MMMMM...Martini

Late last night, at about 9:30 (yeah, I think that it comical too... hey! I have to get up at 6 am!) I received a text on my phone. It was from my pal Harrison (www.twitter.com/harrisonkeith). It was a picture that instantly made my mouth water. There on my phone was a picture of perfection... the dirty martini. Now, everyone has their drink, their go-to. Mine is the martini. My boyfriend likes a Gibson, but I, the martini. 

There it is with, count them, 4 delicious olives. Maybe I love them so because of my love of all things olive. But there is also something so je ne sais quoi about them. 


A traditional martini is made with gin, vermouth, and garnished with an olive. I prefer mine to be made with vodka, but everyone once in a while, I like a gin martini. 


Here is my method to a perfect martini. 


1. Keep the vodka in the freezer. This way when you shake the martini, the ice won't melt and make it too watery. 

2. Pour a little over a shot glass into your shaker (5.5 cl). I usually eye ball it. No point getting something else dirty.

3. Dump in a few ice cubes.

I added some olive juice to this one to make it diiiirty.

                                        

4. Shake-a-lotta

5. Add a sipple of vermouth to your glass and swirl

6. Pour into a reasonable martini glass. Please don't use the ENORMOUS kind. It looks funny to me. Sometimes I use a low-ball glass for ease. 

7. Skewer yourself a few olives. However many you like. I won't judge. And if I am really feeling festive, I might even stuff a few of those suckers with blue cheese, feta cheese, or garlic. 

8. SIP and enjoy.

I love to use my penguin picks. Aint they precious?

Now, I can only have one or I get a headache bigger than Texas, especially when I have to be up at the crack of dawn ready to whistle "Dixie" to 22 kindergarteners. 


In the words of Mr. James Bond "Uh, just a drink. A martini, shaken, not stirred."

Now I am sitting on my patio and enjoying the rest of my 80 something degree day, waiting on the grill to cook my chicken.

I wish my name was LÄRA

I am not a vegan. Not a vegetarian. I do not need to eat gluten-free foods. One thing though that I do try to do is eat healthy foods with natural ingredients (don't judge me when you see me downing a bacon cheeseburger, dripping with ketchup...mmm... ketchup).

Anyway (still thinking about that cheeseburger), I have been searching for a natural-ingredient-packed bar for years. I have done the grocery store granola, Cliff bars, Luna, etc... but I always felt a little bad about what I was eating.

Enter the LÄRABAR. 

My dreams have come true and my prayers have been answered. It's the original fruit and nut food bar. It is perfect. I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner (yeah right), snack, and its perfect before the gym. 

I know that this is not the most appetizing picture if you have never had one before. But you can SEE the nuts from here! Don't mind the lesson plans in the background...

Look at all that goodness crammed in this thing. 

The chocolate chip brownie one I had today had BY FAR the most ingredients I had ever seen on the package. 

This one is my hands down favorite. Look at those ingredients! Dates, almonds, unsweetened apples, walnuts... THAT'S IT. And it is deeeelicious!

I love that this bar meets so many dietary restrictions. Although I do not have any, it's nice to know its good clean food. 

Yum. 
The LÄRABAR website shows how many flavors and gives a really interesting history. 

mac-attack

I have always loved a Mac, but never thought of purchasing one. I think my past two computers have been HPs PCs and I always loved them- at first. After a few months I saw significant slow downs in connectivity and many many many problems. I always got a virus and then the virus protection ran out. My poor last PC which I purchased in 2007 sputtered its last few functions last week. I knew right away, it was time for a Mac. While I am still trying to transfer the hard drives from PC to Mac, I have been learning a lot about my new lifeline. You'd think that I'd be using my One to One that I purchased from the Apple store or using iWorks, but no... this is what I have been spending my days doing.

I find this constantly hilarious and it pathetically gives me endless entertainment! 

BYE BYE BLACKBIRD

I love this song. Hence the name of this blog:

Pack up all my care and woe

Here I go,

Singing low, 

Bye bye blackbird,

Where somebody waits for me,

Sugar's sweet, so is she,

Bye bye 

Blackbird!

No one here can love or understand me,

Oh, what hard luck stories they all hand me,

Make my bed and light the light,

I'll be home late tonight,

Blackbird bye bye.

Pack up all my care and woe,

Here I go,

Singing low, 

Bye (bye) bye (bye) blackbird.

(tchoo tchoo tchoo tchoo tchoo tchoo)

Where somebody waits for me,

Sugar's sweet, so is she,

Bye (bye) bye (bye) blackbird.

(tchoo tchoo tchoo tchoo tchoo tchoo)

No one here can love or understand me,

Oh, what hard luck stories they all hand me,

(Oh oh oh oh)

Make my bed, light that light,

I'll be home late tonight,

Blackbird...

Make my bed and light the light,

I'll be home late tonight,

Leave you bird jet in the sky

Toodle oo!

Farewell!

Bye bye!

Blackbird 

(Blackbird,Blackbird)

We'll take the flying little blackbird bye!

Mmmm... those are some yummy lyrics. This song was written and sang in 1926. Apparently the song is about a girl who leaves her prostitution biz to go home to her mother. Then there is the song "House of the Rising Sun" which is the return of the prostitute to the streets.  The reason for the song's apparent ambiguity is that the opening verse and the verses about the bluebird are rarely sung.

Bluebird bluebird calling me far away
I've been longing for you
Bluebird bluebird what do I hear you say
Skies are turning to blue

I'm like a flower that's fading here
Where ev'ry hour is one long tear
Bluebird, bluebird this is my lucky day
Now my dreams will come true

Ah... So good. Go Ray Henderson and Mort Dixon.