Blinky Lights and Shiny Objects

Since I only found out about this because I'm subscribed to the RSS feed from dpreview.com , I figured I should pass it along. Apologies if your standard news source has already warned you: US Department of Transport announces restrictions for Li-Ion batteries Travel Alert Starting January 1, 2008 Spare Lithium Batteries No Longer Allowed in Checked Baggage. From what I can tell, here is how it affects me: -I can not put my spare batteries in my checked luggage, especially since I'm not going to check the equipment that uses the batteries. -I need to check if the batteries I'm using are quantity limited, if they are, my travel companion gets to carry a few. -Each battery will be carried in its own plastic zip-top bag. -I'm going to follow the carriage rules for other types of rechargeable batteries as if they were Lithium, to avoid harried baggage checkers pitching innocent batteries. If a few plastic bags save me a few minutes of grief in the security line, I think i...

Digital Photography Workflow, Part 1 What Your Software Can't Do: I'm planning to make a series of posts about digital photography, mostly about what happens after the pictures are taken. I grew up shooting with film, getting the rolls processed wherever it was cheapest. Now, the level of control I have with shooting RAW digital has me spoiled for anything else. My strengths in photography are dynamic compositions and capturing interesting moments. My weaknesses are exposures and patience. I like to set the camera up once per location, and just shoot without thinking much about settings. I hate using filters. RAW is perfect for me. Here is what your software can't do, even when you start from RAW: 1. If it is out of focus, it will always be out of focus. Use on-camera preview to make sure you hit focus on important shots while you still have a chance to retake them. Be familiar with how your lenses behave with your camera's autofocus. Be ready to switch to m...

Remember that post a while back about the really long walk, and the fall colors? Well, a few days later I twisted my leg funny while wearing high heeled boots at work. I took about three weeks before it felt normal enough to exercise again, but by then I had gained about five pounds. Yuck. I was NOT happy. Since about March of this year I've really been trying to reverse the direction of slow and steady weight gain that was happening to me. I'm in great physical shape, unless you look at my weight or my body fat percentage. Both are higher than they should be, in the "health risk" section of the charts for my height (5'5") and gender. The American Heart Association No Fad Diet didn't help me lose any weight, but the lifestyle changes did succeed in leveling off the number on the scale. As long as I exercised, I was pretty good at balancing things to stay at steady state. But steady state isn't my goal, and gaining more was not fun. So the wee...

My actual job is to be an Opto-Mechanical Engineer. I enjoy it a lot, and I get plenty of satisfaction out of seeing my designs turn into real objects and function how they are supposed to. The past two months at work have been a bit strange, because I got to do something completely outside of my regular job description. The Security Department put on a play this year for the first time. I volunteered to direct. We just finished up on Monday, after playing to THREE packed houses in the company auditorium. This was no skit - it was a 45 minute, original, one-act play. A lady in the Security Department wrote it, to help increase awareness of the Counterintelligence Threat. As far as we know, this is a first for our location, our division, our sector, and possibly for the whole company. It has been recorded to turn into a DVD to share with other locations. Being a director is only about 30% telling actors what to do on stage. The other 70% is the rest of the stuff that is needed ...

Here is a re-run of what I put into the Christmas cards last year. It is a side-dish recipe that was very popular with the whole group at Thanksgiving dinner. The results are almost sweet-and-sour, with lots of fiber and nutrients to make up for the butter and sugar! (I did submit it to Ocean Spray's recipe contest this year - no love from that...) I created this recipe for Thanksgiving 2006, because I wanted to make something related to Candied Yams, just not so sweet. I also was tempted by the display of fresh cranberries at our local produce store. Eventually my brain put the chocolate and peanut butter together, and I came up with this. It is a great dish for when there is a lot of activity in the kitchen, because you can just turn off the heat if you need to ignore it for a while, then come back later. It will turn out fine. It also only takes one pot and one spoon. I still don't know what to call it; how about CRandied Yams? zest of 1 large orange (I used a Navel...

Another thing I accomplished yesterday was reading "Our Former Lives in Art" by Jennifer S. Davis. Again, I checked it out from the local library. It is a collection of short stories about people, but with some fantastical elements showing up amongst the realism. Nothing that totally separates the stories from the actual world we live in, it is more just showing how we don't understand everything about the actual world. There ARE adult themes. There are Christian themes (for and against). People in the stories make some bad choices, or redeem past bad choices. The writing is good - detailed enough to understand why characters are doing what they do, sparse enough that you use your imagination to fill in the rest. Each story goes quickly, and I found myself looking back at the title of each chapter after the vignette was finished for one more clue. Here is one of my favorite passages: "You never asked me about my eye," Alfred says. "I don't t...

