BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

Just a quick note here… I mean, after all, the next installment of Mahwage deploys tomorrow, and I’m sure you don’t need me cluttering up the flow of the series with too much rambling…

Anywho, I received an email or two about the chimp with the gun “avatar” on my replies to your comments – you will also notice that a few other folks have interesting little pictures too, whereas the bulk of you have a generic smiley face emoticon type of thing.

The emails have pretty much been kind of Steve Martinish, (if you remember his old standup routines of the 70’s… Yeah… I do…)

“Hey… …Murv… …Is there some way that I… …can have an avatar… …too?”

Well, yeah, actually, you can… You see WordPress supports something called “Gravatar” which is a site that allows you to set up a free account and “link” an avatar to your email address. It’s quick, easy, and completely painless, (unless you have trouble deciding on your avatar that is)… It will even let you upload several different avatars and assign them ratings (i.e. motion picture style – G, PG, R, X), and blogs which support it will filter which avatar is used based on it’s inherent “content rating” as set up by the author/blogger.

Kinda cool, eh?

So, for those of you wanting to have something other than the generic smiley face thing that I set up as the default, there you go. Easy like pie. Or cake. Or whatever…

Gravatar can be found here: http://en.gravatar.com/

… Anyway, if you don’t do the Gravatar thing, it’s no biggie to me. Your comments will just continue to be tagged with the emoticon guy… Unless I get squirrely and change it… and, well, you know how I tend to get squirrely every now and then…

Bwuh ha ha ha ha ha ha! 

More to come…

Murv

No, not your head. And, noooooo, not that satellite/cable TV network for kids either…

Nog… Milk, Egg Yolks, Sugar, Vanilla, and some Nutmeg. Egg Nog. The elixir of the holidays. The “dairy that marries” so well with good Kentucky/Tennessee Bourbon. The very reason for making it to and through the bah-humbug season of the year.

Know what I’m talking about now? Yeah, thought so.

I’ve spoken highly of nog before. In fact, I suspect I’ve even posted a Nog Blog in the past, I’m sure. But, I’m old and I have CRS* so I don’t always remember. Anyway, as you may recall, the appearance of nog in the refrigerated section of the supermarket is how I know it is time to “be of good cheer”. And, as stated above, it is the reason I am of good cheer during the “holler days”. (Well, it and the bourbon…A whole lotta bourbon…)

There I go digressing again… It’s the bourbon talking, I’m sure of that. Maybe i should have some more… Anywho, obviously I am now in possession of sour mash-laced, sweetened and thickened dairy products of the supermarket ilk (because I simply don’t have enough hours in the day to make boiled custard – as we call it back where I come from. I’m sure I have regaled you with stories of watching my mom, my grandmother, and/or my grandfather Elvis standing at the stove, carefully and constantly stirring a pot of the concoction. If I haven’t, then perhaps I need to get nostalgic and post a Double Nog Blog this year. So, anyway, I am also in possession of the supermarket style nog because my gut  doesn’t require any more than I obtain from the store…you see, if I made it myself I’d make a lot… I mean A LOT! My gut is big enough as it is.)

So, as I sit here working in my office – well, at my dining room table actually since I felt like a change of venue today – I am having a bourboned up nog and watching my squirrels beat on the picture window because they are out of animal crackers (seriously… I just put corn out today and no animal crackers, so the little tree rats are pitching a fit… I should really take pictures.) But, back to the nog… As I sit here having my nog I am reminded of a story. If I’ve told it before, just throw me a bone – read it again and pretend like you’ve never heard it before…

Many, many, maaaaannnnnnyyy years ago, when I was but a wee author (I used crayons for my stories)… seriously, I was like 7 or 8… we (my sister and I) had this babysitter. Hannah. I wonder whatever happened to Hannah. I had a major “8 year old” crush on her… and, what with her being an older woman… ya’know, like 15 and all… Well, either way, I digress yet again… Bourbon, nostalgia, and hormones… weird combination 🙂

So, back to the “story”… You see, we had some nog in the fridge because it was around the holidays. Mom had told Hannah that she was welcome to have nog, and that so could my sister and I. And, we did… In fact, we drank better than a half gallon between the three of us as I recall.

When my parents came home that afternoon, instead of finding two kids bouncing off the walls and a frazzled babysitter, they found two sleeping kids and a snoozing babysitter.

You see, my mom had mixed up the labeling on the containers. It seems that we had, without our knowledge or any malice aforethought, consumed the bourbon laced nog instead of the “family friendly nog”.

All we knew is that it tasted a bit different, but it still tasted really good… And, of course, it made us feel all warm and tingly. Back then, we attributed it to holiday cheer.

Now that I am older, I understand that holiday cheer comes in a bottle. Now, excuse me while I head back to the kitchen for a refill.

More to come…

Murv

* Can’t Remember Shit syndrome

(Oh, and yeah, I stole your footnote idea there, Anastasia ;p )