it's a good party when...

* your're martini bar includes: chocotini mintini o'cosmo ... & all the classics

* cupcakes are served

* salmon toasties are delivered at 2 am

* the DJ get's multiple requests for copies of his sets

* your sister takes over bartending responsibilities with an inventive spirit



i had my first party in seattle tonight. the last guests just left and i've still got that slight bit of post-party energy... not quite enough to do all the cleaning up...but enough to post the drink list from the bar:



MARTINI BAR



Choco-Tini

Ice

2 fluid ounces chocolate liqueur

1 1/2 fluid ounces vodka

1/2 ounce grated chocolate – garnish



Peach-Pom-Tini

2 oz vodka

1 1/2 oz Peach schnapps

pomegranate garnish



Crime Scene Cosmo

2 oz. Vodka

1 oz. Cointreau Liqueur (or Triple Sec)

Splash of Fresh Lime Juice

1 oz. white Cranberry Juice



Cosmopolitan

1 1/4 ounces Absolut Citron vodka (about 2 1/2 tablespoons)

1/4 ounce Rose's lime juice (about 3/4 tablespoon)

1/4 ounce triple sec or Cointreau (about 3/4 tablespoon)

1/4 cup cranberry juice

1 cup ice cubes

Garnish: lime twist



The Perfect Manhattan

1/3 dry vermouth

1/3 sweet vermouth

1/3 whiskey



Vodka Martini

1 1/2 oz vodka

dash dry vermouth

stuffed olive



Standard Gin Martini

6 ounces of freezing Bombay Sapphire

5 drops of dry vermouth.

2 small twists of lemon rind.

2 Picholine olives.



Mint-tini

1 oz Dry Gin

1 1/2 oz Peppermint Schnapps

1/2 oz Water

Garnish: Peppermint Candy



Long Kiss Goodnight Martini ...

1/2 oz Stoli Vanil Vodka

1 oz Stolichnaya Vodka

1/2 oz Bols White Creme de Cacao

shaved white Chocolate

Ice



House Specialty: O'Cosmo

Absolut Mandarin

Triple Sec

Cranberry Juice

Lime Twist

baby, it's cold outside...

it's really cold in seattle. in fact, it is snowing at low altitudes. i know this because the "pass" is closed, which according to seattlites means it is officially winter. I have no idea what "the pass" is... but it definitely feels like winter.



i tried to complain about how cold it is out here to my friends in CA, but it didn't work. Apparently it hit 30 degrees today in the bay area. Since no one out there actually owns a sweater or warm socks, my bet is that they are, perhaps, even colder than i was (was: i am now inside and the heat in my corporate-subsidized apartment is at a number too high for print. let it just be said that i am now *toasty* and i'm wearing flip-flops....)



because i was cold, i ate soup for dinner. not just any soup, but my favorite tomato soup:







yumm... it is cream of tomato, but there's really not a lot of cream. It's 100 calories per serving and has a nice, fresh tomato-y taste. I get mine at Whole Foods.

mele kalikimaka

i don't really know how exactly it happened, but i am addicted to holiday music and having holiday spirit this year. I've downloaded a ton of cheerfulness.

really.

it has got to stop....

to counterbalance all this glee and delight, i've put together a little mix: holidays on ice (rocks, not blended)...



NOTE: I intend to publish the list here, but i just got tired...so instead - check out the slightly altered iMix i made on itunes:



holidays on ice (rocks, not blended)... iMIX

if that doesn't work try this link:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPublishedPlaylist?id=170352

my eyeball

i debated not posting these pictures to my blog, since well, they could be perceived as being a bit graphic / gross. but well, i just think they are so interesting!



scoop: i went to get my vision checked at the bellevue vision clinic (thanks vladka for the tip). It looks like i'm becoming near-sighted from all my time on the computer. yikes! My doc has prescribed reading glasses so that we can maybe correct it....we'll see. (bad pun... i know).



anyways, what impressed me most was the technology! all the tests they did were automated and produced really accurate results -- and there was so much data! One of the cooler things was that they actually took a picture of my retina -- thus the creepy picture below. I recommend clicking on the picture and seeing it on Flickr -- as i've posted notes on the picture to highlight some of the cool details.

"now playing" in iChat

+





One of my favorite Yahoo Messenger features is that you can choose to show what music you are listening to on Launch...well, today i found a plug-in that does the same thing for iChat! "now playing" in iChat runs a script over iTunes so that your status message in iChat is the song you are listening too.. LOVE love LOVE it!



You can download it here from Doug's Apple Scripts for iTunes.

taking space

ok, i just set up my "space" on MSN's new product: MSN Spaces. It's actually pretty cool. The slide-show is just awesome, and i liked how easy it was to move the modules and things...check it out:



http://spaces.msn.com/members/natala

another reason not to move to provo...

Source: Children's Art Prints



I heard this bit on NPR yesterday about a woman in Provo, UT who tried to adopt a kitten for her children but was denied because she already owned two cats. Yes, i'm serious. Turns out there's a law in Provo that limits each household to two pets. Although the law is slightly unclear, it says you can have two dogs or two cats...and it is generally extrapolated to say that you could have a cat and a dog...but you definitley cannot have two cats and a dog. That would make you a law-breaker. Yep. It brings up some interesting ideas -- how many pets should a household have? What if you have fish? Are they counted in your pet count? What about chickens? Do you need to get a farm license? These are seriously the things that the people of Provo are going to have to figure out...



Link.