Tag Archives: Rambling

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Punches.

From the Savoy Cocktail Book:

Punches.

“This ancient Silver bowl of mine, it tells of good old times,
Of joyous days and jolly nights, and merry Christmas Chimes,
They were a free and jovial race, but honest, brave and true,
That dipped their ladle in the punch when this old bowl was new.”

Thus runs the old drinking song by Oliver Wendell Holmes, a song among many that have lauded the old time jollity of Ye Punch Bowl.
The proper preparation of Punch requires considerable care: but there is one grand secret in- its concoction that must be mastered with patience and care. It is just this, that the various subtle ingredients be thoroughly mixed in such a way) that neither the bitter, the sweet, the spirit, nor any liquor be perceptible the one over the other. This accomplishment depends not so much upon the precise proportions of the various elements, as upon the order of their addition, and the manner of mixing. Below are given a selection of famous old Punch recipes worthy of careful study.

The next two sections of the book are “Punches.” and “Prepared Punches for Bottling”.

I haven’t quite figured out what to do about Punches.

There are about 15 in the book, most for larger groups of people.

I guess I could have a Punch party every week for the next 15 weeks, but that seems difficult, not just from a cost perspective.

Or I could scale them down to serve 3 or 4 people.

In any case, while I sort this out, I will probably skip ahead to the last section of the book, the “Cups”.

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Overheard on MUNI

Overheard on the 22 Filmore MUNI Bus:

“I’m homeless right now. I was living in the occupy encampment, but my friend got stabbed the other day. He’s in the ICU at San Francisco General. I described the person who stabbed him to the police and the occupy people called me a snitch. They said they’d kill me if I came back.”

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10 Mistakes that Could Doom Your Career as an IT Pro

10 Mistakes that Could Doom Your Career as an IT Pro
Randy Muller, MCT, MCTS, MCSE, CEH

“10. Lack of Soft/People Skills.

“A mistake many IT Professionals make is to assume that their IT skills will see to their advancement and not their Soft or People skills. We all know of an IT Pro who is fantastic at their job – one who can write code faster than you make a martini. But there are times when it is the Martini maker who is advanced ahead of the programmer. This is due to soft skills. IT Pros who can talk in non-geek speak and who can interact with end users and customers who will be in demand. If you want to move into the C-level rank, you need to get involved in other areas that will emphasis your people skills in addition to your techie skills.”

As a Martini maker and IT Pro, I am not sure how I feel about this comment…

Also, does the converse apply?

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Tough Week

Oof, what a tough week. Sick with a sinus infection, Mrs. Flannestad out of town for a conference.

Came home after a night at the bar to find the dog had been sick in his crate while I was away, and remained sick pretty much all night and into the morning.

Felt so bad to leave him the second night and worried that he would be OK.

He was sick again when I got back we were both up again for a second night and into the morning.

Worried that he had gotten some parasite, called the vet, collected a fecal sample to drop off, then realized, out of all the variables in what he had eaten, it was probably the “treat” I had given him before heading to work both nights. They must have gone off since the last time I had given him one.

How bad do I feel for making him sick?

So, no Savoy Cocktails this week.

Barely kept it together, as is, was.

Mrs. Flannestad gets back today, dog and I are both feeling better.

It’s looking like a bright, sunny, California day.

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Life in the Service Industry

“What? You actually want to work more in bars!? I used to work in bars, and those were some strange years. You must work in a nice bar.”

You know, it’s funny, when I ran the idea of giving up tech for working in bars past various friends, it was the people who actually worked in bars who tended to be more circumspect.

The people who I work with in Tech were mostly all, “Dude! You could be bartending for a living!? And you’re not doing it!? Live the dream, bartenders are cool!”

Whereas, those who currently worked in bars, or had worked in them in the past, were more like, “Well, it would be great for the bartending community and our restaurant if you did work here, but think about how it will work out with your wife and your schedules.” Or, “I liked making cocktails, but by the end of the week, I just couldn’t deal with the customer service aspect of the job.” Or, “It’s one thing to work once in a while, like you’ve been doing, but entirely another to do it for a living. Not so glamorous mopping vomit, clearing clogged toilets, and scouring the graffiti off the mirrors.”

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Life in the Service Industry

A representative from a large liquor company was in to our fine establishment the other night.

Among the products he was presenting to us was Pink Pigeon Rum.

One of my coworkers was playing with the odd pink rubber ring around the neck of the bottle.

“So what is this rubber ring on the Pink Pigeon bottle? A Live Strong Bracelet?”

“No, it’s a cock ring.”

“…”

“Do you want to hear the story?”

Well, what bartender can resist a good story?

The story of Pink Pigeon Rum, as relayed to us by the company representative:

Berry Brothers and Rudd were negotiating for a lot of well aged rum from a small island in the South Pacific. However, when they arrived on the Island, they discovered the stocks of the aged rum were lower than expected, not enough to bring a product to market.

This prompted the representative from Berry Brothers & Rudd to have one of the sorts of sociopathic hissy fits which our society allows in entitled executives, but discourages in the underprivileged.

“*(#()@P!!! What else do you have on this Godforsaken rock that would make my trip worthwhile? The only other thing I know of from this island is the $*#(@&! Dodo and it’s &$#*@&! extinct!!”

The representative from the island, mistaking the executive’s venom for an interest in local fauna replied, “No sir, not just Dodo, we also have the Pink Pigeon, which is only nearly extinct. It is pink, like flamingos, from eating shrimp. But it is nearly extinct because the boy pigeons don’t like to mate with the girl pigeons. Girl pigeons are hens, what is your word for boy pigeon?”

