Still surviving

Sorry it's been a couple of days of hell at work. First, it was no joke that the University expected me to spend a three month grant in TEN days. Then I setup four experiments, only to lose two to the increasing presence of mold. With all the rain this weekend, I'm dreading what's going to happen this week. If I ever find the person that though fresh air intakes in a research building was a smart idea is going to be castrated!

One of these years, perhaps Occupational Health will verfiy what I already figured out - the mold concentrations are high in our "clean" room. Then perhaps I could get at least the ducts cleaned out to try and reduce the mold in that room. Of course, nothing moves quickly in the University system.

I had a very nice weekend with Mr. San Diego. He came to visit me this time. We did a lot of things - and as long as we were together, he said that he enjoyed it. He even got to enjoy the monsoon storms as they blew through Saturday and Sunday night. But this AM, we had to say "until next time" (he doesn't like to say "goodbye").

Vodka anyone?

One of the nicest surprises this weekend was how I lucked out with non-grain based Vokda. I've had a couple potato based vodkas (before and after the celiac diagnosis), and found them most agreeable.

This weekend, Mr. San Diego and I visited a liquor store in Tucson called "Plaza Liquors". Nice, locally owned shop with lots of variety in a such a small place. We found a honey flavored vodka made from potatoes (most flavored vodkas are grained based), so I picked that up. Then he found a nice bottle that was from France made from GRAPES! I decided to try that as well because I was curious, and the bottle was very cool looking.

Since there was only one grape-based vodka, I was pretty sure it wouldn't taste that great (otherwsie, there'd be more grape vodkas out there). So I was very pleasantly surprised to find it very agreeable. We opened the bottle Saturday night after it had a day to sit in the freezer. Very smooth, and a nice finish. I'll grab the bottle and post the name in case you're looking for a very nice sipping drink.

I decided against freezing the honey vodka, remembering that the last time I had flavored vodkas was at room temperature. We opened the bottle Sunday night. It's not as smooth going down, but you don't get a strong honey flavor until the finish (we were concerned about it tasting too sweet). But you have to watch it - it does warm your stomach pretty good after a few minutes. We stopped at one shot each. I don't think I'm going to be sipping this one too much, but it sure would be good in a cup of tea.

I read a slightly amusing story about what can happen if you share your martinis with a stranger.