Life in the key of E flat minor

One hundred years ago, today, San Francisco suffered her great earthquake that, in my mind, has been synonymous with the City by the Bay. Real odometer anniversaries make me wish that I knew about them earlier to have planned a party have to themed around the event. So I thought that I'd google alcoholic beverages called "Earthquake." I found one from Recipezaar . (Cut and pasted here) 1 1/2 ounces tequila 1 teaspoon grenadine 2 dashes aromatic bitters 2 strawberries 1 orange slice Mix in blender for 15 sec at high with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with fruit. "Eh," I thought. So, I found a Earthquake Cocktail on a Creole Recipe Page, aptly named Gumbo Pages (The link is midway on the page.) I thought, "Ah, Nawlins, she who names drinks after natural disasters - some of which whoop her ass - she will have a great recipe." I cut and pasted for your ease of reading. By the way, the recipe actually comes from the Savoy Hotel Cock...

I had a migraine on Good Friday, so I called out of work. When I finally felt better and able to get out of bed and dressed, I realized that it was an anniversary of sorts. In reading Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country , he mentioned that there is a day when you don't exist while traveling to Australia from the US. It's all due to the International Dateline and the speed of commercial flight. For me, I left the US on a Air New Zealand flight at 11:30am from LAX on April 13 and I didn't finally get to Sydney until 10:30am April 15. I had jumped up into the air and the earth spin until I fell down two days later. (Now I know I existed because I had a window seat and I was blocked in by a charming old En Zed couple who were fast asleep when I had to take a wicked slash! It was a 26-hour journey in coach.) In waxing nostagalic for Australia and feeling better, I felt industrious and looked up a recipe for ANZAC Bickies . Knowing that ANZAC Day was coming up (April 25) an...

Alas, I was aching to play a match of rugby yesterday. One would think that we would like playing in the rain and mud. C'mon, let's face it. We're all just really big kids and who wouldn't want the opportunity to get dirty. However, it was not to be. Whitehorse's pitch is a public school's playing field and the arrangement includes not playing on the pitch when it's raining heavily. (Playing rugby in a heavy rain will tear up any grassy area and the high school kids need it for the week.) However, Whitehorse still was going to host the drink up. These boys have been really good chaps, including the fact that most of the team goes to our drink ups that we host at Tavern on Camac . (Those who don't come just wouldn't have been staying for the drink up anyway.) So a handful of us went out to Malvern to hang out with the team. After Lee, our Whitehorse contact, made a joke about the drink up being like a bad high school dance with the Gryphons on one s...

The home opener for the Phillies was a wash. By the bottom of the fifth, the Phils were losing 10 to 0. We were getting rained on, and even trying to get into McFadden's was a hassle. Eventually, they finished the game 13-5 but by that time I was in my bed dry and passed out. About 8:45pm, I get a call to join up with friends at the Public House on 18th street. I hadn't been there in ages, not since it was a Dock Street Brewery. I rush over and join my friends for a beer, and we dig the music. Whoever was the DJ had a really good sound going on. I was very excited to hear a different remix of Like a Prayer , and I got somewhat blue when I heard Together Again . However, the music had us all energized to go do something -- dance or inspiredly sing karaoke. The only game in town that I knew of was Woody's. After a dogged night of disappointing baseball games and disappointing men, we motley crew headed out to karaoke! We got to the bar and settled in with waters and ...