Bite My Bat

Hallooo! Two weeks from tonight, I will be drinking with a lot of you h00rs in our favorite not-so-fictional location!  Hooray!

Today's drink is a little bit different than usual - it has no true relevance to Twilight, except that both have to do with vampires.  Nonetheless, it meets an important criteria that my friend Demanda, well, demanded: it's red. :)

Without further ado, I give you: The Bat Bite.

'Lets! Will you please line up our ingredients?

Lookin' good, boys.

 2 shots spiced rum

(I checked twice, this is the right measurement)

Fill with cranberry juice

A splash of grenadine

And voila!

The mythical Bat Bite.

Hmm... this is quite tasty. It's not too sweet, so I'd say if you like a sweeter drink, maybe more grenadine?  It's good, though - I could drink a few of these, and I wasn't feeling tipsy after drinking this one - this might be a good drink to order at a bar for something a little different, especially for all you vodka-cran lovers (I know you're out there).  A good, basic drink with a sweet little kick.

WIN!!!... wait.  WTH is happening here?

Edlet seems to have somehow snuck into the bottom of this digital photo - it's like the old days when you accidentally took a double exposure and had ghostly people... I have no idea how this happened, but I'm leaving it (because I don't know how to fix it other than cropping the pic... and I'm lazy).

So, tell me, what's the first thing you're going to drink in Seattle or Forks?  Hmm???

Something a little different for our quote today, too, I think. This resonates for me:

"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? was his response. I don't know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn't matter." ~ Lewis Carroll

We Will Never Forget

On September 11, 2001, I woke up at my boyfriend's house, got ready, and left for work before 7AM on the West Coast.  At the time, I was working two jobs, and the one I was working that Tuesday was as a grocery merchandiser for my company, Tully's Coffee.  This involved driving to three Portland-area suburban high-end grocery stores and managing their coffee inventory for our brand.  I got into the car, where I was to spend the majority of the morning, and started the engine.  My radio, tuned to a music station, was doing a news update or something... what were they talking about? Something with crashing and fire... I turned the station, and it was the same thing. A third station, and I stopped to listen.  A plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City.  I immediately thought this was along the lines of War of the Worlds - do you remember that? It was a hoax perpetrated by Orson Wells on radio stations in the '30s wherein actors presented an adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel as a series of news bulletins, and the country panicked because everyone thought they were real.  I thought the same thing was happening at first, because I couldn't wrap my mind around what they were telling me.  I didn't have a cell phone at the time, so it was just me and my radio. As I went into each grocery store to work, no one inside the stores had heard yet, that much was clear - everyone was working or shopping as usual - and that gave the morning a surreal tilt even more than it already had.  I worked my shift in a fog, anxious to get back to the radio and listen to the report of what was happening so far away.  By the time I was headed back to my boyfriend's apartment, the second plane hit.  He had found out about it when he logged into his computer that morning, and we turned on what little tv reception he had and spent the remainder of the day on the couch, just watching news coverage and holding hands.

I will never forget that morning.
I will never forget some of the images of that day.
I will never forget the days, weeks, months afterward when I felt such a sense of patriotism and unity of country.

In remembrance of those who lost their lives, remember to live every day to the fullest and to tell people you love them every day, every moment through words and actions.  You never know when will be the last moment.

Gentle Ben

Hallooo, thirstybirds!  This is a little late, but I have had a helluva week, let me tell you.  Among other (much worse and super boring) things, I'm rereading The Saga before the trip.  I'm about halfway through Twilight right now (I'm waaaaaay slower this time than I used to be), and it has reminded me (even though he has yet to appear) that one person I truly miss in the movie versions is Ben Cheney!  This week's Thirsty Thursday drink is, therefore, in his honor!  I give you: Gentle Ben.

Let's get this show on the road!  Or, should I say: 'lets! Get this show on the road!

The 'lets present our ingredients (I made the OJ from concentrate)

 3 oz Tequila

(do you like my shot glass?  The top of the circle is about 1.5 oz, so two of these went in my glass)

3 oz Gin

(if you're following at home, I have only just realized as I'm writing this that the measurements given in the formula are "cl" and not "oz," which only means I put in 3 times what I was supposed to. No big deal... right? We'll see...)

