Lars

Saw Lars and the Real Girl on my sister's recommendation. Just mind-blowing. Lars has a delusion. His friends and neighbors go along with it in an attempt to help him.

It could have been so over-the-top, but the acting was first-rate. Total commitment. Subtle.

I still had moments which made me shake with laughter at the absurdity (the school board?!), but even that was handled with subtlety off-camera.

Had a fun exchange afterwards which went pretty late (but how can one walk away from a lively discussion?). Thought I saw John Remy drive by a few times, but it was really late, so probably not. I spent too much time leaning on one knee, so when the party broke up, I had to limp to my car. The weather has been chilly enough recently that I'm actually using the heater in my car! Noticed a couple making out (with abandon) out in the open air under the bright lights of the University Center parking lot. Brrrrrr!!!! But I'm sure they were keeping each other warm.

Briefly wondered if there was such a thing as a geo-tagged Public Displays of Affection photo blog. There's a million dollar idea, right there.

SSC 8

Short Shameful Confession:

I had to stop myself from purchasing jeans which I already have four pairs of.

SSC 7

Short Shameful Confession:

I recently co-opted the story of my freshman year college roommate's drunken escapades as my own.

I've never passed out in a lawn and thrown up green because I was drinking Grasshoppers all night.

Quotable

From The Cold Bath, a really interesting series of conversations with Mr. Anonymous.

Michael Blieden: There was a girl who, in college, I wanted her so badly. I mean, I just... I, I... For years... And I worked on her, and we became friends, and we got closer and closer... And then this spark developed, and we made out a couple times. And then finally, she came to visit me in New York and ... It could have happened. And in my mind, I thought "Well, after I have an orgasm, then I'm really going to have to engage with this person."

Mr. Anonymous: In fact, this has summed up every man's thinking. That's the phrase that says it.

Blieden: And I sort of did the math in my head of what that afterglow moment was going to be like, and I knew that I would be a million miles away. And at the brink, I just...

Wow. Worked on her for years, THEN I'm really going to have to engage....

SSC 6

Short Shameful Confession:

I just used the word "physicalness" in a serious conversation twice. On purpose.

Bling Part 2

So I was critical of Bling water. Recently, I paid $4 for a liter of water from Voss. The water was good. Yes, better than my Brita. It better taste freaking fantastic to bother shipping it all the way from Norwegia.

But really I bought it for the cool bottle. The 1 L is made of PET, but I paid another $4 for the glass 800 ml one too.

Bling!

Getting Jiggly and ABD

Went to journeygal's for a Halloween party last Saturday, and was inspired by this best tasting Jell-O shots article to take Jell-O shots. Well that, and the last party of their which I went to which gave me the impression that their crowd appreciates new and interesting drink consumption techniques.

I did some mid-week testing of various recipes. For simplicity's sake, I wanted to limit the flavors of Jell-O I was going to buy. I wanted max variations for my alcohol dollar as well. So after checking out the recipe, I decided to go with cherry and orange Jell-O with Amaretto (tastes like maraschino cherries), Peach Schnapps, and Creme de Cacao (chocolate). I was going for:

Cherry-Amaretto
Cherry-Peach
Cherry-Creme de Cacao
Orange-Amaretto
Orange-Peach

And for the non-drinkers (or drivers, like me), I did a Cherry-Chocolate version without liquor from Seltzer water and Torani chocolate syrup.

Mid-week experimentation led me to the following recipes:

Base Recipe:
Add packet of Jell-O to 8 oz boiling water
Cool to room temp
Add liquor mixes
Portion
Chill

The liquor mixes I tested (all with cherry Jell-O):
4 oz Amaretto + 4 oz Vodka - good
4 oz Amaretto + 4 oz Vodka + maraschino cherry - even better
4 oz Creme de Cacao + 4 oz Vodka + maraschino cherry - awesome
4 oz Peach Schnapps + 4 oz Vodka - not great
8 oz Peach Schnapps - much better
8 oz Vodka - not great

So I settled on the Amaretto + vodka, Creme de Cacao + vodka, and peach schapps variations, using maraschino cherries in the non-peach variation.

Lesson Learned: when doing Jell-O shot taste tests, taste and spit out. Not a good mid-week night. I got intoxicated in the not-fun way. Drove waaay past buzz and straight to "holy crap, am I going to die?"

Slight miscalculation on the day of the event. Not enough maraschino cherries. And miscalculated the yield. Used these 2 oz "souffle cups" to portion the shots:



When I put two tablespoons of product in each, I got 30 shots from each double sized Jell-O packet. But I made the mistake of doing one recipe with each packet, which meant 120 shots. Oops. Oh well. Now I know. For next time.

Party was lots of fun. People seemed to have fun with the shots, and no one had too many at once.


No costume for John. :-(

It was a really fun group, not at all wild. Maybe the kiddos calmed us down? If so, they're a good influence. Played some Taboo with them. journygal has some amazing Taboo skills. I don't.

pilgrimgirl won that evening's Ticket-To-Ride "Micronesia Edition" game. She claims it wasn't as fun since those gamers weren't making good strategy decisions. Might have been the effect of alcohol. I was too busy with Taboo, so I couldn't comment.

Nice long conversation about dream recall.

EVH and I stayed waaay too late. I didn't make Meeting the next day. :-)

I woke up late Sunday, didn't make Meeting, but did make the OC Swing series, then went to an Atomic practice for the Hullaballoo performance. Added in See-Saw, which was a shock. Seems like it should be easy (just a variation of Big John's Special), but the music cues are very different.

Ran 90 minutes late to the Quaker Meeting's "All But Dissertation" party. There are 5 or 6 people who are at that stage in the area. Hooray for them. I get there in time to see 3/4 of the Remy clan leave to do homework. I manage to get in, get some casserole, cake, and Apple-to-Apples. Back to Casa de Remy for more Apples-to-Apples and chatting with pilgrimgirl and EVH. Left waaay too late again. :-)