Dig it, Daddy-O

Me and my barbecue busted our conks at her pad in the early black while guzzling foam and carved these righteous gourds, man!

My groovy dutchess was jammin on the Jack-O-Lantern on the left, while my dukes were slicing Dr. Jekyll on the right.

Like, man, from now on this blog is all about the beatitude. You wanna hang here, you gots to talk like a cool cat. Yeah, man, it's a hard spiel, baby, but only hep cats can hang in my comments section. So don't be fruiting around on me and acting like a Clyde, you dig?



Looking at this flick poster is like looking in a mirror, man.

Pumpkins

Last night Kim and I carved our pumpkins. She made a cat and I made the Headless Horseman.



Pretty sweet, eh?

For Halloween we're dressing as prom dates who just lost their virginity.

About Kim....

VA VA VOOM!

Mountain Biking Nirvana

I found it, and so can you. It's on the backside of the Arcata Community Forest.



It's a mystical place called "Trail 6." It's full of wonders. Ride it and you will become one with the universe.



I'm an inexperienced mountain biker, so this trail presents all sorts of wonderful challenges, like navigating up these switchbacks without wiping out. It's pretty sweet.

Last night's Flogging Molly concert

Kim was dancing, gyrating, sweating and smiling, and all was well in the world. I couldn't ask for a more beautiful date.

As for the music, it was excellent. Two thumbs up.

a song going through my head

The elixir of quietude

Each bartender puts his or her own twist on a martini – a drink that E.B. White once called “the elixir of quietude.”

One night at Central Station, a bartender poured a dab of vermouth in the glass and then covered it with gin that had been shaken in ice and then strained into the glass. I wouldn’t call this method incorrect, but it has a clunky, amateur quality to it.

You don’t just pour vermouth in and mix it with gin like you would with booze in other cocktails. The vermouth is simply there as a flavoring agent.

The preferred method, from what I can tell, is to pour vermouth in a martini glass, swirl it around so that the glass is thoroughly coated, and then dump it out. Strain in the icy gin and toss in an olive on a toothpick, and you’re good to go.

That’s the method the bartender at Toby & Jack’s used last night. But when it came time for my second drink, he got downright artistic. The olive was placed on the toothpick and then placed in the glass. Then the vermouth was poured in and swirled around. Both the olive and the glass were flavored before the vermouth was dumped and the gin introduced. It was a perfect martini and made me appreciate the bartender’s attention to detail.

But my martini experience is about to reach a whole new level. It turns out that I have the good fortune of dating a woman who is a veteran cocktail waitress. She can make any drink I ask for! Oh, what a lucky man I am!

When I told her last night that I had enjoyed the best martini ever at Toby & Jack’s, she corrected me – I haven’t had the best martini until I have the one she makes. Her twist is that she shakes the hell out of the gin so that there are lots of tiny ice crystals in it. That sounds refreshingly delicious.

She suggested that I purchase the ingredients and bring them to her beach house. When I come over, a martini will be awaiting me, she said. Coming from a Sicilian, this sounds like an offer I can’t refuse.

A pretty and inspiring blog

I don't know Jill, but I sure enjoy her Up in Alaska blog. It's very pretty and she does a great job chronically her adventures.

Riding in the forest

Early yesterday evening and this morning I explored my old stomping grounds behind Humboldt State University. Back in the day I spent an enormous amount of time in the Arcata Community Forest, but not in recent years.



I left my swanky new love pad, which is the bottom one.




Within about five minutes or so, I was in the forest.



You could have a nice party under this giant stump and stay nice and dry in the rain.



I made my way up hill and through the fog.



You could make a nice house in one of these stumps.



I got to the top and began the descent. It's beautiful.



This statement is too vague for me. Personally, I'm a fan of the barter system and use it all the time.

Astute political observation overheard today in McK

"She's got shit for brains."

– an old man outside Niveen's discussing the merits Sarah Palin

How it would have gone down had I accepted the assignment

Jennifer Savage was kind enough to offer me a chance to interview Flogging Molly prior to Friday's concert, but I had to decline due to an out-of-town funeral I attended last week.


Had I accepted the assignment, I imagine it would have gone something like this:

Min ny vän

I’m so infatuated with a goddess named Kim that I’ve neglected to mention another important woman in my life. Her name is Karol.

Partially inspired by content on this blog, Karol moved her family from Eureka to McKinleyville in early September. A short time later she commented on my blog postings and I invited her to come to my swanky downtown office for a visit.

We got together and chatted for more than 2 1/2 hours. It was as if we had known each other all our lives. We were instantly best buddies, or as Karol would say, we’re like kindred spirits. At the end of our meeting, she asked if I needed any help with the paper. At the time I didn’t, but within a week or two things exploded and I no longer had a business partner to help me out.

So I called Karol, who instantly became the newspaper’s assistant editor.

Karol is over-qualified for the job. She founded The Independent in Garberville and spent four years putting out the paper. That means she knows the brutality of the business. She teaches in the HSU English Department and is basically a lot smarter than I am when it comes to just about everything.

But I didn’t really hire her for her smarts. I hired her because she’s fun to be around and I like talking with her. Work is work, but Karol makes work downright pleasant. We laugh a lot and her help is invaluable. Plus, she has lots of good ideas and is enthusiastic.

Still, as an employer and a boss, I have my standards and expectations which I expect Karol to meet or exceed. Her first test came when I scheduled an extremely important business meeting to discuss strategy.

When Karol arrived for the meeting, I gave her two choices. We could sit in my office and drink lukewarm water, or we could go up to the Six Rivers Brewery for margaritas and nachos. Karol thought for a moment and then chose the brewery.

She may not realize it, but her fate rested in that decision. Had she chosen the office, I would have immediately terminated her position at the paper and given her a boot out the door.

Instead, we drank margaritas and came up with all sorts of interesting ideas.

Now I just need to make sure that the checks I write her don’t bounce too much.

Loud, late-night newspaper deadline music to keep awake with

Flogging Molly

I scored two tickets and I have a hot date who plans to wear a plaid skirt to the Flogging Molly concert on Oct. 17!

Voluptuous Beauty

I recently shared a bottle of Voluptuous Beauty with a voluptuous beauty named Kim. She's amazing and I like everything about her, especially her giggling.

This photo was taken at my new love pad, where I don't have a working TV or a computer – just a Deluxe Noiseless Remington from the early 1940s, a radio, a pile of books, a futon, a bottle of Capt. Morgan spiced rum in the freezer, some plastic flowers, a box of cookies, peppermint tea, cheese, salami, my mountain bike and a Schwinn Suburban.

Josh's new T-shirt

I ran into a fellow yesterday with an interesting T-shirt. This is Josh McMakin, an Arcata resident who informed me that there's a real problem with transients in the White City and something needs to be done about it. Reaction to his shirt is mixed, but "a lot of locals like it," McMakin said.

The Alibi, first draft

Amy Winehouse – Do Me Good