3 oz Vodka

 

A "splash of OJ" 

Here's where I deviated from the formula (on purpose), because 9 oz of booze seemed like, well, kind of a TON.  So I went ahead and filled the glass to about 3/4 full to cut it.

Here's your action shot! Add ice...

Ta-daaa!

Two 'let's and a big Gentle Ben.

So, as you might expect, this tastes like a screwdriver with a kick.  I don't like gin, but I couldn't taste it here, so that was okay.  If I were to make it again, I might try vanilla vodka or something a little sweet to give it a balance.  But it's tasty and goes down smooth.  And, if you don't look at the formula closely and make it super strong like I did...

Heeeere's where I realize I'm completely tanked.

That's not a lot of drink to get to that point.

That shit was strong, yo's!  I was drunk tweeting and drunk texting... if you were on twitter last Friday listening to me talk about Comcast karaoke, well, Gentle Ben was to blame.

A total WIN!

Who wants to come over for karaoke?

"Hit me with your best shot!"
"Fire awaa-haaaay."

So, are you rereading the books with Demanda and me?  Who is in the books that you miss from the movies?  Have you ever read a recipe incorrectly and made something really wrong?  Tell us all about in the comments!

"I used to drink, I did. I had to quit. Man, I was an embarrassing drunk. I'd get pulled over by the cops, I'd be so drunk I'd be out dancing in their lights thinking I'd made it to the next club."    — Bill Hicks

SV and I Visit Forks High!

Hello hello! I hope you all had a fantabulous three-day weekend. I know I did.

Now, I know you've already heard about my escapades with Starlit Violets and TwiKiwi50, but what you might not know is that on our way up to meet TK50, SV and I stopped in Kalama, home of the high school where many scenes were filmed in Twilight!  This is one of a few of the original film sets I hadn't yet been to (see my first post on the topic here).  Here are my pictures from that visit.  Enjoy!

Kalama Forks High School

The Parking Lot

 If you don't recognize this, get off my blog right now.  :)

This one's a little more obscure. That is the spot where the almost-crash takes place.

SV went ahead and stole a Cullen parking spot. She also tried to pull in like they do when Emmett's standing up in the back of the Jeep, LOL

Outdoor hallways. We could hear the echoes of Eric talking about the feature...

OMG.. is that...???

Yes, yes it is, that is THE hill!!!

We thought about walking up there to follow in footsteps, as it were, and then decided it was too steep, so we just took pictures.  Up this hill: Say it. Out loud.

Although much of the inside high school scenes were filmed in Portland's Madison High School (right up the street from my house!), we suspect these were used for some things.  Like my favorite part where Bella asks about Edward's eye and he is COMPLETELY nonchalant about it and definitely doesn't call attention to how awkward he feels about the question. For sure.

Being Twitards, of course, we couldn't leave without a little reenactment:

This is SV doing her best Bella. She just needs a red truck on the left and an Edward. Where is he when you really need him?

All in all, it was a worthy side-trip, and we both geeked out over the whole thing, which was super fun.  Kalama is about an hour North of Portland, so if you're ever headed up I-5, I recommend taking a detour! Especially if school isn't in session. We don't want you to get arrested.

25 Things - or: Getting to (Re)Know Me

I'm about two months late with this post, but in late June / early July when it was going around I was sort of ... um ... going through some shit.

So I'm just getting around to this now, as part of my pact with Demanda to blog a bunch before Forks 2011!  And away we go!

1 - I'm in the middle of getting a divorce. Let's just get this one out of the way from the start.  I would have been married for 3 years as of September 26th, and instead I expect to be completely divorced by the end of next week. Paperwork is filed and has gone to the judge, so now we... wait.  I'm perfectly willing to share more (if there's anyone reading this who doesn't already know about it), but that's all I'm saying in the list.

2 - May I introduce you to the 'lets?  They are my tiny plastic buddies.

