New Year's Eve

• 1 bottle Bud Light - Ted & Mary's
• 3 bottles Miller High Life - Jeff and Lisa's
• 2 glasses champagne - Jeff and Lisa's
  

Wow. One year of drinks. I can't believe I was able to do this every day. It was fun. It was interesting, but I'm glad it's over. Or is it? Drinky Crow will continue...with a different theme (and maybe a different name). See you in 2009!

Craps

• 2 pints bud light - Snoqualmie Casino
• 1 bloody mary - Snoqualmie Casino
• 1 liter Bitburger Pils - Prost!
• 1 Jack Daniels rocks - Corner Pocket
• 1 Jack Daniels rocks - Talarico's
• 1 PBR tallboy - Talarico's
• 1 pint Bud Light - Talarico's

The first time I played Craps was on our honeymoon cruise boat in the Caribbean. The table leader led me through it slowly so that I could get the hang of it and it was so nice to ease into such a seemingly confusing game with no threat of being overwhelmed. I loved the game right away and I never went back to playing black jack. So what do I like about Craps? The layout and design of the table, the stacks of hundreds of chips, the slot where the bills go when a player joins, the 3 or 4 people that staff the table, the racks that the players have to keep their chips, the lower shelf to keep drinks, that everyone has a chance to roll the dice, the so-many different options of betting, the way the chips are organized and stacked according to the player's position, the opportunity to watch the dice fly in the air, hit the back wall, and roll onto the felted playing field, the excitement that it generates, the amount of money that can be layed on various bets, the opportunity to go against the table, the one roll bets, the tingly rush right before the last die tips into place....

beautiful.

addicting.

endless.

dangerous.

Stats

• 2 glasses Dona Paula Los Cardos Malbec - home
• 1 pint Rainier - West 5

When I started this blog, I was curious to see how much I drank. I had never really counted before, or never cared, but I thought it would be an interesting concept/theme for a blog. I can't believe it's been a year since I began! This past month has been challenging to keep it updated however and I think back to the early part of the year when I really enjoyed writing, and had the time. I now feel rushed whenever I write and I'm not always happy with the result, and I am glad that I am coming to the end. I totalled up my drinks for each month and then averaged them. When coming up with the totals, I used the Standard Alcohol Equivalents - 12 oz. beer, 5 oz. wine, 1.5 oz. 80 proof alcohol. So two pints of beer (32 oz.) is really closer to 3 beers, and I counted it as such. Here is the year in review:

January: 107 drinks/31 days = 3.45
February: 97/29 = 3.34
March: 110/31 = 3.54
April: 93/30 = 3.1
May: 98/31 = 3.16
June: 96/30 = 3.2
July: 91/31 = 2.93
August: 56/31 = 1.8
September: 98/30 = 3.26
October: 97/31 = 3.12
November: 102/30 = 3.4
December: 132/31 = 4.25 (yikes!)

Year Total: 1,177/366 = 3.2

It's hard to imagine that I've averaged about three drinks a day this past year. The months that are higher than average are months where I've gone out at night and had way more than I should and that skews the average. Anyway...

There is general consensus that moderate drinking contains many health benefits. But what is considered moderate? The CDC (Center for Disease Control) posts this on it's site:

***
There is no one definition of moderate drinking, but generally the term is used to describe a lower risk pattern of drinking. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,¹ drinking in moderation is defined as having no more than 1 drink per day for women and no more than 2 drinks per day for men. This definition is referring to the amount consumed on any single day and is not intended as an average over several days.
***
Heavier drinkers face complications from drinking, especially if the pattern continues over time. So anyway...

Happy Birthday!

• 2 glasses Reserve Perrin Cotes du Rhone - Chez Gaudy
• 2 glasses Erratic Cabernet - Chez Gaudy
• 1 El Santo margarita - The Saint

Birthdays are such a special day and it only seems natural to want to celebrate. As I get older, I find myself extending my birthday to a "birthweek" and celebrating the whole week. Some of my friends still have a birthday party on their special day, some friends organize a dinner out with everyone, and others meet for happy hour and drinks. My last birthday we all went bowling. I really love how my friends do this. I guess as a person gets older they may not feel like celebrating, but I love how we've taken a "children's" thing and made it more "grown-up" and still continue to cherish it. Tonight we celebrated Jeff Jr's. birthday by going to a perfect little restaurant in Capitol Hill, then to The Saint for some drinks, and then to the Crescent for some karaoking...a wonderful birthday time.

