Ok, so Crys posted her dog, Moose talking and I told her that I would post a video of Zandy talking. So today is, “Take Your Pet to Blog Day!”

Of course, I taught Zandy to talk and so he might sound a tad bitchy. I just think he totally deserves props for even paying attention to me while Mike was barbecuing hamburgers! Liza makes an appearance toward the end, but you can clearly see that neither of them is all that concerned with the other. Sometimes we let Liza out in the garage and she plays with Zander, I was hoping I could get him to startle her because she is the easiest cat to scare, you know when you’ve scared her really good because her tail poof out like a raccoon tail. Maybe I should get that on video next…

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Saturday afternoon the kids went to Nana’s to swim for a bit so Mike and I got busy in the kitchen.

We started with shots of vodka (mini Bloody Marys basically) and Oyster shooters.

Take fresh oysters; you can either shuck them yourself and serve on the half shell (yummy! really!) or go the lazy way (far easier) and buy them fresh in the jar from the seafood department of your local store. Give them a rinse, Plop them into a glass douse liberally with lemon juice and add Tabasco or any hot sauce you prefer to taste. Katie (yes, Kate eats them too) and I prefer Tapatio` but Tabasco is really good too! Then eat! Typically you just sort of take it whole and give it a chew (doesn’t take much) and swallow. Some people can’t handle it. But, they are really good.

Next up, Amy’s Drunken Mussels.

2lbs of fresh mussels. Get them fresh and make your seafood dude pick through to ensure that none have opened. Opened = dead and that isn’t good.

Take them home and immediately give them a good rinse and put them in a bowl with ice covering the bottom, unless you plan to cook immediately. As gruesome as it sounds - you don’t want them suffocating.

In a sauce pan pour 1 beer (you can substitute white wine) I was using Wingwalker Amber Ale, but choose your favorite. I’d avoid any domestics. I just don’t think they’d do the seafood justice.

1 beer and 1 stick of butter and the juice of 1/2 lemon, cover your pan and put the flame up to med-high. Get it boiling.

You can rough chop, but I prefer a Cuisinart food processor for the following:

7-8 large cloves of garlic
5 - 6 fresh Serrano peppers. (you could substitute with a chili or a jalapeno, we grow Serrano peppers)

Give them a super chop and dump them into your butter/beer mixture; which should have been boiling at this point.

Reduce heat to medium and dump your mussels in replace lid.

Give the pan a good solid shake every once in a while and when all your mussels are open they are done! Dump them into a large bowl with all their liquid. Top with the other 1/2 of the lemon and fresh chopped parsley. Serve hot with good crusty bread or a nice sourdough.

They make for a great appetizer or served with a salad are a meal all to themselves!

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Ooo, ooo, ooo!

Ok, Laura from Snerkology sent me a link which led me to another link and after the first two links I totally lost track! Hee hee.

Anyway, I have some nifty links to share with you…

1. ABC’s SO not what you think and I swear, I’m going to give this a try once the weather cools off and I am not afraid of developing heat stroke from using my oven!!! This is such a wickedly cool thing!!!

2. Roasted Ricotta Roma Tomatoes - OMG!!!! These look awesome!!! (Plus, am I the only one who loves her template? It’s so… I don’t know… but it’s something. I likey!!!)

Then, in a totally different vein, I was emailing back and forth with Becky (aka Hellohahanarf @ Midnight Cliff) and I hope she doesn’t mind my referencing her as Becky. Some bloggers can be strange about that, ya know. My apologies if that’s the case here! :) Anyway, we were chatting about beer and I feel so much better to find more beer lovers out there. Of course, when I say beer I don’t mean Coors, Budweiser, etc. Thank God!

The other day Mike actually suggested starting some sort of club where people could exchange beer so they can taste things they can’t necessarily get locally.

It seems that we all have our favorites and not all of us can get a hold of other recommended faves. On the surface a beer exchange sounds pretty cool… I don’t know how hard it would be to pull off and before I dug into that I’d like to get some feedback on it.

And, before we go that far, people have mentioned legalities etc. So I should probably explain that I was thinking something in the realm of very low-key, informal, like when you send someone a bottle of wine as a gift, kind of thing. Nothing serious or high-tech at all, we aren’t talking CASES or something outrageous. Just more like “hey, tried this - its’ awesome.”

In other words, like a sampler sort of idea because, let’s face it, we have the internet and if I REALLY want a 6-pack of Arrogant Bastard then I can track it down and order it myself. But, my thought would be… what if I spent $12 on a 6-pack of really crappy beer? It might be kind of cool to have someone send you a bottle or two so you could sample it and vice versa for them.

Sooooo, Geek? Kapgar? Laura? Any other beer lovers out there? Thoughts?

