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Evening coolth

The sun nears the horizon and the temperature finally dips under 80, welcome relief.

Insurance will not cover the sewer work. We’re working on second calls to alternate providers for differing estimates and the like. On reflection, I am livid that we paid over $2k to a service company that left things more broke than when they arrived. That’s just about $700 an hour of breaking my shit. And I do mean my shit.

In fairness, the (still unusable) toilet has been reset and at last ten dollars worth of new PVC pipe installed. What price arm deep in sewage?

I should note that it’s not the whole house that’s affected, only the upstairs, so we can still shower and use the can. Although the can in the basement also probably has a bad basal seal. Can you guess what company won’t be getting that job?

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Rewards

Item: our plumbing sprung a leak.

Item: over the phone, I got a ballpark figure out of the plumbing company, five to seven hundred bucks.

Item: when the guy presented his quotes, they totaled just over two thousand dollars. What could we do? We okayed it.

Item: when the guy finished, he’d found that one of his line items was not enough to clear the sewer-line blockage.

Net result: two thousand dollars poorer, no working toilet or shower upstairs, and a new quote in hand for about seven thousand dollars, work which will entail a backhoe, a jackhammer, giant trenches in the lawn, and a torn-up expanse of concrete.

BONUS: I have diarrhea this evening and now must attempt to trot up and down the stairs with my own personal plumbing valves held firmly in the off position, no mean feat.

I am a less-than-satisfied homeowner tonight.

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Hidden in the depths

Kraken bulletin: I am still working this drink. I have tried three variations thus far:

Vodka, vermouth, lemon juice, lemon twist, oyster: drinkable, but the lemon diffused into the vodka and was too sweet. The oyster liquor diffusing into the vodka was, to my surprise, quite divine.

Vodka, vermouth, lemon twist, several drops of aged Tabasco sauce: Quite good, but not ideal. The Tabasco diffused into the vodka, overwhelming the delicate oyster liquor. The lemon twist was about right.

Vodka, vermouth, dash of worcestershire sauce, 1/2 tsp. horseradish: Similar to the Tabsaco Kraken. The horseradish floated up and throughout the vodka but was so diffuse that a mildly sweet radish flavor was the outcome, and again, that overwhelmed the oyster liquor.

I think what I’m seeing here is a need to increase the vinegary / savory side of the drink’s flavors without killing the clarity of the oyster’s flavor. Is there an Absolut Rice Vinegar? Stoly Wooster?

Hm, Stoly Wooster. It does seem that the People’s Vodka would provide a celebratory preparation in honor of that favorite son of Worcestershire.

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Headline Levity!

A quick google for “napoleon pascoe” reveals that University of Iowa prof Judith Pascoe’s handwringer on the inappropriateness of collecting dead emperors’ dehydrated naughty bits – or anyone’s really, the party pooper – was, in fact, not originally titled Give Napoleon’s Penis a Proper Burial, as it is headlined in today’s Post-Intelligencer.

I must point out that his Highness would most certainly agree, although he would prefer that such action had taken place more or less two centuries ago, and preferably in the arms of a fetching young partner rather than the clammy embrace of Gaia.

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Fear the Kraken

THEE KRAKEN

The Kraken, in his natural habitat – Ivar’s Lake Union.

I invented this drink at table and it was, um, a learning experience.

2 oz vodka
1 oz clam juice
1 raw, fresh oyster

Shake Vodka and clam juice over ice until clammy. Serve in martini glass. Garnish with oyster. Taste the upwelling fruits of the briny depths.

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Concordia Found?

The history of the History Of Port Orchard Yacht Club includes a shot of a boat much like the Concordia the League passed whilst abaft, aport, afloat, or whatever it was. Here is another shot of a boat of the same name and similar design dating to the first half of the twentieth century.

On careful review of the pair of pics, employing my art-historian’s eyes, my tentative conclusion is that aye, the Concordia we passed is a) a survivor of the Moskito Fleet b) formerly the property of a burgeoning social club based in Port Orchard (!) and c) depicted in all three photos herein linked. $1k for a boat! My word!

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Winehouse

And while I’m on about music and recordings and the like, the March ’07 US-released Amy Winehouse record Back to Black is epic. I can’t get it out of my mind. Interestingly, the replay quotient is up there with Neko Case’s second and third records, also audio explorations of heartache.

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Scott

Viv and I spent a happy hour on Sunday visting with old homey Scott Colburn and his lovely wife Jaye in their Ballard recording studio. Scott’s talking about getting back into making movies, and laid a copy of his latest side project, Wizard Prison on me. It seems the imprisoned wizards may attempt a jailbreak at a Lake Union arts facility within the month. Word to the wise, you see.