Hallo-wine (and other tastey beverages)

Another assembly of descriptions and images to make you hungry/thirsty and make you eyeball aesthetics happy.

Gotham Wine
Something I've actually sampled! I bought it for the bottle (of course) but this actually a pretty delicious wine. We tried the Shiraz which has been rated the best Australian wine under $10.

Vampire Wine
For the name - I've never tasted this. The bottle is neat, right? The website is kind of hilarious ("Rumor has it that the Vampire Vineyards are actually owned by a circle of vampire" hee..) Also, how did they bag vampire.com for a domain name? Hm. I guess I'm not talking about wine... oops.

Night of the Living Red
This is more of a concept wine if you ask me - it really doesn't matter what it tastes like. The bottle is minimalist, but comes with a wickedly designed label that consists of some pretty excellent anatomical drawings and redacted information. Mysterious!

Trick? Treat?

It's the semi-annual gourmet Halloween Candy nom blog!
Here are some delicious selection I stumbled cross while being unscrupulous on the internet:

Chocolate Skulls
Last year I noted the chocolate skulls by Vosges Chocolate and they were pretty good but I MUCH prefer their exotic chocolate bar. These skulls are classic flavors with lots of spooky (and anatomical!) detail.

Pumpkin Patch Truffles
Creamy pumpkin spice something-or-other in chocolate. Delicious, and deliciously packaged. These I have actually eaten so I can attest to the tastiness.

Garlic Mints
GROSS right? But you can't deny how terribly clever this is - what better way to ward off vampires (if that's your thing of course). And the tin is nicely designed.

Trick or Treat Halloween Box
Seriously - listen to these flavors: anise buttercream, spiced pumpkin see toffee, persimmon pumpkin truffle. They sound (and look) delicious.

Vellies
My favorite thing about these: the colors. My second favorite thing: they're vegetarian. Better than either of those things: the ingredients - fennel, red peppers, sage, beets, more! Plus, it's fun to say. Vellies vellies vellies!

Peanut Butter and Honey Skull Truffle
I mostly love the packaging - long slender brown box, with a paper wrap of SKULLS. And I like the skulls printed on the chocolate. If you like chewie, this would probably be yum.

That's it! Before I start chewing on my screen.

Batty.

A very clever person gifted me a membership to the Bat Conservation International. Bats are fascinating as animals, art, and lore. Which makes them one of my favorites.

2 a.m. has been kind to me.

The moral of this post is: staying up past my bedtime yields excellent results.

Necromance
So the name of this place makes me think of middle-school D&D players, but they carry a lot of excellent things that peculiar people like.
Some favorites:



Excellent Pairing #2: Puscifer - "The Mission": James Maynard Keenan, feat. Milla Jovovich
I am no doubt late on the boat on this, but the music is decent and I've been known to be fond of both of these artists in the past.
Here's a video:



Excellent Pairing #1: Alexander McQueen and Raymond Watts
This pairing is excellent for two reasons: I really like the aesthetic of Alexander McQueen even though I am in no way a fashionista of any sort;

and my love of Raymond Watts' work should be at this point extremely well documented. Here is a video of a McQueen catwalk, accompanied by Raymond's music:



I love it. It's always comforting to see other art kids with the same aesthetic - especially when they are more brilliant than I am.

Pooch Plunge 2009

Every year the City of Greenbelt allows the dogs of the community to take a swim in the pool before they shut it down for the season. This was the first year Locksley got to participate.

Hermit Crabs

An integral part of the beach experience for me, are hermit crabs.
Technically speaking, it's a tragedy. Hermit Crabs are wild caught, and interred in unsuitable habits in stores until they are purchased by unwitting tourists.

But, there's something about those plastic cages and crazy shells. Any other time of the year I would not want a hermit crab, but being at the beach nearly demands that I get a pair of these fellows.

The first (and arguably the best) hermit crabs I had were named Gin and Tonic. I had a couple hermies in Washington, but they were short lived.

Presenting the newest hermit crabs: Martini and Olive.

Martini (with the orange shell) is smaller and more shy.
Olive (with the green shell) is bigger and more active.


We'll see how this all goes! We leave, Maryland bound, tomorrow.

Beach Essentials

I am not ashamed to say that my beach experiences as a little kid were primarily from Ocean City, MD. If you've ever been there, you know it's a horribly (delightfully?) kitschy place. Complete with pink sand sculpture lighthouses, puppies crafted from small shells, and so on.

Because of think, I consider a beach trip successful when a certain amount of ridiculousness has been acquired. So, behold:A partial assemblage of what I consider beach essentials.

1) Transfer t-shirt with some hilarious graphic. I opted for for a rainbow colored pegasus leaping through the clouds. Please, note it has GLITTERY HAIR. Also acceptable choices - unicorns, horses running through water, etc.

2) Seashells. Lots of Seashells. These may only be acquired by hand via strolls on the beach. I've got quite a few more than pictured, but these are some of my favorites.

3) Mood Ring. This is actually a double-whammy on my part since this mood ring is also glow-in-the-dark. It is required that a beach trip includes the acquisition of a mood ring and/or a glowing items (glow stick bracelet, etc). Mood rings help you monitor how the trip is going (and feel free to update your vacation mates hourly on what color your mood ring is, and what that means).

4) Shell bracelet. I got one that's a million little pieces of shell all piled next to eachother. Another acceptable variation - something with shark teeth, or those white circular shell things.

One thing missing that is essential - hermit crabs. More on that later!