4065_lowres_20071020 , originally uploaded by prismglass . Crossing a big item off of my to-do list today, I post-processed all of the pictures I took at the reunion and posted them on Flickr. I even set up a group, which I thought would be visible to all at http://www.flickr.com/groups/hhs_1997/ but that may not work the way I expect? I don't know, Flickr just seems so much more complicated than it has to be. Anyway, this is a photo of Abby Skillman and me, towards the end of the night. By taking photos, I think I got to talk with everyone, but not for very long.

After doing all of the laundry and changing my closet over from warm-weather to cold-weather clothing, I looked out the window yesterday and decided I would rather be outside. It is FALL here now with clear skies, brisk temperatures, and beautiful sunlight enhancing the golds and reds on the trees. Fall weather is my favorite, but it can be difficult to get out and do anything anymore. I was already dressed to work out, using that as a mental signal on Saturdays that I really should get to the gym. However, I've said this before, I can't subscribe to good weather, so I try to never feel guilty about being active outside instead. So I would go for a walk. I called Karen, she was busy, and Jessie had just gotten home from her graduate school class. So I would go for a walk alone. The Navy said that civil twilight would end at 6:22 pm, so since it was 3:22 I drove to the nearby Forest Preserve to do the Poplar Creek Trail (paved). Jessie and I do the 9 mile loop (counti...

View Larger Map Here is the result of wanting to make a post about the lovely adult beverages we have in the house, and trying to come up with a more interesting angle for it. So I inventoried our liquor selection and did some online research to make this Google Map. I've narrowed the locations of origin down to at least the city. I do need to say that most websites by the companies that produce alcohol have the most OVERBEARING use of flash animation possible. Information is difficult to find on these websites, so I apologize for any inaccuracies. The map just has liqueur for now. Our wine, sake, and beer will be added later if I don't run out of patience.

Today's post is a collection of small things that have amused me. I also wanted to thank "random task" (who?), angel, and sarah for responding to my previous post. I have already emailed the organizer, and yes, he is a male. No response yet... 1) A Jiffy Lube near work would have a message on its sign announcing that Tuesday was "LADIES' DAY $19.95". Recent road construction that obviously makes it difficult to get to, and therefore less busy, had prompted the sign to change to say "HUMANS' DAY $19.95". 2) My favorite church-sign cheesy saying ever, also seen on the way to work: "GOD WANTS SPIRITUAL FRUITS, NOT RELIGIOUS NUTS" 3) While walking in downtown San Jose, CA, with a coworker after a business meeting, I watched a swarm of bicycle cops surround a kid and one take him to the ground in a headlock. We turned around and walked the other direction. 4) During small-talk time after a trans-Atlantic video-teleconference this morn...

Hillsborough High School (NJ) ten-year reunion is on October 20th. That's cool, but what do I wear? The party is in a nice hotel banquet area, but the invitation (actually an Evite) doesn't give a clue about how we are to dress. If you are from HHS class of 1997, what type of outfit are you going to wear to the reunion? I can't tell how formal of a gathering it is supposed to be. My husband can wear a suit, and remove the jacket and tie if that is too much, but it is a bit more of a production to change dresses in the bathroom if I guess wrong, you know?

My caffeine dependency is back, but mild for now. I just need a cup of coffee every other day at the least to prevent headaches. At work I fulfill my requirement out of the giant urn of cheap coffee in the cafeteria, and since I'm always cold at work the hot coffee always seems like a good idea. At home, we keep it a warm 75 degrees in the summer, so over the weekends I've enjoyed making iced coffee. (I have to say that having an automatic ice maker in the freezer is one of those small luxuries that I will miss a lot if I ever need to give it up.) I brew 4 cups (coffee-maker cup markings) using 5 scoops of coffee. I fill a tall glass with ice, and dispense a nice amount of Hershey's chocolate syrup over the ice. When the coffee is ready, I pour it directly onto the ice. (My reasoning here is that will cool the hot coffee down enough to avoid thermally shocking the glass. No broken glasses, yet.) Stir well. As long as some ice is left un-melted the coffee is going ...

