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The Wild Card

February 23, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 2 Comments

It is funny just how much of life hangs on split second decisions. The ones’s that don’t seem to matter at the moment, you just take a chance and suddenly you are on a different road. You turn left instead of right and end up in an unexpected place, you hold the door for someone and share a smile or you decide to fill out an application, you speak up in a meeting or take the time to fix something you see that is wrong. Most of the big changes in my life can be traced back to something that seemed inconsequential at the time. We all know the big ones, deciding which college to attend, though, to be fair, in my case that was a snap decision made in a moment of frustration, that seems to have turned out ok, but if I look back, that decision was only made possible by a much earlier decision to sit back in a chair, light a cigarette and tell the truth to someone who cared enough to let me. So, in honor of those low probability, high impact events that shaped us, won’t you join me as we stand and make, The Wild Card.

Brandy Daisy

February 22, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 2 Comments

They say that the best place to start is at the beginning, so I am going to make an effort to take us all the way back to where it all began, allegedly. They also say that today is National Margarita Day, a holiday clearly needed by the masses and the “frozen or rocks” lobby. The answer is rocks, by the way. They don’t tell you that, they just roll their eyes and laugh as they walk away if you get it wrong. I hope to answer the bigger question of how did we get here, but that may be a little too ambitious? For now, let’s just delve a little deeper and look for prime causes as we stand and make the Brandy Daisy.

Three Milks

February 21, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

We still have snow, but the temp is in the 50’s and the thaw is on in earnest. It looks like the biggest danger is going snowblind, but I have shades, so no worries. They have already called off school for tomorrow, but hopefully by then the last of the ice pack will be gone. I am not taking any chances though, so I am sticking with a pseudo tropical theme. Won’t you join me now as we stand and make Three Milks.

Frozen Ice-olation

February 20, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

Today the sun is shining…on the snow. The good news is, it is slightly above freezing and the road is looking better so maybe tomorrow we can sneak out and let someone else make the coffee. Before I was even out of bed, Laura suggested a new drink and it sounded terrible, but we could do a cool and timely presentation. Today we are going with form over function as we spend yet another day on the farm waiting for life to restart. So, in honor of those who quietly go stir crazy as they wait for the defrost cycle to begin, won’t you join me as we stand and make the Frozen Ice-olation.

Spruce Moose

February 19, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

We still have snow. Lots of it. We still had hours. Lots of them. So, we walked, in the snow. We kayaked down the hill, in the snow. We got the mail, in the snow. We built a set of shelves to hold our abundance of cocktail glasses, in the, well, that was in the basement, but we had to trudge through the snow to the barn to get the lumber and then through the snow back to the basement to work. When afternoon came, we cleaned the snow off the car and went to the store, leaving the property for the first time since Sunday, in the snow. To be fair, there was a lot of sun as well, luckily I was wearing shades, pretty sure the dog went snowblind, though. It is what it is, as they say. Might as well have a drink, so in honor of our newly northern existence, won’t you please join me as we stand and make the Spruce Moose.

Saturn

February 18, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

Another snow day, but this time with real snow! Overnight, we got 4-6 additional inches of snow over the top of our existing way too much ice. The upshot is, we could actually play in the snow today. We made a snowman, fought with snowballs, made snow cream, sort of sledded in the kayaks, all the things we could think of. We took midday break to come inside, dry out a bit and watch NASA hit another homerun with the successful landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars. So, in honor of the folks who not only do the impossible, but do it with an audience, won’t you please join me as we stand and make the interplanetary tiki classic, Saturn.

Coco Bitter

February 17, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

After a year of days running into each other, it seems like overkill to have this week of ice and snow. I already barely knew what month we were in and I awoke this morning to a grey, ashen sky over an endless sea of white to discover that it was Wednesday, and not just any Wednesday, but Ash Wednesday, which means I went right on through Mardi Gras without realizing it. To be fair, I should have known, mom had homemade King Cake at dinner Sunday, so I knew it was coming up, it just never really registered that it was upon us. I had planned to make a New Orleans classic, but that did not quite work out, so, won’t you please join me now as we stand and make the Coco Bitter.

Pearl Diver

February 16, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

A little more snow, a lot more ice, another quiet day at home with hours to fill. I could have been productive and cleaned off the desk in the office or organized the rums or dusted my trophy case, but we skipped all that in favor of blueberry pancakes, introducing the boy to The Munsters, watching YouTube cooking videos, finally finishing Ace Combat, oh and day drinking. So, in the spirit of making the most of forced confinement, won’t you please join me now as we stand and make the classic Pearl Diver.

Port Royal

February 15, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

We awoke to a winter, ummm, what’s the opposite of wonderland? Our snow storm turned out to be a glazing of ice, covered with sleet pellets. No chance for a snowman and making ice and slush angels is way less fun than it sounds. So we spent the day mostly indoors. Sure, I’d venture out from time to time to go for a walk around the property or down to the end of the driveway to check out the ice on the roads, look and see if anyone had run off the curve lately, write my name in the sleet, you know the important stuff. Now that the sun has set, I figure it is time for a drink, so in the hopes that something from more temperate climes will warm our hearts, won’t you please join me as we stand and make the Port Royal.

P.S. I Love You

February 14, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

It is Valentine’s Day, which seems like the perfect opportunity to make a nice sweet drink with some depth and complexity then follow it up with an even sweeter story of incredible depth and levels of complex beauty only dreamt of by mortal man. I could do that. Sondheim would have us believe the “opportunity is not a lengthy visitor” that can be missed before you even realize it has arrived. Of course, he would take at least an hour and a half before revealing that wisdom just after intermission. So, in the spirit of cutting to the chase and not beating around the bush, won’t you please join me now as we stand and make the P.S. I Love You.

Inside the Mind of the Monkey