Have you ever known that there was something important you were supposed to do after work, but forgotten what that something was?

Yeah.....

I know it's not Battlestar Galactica finale. That's Friday night.
I know it's not...

I'll be damned. It just came to me.

Josh, we have to go to UPS today to get my new cam!!!!!

And your new Kerouac book. But whatever. I've been sick of not posting pics because my phone cam is so shitty.

Now hopefully I remember to call them and arrange to pick it up later.

Wish me luck?

I hear that's where all the cougars are.

Yeah....anyway I'm going to play golf in mid-June, and I can't wait. I always have a good time in FLA, and a boy from Buffalo loves to be able to walk around in the skivs late at night in 75-80 degree weather.

Another thing I love is swimming. One of the most relaxing activities for me is to be in a pool doing the backstroke. If I lived there I certainly would swim every day. Swimming is also my favorite Olympic sport.

I love the beach, for some obvious reasons, some not so obvious, but my Nordic skin doesn't so much appreciate it. Gonna have to get a base going.

Swimming, golf, luxury booze, great food, cigars, barbies on the beach. Yes, I can definitely handle that.

Every now and then I remember that something I want to do someday is sit at the bar at Aquavit in Manhattan and sample some of the varieties of Aquavits they make. It's about as close as we can get to experiencing Swedish drinking culture without going overseas. I wonder if they even do the drinking songs? I very much doubt that.

One problem with being Swedish-American is that it's hard to connect to your roots without being in one of a handful of places full of ethnic Swedes. It ain't like being Italiano. In Jamestown I can get the cardamom rolls, the skorpors, proper cookies, Swedish chocolate, and all sorts of other things. In Buffalo not so much, although I did find the Lingonberries at Premier recently while looking for white peach puree and dried morels.

It is an unfortunate fact that Swedish cuisine has a poor reputation, because the bad stuff is REALLY bad, so I don't know how much I am going to be doing Swedish cooking, but I really want to try an Aquavit. A few years back the NYC restaurant decided to commercially produce one of their more popular Aquavits. Joy!! The bitch of it is that it isn't available outside of the NY metro area.



Of course, it isn't as strong as a normal Aquavit, which is almost always taken straight up, and it is flavored with white cranberry as opposed to some of the weirder options, but it's probably as good as I can do given the circumstances. I'm absolutely certain it could form the base of my next 750. I need to find a way to get my hands on some of this stuff. I promise to share!

I'm sorry, I can't let this one go without comment. Someone else said how shameful it is for a guy to order an Appletini, or any -tini variation. I definitely agree, but I also like my fruity ass drinks at Cecelia's on occasion (can't do olives), so I found a solution. Just change the drink's name. Appletini becomes the William Tell, Electric Lemonade becomes the Thunderbolt, and I'm sure I've named a few of them other far less emasculating things like Jackhammer, Piledriver, Hot Rod, and Five Alarm. Thank God my favorite at Cecelia's is called the Metropolitan. See, you can have your silly ass drinks and still not be considered an asshole, at least in your own mind.

I don't talk about work a lot, but the last couple of days have been very frustrating. You would think that a HUGE, INTERNATIONAL vendor would have its shit together but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. Sometimes, they give you wrong documentation, other times they give you wrong answers, and hours of wasted productivity later they ask YOU to send THEM the correct documentation that was "lost" a year ago. What? Why don't you have your own shit? Why were we given wrong information time and again? Why are you wasting my fucking time? It's unbelievable, and we pay for the privilege.