Tuesday, June 29, 2010

T-shirt Tuesday, again


Here are two more old shirts. The “Used Cars” shirt I’ve had since the late 90s. It was a gift from one of my co-workers at that time. The used cars on the shirt are VW Beetles covered in snow. The “Used Car” sign also has the VW logo. I was dedicated to driving VWs, at that time, until I decided that I really wanted to work for a living and had to start driving a truck.

The second shirt is for the Nintendo game Star Wars: Pod Racer. I bought this shirt off of e-bay around 2000. I’m really no fan of Star Wars, Episode 1, but the shirt was cheap and, after all, represents Star Wars and Nintendo. I’ve worn both of these shirts fairly religiously over the years and they both may be ready for the rag bag around 2011. Four shirts down, 361 to go.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Margarita Monday: 2010 Vacation

My lovely assistant, Sally Bally Whoa Wally, and I just returned from our vacation to Colorado. We went on the B&B tour. No, not Bed & Breakfast, we went on the brewery and book store tour. (Which is a story for another time.) We dined at Juanita's in Boulder twice and enjoyed the food and the Margaritas each time. I have the mysterious ability to make food, and Margaritas, disappear. While I remember that the food at Juanita's was very good, I don't remember the details because I ate entirely too fast. I did have the Chile Relleno which was suggested by our friend, and current Colorado resident, Scott. I'm a sucker for good Chile Relleno but I've really got to eat slower and enjoy my food. The half liter of Margaritas was $17.50 and was much more economical than paying $7.50 for each drink.

Here we are over looking Boulder.

Down in Denver we got to eat at Jack n Grill and of course we had a jumbo Margarita too. I'd seen the features on Jack n Grill on the Travel Channel and wanted to be sure to eat there while we were staying in Denver. I'm pretty sure I had the veggie burrito and devoured it.

The Margaritas at both of these restaurants where good but not as good as our favorite Latin American restaurant in Knoxville, Chez Guevara, which translates; House of Guevara. Chez G has the best Margaritas, they are so good I’ve considered asking them for their recipe. I know they use fresh oranges because they are always slicing them at the bar. Perhaps we’ll get to visit Chez G this weekend and provide a report for the next Margarita Monday.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Fanatical Recycling Endorsements

And what I mean by "endorsements" is, these are items we, at FRI, endorse and recommend for entertainment, education and enjoyment for everyone. Our first endorsement is for the Hubert Smith Radio Show, a local talk show featuring news and intelligent, truly open minded discussions of local politics and culture. I listen to Hubert's program on the University of Tennessee listener supported radio station, WUTK.
The Hubert Smith program is quality radio and one of the distinguishing features is the old school R&B music which is featured along with their news topics. This combination of great, classic music and intelligent commentary is a win - win situation for everyone.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Margarita Monday; on Tuesday

Last week, my acquaintance, gnotions, pointed out the traditional Margarita ingredients for what I would call a “Top Shelf Margarita.” My wife will not allow me to use cheap tequila so they’ll be no problem in that area. We don’t drink that much either. We each had two drinks from the batch yesterday, well, it was Monday of course.

We generally use the Margaritaville Island Lime tequila. Sally recently bought 30 – 30 brand Reposado which we enjoyed. I bought Two Fingers brand tequila once but Sally wasn’t fond of that brand. Baring the availability of any other brands we would probably use Jose Cuervo. For orange liquor I occasionally use Grand Marnier but use Triple-Sec most of the time.

Yesterday I attempted to recreate the blue Margarita. I made a small batch of traditional Margaritas, preped the Margarita glass with salt and ice then filled 1/3 of the glass with Mnt. Dew Voltage. Now the trick is to attempt to keep the drink blue but get it to taste like a Margarita, rather than tasting sweet like the Mnt. Dew. I settled for flavor over color and Sally thought I had used the green Mnt. Dew.


If I'm determined to make a blue Margarita I'm gonna have to try a different combination of ingredients. We'll be in Colorado next week so I'll bring back some tales of Rocky Mnt. Margaritas.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

T-shirt Tuesday; part 2

Just a quick t-shirt submission during this busy week. This specimen is the sandard issue University of Tennessee, Volunteers t-shirt.



When I moved to Knoxville a few years ago I had to acquire a U.T. shirt or two. I have owned this shirt for a year or two as it's a hand-me-down from my wife's brother-in-law. The shirt was nice and worn-in when I got it and I liked it immediately. I got the black paint on it this past winter when I was working at the book warehouse.

An update on last week's shirt; there was no Cowboys shirt in the rag bag. The Panic shirt's resting with a rather dirty Meat Puppets shirt and a worn-out Las Vegas, Hot, Hot, Hot, shirt. (We went to Vegas in 2007 and I paid $2. for the shirt and wore the print off or it in about twelve months.)

Oh yeah, the Beer Par poll didn't get much traffic. I'll play with the poll option when I've acquired more readers.