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I want to do more than just update you on my emotional state and whether my life has gone up in smoke or not yet. The thing is? My monkey brain will not stop chattering and throwing poo everywhere.

So instead, I want you guys to know that I am doing better and I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate all the comments, emails and support I’ve gotten even when you weren’t entirely sure what was going on - just knew it had to be bad. It was, it’s over… onward and upward. I’m recovering.

Tonight Mike and I are going out for a pitcher of beer, Pyramid Hefe Weizen to start with. Then Saturday we are going out for a few hours, toodling through our favorite antique store and then possibly more beer and oysters on the half-shell if we can find some.

In short… I’m going to go have some damn fun, alone, with my husband. I’m going to throw the monkey a bunch of bananas and send his furry little ass back into the depths of the jungle.

And then, Monday… I’ll come back here and be the blogger I really want to be.

I hope you guys have a serious kick-ass weekend. I’m planning on one.

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Blah blah, earthquake. Yadda yadda. I think it’s only a big deal if you don’t live here. Of course, if your house gets knocked down then it’s a really big deal, so fellow Californians don’t go scalping me over that first statement there.

My house rolled a bit. Our light fixtures swung pretty hard. Nothing broken, cracked, etc. Except maybe for Zander’s nerves. Poor neurotic doggy. He’s barking at the wind blowing through the trees, butterflies, and every little noise now. Earthquakes do seriously messed up things to animals.

In a moment of empathy I suggested we give the dog a beer.

This launched my husband into a ridiculous (and thankfully, not serious) tirade on my advice to people on coping methods. According to my husband, my motto is “there is nothing a beer/drink cannot solve.”

If you were really inside my existence you might understand why I sort of tip (not LEAN) in that direction. My husband is just good at exaggerating everything for what he thinks is comedic gold.

“Break your leg - have a beer.”

“Sprain your ankle? Have a beer.” (Ok, so that one is a little true.)

“Tired? Grumpy? PMS’ing? Have a beer!”

I picked up my stapler and caressed it lovingly… he decided to shut up.

Ethan asked how much beer he should give Zander.

“The can.” I replied.

What?!?!? It was cheap, canned beer. I certainly won’t be drinking it!

“Amy! Giving that dog a can is like me drinking a pony keg.” Mike said.

I think I suggested he might need to take a fork and jam it into his forehead. I mean, seriously, a pony keg? Give me a break. Maybe a 12 pack… tops. Not a pony keg. Good God. He proceeded to explain that this sort of thing was done by weight and that if you held the can up to Zander that might be like holding a pony keg up to him.

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Oooo, I just quiver when he gets all scientific like that.

I rolled my eyes and explained to him that if he didn’t just shut the hell up there was nothing more I would enjoy than seeing his nuts on the end of a fork. He mentioned something about my being violent and I pointed at the calender and asked him how much he appreciated walking without a limp.

Kari asked me how well he handles his booze.

I said, “Better than most of the people I know. He’s only bad if he’s on vodka. Then he just makes an ass out of himself. And, again, I’m referring to the dog, not Mike.

It’s true, ONE time on the 4th of July I might have gotten the poor dog a little rip roaring, stinking, stumbling blind drunk tipsy. He became obsessed with walking on the cement border along the flower beds only he kept falling into the flower beds… and snoring. Ok, so ONE time, ONE time I made the dog a mudslide in his own glass. I even made myself one and sat on the porch drinking it with him. Give me a break, we (the dog and I) were drinking socially. I think Mike was more upset that Zander embarrassed him by tripping over the feet of a few people who were hanging out with us and insisted on walking sideways. Truth be told Mike was mortified over the fact that his dog was drinking “la la” drinks.

Truthfully, we should all just forget about that. The fact was, Zander was totally off-kilter because of the damn earthquake and it is OUR duty as his owners to provide him comfort in his time of need. In the end, the dog got his beer and at last check, was sleeping soundly… only he didn’t make it to his bed in the garage, he just passed out fell asleep in the middle of the garage. See the hell I have to go through to help an innocent animal?

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As you read this I am frantically running around my house cleaning and getting ready to start cooking. Friends and family will arrive this evening and I guarantee that about now my kids are hating me for nearly doubling their usual chore list. At least I’m not having them clean the baseboards with Q-tips (my usual holiday chore when I was growing up).

In the meantime, while I’m writing this I’m listening to “Dazed and Confused” in the other room. OMG, I love this movie!

Alright, sorry I couldn’t do better than this for ya. But, you can bet, I’ll have pictures. Mike has shaved his head and there will be beer tonight! Let the scalp burns ensue!

Happy 4th of July, guys! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do…

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and you KNOW this, MAAAAAAAAN.

