Oh look, it's Dietrich

My awesome housemates went liquor-shopping and brought home this crazy limited-edition stuff called Absolut Boston. It is vodka infused with black tea and elderflower. And it is MADE OF AWESOME.

Especially awesome is a drink in which - yes, yes, I invented! thank you, thank you - which was originally called The Bee's Teas (after the Bee's Knees, which involves gin, honey simple syrup and lemon juice) but is now called a Boston Iced Tea.

Put a goodly glug of this stuff over ice.

Add a smaller glug of honey simple syrup. (Make this by mixing one part honey with one part warm water. Stir and thank me later.)

Add a righteous squeeze of lemon juice.

Swirl and enjoy.

I hate olives.

Now, I know this may be a shocking annoucement for those in my audience with more delicate consitutions and sensibilities, but it is nonetheless a (recently) true statement, and one I have stood by for my entire life.

Not that I had any personal resentments toward olives. An olive didn't kill my brother; no olives owe me money. No, I just have never liked the damn things. And I tried. Oh, how I tried. You see, while I finally came to accept my hatred of olives, I never made fun of them as a stupid food to like, or taunted olive-eaters in their olive-eating orgies of pleasure. No, I wanted to like olives. Olives seemed like a good food, a serious food (though not a serious pastry). My whole family liked them, and I figured, given my mother and grandmother's perfect blemishless olive skin, that I was cursed with acne because I hated olives. (They really are supposed to be good for your skin. Not just olive skin, either. Shut up.)

So, every time there were olives around, I would try one. Didn't matter what kind: kalamata, canned black, green with pimientos, whatever. I'd take one, bite into it, and...purse my lips...and find a napkin...and spit that thing right out again. Yes, this was food I couldn't even force myself to swallow. But I kept on trying. Years, and no change.

Then, one night at Gargoyle's, I decided to try the olives that they serve along with some luscious Marcona almonds. They were small, and of various colors, and herby, and I popped one in my mouth and...hey...this is not so bad. Actually, this is kinda good! Lemme try another one, maybe that one was broken. No...this one's good, too!

And suddenly, for no reason at all, I liked olives.

And that's the story of me and olives.

And in celebration of this, I give you my non-recipe for the thing I randomly put together tonight, which also happened to be the first thing I've ever cooked with olives in it. Because you know, I hate olives.

I was gonna call this Greek Stew, but then I kept thinking, "Saute a coarsely chopped onion in olive oil...Add one diced Greek..."

So far, it's just called ( Greek Thing. )
Jesus. Next thing you know I'll be eating mushrooms...oh wait...entrope!!

Warning: total fluff herein.

An announcement:

Ladies (and gentlemen who enjoy similar ornamentation):

If you need a little mood-lift, do yourself a favor.

1. Go into your local CVS or Walgreen's and find the makeup area for NYC brand.

2. Pick out a couple of outrageous and happy-making nailpolishes (or even just one!) for $.99 apiece.

3. Strip the old dark red polish off yer tootsie nails and apply something new and flashy, then throw on sandals for the first time this spring.

4. Squeee!

My nails are now nail-colored with silver glitter ornamentation, with occasional larger flecks of cobalt blue glitter.

GLITTER!!!

This moment of complete superficiality has reached its conclusion. Go do something else now. I mean it!

Well, the second semester of my second year of law school has begun, and already I'm overwhelmed. I had gotten so used to the co-op situation, to working every day at the non-profit, that being back in classes is a bit of a shock. I must admit I prefer the practical experience. Sure, it was long hours, but I generally left the work at work. Now it's back to school-driven long-range deadlines, which I still, after all these years, manage to leave to the last minute.

Good news is, the firm might be interested in bringing me on once I graduate. They need someone specializing in alternative family structures, not to mention someone to stay on the edge of all the legislation that's beginning to result from the legalization of gay marriage. It might be a good place to start, but I have to admit I'm holding out a little for the lobbying group I'm looking at for my next co-op: legalize poly marriage or bust, baby!

I will say, given that last remark, that it's weird being single. It's years since I've had an apartment to myself, only my own voice answering when I ask the walls what's happening to me. But law school does have a way of eating your life. For now, at least, gone are the days of dating three people and going to *those* kinds of parties. There just isn't time, and anyway, sex isn't that important. My career is paramount; everything else can wait.

Okay, off to pick up my dry-cleaning...

[This post brought to you by Richard Adams, Lewis Carroll, and the numbers 1-27-05.]

This morning, in my inbox, was this:

With the subject line, Re: Guten Tag! :))

Good morning, campers :)
There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal
When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them
Disease is a vital expression of the human organism
It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions
The modest person is usually admired, if people ever hear of them


Why paing big money for boxed software ??
Save up to 95% on price buying OEM licensed software from us now!!
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A software ad led into with bad jokes and proverbs! Is this like the strange advertising movement afoot wherein the actual thing they're selling remains opaque but the ad is just so damned inneresting that you watch anyway?

Oh, and the best part:

The message is from my good friend, Squish H. Ustinov.