what we drank, day 7... the final tally:

 

balloonas cannot exist on alcohol alone! err, yes, i did skip day 6... we had the awesome rombauer zinfandel, this wine is deeply insane, but i failed to get a good picture. probably should take the photo before uncorking. you don't mind the week of drink ending with a chocolate banana shake, do you? i didn't. happy birthday week, mom & dad!

what we drank, day five

please to bend down to the one called the green wine. i'm not talking about organically produced ecologically sound alcohol here, though i'm sure there is some green-green wine out there. this is vinho verde, portugese green wine, a favorite summer drink of my parents for many years. i wasn't actually into it till this visit. it may be because my first taste was from an old bottle. green wine is meant to be drunk within a year of bottling, i think, and my first bottle was probably past its prime.

speaking of which, dudes, i think this whole "what we drank" thing is past its prime. not that we're going to stop drinking, i did after all set a goal, but i find it hard to blog about drinking without feeling like i'm sounding really pretentious, or really alcoholic. but i will stay the course! two to go!

what we drank, day four

 

the gin and tonic. served in a glass which, according to both eg & big daddy, was not appropriate, but i wanted it anyway. it seemed perfect for a classic drink. the recipe calls for equal parts gin and tonic (though i am positive big daddy has leadfoot with the gin), a slice of lime, and crushed ice. parental balloonas' g&t has fresh squeezed lime in it as well, and must only be made with canada dry's tonic water. very refreshing! very summery! one day, r & i would like to have a vintage bar cart stocked with only the classiest bottles. and i would like to refer to them as classy. the bombay sapphire bottle would definitely be one of them. tanqueray also. jack daniels. they wouldn't even need to be brands we would enjoy-- sailor jerry spiced rum is in, far as i'm concerned-- they just have to be of a certain style. we have talked about this at length while wandering around the liquor store. i swear we do other things, too. three drinks to go...

what we drank, day three

CHEAP SANGRIA.

eg: "this is what happens when you mix cheap wine with good fruit."


oona: "what happens?"


eg: "you throw out the wine and eat the fruit."

what we drank, day two

just a bottle of red and a bottle of white. how mundane.

i think wine is my favorite beverage. the riesling was fruity yet not overly sweet. as for the zinfandel (seven deadly zins):

eg: "sexy."


oona: "like drinking a stick of butter."


big daddy: "a ribald bawdy whore."

i'm not sure there's much more to say than that.

gone drinkin (or, what we drank, day one)

 

arrived 12 AM. drinking prosecco and eating the world's best birthday cake (yellow with chocolate frosting, courtesy of my mom) by 1:30 AM. currently, listening to a private concert (courtesy of big daddy and a very pretty guitar), and getting ready for a night out. since we are a drinking sort, i thought it might be fun to have week of What We Drank. maybe you'll find a new temptation here. aren't you lucky? so, prosecco... italy's answer to champagne, that most excellent of choices when one has grown tired of the everyday veuve clicquot. and really, who isn't tired of veuve clicquot. at a fraction of the cost, big daddy deems it "a very egalitarian wine." it goes perfectly with chocolate cake (so well that half the cake was gone by 3 AM). you may also enjoy it with some spicy thai, or a light summer picnic. or just on its own. who doesn't like bubbles?

the letter YOU.

it's still your birthday here...

click on your "card" for your birthday song (something all will enjoy, i think.)

first time i've ever been thrilled to get an A minus

that said, i've spent all day at the mechanic's with tank and i still feel the need to do something highly productive tonight. are you a type A? find out here. (it's very scientific.)

okay you win.

firstly, thank you all so much for the happy birthday wishes! i would add a grinning emoticon here if i knew how.

so here's the story. one hot day in downtown LA, i decided to take advantage of a long lunch break and frolic in the garment district. there's a 4 block radius of fabric shops there, surrounded by several streets straight out of the crackhouse scene in jungle fever. one wrong turn and you are truly in some kind of danger. i know this because i made about twenty wrong turns. luckily tank was the perfect disguise. 

i arrived safely, found the only unclaimed metered space (it was my birthday week, after all), and put my game face on. it was a busy saturday, with shop owners vying for attention. one particularly shady dude whispered as i walked past: "a dollar a yard. a dollar a yard." i pretended, in my best new yorker fashion, not to hear him, and casually fingered the bolts at the edge of the shop meant to lure you in for the more expensive stuff. i glanced inside, sure that i would be on my way quickly, and almost dropped dead on the spot. along the walls and down the middle of this tiny crowded shop were bolts and bolts of the Coolest. Fabrics. EVER. from behind me, that whisper again... only this time he added that most beautiful of words: Everything. my game face cracked. suddenly shady dude was positively russell crowe-ian. "a dollar a yard? i'd like... three... of this one..." i managed to stammer out. russell immediately offered me six yards for five dollars, and we were off to the races. i left the shop with a sack half my size for only 30 bucks of birthday money. i floated down the street, beaming at everyone like i was from kentucky and goin' to the fair. 

now, that might have been my downfall. i should have stopped there and grinned my way right back to tank, made some time to actually eat some food during my lunch break... but no, i pushed it. i walked into the biggest, prettiest corner store on the block, just to see, and was immediately accosted by a salesman. did i say my dollar-a-yard beau was shady? feh. THIS dude was shade-apalooza. he honed in on me & the mod silk print i was eyeing and pronounced it twelve dollars a yard. i politely declined. he brought the price down. i told him i had 23 bucks cash and two pennies. he badgered me to use a credit card. i said no. he badgered me to use the ATM. i said no. my elated mood wearing thin, i bade him farewell. he told me to give him the 23 bucks and he'd give me four yards. i twirled and handed him the cash. he told me to give him two more dollars. seriously? we ACTUALLY HAD A TUG OF WAR WITH MY MONEY. i'm not even lying. the new yorker in me finally came out and i left, with my money, amidst some shocked stares. it only took several seconds of walking with eight hundred glorious pounds of russell's fabric on my back to get me in a good mood again. 

i tore into it this weekend and made this!

and this!

and this!

and very soon i'll make lots more, what with my fancy new BWOF birthday subscription... THAT'S RIGHT! but more on that tomorrow. now it is wine-thirty, as sugar mama would say, and time to sign off. 'night!

what?!

i cannot BELIEVE i haven't been doing a week of birthday posts. i mean, how did a birthday brat like me miss the opportunity to spread said brattiness across the world wide web? i'll tell you how, r's been so busy spoiling me, i haven't had the chance! expect some birthday week wrap up goodness very soon...