Drinkies

• 2 glasses BV Pinot - home

Cold beer from a bottle going down my throat, whiskey warming my body, buttery oaky flavor of bourbon, twisty-headed feeling of tequila, distinct taste German beer from a liter stein, salty-sweet tang of margaritas on a sweaty day, slow-relaxing giddy effects of red wine, Jim Beam with two cubes, cold beers on a hot day, mixing the perfect cocktail for the occasion, warm taste of cask beer in the British tradition, Bushmills & Baileys, a pint of Guinness, vanilla sex on a chilly winter night, drinking beer before noon, potent bloody mary's with celery and olives (the perfect vegetarian drink), miller high life in a bottle.

Olympia

• 3 bottles Bridgeport Ebenezer Ale - George & Linda's, Olympia
• 1 bottle Hale's seasonal ale - G & L's
• 2 glasses wine - G & L's
• tasters of various beers - G & L's
  

Christmas Day

• 1 bomber Delirium Noel - home

London and I went to 8 am mass. It was a special time taking him to his very first Christmas mass. Christmas mass always reminds me of the last time I saw mom. Jim, Ken, Michelle, Susan, and I attended Christmas Day mass in Oceanside in 1998 and I remember praying the whole time that she would live. Later that day we drove down to the Oceanside beach area and walked around. It seems that mom went because that's what she wanted to do, although she needed a lot of help. Or maybe she didn't go because she didn't have enough strength. Unfortunately I don't remember it. Anyway, that Christmas was the last time I saw her. I think Ken, Michelle, and I had a really hard time enjoying Christmas for years after that. I think Michelle still does. I've always thought about families who have gone through tragedies during what should be a special time. Susan's cousin's husband's dad died on Thanksgiving in a house fire. How could a person or family ever fully enjoy that holiday again? I look forward to enjoying Christmas again now that London is here, but there will always be that emptiness and knowing that I'll never be able to let go.

Christmas Eve Dinner

• 1 pint Rainier - Mike's Chili Parlor
• 1 pint mhl - Mike's Chili Parlor
• 1 Woodford Reserve bourbon - LRobb's house
• many glasses red wine - home
• many bottles beer - home
• double Vanilla Sex with hot chocolate - home

Tonight was a very special dinner, not only because of the company, but because of the china. This sounds strange, I know, but it's the china that my mom collected - Friendly Village - Ken, Michelle, and I loved giving it to her for Christmas because she loved receiving it. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas we would carefully pull out the various pieces - the teapot, the gravy boat, the butter dish, the sugar dish, the salt and pepper shaker, the serving bowls, the meat platters, the double decker dessert dish, the place settings...there are so many pieces to it. After mom died, Ken, Michelle, and I split it up and I was amazed when I pulled it out today that I had so many pieces of it. Ken and Michelle have just as many. I would like to continue collecting even though china doesn't usually inspire me. I do love this pattern though. It's such a festive and fun holiday pattern; scenes of covered bridges, and snowy-banked streams, and pine trees; the delicate watercolor-type paint evokes a time when everyone traveled by horse-drawn carriages through snowy paths to arrive at their warm and inviting destination. It was the first time we've used this china since my mom died. My guests didn't know this, but I was glad that they were there to enjoy it.

PtE

• 500 ml Pliny the Elder - home
  

12-22

• 1 glass Pavin & Riley shiraz - home
• 750 ml Duvel - home
• 1 glass Elysian Bifrost winter ale - home
• 1 bottle AB American Ale - Fisher-Johnsons
• 1 bottle Fat Tire - Fisher-Johnsons
  

12-21/Winter Solstice

• 2 glasses Pavin & Riley shiraz - home
• 1 pint Elysian Bifrost winter ale - home

The snow has been everywhere for about a week now and I continue to love it. I love the soft whiteness that quiets everything, and the fat flakes that fill the sky. I've always been a snow person. I was always the last one in the house, hours after Ken and Michelle gave up and went in from being cold. Ken was always the first one. I always regretted not taking advantage of my love of snow and learning how to ski or snowboard at an earlier age. We moved to much however! The Bay Area, Kansas, and Georgia are not conducive to snow sports. I did a little when I moved back to SoCal, but it wasn't until moving back up to Seattle that I tried to get re-involved in skiing and snowboarding. I haven't been in years, but cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing have helped curb the desire to go snowboarding. Sledding is also fun! And we live right by the best sledding hill in West Seattle...Charlestown Street hill! It can be dangerous....

Anyway...

