Check out my awesome new shirt.

Will: Are you going to blow anything up on Sunday?
Shu: No, nothing really planned.
Will: Come on… What are you, some sort of communist?
Shu: If anything, I was going to just drink Pimm’s Cups all day. It’s a traditional drink of British aristocracy.
Will: < < Throws rain water on me >>
Shu: So definitely not communist, but probably Royalist.

Gallery album of wild Quaker Parrots in Austin

More about wild parrots in Austin.

I wouldn’t describe it as awesomely good, but it’s pretty close. It’s extraordinarily cute, and in the good way – not like how School of Rock with Jack Black was cute, but in the obnoxious and awful way. 69 Love Scenes is funny at times, almost always clever, and has a few gaspy touching moments. It’s designed to be enjoyable for those familiar with the Magnetic Fields, and those who are not (for shame, for shame). However, I think I’m getting a lot more out of the play as a Magnetic Fields fan.

We’re done with the first two albums, and I’m stoked about the third this weekend. I post this because from June 10-12, they’re starting over and playing all three albums, one each night. If you’re in Austin and you have good taste, you should go to this.

Amusing promo trailer here.
Read more, buy tickets, etc.

From Dale DeGroff’s Essential Cocktails, with slight modification:

2 oz Sherry (I used Lustau)
1/2 oz simply syrup (DeGroff calls for 1 oz. I dropped it to 1/2 oz because I want to actually taste the Sherry)
1 medium sized egg (If you’re going to use extra large or jumbo, use only half the egg. Don’t say I didn’t warn you)
Fresh ground nutmeg

Shake like a madman. Seriously. Much more than a regular cocktail. Shaking is so serious to this, I called Señor Misterioso to oversee the shaking.

Shu’s rating: Yum. Smooth and creamy. Essential part of a nutritious and balanced breakfast.

From Ted Haigh’s recipe:

2 1/2 oz Amer Boudreau
1 oz Brandy (I used Leptano)
1 teaspoon grenadine
Soda water

Grenadine and Amer Boudreau in a glass, fill with soda water, top off with brandy.

Delicious! The brandy is subtle. The grenadine and soda water softens up the burn of the vodka of the Amer Boudreau. I can drink 20 of these in a row!

No I can’t. Here’s the problem: The Amer Boudreau batch is about 20% 100 proof vodka. So with 2 1/2 ounces, you get almost a shot of vodka. So yeah, WOW. Much more potent than I expected. At about three quarters of the way through, shit got *real*. Quoting Gob, “I made a huge mistake.”

In other words, no Last Word for me that night. Tragedy of tragedies indeed.

Luckily, that evening, the best bartender in Austin, Lara Nixon just gave me this little bottle she got recently from a trip out to the Chartreuse Monastery. You can’t buy mini bottles like this in the U.S. It’s the cutest thing ever. Most importantly, I got my Last Word that night. Thanks, Lara!

And of course, Señor Misterioso is involved with this intriguing mystery.

Not so much. I go through the process and I get an error at the very end of the payment submission. “Try again” it says. I did. Just to make sure, I went to my bank’s site and found no charges, so no harm, no foul. I tried two more times, changing really the billing name parameter. Same error.

I wonder if it’s a browser issue. I was using Safari. I switched to Firefox. It works! Ok, Garmin, you suck, but at least I have my maps.

Fast forward to today. This morning, There’s FIVE charges from Garmin. $560 total. So they report an error to the user, the maps are not available for download on my account page, meaning in their eyes, the transaction truly never did go through. However, their payment system sure considered it a successful transaction.

This is what happens when you try to follow the rules. Garmin’s whole scheme sucks so bad in many ways. They lock maps to device serial numbers and owner information. They say this is to help prevent theft, but it’s really to prevent software piracy. The problem is 1) Pirates have long circumvented this. For the past three years, you can download maps on torrent sites and bypass this. 2) It hurts the resell value of your devices because you have to tell Garmin you sold this device and give them the new owner’s info, etc. Of course, Garmin doesn’t mind that the used device market is being damaged at all. That’s just a side benefit.

Moreover, their account management website has always sucked. They use confusing terminology, there are technical errors all the time, and the interface is confusing.

This sucks because their devices are always so awesome. How can a company be so amazingly good at one thing then hire a bunch of buffoons to run other parts of their business?

I called Chase, which has surprisingly good customer service. They credited my account and marked those transaction. If they go through, I’m reporting this as fraud. Good. I hope Chase marks those idiots at Garmin as thieves.

So, ok. Brooklyn cocktail. 2 ounces rye, 3/4 ounce dry vermouth, 2 teaspons Amer Picon, and 2 teaspons Maraschino. Rye? Check. Dry vermouth? Check. Maraschino? Check. What in the world is this Amer Picon? Long story short, it’s a French orange liqueur. The problem is that 1) It’s sold in France, and I’d have to order it online. 2) They changed the recipe in the 1970’s. They lowered the proof and the orangeness. Torani makes a substitute, but it’s still nowhere near the same. After some googling, I found Jamie Boudreau’s Amer Picon substitute, the Amer Boudreau. Who’s Jamie Boudreau? One of Seattle’s best bartenders. God bless you, Seattle. You have given us not only the Amer Boudreau, but Murray Stenson of Zig Zag brought back the Last Word, my favorite drink. I read The Stranger on a regular basis. I love you so much, Seattle. You’re so classy. You’re the best city in the whole wide world. I wish I was there right now and not in this trashy sauna called Austin.

Back on topic again, I set out on a quest to make Amer Boudreau. First step – eating a lot of oranges and saving the peels. I used California Navels. I ordered the Ramazzotti Amaro from Crown Wine and Spirits in Florida because Texas conspires against liquor. Two months later, I had my very own batch of Amer Boudreau.

Oh man is it ever delicious straight. The other night, I concluded my journey. I made the Brooklyn. It was totally awesome. Hands down my favorite rye-based drink. The vermouth is balanced out, and very hidden. The intent is for it to be a supporting spirit, and it plays the role wonderfully. The rye, I used (ri)1, is beautifully tamed. The star of the drink is, of course, the Amer Boudreau. Even though it’s only two teaspoons, it is very present and very forward.

Just think. You probably will never see this on the menu at a bar. And if you did, I seriously doubt any bar would go through the trouble of making the Amer Boudreau. They’ll probably order the shell-of-its-former-self, the Amer Picon, or the American substitute, the Torani Amer. Shu Chow recommends you partying like it’s 1899 by going through the Amer Boudreau process. You’ll learn a lot about yourself. Then make yourself a Brooklyn. Well worth it.