LEGO link: http://www.seankenney.com/ Sean has worked his way into having the BEST JOB EVER. I know him from High School, we met in Drama Club during my freshman year, which was his senior year. Last time I saw Sean was in 2002, when he flew from NYC to Indiana to attend my wedding. At that point, I think he still had a normal geek job designing web interfaces. I had no idea that his basement LEGO obsession had turned into this...

The 24-hour play festival for this year is this weekend. If you are in Terre Haute, or near it, or know someone who is who you can warn, I HIGHLY recommend attendance. The performance itself is held at 8pm on Saturday, the 22nd, in the Kahn rooms of the Student Union at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. I'm sure it is free. I'm sure it will not be suitable for children or the easily offended. If you can't recall, or haven't read the rest of this blog, here's how it works: On 7:30pm Friday we all meet in Hatfield Hall. Groups are formed randomly, with one writer, one director, and 4.25 actors each. At 8pm we are assigned one prop per group and get started. The writer meets with the actors and the director for about a half an hour to get a feel for the group and their capabilities. Then the actors go away and the writer and the director brainstorm a few ideas. The the writers all go to a location (TBD) to write. At 8am the next morning, the script is due ...

We've been through the Career Center lectures on how important it is to build a Network of professional contacts. This works great for business-types who get used to talking, shmoozing, golfing, hey-buddying, cold-calling, etc. for a living. But what about the Engineer or Scientist, who may be a bit introverted, and a bit shy about approaching new people? Kind of difficult to grow a network then, right? Not anymore! Enter, the Internet, again the solver of all problems: check out LinkedIn . Use it to find former coworkers, meet more people at your current job, catch up with where your college acquaintances are working now, and even check on if your ex-boyfriend is still un-or-under-employed! This is the first friend-tallying website I've joined. It seems to have more of a point than the others, and the professional emphasis should keep out the Trolls. It came recommended by a manager at a supplier that we visited in San Jose, CA, last month. My profile has very little ...

Well, I did a lot better this morning than I thought I would - finished the 5K Dundee Road Race in 36 minutes and 40 seconds. That was good enough to get 3rd place in my age group (women ages 25 to 29) and give me a medal on a green ribbon! Of course, that is just a testament to how small this race was. I think I was the last of the running 5K participants to finish, but at least only the first two 10K runners passed me before the finish line. I spent half the time running, including the first 10 minutes, and half the time walking. The weather was chilly, but not bad once I got going. Partly cloudy, no noticeable wind, and there was Starbucks and bagels waiting at the finish area. So that was fun, but I spent a lot of time standing around by myself before and after the race. I did strike up a conversation with a spectator who had an older camera hanging around his neck. Turns out it was a Leica that his dad had won in a poker game in Korea. (Nice prize!) I don't have anyt...

For about the last two weeks I've been in a "depressive funk" of a very frustrating variety. There was the familiar feeling of empty-blah-grrr going on most of the time, expect for the welcome bright spots whenever I got to spend time with friends. What made this time of bad-feeling extra frustrating was that I could not diagnose the trigger: an event, experience, or thought that would explain why I fell into the funk in the first place. Work is going well, Home is going well, I wasn't upset with myself about anything in particular, and I've even been getting enough sleep lately. So without something that I could identify to "fix", I had to just put up with the crappy mood and wait for it to lift naturally. The thought that helps me most while I'm depressed is "It will get better." I've been through this to the other side enough times, I trust that even though I can't make myself feel better NOW, I will be feeling better eventu...

Here is a link found through another friend's blog to the niftiest (and most pleasant to listen to) example of Theremin playing I've seen.

Congresswoman Melissa Bean visited the place I work today to take a tour and give a talk. It was a short talk, but at the end she opened the floor for questions. I asked her what the best way was to get in touch with our representatives if we have a concern or an opinion. Her answer was worth sharing: email is the best way, getting a group together of like-minded people to all email on the same topic is even more effective, and using the Postal Service is a good way to make sure no-one sees your letter for 90 days. As I suspected, they get thousands of emails, so their staff reads through and condenses it all into a report for the representatives. Numbers make a big difference here. If you are the only person writing on a topic, it doesn't get as much notice. If suddenly many people start showing concern about an issue, the representative can see that from the report. She said that on "common" topics, you can expect a pre-prepared response in about 2 weeks. On mo...