*sigh* I love Friday. The movie and the day… but today I am totally looking forward to NEXT Friday. The 4th of July Blitz. WOOT. Where my friend, ED (a girl, no I am not kidding) and I will probably drink too much and dance too loudly and drunkenly in my garage (wide open in front of the entire neighborhood) to 80’s music while we attempt to convince ourselves we are in junior high again.

My kid will roll their eyes, Mike will undoubtedly imbibe one too many keg beers and scorch his scalp under the firework sparks (AGAIN) and we will all eat too much, drink too much and be so damn merry that it will be the best 4th of July since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny fuckin’ Kaye.

Wait. Wait… wrong holiday.

Perhaps you get my point anyway, right?

*sigh* I freakin’ love summer.

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Ok, I readily admit, I’m a foodie. I love food. Good food. Old school, gourmet, barbecue, Asian, Mexican… from biscuits and gravy to quiche or sushi.

But, the other day I was chatting with Crys (OMG, have you visited that site? Did you get a reading? WHY NOT!?!?! Do it NOW!) and we were talking about drinks. It was that moment that I had an epiphany, I’m a drinkie too! And, if that isn’t a thing, then it’s an Amy-ism and I can TOTALLY use it.

I like beer, but I’m more on the high-end of that one. Microbrews. You won’t catch me with a Bud Light or Coors Light in my hand. Blech. I love the flavor, I love how it goes with certain foods. I love drinking them and figuring out what different things I’m tasting in them.

I love tequila. I wouldn’t have said that a couple of years ago after a bad, bad night on Cuervo. But, I’m a convert now. I love Patron and Cazadores. Cuervo is ok if I’m making Margaritas. Hornitos isn’t bad either… but it falls below Cazadores.

Vodka is awesome. It’s so versatile! I love a good Bloody Mary with an extra shot of Tabasco and Worcestershire. Although, I had one really, really bad evening doing lemon drop shots. This would be when one takes lemon wedges, rolls them in sugar, shoots Vodka and then sucks on the sugar covered lemon wedge. Delicious. As long as you don’t have too many.

In the winter I like Colorado Bulldogs. This is 3/4 shot Vodka, 3/4 shot Kahlua, 1/2 & 1/2 (cream) and then top with Coke. OMG. Soooo good. Butterball shots go well with this… 1/2 Irish Creme Liquor and 1/2 Butterscotch schnapps. I think, were Starbuck’s to make a shot, the Butterball would probably be it. I also like whiskey in the winter. But, only Maker’s Mark, over ice. It’s niiiiiiiice.

I also love gin martinis, very dry, shaken. It’s a totally clean, sugar-less buzz that almost never causes a hangover. But, they aren’t very good for hot weather. In the summer I like Grass Skirts occasionally. 1 1/2 oz. gin, 1 oz Cointreau or Triple Sec, 1 ounce pineapple juice, 1/2 tsp grenadine. AWESOME.

When I’m feeling very tropical and whatnot, I love a Bahama Mama. Rum, Malibu Rum, 99 Bananas and pineapple juice. OMG. HEAVEN in a glass… with or without the little umbrella.

See? I think this makes me a drinkie. The first person to say, “No, that makes you an alcoholic, will guarantee themselves a full castration with a rusty spoon.”

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I have my quirks, my likes and dislikes, I’m sure you’ve heard a few of them around here. But have you ever wondered what sort of things I like when I’m not around the computer? You know, other than Harry Connick Jr., old movies, and uh, animals. Maybe just a little? Oh, good I thought you might!

__(’Read the rest of this entry »’)

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- Sometimes I wish I could admit that I am using all of my powers for good instead of using them to wring someone’s neck until their eyeballs pop out while screaming, “SHUT THE FUCK UP, JUST SHUT UP!!! PLEASE!” I wish I could admit it because I think the fact that I don’t do it should be appreciated.

- Want to know what I hate about being a grown up? Not only does no one notice that I am out of clean underwear, nobody gives a shit either. Let someone else run out of clean underwear and I’m #1 on their contact list.

- No good deed goes unpunished.

- Kate is watching “Grease” in the other room… and I am singing along to every word in my head. I think I have every bit of that movie memorized.

- The weather has cooled off and I like that… my ass doesn’t sweat when sitting on this chair. I absolutely hate to sweat. Seriously. HATE. Like… ‘if hate were people, I’d be China!’ kind of hate.

- Just because I happen to be in the office at 9pm does not mean I am working. It just happens to mean that my work computer is also my personal computer and maybe I’d like to do something at it that doesn’t have anything to do with work. In short, it’s not an invitation for you to start asking me work/business related questions.

- Sierra Nevada Summerfest Lager is good.

- Not sure about Hornitos Tequila, but as soon as I am done writing this pathetic excuse for a post, I plan to find out.

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