Beer Racists

With a January birthday celebration on the docket, conversation turned to how to best mark the occasion. "Beer tasting" had been kicked around, but the final deets had to be worked out on a brown paper tablecloth over Italian one night.

The theory being that some of us might be beer racists: judging the beers we might like or might not like by their color. It's true, I do it. So we assigned kinds of beers out to attendees, ordered pizza, and turned on the SAG awards for one heck of a birthday celebration.

In order to not be judgy, we needed a lot of opaque tasting cups. Luckily the birthday girl had some tiny owl Dixie cups on hand. I printed out some beer tasting wheels and some score cards upon which to keep notes.

Not to be exclusionary, we also had a ROOT beer tasting for the non-drinking and underage attendees.

It killed me how much they got into it, but given their flair for the dramatic, I guess it shouldn't have. Many of us participated in the root beer tasting, noting differences amounting to more citrus or anise hints in the different offerings.

In the middle of our lineup we had a couple of red herrings, if you will, to throw tasters a curve ball, see if they were paying attention. Though I forgot to throw in one of the O'Douls I had in the garage, we had a Bud Light in there, and also a 40-O of Olde English 800. I included this very technical review on my note card: "I cannot drink this." This attendee was more appreciative of this entry, but something was missing...

 Oh yes, the bag. Hey Jared Leto in a tux!

 And then, pie! Happy birthday, fellow Capricorn!

Old Man Winter

 Just some cool shots I liked.

 So dramatic.

 It stacks up quickly.

We've also had lots of hoarfrost this season, which has been fun.

 Hoary.

 Hashtag no filter? Yeah that.

This is my new fave pic of the chicken ranch.

 Sometimes...

....I'm late for work.

Somebody Loves Me

I took Monday and Tuesday off of new year's week. Girlfriend don't work on her birthday, even if I got nothin' to do. We spent part of it wandering about town, popping into music stores and trying out their wares.

Then to the arthouse theater for a movie. And reading my husband from the literature I received on the street. "Somebody Loves Me." I'm sure of it. Somewhere.

 So. Many. Presents.

NEW SHARPIES!!! IN A MILLION COLORS!!!

 Sister and I are all about stickers.

And then, off to Red Robin to celebrate the new year, and that the two in the center successfully survived the polar bear plunge at the reservoir! They were dressed as Hall and Oates, so I brought this little gem from my collection. Happy 2014!!

Christmas Dinner!

It was going to be hard to top the previous evening's festivities, but we were up for the challenge. And for the challenge of seating six in our wee dining room!

For a first course of my husband's famous duck gumbo...

Followed by a second course of venison, cooked to perfection.

Yay!

And then my pecan pie. It was rather meh. And I'm not just saying that because I'm not big on the sweets.

 Such a nice visit!

Mostly, a very successful evening!

"Ewww, do I have to touch her?"

 And then, while she's distracted...

 Yeeeeeeee!

Christmas Morning!

We finally gave up on Dad getting up and dug into our stockings. That's one of the nice things about not observing holidays in a traditional manner...no traditions! Bahahah! Dad was probably extry tired from kicking all of our butts at Cards Against Humanity. Dammit.

Yesssss! New SmartWool for me!!

 He FINALLY got up. Jeez. Something about the lighting/exposure color of our kitchen looks like this pic was taken in about 1974. OK, our kitchen in 1974 was just about this color, now that I think of it. Hmm. Dad didn't want to exchange gifts, but i bought him a bunch of consumables under the guise that he needed to have provisions in the truck for the drive across the high desert. Safety first!

Sister got me these tiny white birdie salt and pepper shakers! She didn't mean to, but i love them anyway.

 NephewGifts! A scarf for the aunt, a sweatshirt for the uncle. Solid gifts.

SISTER! GET OUT YOUR PHONE, IT'S TEXTING TIME!! TIME FOR TEXTING!!!

 A tiny gift from Kelly. No, really, it was a book only about an inch big. I love it. stop by, i'll show it to you.

A banjo-lele for my husband! And a big ol Christmas mess! Yaaaay!

And no rules. It was just lovely. :)

Christmas Eve Seafood Fest!

See that posted on date? Yeah, it says January, dammit.

Christmas eve festivities! Dad wasn't going to stay through a holiday he's not all that into "celebrating," but when he heard we were off to a combination Seafood Festival and Cards Against Humanity challenge, he asked what color sweatshirt would be most appropriate for this fine event. The resident librarian went with a classy green.

Our host and hostess hoisted a bunch of these bad boys from the Pacific themselves and froze them for our enjoyment! So generous of them to share their crab...

 ...and their cozy home!

Me and Dad. BIG cat people. I think I was about to lose an eye. Steal souls and all.

 MUST. KILL. CAMERA.

This was as close to a group shot as I got in the flurry to get the little people fed and get ourselves served up. Everyone is technically represented except Mr. Green Sweatshirt.

Later, said little people entertained us while we enjoyed our decaf and homemade holiday moon pies.

There is usually a performance of some sort when these girls get together, it makes me giggle. Course in my day, the focus would have been on costumes and makeup instead of lines and dance numbers. ;)