Going through old files, I found a clipping from the Rose Thorn's humor page. A news article on the back of the paper dates from 10/24/97, so this would be from Freshman year for all of us from the class of 2001. Author is unknown: "So, what are you going to major in? Find your match with the Rose Thorn's Guide to the Majors" Applied Optics- Can't see past your glasses because they're "just so darn interesting." Chemistry- Looks under a sink and immediately figures out how to build a bomb. Chemical Engineer- Leans over Chemistry major to tighten pipes. Civil Engineering- Fascinated with asphalt or dirt. Computer Science- Writes an IRC chat program to talk to roommate. Computer Engineering- Can't decide who to hate more: Intel or Microsoft Economics- Commits white collar crimes as a class project Electrical Engineer- Stores static electricity in capacitors for "special occasions." Mathematics- Does taxes in Base 11 Mechanical Engineeri...

I just finished reading a book (checked out from the local library) titled " Animal, Vegetable, Miracle , a Year of Food Life" by Barbara Kingsolver. I highly recommend it as entertaining and informative. She writes about her family moving to a small farm in Virginia and only eating locally for an entire year. Her husband interjects each chapter with a worrisome piece of information about the state of American agriculture, often tying in to the state of the American diet. Her daughter ends each chapter with a glimpse into the way this strange (for our times) way of eating affected her life as a teenager. I can't say that I agree with some of the doomsday predictions in the book, but people should at least be aware of this angle on the subject. If you get a chance to read actual books anymore, you should check this one out. As far as its influence on my life, I think I'll be buying more produce from Goebbert's when it is available.

A few blocks away from the bookstore as we walked back to the hotel, I was waiting for the light to change to cross the street. A man approached, looked at the bag I was carrying, and asked, "Did you just buy the new Harry Potter book?" "Yes," I answered, unsure what else he thought it might be, considering it was close to 1 am on Saturday morning, and the street was crowded with costumed fans. "I'll give you 200 dollars for it." Then he pulls out a wad of (Canadian) bills and starts counting. I didn't respond immediately, but when he looked back up at me I realized that my face was distorted with an expression of disbelief and disgust. I quietly squeaked out "No," and the man shrugged and walked on. "You should have taken him up on it." "I don't want to wait in line for four hours to get another copy!" "That's a lot of money." "That was an unfair question! And if you really wanted to tur...

Vacation plans for this year are shaping up. We've got tickets to Montreal (AA frequent flyer miles = Canada for the same rate as domestic) and a reservation at a hotel . Generally the rest of the details about what we'll be doing are best left to "whatever we feel like" but this time I've got to take care of one more item. I will be in Montreal for the release of Harry Potter book 7. I hadn't read any of the HP books before the 6th one came out. So last time I didn't care. But this time, I want that book as soon as physically possible. If I wasn't travelling, I would pre-order at Borders or Barnes & Noble and go to the midnight release party. Now, I've got to put some more thought into this. The easy way out would be to order from Amazon.com and have it delivered to the hotel. But I'm worried about the logistics of that, and ruining all of Saturday waiting around for the package to show up. No, I still want the book on Friday nigh...

Does anyone who reads this blog have any advice for me on Sergers? I'm in the market for one, but I'm having a difficult time getting good information to make a decision. There just isn't the critical mass of opinions online about this product - sewers as a group do not generally contribute as much content to online communities as computer people, or even car people. I'm getting suspicious because while there is a lot of "I wouldn't buy X because it is junk," there isn't much "I did buy X and it was junk." People seem to easily put down the brands that they did not buy, but when it comes to what they did buy, no-one is saying they screwed up. The negative reviews just aren't there, so I don't know how much I can trust the good reviews. Are the good reviewers just the lucky people who got the good machines, and the unhappy people just operate under "If you can't say something nice..."??? Or are we in a happy state ...

First, really quick, here's how the race went: Official time: 49 minutes 16 seconds Time I was moving forwards: 44 minutes 54 seconds Time from start to finish: who knows? I never did figure out where the starting line was - it wasn't where the map said it was. The announcer kept saying things like "the start is towards Balbo Street" and "the start is 300 yards north of last year's start" both not really helpful in determining the absolute location of the starting line. I ended up separated from the others from work, and fairly far back in the pack. You can see from the times above that I spent over four minutes standing still after the starting horn sounded. After we got going, I spent the whole race trying to get around the slower people who had started ahead of me. And I'm not fast. But the important thing is that I actually finished in less than 45 minutes of movement, and I probably went farther than 3.5 miles if you count all of the side t...