I love driving in it, and plowing through large piles of it, and attempting to drive up the various hills around our house, and spinning in it. Everyone's been complaining about it, but not me! I hope it stays around much longer.

Saturday

• 1 liter Bitburger - Probst!
• 1 Jameson's rocks - P & K's
  
• 1 Coke and vanilla vodka - home
  

Friday

• 2 pints Rainier - West 5
• 2 Baileys & Bushmills - home
  

Entourage

• 2 bottles MHL - MnM's
• 3 bottles Jubelale - MnM's

Christmas Mischief

• 2 vanilla sexes with hot chocolate - WS streets
  
• 2 mhl - MnM's
• 1 Beam rocks - MnM's
  

So I invented this Christmas Mischief thing about eight years ago. Just thought'd be a fun idea to get some friends together, mix some drinks, walk around west seattle and look at lights; and cause a little mischief. Tonight was the 8th Annual! Can't believe we've been doing it for eight years. Eight years! Extra cute and special tonight because it was really all about the children's mischief. Caroling, strolling, walking, laughing, and drinking and a way to see it from toddlers' eyes. Good thing too...I'll need someone to continue the tradition in twenty more years.

Tuesday

• 1 bottle of "I don't f'in remember!" :(
  

Snow Day!

• 1 bottle Brrr - home
• 2 pints Rainier - West 5
• 1 Wild Turkey rocks - home

Add a Friend

• 3 bottles Brrr - the Barking Lamb
• 1 egg nog - the Barking Lamb
• 1 Bushmill's & Bailey's - the Barking Lamb

The first friend I really remember having was in 3rd grade. This was in Palo Alto, California and his name was Ken. I don't remember his last name or really anything else about him, (although I could look it up in the my 3rd grade yearbook) but I do think he was kind of a nerd. His family may have been one of the first in the city to own a Radio Shack TRS-80. In 4th grade I had two friends whom I hung around with named Kirk (whatwashislastname?) and "Tiger" Rodriguez. Tiger's real name was Paul, but everyone called him Tiger and I'm not sure why. I really looked up to him. He wore cool clothes and I remember the way he tucked his shirt into his jeans showed off his homemade embossed leather belt. I also had another friend named Peter who was a bit of a nerd. He was into Battlestar Gallactica and all the other science fiction shows and movies (which I wasn't into). Peter was also a "softy", whereas Tiger and Kirk were solid; they always had something going on and were interested in doing things. In third grade I had heard about sex, but it seemed kind of a strange thing, so one afternoon in the back of my 4th grade classroom while the teacher was teaching, I looked it up in the encyclopedia and found it to be true. After school I told Kirk and Tiger about my findings and Kirk immediately offered up his family's Encyclopedia Brittanica's for further research. We huddled in his family's den with the EB opened up to "SEX" and read all about it. We were really fascinated! And that's the kind of stuff Tiger, Kirk, and I liked to do. Peter wasn't that type of friend.

I've had many friends through the years - in many different cities and states. Some have been short-lived acquaintances, others have started strong, only to fade away, and others have grown slowly over time. Since the Internet, friendships that I have thought to be lost, have resurfaced. It's wonderful to connect with a person with whom you once shared interests. It's amazing really.

I can have friends for different reasons. There are "movie" friends, or "artsy" friends, or "beer" friends, or "I need someone to talk to" friends, or "you're fucking funny" friends, or a combination of some of the above. It is so rare to find a person who really satisfies all of what a friend can be. Of all my friends that I have known and that I still remain friends, no one knows everything about me. That might seem like a strange thing to say, but I guess if you had been friends with a person since say, age 5, you really might know most everything about that person. My sister is really the only person that knows more about me than anyone. Anyway, some friends know things about me that I would never tell others, some friends know me so well that I don't have to tell them anything.

This post isn't really going in the direction that I had intended, but it had been rolling around in my head because tonight was our Urban Fam Secret Santa Gift Exchange and it only reaffirmed that I have a great group of close friends who are wonderful to be around. They make the world a better place. And if any one of you ever needs information on sex, you know who to ask. ;)

11:09

• 1 bomber Full Sail Barleywine - home
• 1 bottle Brrr - home

Japanese Maple - 11:09 pm

12-12-08

• 1 shot Jim Beam - Corner Pocket
• 2 cans Guinness - Maggie's
• 1 glass red wine - Maggie's
  
• 1 shot Jack Daniels - home
• 1 Jim Beam - YWV
• 3 cans PBR - YWV (but took one to Admiral Pub)