So I was looking for something else, and I happened across our wedding invitation. You know it’s love when she lets you get away with putting “RSVP or else” on the card.
Photos:
Part-time prevaricator
What a day, what a day
If you can look it in the face and hold your vomit
–Faith No More
Well, it wasn’t that bad.
You know it’s going to be a good day when you arrive at work and there’s a sign on the doors to your building:
POWER OUTAGE
Please keep out of building
Better still is when they bring in the heavy equipment.
But the best is when the power still isn’t on when you go home for the day.
My wife found a recipe for roasted vegetable and chicken chili in last month’s Chatelaine magazine. We made it for supper tonight. Makes a lot–I had to transfer the onion-tomato-bean combo to a stock pot just to have room in the pan to cook the chicken–and oh my word does it ever taste good. We served it up with sour cream, salsa, green onions, and some grated cheese. Six people ate from the pot–a couple with very hearty appetites–and there’s still nearly six cups of chili left. Mmmmmmmmmm.
We also had cake. My wife’s birthday was a couple weeks ago, and my brother-in-law brought over a Safeway cake. It’s kind of a stupid tradition that he and I have to try and eat monstrous pieces of Safeway cake. So we did. My darling wife (whose new nickname is The Enabler) cut us each a sixth of the cake.
Photos will come later, once I’ve taken them off the camera, but for now, rest assured that the cake is all gone. All. Gone. Two layers, ten eight inches diameter, half-inch-thick icing… I think my bro-in-law almost died, but after a quick break, he was back to finish off his piece. Sugar shock, hell yeah.
Then we played cards, and then everyone petered out and went home, and here I am doing up a blog post. I’m almost done, I think. Ok, I’m done.
…who turns 31 today! Your gift will be on its way soon, honest.
So my wife’s birthday fell last night. We had a quiet supper at home, then I gave her a couple of books–It’s a Dog’s Life, Snoopy and a giant, 30-foot foldout illustrated history of the world. Then we had some friends over for a game of canasta (which the dudes won, after a shaky start) while we drank two and a half bottles of wine and six shots of Blue Bols between us. A good time was had by all.
CBC.ca is was farked. Update–scant minutes later, I’m getting through. Still.
Apparently I did throw my vote away, since the incumbent got re-elected. Not that I’m surprised.
Judo–only three of us there, me and a white/yellow striped belt and Darcy, the head instructor. So we didn’t do hane-goshi; instead, Mark–the white/yellow stripe–went through his throws for his yellow belt, and I went over the ones I’ll need to know for my brown belt, and then I did the first three sets of nage-no-kata, which I will also need to know for my brown belt. Then I came home.
Yeah. The candidate that usually gets elected ’round these here parts is not who I voted for. I just can’t help hearing that Simpsons bit, where Kang and Kodos are running in the US election, and some guy in the audience says, “Why, I think I’ll just vote for a third-party candidate”, and one of the aliens says, in that delightful booming voice they have, “Go ahead. Throw your vote away.”
I tossed my vote into the æther. And now, because of a new/old law (I think it was struck down by a provincial court before last election, but reinstated before the current one), I have to wait till 9PM to see any results from anywhere in the country. Weird. Oh well.
Tonight at judo: Hane-goshi, the springing hip throw: one of my favourites. Video | Animated .gif. Whee!
…so I guess I better vote. Not that I’ve ever not voted…
I found this photo in a directory on my work machine today. It’s got a timestamp from mid-December, 2000.
Compare and contrast with today’s look: the photo below, in The Great Vodka Experiment post, where I’m in the middle.
So, it worked. That’s the first thing you need to know. I’m starting the story at the end, but sometimes you can get away with that.
Quite some time ago, I read this scientific paper on the filtration of vodka. The gist of it is that you can filter a cheap vodka through a charcoal filter (such as, for instance, a Brita water purifier) and get it to taste like a very expensive vodka.
I passed the link around to some friends, since it amused me, and then thought no more of it.
New Year’s Eve, my friend Kevin shows up at my place with three part bottles of flavoured Absolut (one raspberry and two vanilla), his Brita jug, and a fresh filter. He doesn’t even have to say anything to me. I know this is my fault.
I start smiling.
So after four filtrations, the raspberry vodka was significantly smoother. Kathleen’s theory was that the Brita was leaching alcohol from the vodka, which I thought plausible, but I figured it was more likely that impurities were being pulled out of the drink instead.
We also filtered one of the bottles of vanilla, but with one thing and another (you know, New Year’s), we never drank it. After the party I put it in the freezer.
Where it froze solid.
So it appears that Kathleen was right; it looks like the vodka loses alcohol, but tastes better, when it’s filtered like that.