R.I.P. Harriet

Back in November, I gave a shout out to my girl Harriet on her 175th birthday.

I am sad to report that Harriet has passed on. She was believed to be the world's oldest living animal, as well as believed to have been discovered by Charles Darwin.

A tribute can be viewed here.

Rest In Peace, Harriet. We hardly knew ye.

My Birthday

I spent my birthday in Oban. It's a nice little town, populated by fisherman and rugby players.


Mmmmmmmm... I had Oysters for breakfast, from this little stand. They were unbelievably fresh, but there was something missing. Last night (over oysters), Nicole was finally able to point out what it was; it was the first time we'd had oysters without beer. They go good together.


These were some of the temporary residents of the seafood stand. The stand was run by a young lady who, according to Paprika's brother, was the "hottest fishmonger ever". I wonder what the competition is like for that title?


We also went to the Oban distillary. Oban is my favorite Scotch, for sentimental as well as epicurious reasons. Oban is the smallest distillery in Scotland, so not a lot of people have heard of it. In college, there was a place called the Corner Bar that served it, and that's where we developed a taste for it. We also got a bottle of it as a wedding gift. I felt like I was making a pilgrimage to the distillery.

And I nearly cried tears of pure joy when I saw this:


I bought an extra-special bottle of it to bring home. It was a good birthday.

Spreading the good word...

From the gospel:

"And then in the heavens there appeared a white light and a thundering sound.
And with a mighty roar there descended many monkeys astride glowing two-wheeled beasts.
And the monkeys were angry.
And the boy was afraid.

And one monkey who stood in front of all other monkeys said unto the boy, 'Be not afraid, for though we are angry, we are also monkey, and no harm shall come to you. We bring you joyous tidings, for we are here as monkeys to rock your world.'

And there was much rejoicing, and much rocking of the world.
And much wine flowed, and while the monkeys were angry, they were just and never mean. And the world loved the monkeys, even when they said that one thing. It wasn't very nice, but the monkeys were drunk and they're sorry. There was no call for that."

From The Book of the Church of the Rotating Mass

Thanks to Writer Mom and family for helping to preach the Good Word!

Another Scottish Cultural Lesson

The firefighters in Glasgow also know how to party.



And Scottish poultry is fearless.



Scottish sheep are not fearless.



But they do get a much nicer view than most of us are used to.

Partying With The Rugby Players

Scottish Rugby Players are big.


And these guys can drink. A lot.



This concludes today's lesson on Scottish Culture.

On this day I will marry my friend...

Back from Scotland safe and sound. More photos and stories as I get to them. Until then, a simple congratulations to Mike and Paprika.

Thanks for letting us be a part of your day. You are two of my closest friends, and it means a lot.

Or, as they say in Gaelic: Slainte mhor agus a h-uile beannachd duibh! (Good health and every good blessing to you!)

Down To Days Of Freedom...

So in a few hours we leave for Scotland for the impending nuptuals of Mike and Paprika. In keeping with tradition, Saturday night was the night for the debauchery known as the bachelor and bachelorette parties.

The concept of the bachelor and bachelorette party is apparently to allow the couple to go out for one more night of freedom, to enjoy all of those things that they enjoyed while single, but apparently won't be able to do once they are married.

First off, then, this implies that many guys really enjoy going to strip clubs. Second, it implies that fun ends at marriage. This is why I don't understand the deal entirely, but it's also why we don't follow convention.

First off, we did not take Mike to a strip club. We took him out drinking and to see some bands. It's what I did for my bachelor party; I mean seriously, does anyone actually like to go see strippers? Don't bother answering, I don't really want to know.

Second, as the parties coincided, and we are all friends, we actually ended up at the same place as the ladies a few times. It was fun.

We started the evening at the Planet Ant, because Mike actually was playing a set there. This is us starting Mike slowly with some beer. He had to play, so we were taking it easy.


O.K. beer was the drink of choice for the earlier part of the evening. How is it? It's OK! (We wrote about 400 different scripts for commercials for this in about 12 minutes - this is why I work in advertising.)


Later on, we ended up at the Belmont. This is where we started putting the hurt on Mike, and in the interest of friendship, no photos exist.

This is a photo of the bathroom at the Belmont where, I'm pleased to report, the posters for the benefit are up! I am getting really excited about this. Also, I'd like to point out that the Belmont has the cleanest bathrooms of any Detroit bar.


After the Belmont, we all ended up at a Karaoke bar, where Paprika was on stage in rare form, where she did a medley of songs, including "Welcome To The Jungle" and...


"Stand By Your Man"...


And "Like A Virgin"...
We then took the lovely couple home and deposited them on their front porch. They later confessed to having rather hazy recollections of this. This is good. We did our jobs well.

Here's to the happy couple, and to a good time in Scotland... right Paprika?



Right.