to make money, via all the ancillary taxes and fees that come with building, harboring, and maintaining a $7M yacht.  Funny how that works…

arachnid architecture.

I call this one “Routing the Interweb“.

your piece of booze trivia for the day.

The May 13, 1806 edition of the New York publication Balance and Columbian Repository offers us the first definition of the term cocktail:

Cocktail is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar,water, and bitters—it is vulgarly called a bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also to be of great use to a Democratic candidate: because a person, having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow anything else.

the desk: fluctuating entropy.

It’s rather more messy than usual, despite the thorough reorganization I did a few weeks ago.  Work spaces have a way of getting silted up with the detritus of daily activity.

The display is now in a corner, so I have a clear view of the Big Green Desktop on the other side of the windows, and to reinforce that the computer is not the raison d’etre of the desk.  I’m on a simplification binge right now, so I reduced the setup to its minimal necessary components.  The Mac mini doesn’t take up much space on its little shelf, and I tossed out the powered speakers in favor of the ones built into the LCD display.  It’s not exactly room-filling sound, but it’s sufficient for YouTube videos and the occasional WoW session, and it saves a lot of desk real estate.

The portable device on the desk mat is a cellulose-based laptop with solid-state data storage.  It requires no power at all, and the stylus-based input features a 100% accurate handwriting recognition.  It’s super-light, boots up instantly, and the screen is perfectly legible even in direct sunlight.  It’s also dirt cheap…I have a dozen or so stashed away, and they sold me the whole stack for less than a c-note.  Living in the future is awesome.

monday search term safari XCVIII.

home depot barbed wire

You’ll find the barbed wire in the “Home Fortification” section.  I recommend the “Instant Gitmo” kit, which comes with everything you need to confine up to a hundred neighbors.

are new alphasmart neo green

The new Neo2 is actually flat black, but it’s for the education market, and I have no idea how to get a hold of one.  The Neo can be spray-painted with acrylic paints, but the green keyboard presents an aesthetic problem if you paint the body in a color that clashes. 

offensive to wear army surplus

I don’t think it’s offensive for someone to wear military surplus clothing.  I’m only bothered by people who don an entire uniform, rank insignia and/or achievement badges included, outside of re-enacting or a similar purpose. 

beretta tomcat vs ruger lcp

The LCP is superior to the Tomcat in every way.  It’s smaller, lighter, flatter, easier to conceal, holds the same number of rounds in a bigger caliber, and has less felt recoil despite the larger caliber.  The Tomcat is a fine little gun, though, and I really like the tip-up barrel feature.

german army paratrooper insignia

There’s no “paratrooper insignia” per se.  A German Army Fallschirmjaeger wears the maroon beret with the paratroop beret badge (a diving eagle inside a wreath of oak leaves), and green “infantry” piping underneath the rank sleeves on the shoulder boards.  If he’s jump-qualified, he’ll also wear the parachutist wings above the right breast pocket.  (The beret and piping by themselves don’t mean the wearer is a qualified parachutist, only that he’s a member of a Fallschirmjaeger unit.)

vacuum sucked up kids socks

You should probably pick up the place a bit before you start vacuuming, eh wot?  I mean, that Dyson may be able to pick up bowling balls, but that doesn’t mean it’s meant to serve as a mobile bulk garbage disposal.

e-readers sucks

I used to be lukewarm about e-readers, but I’m sold on the concept now.  I got a Sony Pocket Reader last month, and I’ve been re-reading all of David Weber’s Honor Harrington novels in preparation for the new one out this month.  It’s a handy way to read on the run without having to worry about losing your place.

bundeswehr pilot jacket

The pilots of the Bundeswehr are all issued a nice, light gray leather jacket with an orange liner.  I used to own one, thanks to a buddy in the supply group, but I sold it before I moved to the U.S., and now I sort of wish I hadn’t.  It was a spiffy jacket.

thermoplastic membrane roofing

I recommend membrane roofing.  Ours has kept the water out and the heat mostly in, and the snow just slides off it like it’s a giant Slip-N-Slide.  It was pricy, but there’s no monetary value you can put on not having to put down buckets and towels in the middle of the kids’ room at 2AM on a really wet day.

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There’s a quick and shoddy Search Term Safari for you.  Also, I have decided to use the French Revolutionary Calendar from now on, so a pleasant 218 Thermidor CCXVIII to you!