“We call them cocks.”

“Ah, yes, so every time we find a cock which does like the hens, we put a ring on it. A cock ring.”

So, apparently, this exchange not only entertained the executive enough to create a vanilla flavored, spiced rum named “Pink Pigeon”, but he also decided it would be extremely amusing to put a Cock Ring on the neck of every bottle of the Rum.

I will leave it to you to decide as to whether they should also have included a packet of condoms with every bottle.

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It was the best of times…

With apologies to Charles Dickens.

It was the best of times…

Technology jobs booming like no other industry, Heather Perlberg, Bloomberg News

“Among U.S. technology companies with a market value of more than $100 million, almost 50 increased employment by more than half in the most recently reported two-year period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Some small and midsize businesses boosted payrolls by almost fivefold, underscoring the resilient demand for Internet services, software and electronics.”

…It was the worst of times…


Old Techies Never Die; They Just Can’t Get Hired as an Industry Moves On, By AARON GLANTZ

“While Web-based companies like Facebook and Google are scouring the world for new talent to hire, older technology workers often find that their skills are no longer valued…Kris Stadelman, director of NOVA, the local work force investment board, which released a survey of human resource directors at 251 Bay Area technology companies last July, said that in her experience, candidates began to be screened out once they reached 40.”

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A Dog in San Francisco

Our dog Monty is pretty good with 75% of dogs and 99% of people.

However, there are just some people whom he doesn’t like, he’ll lunge and snarl. For the record, largely stocky Hispanic men and old people in dark clothes and hats.

I assume this is some artifact of his life in shelters, a bad experience he hasn’t yet learned to overcome, but it means we can’t leave him tied up outside a business or restaurant, as many other people do with their dogs.

If we’re out walking I have to get something at our local grocery store, I’ll some times carry him in with me, even though he isn’t a registered “service animal”.

The last time I did this, a gentleman commented, “In my next life, I want to be a dog in San Francisco, and you can be my owner.”

Yeah, Monty does have it pretty good.

From Feb 1, 2012
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A Dog’s Life

You may recall, in 2009, I started working behind the bar on a semi-regular basis. Guest bartending at Alembic Bar once a month for our Savoy Cocktail Book nights, and occasionally working at Heaven’s Dog, either as a fill in bartender or on Sunday nights.

As the end of 2011 approached, some regular bartending shifts at Heaven’s Dog opened up, and I talked to the bar manager about covering them.

I could either pass on the opportunity, or take a chance on finding out what it was like to work more nights a week as a bartender.

So, in November and December, in addition to my full time job at UCSF and Savoy Nights at Alembic, I started working three nights a week at Heaven’s Dog, going straight from one job to the other.

On one hand, this was a crazy amount to work, basically 9AM until Midnight 3 nights a week, but on the other, even Mrs. Flannestad noticed that I seemed to be “happier”, if tired-er. Well, not to mention, in the food service world, these aren’t even crazy hours; many of the cooks, barbacks, and dishwashers in the restaurant easily bested me for hours worked for those two months.

As December wore on, though, it was starting to get apparent that I couldn’t keep doing this indefinitely, and if I wasn’t careful, the hours were going to take a toll on my health and my relationship with Mrs. Flannestad.

In my head, I looked towards the UCSF Winter break as my finish line, and started mentioning to Mrs. Flannestad the idea of doing one thing or the other, but especially bartending.

I’ve done lots of different things in my life. I’ve worked as a line cook, I’ve delivered coffee, I worked as a janitor, worked as a dish washer, tested video games, maintained computers, etc. For over the last 15 years, I’ve worked in the Information Technology field, which is a long time for any job in my life. Maybe it was time to try something different. Find inspiration elsewhere.

I have always loved food and drink, maybe that was the way to go.

We came to a decision, and I gave notice at UCSF, my last day would be the last day before the Winter Break.

Visit family for the holiday, come back, maybe work part time for a month or two while I regroup and gather my thoughts, but hopefully make a living in restaurants once again.

Of course, nothing is quite that simple, when I gave notice at UCSF, they countered with an offer to stay on temporarily at half time in the New Year.

As I hadn’t yet organized full time hours as a bartender, it seemed like a safe bet to take.

That’s where I am now, I’ve completed my first month as a part time tech worker and part time bartender.

As far as I can tell, I’ve got a couple more months of this, feet in both worlds, before I absolutely have to start looking for new opportunities, but I’m excited. A new year, a new start, interesting new challenges.

As Mrs. Flannestad said to me, “This is the first time, in a long time, that I can remember you actually being excited about a job.”

Here’s to interesting times!

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Life in the Service Industry

“Is this someone influenced by the Red Hot Chili Peppers or someone who influenced them?”

It’s Funkadelic, the title song from their album “Cosmic Slop”, so I’m going to go with “Influencer”.

—-

“I want to get a Corgi and name it ‘Stein’.”

“Stein”? Why Stein, some German thing?

“There’s this Anime, “Cowboy Bebop”, which has a Corgi named ‘Ein’ in it, named after Albert Einstein. Then I want to name my child ‘Albert’. Do you think that is too weird?”

Well, weird names are kind of in these days… “Cowboy Bebop” was a great series. Movie was a little disappointing, but you know.

“Yeah, if you hadn’t had enough by the time you got the movie, it wouldn’t have been perfect.”

—

Unnamed Brooklyn Variation (That Other Thing)

2 oz Rye Whiskey
3/4 oz Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Cardamaro
1 generous teaspoon Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with grapefruit twist.