When are you too old to write on your hand?

The other day after I may or may not have had a cocktail or two, I had a brilliant idea for a blog entry and I wrote it on my hand.

The next morning I discovered that I had inadvertently lost my notes in a fit of handwashing or some such.

Why I didn't just email it to myself as I often do, I have no idea.

I wrecked my brain trying to remember, but no luck. I was bummed because I remembered it being a pretty good blog idea.

Fast forward a couple hours and I’m going through my new photos from my camera and boom:

MY BLOG IDEA RESURFACES!

All of a sudden I remember everything. The excellent idea, finding a pen, scribbling it on my hand. And once done, thinking it was so hilarious that I wrote on my hand like a twelve-year-old that I photographed that very action for a separate blog.

And this is why you visit, is it not? For silly, silly inebriated thoughts captured later with a hint of scorn.

I went to Swagapalooza and I didn't get an iPad.

I was inexplicably invited to this event called Swagapolooza last Tuesday evening.  Attendance was strictly limited to tweeters and “digital influencers” from San Francisco.

Flattery will get you a long way with me, as it did when I received the invitation only a week before the event.  I assumed that they hadn’t gotten enough RSVPs and started scraping nearer the bottom of the barrel of local bloggers and tweeters.  Or maybe I have more reach on the Internet then I think I do.

Regardless, I showed up at 7 to get my two free drinks and see if I couldn’t make a new friend.  I was lucky to have gotten to stop by my great friend Corrie’s birthday party just a block or two from the event.  There her partner Ed gave me the idea that at an event called something like Swagapalooza, one might leave with an iPad.

An iPad!  I’m too cheap to buy one, but it would sure be a great addition to our upcoming European adventure (as well as every moment of my life).  Maybe that night was the night?

I reflected on this as I waited for my turn at the bar and checked out the grub they were serving.  Crappy rolled sandwiches I know from attending far too many networking events and pizza.  I was glad I had eaten.

I asked the bartender what was included for my red ticket, and was shocked to discover I could have anything I wanted!  I searched the bottles.  “Anything?” I asked. He nodded.  I noted that this event was heavily sponsored and that I should return as I ordered a Sapphire and Tonic. Continue Reading

Question: How you sneak booze into Oakland’s Oracle Arena?

Answer: In your pants!! They check your bag but they don’t pat you down.

Tip: Put the alcohol you are smuggling into Oracle Arena in a thin plastic bottle. Don’t risk losing a flask. I heard that a Korbel Brandy one works pretty well.

You won’t miss the show while waiting to refresh your beverage, and you won’t have to pay for more than one $13 Sierra Nevada. If you’re sitting in the front row, head to the Oracle Arena bathroom to refill or risk getting yourself kicked out.

One girl got some brandy in under skinny jeans. I was so jealous.

The Days of Our Lives Drinking Game

I’ve had Days of Our Lives on the brain all morning, partly because I posted Alice Horton’s Famous Donut recipe yesterday, and partly because I couldn’t sleep last night and finally resorted to letting the Days storyline do the trick.

That’s one of the nice things about soap operas; you don’t worry about missing an episode, or falling asleep in the middle. And it moves slowly enough that it will actually put you to sleep.

I’m having some of my fellow die-hard Days of Our Lives fans over tomorrow night, and we are going to try our hand at making Alice’s famous donuts. Continue Reading

Potential Talk Show Names

Last year I went through a month or two where I decided I wanted to be a talk show host (still do) and would produce my own talk show.  After frantically trying to put everything together I had a moment of clarity where I realized that I could not concentrate on both running my own business and producing my talk show.  First and foremost, I needed to work on the business.  The talk show will come later.

While digging through my notes last year, I found a list of potential talk show names. Keep in mind that this list was brainstormed over a gin and tonic or two with input from three new friends and my co-producer BoAe. Continue Reading

Lushes in Love Looks Great in IE

I’ve written before about the struggles web designers face when designing for multiple browsers, and most specifically IE.

When designing the website for Lushes in Love, I set out to use all the amazing features available to those browsers that implement CSS3, but aimed to provide a viewing experience that degraded gracefully when viewed in Internet Explorer and older versions of other browsers.