T-shirt Tuesday


This first entry is the proverbial “Having a Good Time” Widespread Panic t-shirt. “Having a Good Time,” is the chorus of one of Panic’s earliest songs, Porch Song. I’m pretty sure I mail ordered this shirt in 1996 but it may have been ’94 or ’95. This shirt qualifies as the most ragged shirt in my collection and it’s very close to retirement. The collar is torn away from the back of the shirt (see the bed spread through the back of the shirt.) and there a rips throughout the design on the front. I’ve worn this shirt to who-knows-where and to a least one Panic show at Red Rocks. The shirt’s had its’ own good time and has earned a quiet retirement on the rag pile, resting near an old Dallas Cowboys T. I’ll wear it to my game night tonight and allow it to retire since we will not be seeing Panic at Red Rocks when we visit Colorado later this month.

Now that I have this whole ugly T-shirt count in swing I can fire off five to ten in quick succession and we’ll get to 52 shirts, one for each week, in no time!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Margarita Monday

Back in 2008 I decided that I wanted to learn how to make Margaritas and I’ve discovered that it is actually a simple process. I was in search of the proper ingredients for making Margaritas, in search of a superior Margarita to the buckets and bag mixes that are so popular during the summer months. To top this all off, we found an Icee machine which shaves ice at Target for less than twenty bucks and we’re on the way to Margarita Lane! Once I had the basic Margarita mastered I wanted to make a blue Margarita. How do ya do that you ask? Just add blue Mnt. Dew to lemon juice and Margarita mix, they tend to be a little sweet or sour so that combination wasn’t a complete success.

This year Mnt. Dew has introduced a lime intensive style and today I used it in a new Margarita recipe. This new Mnt. Dew flavor is called Distortion and here’s the combination of ingredients I used;

12 oz. Mnt. Dew Distortion
8 oz. Lime Gatorade
4 oz. Tequlia
2 oz. Lemon Juice

Mix all ingredients, shake and/ or stir. Serve over ice or shaved ice in appropriate stemware, salt and lime slices are optional. Enjoy and don’t sing too loud…!

Oh yeah, this made about 4 servings of drinks.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

We celebrate Seis de Mayo!

My grand-daughter’s birthday is May 6th so, of course, the F.R.I. family celebrates Seis de Mayo. But this post is about the beers of Cino de Mayo. Each year, for the past three years, I’ve gotten the beer of the day calendar and around May 5th Mr. Papazian and company reviewed Corona or one of the appropriate Latin American style beers. I’ll admit that the beers from south of the border are honest stuff. These drinks are not marketed with any pretentions i.e. “Here we go!” They are simply wet and sweet, light beers.

I don’t have the beer of the day review handy any longer so I’ll refer to Michael Jackson’s Beer for reviewing Sol. None of the Mexican big three, Corona, Sol and Chihuahua, are covered in this volume. Carib, from Trinidad, is referenced and I can tell by the golden color that must be much like a traditional Latin American lager. Mr. Jackson says Carib has, “a pale golden straw color… with a neutral balance between malt and hops, sweet and bitter. “ I can assure you that, “neutral Balance between malt and hops,” is a nice way of saying that this drink is beer flavored water. For example, Mr. Jackson summed up Miller Lite in one sentence, “ No hop aroma; lightly sweet malt, no fruit or bitterness; crisp at finish.” He describes Budweiser as, “a light, balanced body, but without distinct flavors.”

Why the domestic macro-beer bashing? Because this is the style that the Latin American lagers imitate and, like the North American examples, Sol has no notable aroma. (Yes we, beer snobs, smell our beer.) Carbonation abounds but there is no head retention. The flavor is light and crisp at first with a hint of hop bitterness finishing with cereal sweetness. Over all, an honest drink but not worth more than one dollar per serving.

Beer Par; a poll

This has nothing to do with Beer Pong which I know nothing about. It’s just another random thought I have just about every weekend. What’s your beer par or how many beers do you need before your ‘fridge is below par?

My beer par is high to moderate. We had eleven beers in the fridge today and I felt I needed to buy more beer. There was no Yuengling which is my cheap beer, the one I drink when I’m doing yard work or just feel like having a “Beer.” We had three Terrapin India Brown Ales, not a style you want to drink everyday and the remains of a Michelob mixed 12-pack. (I’ll include details about the Michelob styles soon.) I promptly went to the local grocery and got a Yuengling 12-pack and a mixed 12-pack of the moment.

What’s your beer par?

Fanatical Recycling Brand Humor

There’s been a missing dog poster hanging in our neighborhood for about a week. The dog in question is a Yorkie and this reminded me of a one-liner I asked Sally about in reference to my job. I work for a third party provider for a large retail chain. Some folks, even friends, think I work for the chain because if I’m at work, I’m at one of these store locations. The particular big box retailer has chosen to ignore the laws of logic and human decency and allows customers to bring their dogs into their stores. This is not just at one location but at every location of this chain in which I’ve worked and I’ve been in every location in my region.

It occurred to me that one possible explanation is that there’s been a canine liberation movement but I failed to get the memo or view the various news flashes. This C.R.M. or Canine Rights Movement makes me want to take my cat out in public. But cats, unlike dogs and, according to some recent snappy e-mails, Democrats have a mind of their own and want nothing to do with visiting the grocery or local bar or park.

So, not to offend my friends who own lap dogs as my mother owns one as well;

Why do people who own lap dogs always own more than one, do they taste like chicken?

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Fanatical Recycling Product Line

Inspired by J. Rients of Jeffs Gameblog, we introduce the first in our line of Fanatical Recycling brand products.

We've really stepped in it this time!