 

This is Edlet. I bought him at Toys R Us.  When he speaks, it appears in gray. He is super cool (as evidenced by his super cool stance - just imagine him nodding his head quickly upwards as he says):

"Yo."

 This is T.Edlet.  I won him from a contest Living with Edward had on her hilarious blog.  He's a little friendlier than Edlet, and speaks in blue.

"Pleased to meet you all."

Together, they are my 'lets. :)  They don't go everywhere with me, but they'll be coming to Forks again, and they're very helpful on Thirsty Thursdays.

3 - I love terrible television.  I love most television, but I have a special place in my heart for things like, oh, I don't know, Big Easy Brides (have you SEEN that show???! Amazeballs.).  There are very few things I won't watch at least once - most of them have something to do with the medical field because...

4 - I'm medically squeamish.  I don't like to talk/think about what is going on inside my body (or yours, or anyone else's), unless it has to do with the digestive tract.  I will talk about poop. Go figure.

5 - I have webbed toes. Only two on each foot, and it's not as gross as it sounds.

These are my feet.

6 - I was vegetarian for 10 years and vegan for one of those years.  Like, full on vegan - I threw out (well, donated to charity) all of my wool and leather, which in retrospect made me very, very sad when I went back to my ovo-lacto ways.  There was really no great reason behind any of it (sorry, animal-rights movement), although I do love animals, but I just kind of decided to eat that way.  And then I decided to stop eating that way.  I should make up a more interesting story, LOL.

7 - I have a mouth like the saltiest sailor.

8 - I'm an only child.  Most people who know me, when they find this out, say I don't act like I was an only child.  I choose to take that as a compliment, because only children get a bad rap. It's all in the parenting, people.  Except for with Nell. For her, it was the lack thereof.

9 - I have had the same best friend since we were 11 years old. She was a dancer then. Now she's a trained fire-eating contortionist. I kid you not.  (I guess this isn't really a fact about me, but deal with it.)

10 - I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

11 - I wear a mouthguard to sleep at night because I grind my teeth.  Yes, I'm that sexxxy.

12 - I LOVE karaoke.  When I drink, my love of karaoke becomes frightening and (as TwiKiwi50 and StarlitViolets found out) I will do nearly anything to get my sing on.

13 - This seems like the appropriate place to tell you I'm slightly superstitious.  I guess it's more like I feel like, "Why risk it?" then I really believe that anything is going to happen if I walk under a ladder. Nonetheless, I tend to stay on the safe side of superstitions.

14 - I went to baking school, but I never got certified.

 This is me and some bread I made. Sorry, it's small.

15 - I have one friend on facebook who started as a pen pal when we were kids. I've never met him.  He's the only of my pen pals with whom I'm still in touch; at one point I had 5 or more.

16 - If I know a book is being or has been made into a movie, I will generally wait to read the book until I have seen the movie, with few exceptions (Twilight being a notable one).  I do this because it is my firm belief that 99.9% of the time I will enjoy the book more than I enjoy the movie, and I like to end on a high note.  It works for me.

 Damn you, Robert Zemeckis.

17 - I once took a ride in an open-cockpit biplane.  It was amazing.  I have a picture, but it's upstairs and I'd have to scan it... and I'm lazy.

18 - I'm so scared of heights that when I was 5 and one of my cousins took me on the ferris wheel, I started screaming bloody murder as soon as we got about halfway to the top and didn't stop until they rotated us all the way back around and let me off.  And still I liked the biplane ride.

19 - I have a huge bunch of super amazing friends, and you all are among them.  I am so grateful to have so many wonderful people around me - especially this summer - and I'm going to try my hardest to never again take that for granted.  You guys (and my non-online friends) rock my fucking socks off.

 Just me with a small portion of the amazing women I know.

20 - I am allergic to codeine, except that I'm not.  Technically, I have an "aversion" to codeine, which means if I have some, I will vomit immediately, thus rendering it effectively useless to me.  When filling out medical forms, they don't specify allergy or aversion, so I always put it under allergies with my others.  Without fail, a new doctor/dentist/nurse will ask what happens when I have codeine, so I tell them, and EVERY TIME they'll say, "Well, that's not actually an allergy, but continue putting it under allergies when you fill out forms."  Which means it happens again the next time I have someone new, too. Good times.

