Blue Bird Etc.

Well, the house is in ruins, but at least the daybed is set up in the basement now so we can lay in bed and watch a movie - if the opportunity ever arises. I have "The Notebook" rented on Apple TV and only another 19 days until it expires. Right at the moment we're watching The Simpson's Halloween special, Bart is a vampire attacking Lisa, and Jule is hiding his eyes.

I'm running into trouble with cocktail ingredients again. For some reason my credit cards were both declined by that Cocktail Kingdom site, where I found orgeat and orange bitters and some other stuff that I can't recall. I wasted a fair bit of time on that. I figure I'll check out De Luca's and an Asian grocery store in Winnipeg at the end of March, then try online again if I have no luck. I found out that kumquats are grown in southern California so I should be able to find some in San Diego. Will I be able to bring them back, though? I should probably take kumquat-containing recipes with me and make them there... but can I bring half-empty bottles of alcohol back?

A few days ago I made a Blue Bird, gin and triple sec and something else and a lemon twist, basic and good. It made me crave sea salt-with-a-hint-of-lime tortillas, which we didn't have. We watched the Olympic gold medal hockey game - Canada beat the U.S. - and we cared for about five minutes, then went on with our lives. Today we bought the tortillas and I made salsa and guacamole and it was the perfect afternoon snack, after a sunny walk by the Atikokan River and an hour taking apart bookshelves and tasting beer in Patrick's mouth and oh, I also slept in until ten this morning, and drank a lot of coffee, and maybe now I'll go play "Fur Elise" on the piano instead of watching more Simpson's, and maybe we'll stay up late and watch "The Notebook" even though I have to be up early for work tomorrow, and am on call again this weekend, or maybe we'll just read and sleep.

Also, today, I made a Tom Collins, which I found bland, not as sweet as I remember from Bangkok Thai in Winnipeg, where I used to order them. Next time I'll double the sugar syrup. And because I had a free minute while the alfredo sauce was thickening, I made a Breakfast Martini as well, with orange marmalade. It was fine, but why? I skipped the triangle of toast with marmalade garnish.

Soon I will be forced to purchase sloe gin, so that I can move on properly.