[Edited between square brackets on 7/9/08] At work on Monday, April 30th, we all got some horrible news. One of our fellow Opto-Mechanical Engineers had been killed in a car accident over the weekend. Myke Minbiole was 29 years old. He had been married less than a year, his wife Julie was also in the car but she was out of the hospital in a day or so. He had been working at [our company] since he graduated from Northwestern. I didn't know him well; I knew of him and he was always friendly. But I am closer friends with several of his close friends. The whole department was affected, and all of the others at work who had spent time with Myke were also touched. We know a few details of the accident. It happened around midnight, as they were driving home from a visiting friends in downtown Chicago. His Pontiac Sunfire was t-boned on the driver's side by a 2007 Cadillac Escalade. Literally a hit-and-run: the occupants of the SUV (some reports said there were four) got out ...

Yesterday was Earth Day. I hadn't planned anything special. But our house decided to celebrate by burning out one of the compact fluorescent bulbs in the kitchen and - this is the fun part - getting a small gas leak going in the dryer! I was late getting laundry started on Sunday (like 8 pm late) and when I took the towels out of the dryer where they had sat overnight, they smelled VERY STRONGLY of gas. We have a gas dryer (and stove, water heater, furnace...) so I was pretty concerned. The smell was really only strong inside of the dryer. I opened the window (at least the weather was nice) to air out the bathroom. Then I called the gas company. It took a few times to get past a busy signal, but then it took a while to get through the voice mail system. (I'm glad it wasn't a dangerous emergency...) In about a half an hour a technician pulled in the driveway. He comes in with a fancy piece of equipment that has a sniffer on the end and sounds like a Geiger counter ...

When life stops changing drastically every four years, time can start slipping by without making much of an impression. Recently I've become aware that going along in my rut (it's a good rut, but still, I'm doing the same thing week after week) isn't letting enough fun into my life. So I'm making an effort to jump at chances to have new experiences interspersed day-to-day. Last weekend I took Sara up on her offer (see comments to previous post) of going out to a college acapella competition downtown. I've been in choirs and choruses for the majority of my life, but I wasn't quite enough of a chorus geek to be aware of this particular sport. Apparently at some larger colleges (larger than Rose, at least, which was the same size as my high school) groups of students get together and practice acapella songs to perform and compete with other groups. It isn't barbershop, madrigal, Latin chanting, or do-wop. These songs are arrangements of popular music,...

We've had our cat, Nigel, for about six years now. Like all cats, he has an aversion to water or getting wet. When Nigel does something he isn't supposed to be doing, and we see it, he will get squirted from a water bottle. Now, however, I think he is trying to train himself to not fear the water! When the tile in the shower was replaced at the end of last year the shower door was also removed. Instead of the metal track on the rim of the tub, we now have a shower curtain that goes outside of the tub and a shower curtain liner that goes inside the tub. This forms a tent over the rim of the tub. At first, Nigel just played in the tent. Then he would hop into the bathtub (when it was dry) and wrestle with the liner. Or just stand in the bathtub. Now he'll hop into the bathtub when it is still wet from a shower. Or he'll perch on the rim of the tub and try to catch the water still dripping from the faucet. This may be one of those "you had to be there"...

A few posts ago I wrote about how the lever to open the trunk of my car had stopped working. I was on the phone with the service department today to set up my 30k appointment, and mentioned that I was having this problem. The service manager that I was talking to, Steve, immediately suggested that the lock-out lever may have been accidentally set. He described the lever's location so I could check it myself. (The lever happens to be unmarked and Not Obvious.) Sure enough, that fixed the problem immediately. Kudos to Steve at Bigger's Mazda for sharing information for free over the phone - not normal for a car dealership service technician! I wrote out a list of nifty links to send to a friend, and figured I may as well share them with you all as well: This site integrates Google Maps so you can figure out exactly how long a walk you took was: http://www.usatf.org/routes// This site was written by "some guy". I'm not sure how medically accurate his advice is...

I would like to share the play I wrote last weekend with anyone who would like to read it. I think it turned out very well, especially given the time constraints and this is the first time I've ever done anything like that. BUT I'm worried that if I put it out on Google Docs with the setting where ANYONE can read it, some kid will find it and rip it off for their creative writing assignment. Paranoid, I know, but I'm proud of the multi-level symbolism I was able to create around a train whistle, and I don't like the idea of some cheatwad getting extra credit for it! Okay, that sounds really far-fetched when I write it out like that. Here's the link: (link removed 3/31/15) I may take it down in a month or so, to reduce its weblife. Warning: not entirely work safe. Read it yourself before deciding who else to show it to! I'd love to hear comments. (I disabled the capthca-thingy, but comment moderation is still enabled.) (And if you knew me in college or b...

