Staring at a jumbled pile of letter-shaped cookie cutters, my subconscious told me: RELAX. The rest is just because there's not a whole lot you can write without repeating a letter.

- Chimpy Nuts

RECIPE, BADASS.
Equal parts Zubrowka & apple juice.

Zubrowka is Polish vodka infused with bison-grass, and has a flavor that is difficult to explain. Add in some apple juice for a kraazy subtle herbal flavor that will knock you on your ass like a ninja. I could pound these all night if they didn't pound me twice as hard.

RECIPE, PRETTY GOOD.
White Russian. Egg nog, not milk. Drinking one now.

RECIPE, BLAH.
I tried making Tom & Jerrys at Craft Nite this weekend, having never had one before, from a recipe book three times older than I am. They were kind of mleh and knowing they were full of raw eggs didn't make them any better.

A RESTAURANT THAT IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE THAT I MIGHT EVEN GO BACK.
When somebody tells me to meet them at an Irish pub in a strip mall in Clarence I tend to grimace and brace myself, especially when it's named for a street 400 miles from Transit & Main. But Brennan's Bowery Bar is actually pretty good, and we might go there again maybe on an off-night since (e:dragonlady7) works out there.

CHILDREN.
Still not my scene. Nothing to do with anything, just putting that out there.

- Z

I'm not that big on the commercial nog - my aunt makes a killer homemade nog and really you don't need more than three cups of egg nog per year. But I have an awesome recipe for it:

RECIPE, AWESOME.
- egg nog, carton
- bread
Soak bread in egg nog. Fry it.

Something so easy has no business tasting so much better than French toast. (e:tinypliny) - egg nog is about 300% worse than any soy-based beverage you can come up with but LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU

- Z

'Nice shower curtain there, D'Artagnan.'

- Z

I've been inactive on (e:strip) lately. I don't even respond to comments left for me! Very rude. This should cover the last couple months or so, in reverse chronological order:

1. Anthony Van Dyck, a 17th-century Flemish painter. Most of his subjects have that type of beard, now called a 'vandyke.' It is unclear whether he made them grow it out for him, or whether he just painted it on them. I'm not sure which would be worse.

2. I finished it a couple of weeks ago, but I was off-the-grid at the time. All it needs is to get hooped.



3. It means 'Dentist' in Slovenian, but not on purpose.

4. Cuki is a contemporary folk band of the type which might sit in as panelists on the Slovenian edition of "Pocakajte Pocakajte ... Ne Povej Mi!"

5. It probably gets cold there.

6. MacSolutions Plus for out-of-warranty repairs, definitely. I broke an iMac G4 with hubris [those fuckers are tricky inside]. They had a logic board in-stock [!] and fixed it in two days. The clerk told me they can fix 'any Mac that's not beige,' and then said, 'probably some of the beige ones too.'


A few things which do not merit separate entries:

1. It's bullshit that a bottle of beer is 11.5oz. It's also bullshit that a pound of coffee and a pound of bacon are both only 12oz. This makes me genuinely, sincerely angry.

2. I'm tracking a package that was sent via DHL.



What the fuck is this?! When did DHL stop being 'we'll deliver your package' and start being 'we'll take it to the Post Office for you?'

3. I just upgraded to Snow Leopard. I know it was supposed to be kind of a low-key update, but I really like this one. I guess there's not a whole lot of new technology in it, but they totally fixed a lot of my peeves. I'm also waiting for my complimentary upgrade to Windows 7. Am I the only person who's excited about this? I'm such an upgrade geek.

4. Woop! My moustache wax just came in the mail. This will come in handy for my birthday beard. [Three-zero on the three-one! I think that deserves a wacky beard. Only difficulty is making it look presentable for the more respectable holidays first.]

- Z

1. I'm starting to notice more people with unusual moustaches and beards. Is facial hair coming back into style? Or are people with facial hair deluding ourselves that it's coming back into style?



2. People Magazine says Johnny Depp is the sexiest man alive. Dude's one of my favorite actors but dang if he isn't skeezy as hell. What's the deal?



3. FiOS just became available at my house. It's only $10/month more than my current dry-loop DSL. I do not have, and do not have use for telephone or television service. Is it worth it?

- Z

I just got a coupon in the mail for $100 towards Google ads. I'm not going to use it but if you do, send me an email and I'll give you the coupon code. Value drops to $75 after December 4, valid until December 31. It says 'new advertisers only,' but you may be able to work around that.

- Z

Great party last night! It's always fun but also interesting hanging out with the (e:peeps). We left around 1a because (e:dragonlady7) was sleepy and actually under the weather [not the hamthrax, though].

You may not believe it from the frequency of my updates, but I'm live-blogging my crafting too. Someone was taking up the only sunny spot in the house.



OK this photo may be slightly too cute. (e:dragonlady7) earnestly cautioned me that if I posted crafts on the Internet, it would be assumed that I am female. Now I understand.

Does anybody want a copy of the chart?

- Z

(e:dragonlady7) has started up a craft club which involves bringing a craft project, ignoring it while you drink a lot of alcohol, staying over, sleeping late, working off your hangover, and then putting in a couple stitches before heading home. We're very productive! But up until this weekend, my stated project was 'fidgeting.' Like, winding thread or something I guess. So this weekend I upgraded to 'advanced fidgeting:'



Cross-stitch: embroidery for the obsessive-compulsive.

The Happy Mac:

- Z

...but if you don't, we'll send the deformed babies in person next time.

Cleft palate is a serious problem, and they say they can fix it in 45 minutes for only $250. That's amazing! It boggles my mind. But am I the only person who sees an implied threat to send unsettling photos until I pay up?

- Z