I wanted the blog to remind the viewer of neon lights and classy bars. Continue Reading

Lushes in Love

Over the course of last year Will and I began experimenting and really appreciating how good a cocktail can be. Before then, we had basically subsisted on scotch on ice, beer, and gin and vodka tonics. And food, of course.

All of a sudden our eyes were opened to a whole new world of drinks! Will began to play with different ingredients and soon had invented his first custom cocktail, the Santa Rosa. And he sure has the touch. Even without booze, he can whip up a great drink. He makes awesome sodas during the day out of some combination of soda water, grenadine or simple syrup and various types of bitters. Yum! Continue Reading

Homemade Gift Idea: Brandied Cherries

I’m a big fan of the homemade gifts. Last year I gave my boyfriend’s mom a crocheted fish-shaped pot holder (she acted like she loved it!) and the other three members of Will’s family personalized crocheted beer cozies. That raised a lot of eyebrows, and I imagine they haven’t gotten much use this past year, but my heart was in the right place. Even they would admit that!

This year Will and I have been inspired by our new found love of all thing cocktails, my new interest in canning, and our desire to keep presents as inexpensive as possible. This year, our family is receiving one of our first batch of brandied cherries.

Our love affair with Maraschino cherries started last year when we learned that the red swollen sugary cherries that we grew up with in our Shirley Temples are not the traditional Maraschino cherries. No, Maraschino cherries are cherries that are soaked in Maraschino liquor, an Italian aperitif flavored with the ground seeds of cherries from Marasca. The ones we have been served are soaked in tons of preservatives, high fructose corn syrup and red dye. During the high tide of the Temperance movement, anti-alcohol enthusiasts campaigned to have the original, liquor-soaked cherries banned. They won, and ever since the original cherries have been lost to American culture. We managed to find a bottle at a high-end grocery store near our house, and fell in love.

But at a price tag of $16 a bottle, we instantly recognized the need to find a more affordable solution. Why not make them ourselves?

We followed this recipe from the Gourmet Foodie Blog. Or, rather, we tried to. Embarking on this journey in December meant that we didn’t have access to affordable fresh cherries, and had to use dried ones. It also meant that even though the cherries would be presented on Christmas, they wouldn’t be ready for consumption until March. But they’ll be better for all that time spent steeping in yummy brandy and Maraschino.

Our first try yielded disappointing results.

Our first time we canned with our friends Anthony and Nicole. Without the proper equipment and any previous experience, we unfortunately sealed the jars (accomplished by boiling the jars for 12 minutes, a process that allows the lid to create a food-safe seal with the jar) on their side. In three out of four, the brandy escaped during the sealing process, and we were left with nothing but cherries and sugar in a sealed jar. But at least we got the seals correctly created. Apparently, that can be a challenge when canning.

A couple weeks later we tried again. This time we knew not to let the jars fall on their sides during the boiling process.

The resulting jars of brandied cherries looked good, but had a layer of sugar that did not mix with the brandy. Next time, we will use simple syrup (sugar dissolved in water).

Happy with these results (and out of cherries and jars!) I finished the gift off with a scrap of my torn skinny jeans and our Lushes in Love label. Not only are these a great Christmas gift, but they are also a celebration of our new cocktail blog, Lushes in Love. When we get back from Christmas we’re going to populate that site with content and go live!

I estimate that each jar cost us a mere $3 in materials, despite our using a dash of the expensive Maraschino liquor and a high end brandy. We surmised that all you need is a dash of Maraschino liquor to make the entire batch have its delicious taste. We have noticed that any drink we make with Maraschino liquor tastes just like Maraschino liquor.

Pete Townsend on the cover of Who Are You

Will held up this album cover today and pointed out how hungover each band member looks.

Pete Townshend, especially, looks like he’s really suffering.

I, for one, am thankful that I do not feel that way today, and that I would have the good sense to refrain from such partying the night before a photo shoot*.

But what else can we expect from the man who woke up in a ditch, didn’t know who or where he was, and wrote a song about it?

*Or so I say….