SuperEggplant

To celebrate a friend’s 40th birthday, a group of us got together and took a cocktail class at mint, a local bar that specializes in delicious and fancy cocktails. The class was taught by bartender extraordinaire and Mint owner Lucy. She is also the author of a book on cocktails: Hip Sips: Modern Cocktails to Raise Your Spirits

Those of you who know me know that I don’t/can’t really drink. In fact, I have never been drunk. This year, though, I have realized that I can drink very small amounts of vodka, as long as it is mixed with something fruity and a very, very sugary rim. That isn’t saying much, considering I had about 6 sips total and was feeling very flushed. Since I was the designated driver, I stopped at my 6 sips and just ate a bunch of the delicious sweet potato fries.
We learned how to make three drinks: Guava Cosmo, Bella (kind of like a lemon drop but with blackberry puree instead of lemon), and O (a twist on the mojito). Some Very Important Things I learned: NEVER use triple sec, or if you do, don’t let Lucy catch you; make your own simple syrup; don’t use the stems from mint (bitter).
It was a really fun class–good drinks, good snacks, good instruction, good company. If you like cocktails and are ever in Portland, be sure to check out Mint!

Okay, so I need to talk about pens and pencils again. Bear with me. I needed another mechanical pencil, so of course that forced me to place another order with Jet Pens. The service was super quick as usual! I got the Pilot Presso Side Knock mechanical pencil, but I’m not sure exactly why I picked that one. Maybe I thought it was cute. That is highly likely. Anyway, it has a side click and a pretty good-sized eraser on top. It feels comfortable in my hand and writes smoothly. I also got some lead in both H and HB. Now I am thinking I also need a mechanical pencil with a really fine, sharp lead. Probably a good idea, right? Any suggestions?
I also got a couple of new pens. My brother had to fly to California for the day last week, and he ended up with some time to kill, so of course I told him he should go to Maido or Kinokuniya and buy me some pens. Ha! Lest you think I’m a big brat, I could have sent him to the petite bra store, so you see, I am not so evil. Anyway, the green pen is the Uni-Ball Signo in .38mm. It is NOT the Signo DX, and I’m actually not sure what the difference is. If I were really obsessed, I would know. It’s a nice gel roller pen. The other pen is the Zebra Techno Line ballpoint pen in 0.4mm. I got it based on a recommendation from Lydia. It’s a fine-point ballpoint pen, but I hate to say I am not feeling the love for this pen. I find that the ink is a little prone to smearing, and it lacks the smooth flow, the ink-skating-over-the-paper feel of the Uni-Ball Jetstream Sport. I am not, however, giving up on the Zebra. If Lydia says it’s great, I am willing to give it a chance.

I’ve always loved bean bag chairs. I remember having one that was pink or orange, and it had that sticky vinyl, super plasticky cover that made your legs stick to it. It got a leak, of course, so little staticky beads would slowly fall out and blanket parts of the body.
As you can see, vast improvements have been made to the bean bag chair! I received this Sumo Omni chair from Sumo, a company that specializes in bean bag chairs of all shapes and sizes and colors. The Omni has a heavy-duty nylon cover and can morph into various configurations.
I haven’t tried napping on it yet, but I have sat and read a book on it, and it was super comfy. What was great was I squished the chair around so I had a head rest and a book rest (I have wimpy arms, and sometimes they get fatigued holding up a book. You think I’m kidding?).
I keep waiting for Deedle to give it a shot, but so far she has stayed away from the Sumo Omni. I think it’s a little large for her, and the easy-to-clean nylon cover probably freaks her out. Maybe she just needs a little coaching!
Doesn’t my mother make a good model? A big thank you to Sumo for the chair!

When I first read about this Weenies on the Water guy, I knew we’d end up scouring the river looking for him, as he combines two of Peter’s favorite things: boats and hot dogs.
Look, ma! Biodegradable boxes!The frankfurter gods were smiling on us, because we found Mister Water Weenie on our first try. He was getting ready to head out on the water but was nice enough to fry up a big dog for Peter before departing. This guy basically rebuilt the entire boat to accommodate his weiner-cooking needs.
As you can see, these are not wimpy little dogs or buns. There isn’t nearly enough mustard on there (Peter views hot dogs as mere vehicles for mustard) for Peter, but he still enjoyed it!
Yeah, I know I didn’t get a photo of the whole boat, but it was rather chaotic down on the launch ramp, and I was trying not to get run over by wakeboarders.

I have always been fond of office supplies. In fact, I can get a little freaky about office supplies, particularly pens. I am not as obsessed as this guy, but that’s mostly because I am too lazy (and perhaps dimwitted) to be an expert on anything.
But back to the pen thing. A while back I discovered Jet Pens, an online vendor of, can you guess? They specialize in Japanese writing implements, and the site is addictive. Jet Pens recently started a flickr group. I recently received a sample of the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto multipen. I already had one, which means now I have TWO, one with 0.4mm ink cartridges and one with 0.5mm. I have to say that right now the Pilot Hi-Tec-C pens are my favorite. They produce a perfect fine line and come in various configurations (I am also a big fan of the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Slim Knock, a mini pen). As you can see, the 0.5mm creates a thicker line than the 0.4mm. I love them both, but I think I prefer the 0.4mm by a hair.
I could go on and on about the Pilot Hi-Tec-C (okay, so maybe I have already), but I also want to share with you my discovery of the best ballpoint pen EVAH.
May I present the Uni-ball Jetstream Sport! This is the slickest, smoothest ballpoint pen I have ever used (and apparently other people like it, too, because they are sold out on Jet Pens right now). It glides like a roller ball. Now, if you are desperate to try this pen, which you should be, I have a little tip for you–get thee to your local office supply or Target-like store and look for the four-packs of the Uni-Ball Jetstream Sport pens. The package will say they are roller balls, but guess what? They are ballpoint pens. They are the same as the ones offered on Jet Pens but for one crucial difference: the ones on Jet Pens are 0.7mm, while the ones available in the United States are 1.0mm (a medium line). I highly recommend the 0.7mm ones, but the 1.0mm ones work great as well.

My brother is currently attempting to get rid of and/or move around a bunch of stuff in the house, which means a lot of the kooky stuff my packrat father collected is surfacing. I think my father was probably the ultimate hunter-gatherer, or really, a hunter-gatherer gone awry. If anyone out there collects keychains or little pins or ashtrays, just let me know, and I can fill your garage.
My father was also fond of collecting books. It was kind of funny how many copies of the Official Boy Scout Handbook we discovered just today. One of his hobbies was to highlight passages in books. I even found highlighted text in cookbooks, and the guy could not even boil water! But anyway, we dug out this Japan Unmasked book by Ichiro Kawasaki, and sure enough, there are highlighted sentences in there. The things my father chose to highlight are funny and odd enough, I think, to warrant a weekly posting. So, here is the first in the “George highlights Japan Unmasked” series:
page 13: ” . . . lack of individual initiative on the part of most Japanese and their tendency to act in mass psychology may, in part, be responsible for constantly telling others to do this and that.”
**Regarding the EEK pot in the previous post: I bought it at the local Fred Meyer supermarket. The bottom has “Holiday Home” on it, so I am guessing that is the manufacturer.

The aisles are full of Halloween goodies, and I just can’t resist them. All I have purchased thus far, though, is that “EEK” vessel. Won’t it look cute with candy corn in it? I figure I can use it for pens during the off season. The mouthless eggplant is courtesy of schmeebot. Should I read something into the lack of a mouth, as if, I don’t know, she is hoping for a MUTE eggplant? Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.