21 - My major in college was Theater, and - now that I'm in my 30s and haven't acted (by choice) in over 5 years - I do wish I had double-majored in that and something more useful.  Or at least minored.  I don't exactly regret it, but if I had the chance again I would do it differently.  It sucks that all the "adults" were right about that.  Live and learn.

22 - I have two cats: Charlie (coincidentally named after a Lost character, and not Chief Swan) and Mimi (named by my Mom because it seemed to fit her).  Charlie is 5 years old and Mimi is 4 months.  They're both silver/brown tabbies with white markings.

Charlie (front) and Mimi (back)

23 - Food is my favorite.  You know how they say that some people eat to live and some live to eat? I am the latter.  I won't try anything, but I will try anything-that-doesn't-gross-me-out-to-think-about-eating, and I love trying different cuisines and eating delicious food.  This is probably why I've gained 25 or so pounds since college.  It's also a large part of the reason I'm no longer vegetarian.

24 - My emotions are extremely close to the surface.  I cry a lot (for various reasons: happy, sad, frustrated, etc), but I think I'm also able to let things go a lot more easily than I would be if I bottled up my feelings.  I no longer have outbursts as publicly as I did when I was younger, so I think it's okay.

 I iz sad.

25 - I (along with Demanda and a few others) am rereading the Twilight Saga in preparation for our Forks voyage this year! I'm currently at Chapter 5 in Twilight, but I should have some good time to devote to reading in the next few weeks.  Join us and read along! We'll both be doing periodic posts about our progress/thoughts/observations.  I haven't read the books in about 2 and a half years now (since my obsession took hold and I read them 4 times back-to-back-to-back), so I'm really enjoying getting back to the basics.

Phew!!  It's hard to come up with 25 semi-interesting things about myself!! About halfway through, I started to think,"I'm starting too many of these sentences with 'I'." LOL - it didn't stop me, though.

So now you know a little bit more about me!! Tell me something about yourself in the comments!  (You can do just one thing or 25, it's up to you!)  Mwah!!

The Viscous Robert

What uuuuup, thirsty birds???  It has been ssssooooooo long since our last Thirsty Thursday post, but I am resurrecting the tradition in preparation for our impending return to Fooooooooorrrrrkkkkkssssssss!  Demanda and I have made a pact to post at all more before the trip, and here is my inaugural effort! I like to call it: The Viscous Robert.

I know, I know. You, like me, are wondering who would drink a whole ounce of bitters.  Let's see what happens.

OK, so we start with a viscous Robert...

 Wait, what? 

The 'lets and our ingredients... ish

Oh, I see, it's a drink.  OK, we start with some ice...
 

 

"I thought we were done with this shit."

"Apparently not."

"Dude, I would so facepalm if my arms bent that way." 

One ounce of bitters... that's right: a whole ounce.

"OK, so she's going to drink this?  Foul."

"I know, right?  I think that night with TwiKiwi50 and StarlitViolets messed with her head."

A "dash" of SoCo...

 

"That's enough!"

"You can't drink this."

 "You can't let her drink this."

"Me??! You were with her first!"

"Oh, as if I could make her do or not do anything."

 

 "Well, fine. But I'm not cleaning up any vomit!"

And swirl!  (I don't have any lemon peel with which to garnish.)

 

You all know I love a good action shot.

 Hmm... this is... well... it's going down the drain is what. 

 

Awww.  This is what FAIL looks like.

Now, you guys know I will drink lots of things. This was absolutely undrinkable.  It reminded me vaguely of Christmas, for reasons I am unable to explain - I suppose from all those times I got tanked on Christmas morning as a child...  I'm not sure, but it wasn't a good thing.  If you've ever tasted bitters alone, you pretty much know what it tastes like. Bitters are better as an accent, not the main event.

 

 The 'lets say they told me so.

All in all, I think you're better off with the original viscous Robert, so let's see him again, eh?

Happy Thursday!!!

"I drink too much. The last time I gave a urine sample it had an olive in it." ~ Rodney Dangerfield