My Mazda3 sedan reached 30,000 miles on the way home from work today. In the near three years I've had it, I've had only two things you might be able to classify as problems. First, they did a recall to fix an airbag sensor that would crack and let moisture in. Second, I've recently realized that the lever inside the car that pops the trunk has stopped working. I'll get that fixed under warranty at its 30k checkup. So I have been more than pleased with the quality and design of the entire car. I'm starting to see more of them on the road, too, so others must be happy as well. The payments will be over around this time next year, and then I hope to drive it for many years after that. I spent more time and energy researching which car to buy than which house to buy - and while we had to compromise on the house (1.5 bathrooms instead of 2) I don't feel I had to compromise on the car at all. Thank you, Mazda, for designing and building a small car that isn...

The dentist that I'm going to uses all the high-tech gadgets: digital bite-wings, integrated computer patient database, blue-light cure composite fillings... And yet, all of the assistants are high-school students. Literally - I asked one. They do an okay job with the polishing, and the dentist is actually the one wielding the sonic scraper for once, so I haven't had a problem before when I just went in for cleanings. However, I got a little unnerved today when I had some fillings done. It bothered me just a little that the dentist was spending a lot of time telling the assistant what to do. It bothered me a lot when he had to correct the assistant during the procedure! In addition, the assistant couldn't seem to aim the suction device well enough to keep me from feeling like I was going to drown in my own spit. I was shaking by the time it was over, and shivered the whole way home - not from the cold, either. Compound this by how I got there ten minutes early, but ha...

We tried a new restaurant tonight. I had been driving past it on the way to work for months, and it finally opened on Monday. All I knew about it was the name, "POL BISTRO AND CAFE" but I wanted to check it out. Not because I really like Polish food, but because I really don't know much of anything about Polish food beyond pierogi from the fair. So I had my first experience with a potato pancake wrapped around beef stew. It was really pleasant, simple food, and I've got enough leftovers for two more meals - from the lunch portion! For $9.99! It is also a new, independent, local restaurant. I like the mom-and-pop places and I like to see them do well. But around here, the chain crap-on-the-wallpelbees type dominates the selection. We have a lot of good independent Asian and Mexican places : Thai, Indian, Japanese, and dozens of taco/burrito joints. I'd like to see more variety, so getting some European choices is great. If someone opens up an independen...

I took too many photos last week. As the official wedding photographer, I was supposed to take a lot of pictures, but I surprised even myself when the night was over - I had over 900 shots. I shoot in RAW, and I post-process in Bibble, so I get to run my fingers over each one of these pictures again. That is where the "too many photos" comes in. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have so many pictures, and so many of them are nice shots. But I've been at the laptop for the greater part of the day, and I'm only about 250 pictures into the stack. (The ceremony just ended. Next up, the formal portraits.) Prediction: as soon as I finish converting the last batch from this wedding, Bibble will have an update to the software version that does something miraculous. It's happened before, and no matter how long I stall before starting, the new software comes out a few days after I finish. Grrr.

We threw a New Year's weekend gathering, and one guest brought a bottle of Barenjager Honey Liqueur. (Teuke + Koenig, Germany, 35% alcohol). We all tried some - and we all liked it. Anyone who doesn't have a problem with how alcohol tastes would like it, because it tastes like alcoholic honey. We didn't mix it with anything, just sipped it from small glasses. Since that was so great, and we ended up at a liquor store the next day, the same guest decided to buy a bottle of a different type of honey liqueur. The Old Krupnik Polish Honey Liqueur (Poland, imported by Adamba Imports, 40% alcohol) has two bears drinking under a tree on the label, so he went for that. This one doesn't taste nearly as much like honey as the first one, but honey is a very significant flavor. It is more complicated, as the bottle hints by saying "Prepared from bees honey and various spices and herbs according to Polish recipes many hundred years old." I call it good, but it wasn...

Okay, me, here are the ground rules: I shall not post while (newly) angry. I shall not post while drinking. I shall not post anything so boring that I wouldn't tell my friends in person. I shall not obsess over comments, or lack of comments. I shall spellcheck my posts.