Grand Re-Opening 10:30 AM

I declare the bar officially re-opened for business! Stay tuned for our new look, as well as the Weekly Special, which we’ll be serving up tomorrow, on New Year’s Day! The barmaids will each post a resolution for 2009, specific to their work at Smartini. We can’t guarantee that all the barmaids will show up on time, some may be out celebrating Thursday the holiday. But we hope you’ll join us anyway for drinks and toasts to the new year!

Closed for Renovations 10:38 PM

Please excuse our dust and lack of shifts lately. . the holidays seemed like a good time for us to take off to hopefully vamp up the place a bit. We'll have a grand reopening for the first of the year with a whole new look, new topics and new bar stools. . please enjoy the holidays and come back to check out the newness - we'll have lots of specials.

Gilmorisms 9:56 PM

The heart and soul of Gilmore Girls is the dialogue. So, no single moment here, just a short montage of quippy, amazingly executed verbal awesomeness. I so miss the days of Rory and Lorelai!

Hmmm. 5:55 PM

I'm not sure how I feel about this.  On the one hand it is sort of funny, but on the other hand, they really could've done a better job and it would've been phenomenal.  At any rate, I felt compelled to share it with you all.

A lifetime of TV comes down to this 9:58 PM

While Tempe was watching The West Wing, I was watching this*:



Pacey and Joey's first kiss is maybe my "favorite" TV moment, but this scene from The Wire Season 3 is the most powerful piece of television I have seen in my whole life. It won't mean that much to you if you don't watch the show, but if you do watch the show, you will understand why this left me speechless, a knot in my throat, dazed on the couch for a full five minutes afterward. (DO NOT WATCH IF YOU PLAN ON EVER, EVER WATCHING THE WIRE because it WILL RUIN it for you, and um, I highly suggest watching The Wire, if you haven't because it's the best TV show in the history of TV. Also, there is cursing, so um, beware of the children.)




Oh shit, wait. Of course, there's this classic from My So-Called Life** (haven't you all learned I can't pick 1 favorite of anything):







*Literally! Both came on Wednesday nights, I think at the same time; I would take the couch and living room TV, she would sit on the floor next to her bed in her room watching her TV.


**Technically not my favorite from MSCL, but I couldn't find the clip where Jordan sneaks in and eats cheese in Angela's kitchen and say, "You like me? Your mother says you like me."

yeah, I know I said to pick your one favorite... 9:09 AM

But I found two...and is it any wonder that they're both from The West Wing.

I don't have much to say, because the clips speak for themselves - except that I can remember how breathless I was, watching the Season Two finale of WW:




And then Ainsley Hayes, whose character I loved so much - this clip cracks me up every time:

It is such a difficult choice. I knew there had to be something big that stuck out in my mind as a memorable scene from TV, but I like dramas and it's kind of hard to pick just one moment without all of the back, well, drama that leads up to and culminates in that moment. I'm not sure it would be the same. Or, how could I pick just one snarky moment from House? So, I went a different route. This scene is definitely memorable! But, for all of the melodramatic wrong reasons. I wasn't surprised it was super easy to find, too.



And just to lament the loss of such a great show, this first kiss scene between Veronica and Logan was one of the first episodes I watched of Veronica Mars and it got me hooked. I'm always a sucker for the unsuspecting love story. I love all of the tension.



But, it had such great writing, witty banter, I had to include a scene with some dialogue, too, which was harder to find than I thought it should be.*


*I don't understand all of the video montages people make putting clips to music. What am I missing?

Simple Economics 6:35 AM

How can a girl choose her favorite scene from a tv show?! Oh, there's plenty on my list, but I'm going old school. The Cosby Show may just be my favorite show ever and this scene is a particularly good one.




(I searched for the episode where Theo gets an earring, but Carsey Warner doesn't allow embedding. But it's such a classic!)

As seen on TV 11:58 PM

This week the barmaids will each be regaling you with greatest moments from our favorite TV shows. Or at least, some memorable scenes. Pull up a chair, we may be reaching back into our teenage years, or confessing shows we currently watch that might come as a surprise. Please share your favorites as well as we relive some glory days - that aren't even really our own, but somehow seem to impact our lives and affect us in lasting ways. Or maybe I'm the only one that watches too much TV (thanks TiVo!!!)

Penelope, the Christmas Dork 10:00 AM

Favorite Christmas Movie: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the old-school one. I don’t care what you say, Megan! I really relate to those Misfit Toys.

Least Favorite Christmas Movie: Let me explain first that I watch a lot of those Hallmark Channel movies. Yeah, whatever. Go ahead and make fun. That confession said, I do NOT like the ones that feature characters with a terminal illness. Because dude, it’s Christmas. I want tears of joy.

Favorite Christmas Song: There are a few. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” pretty much by anyone, from Sarah McLachlan to Judy Garland to Rowlf the Dog. It’s so…wistful. Also, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” by Andy Williams.

Least Favorite Christmas Song: I’ll just go ahead and agree, not a big fan of “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” Tacky.

Favorite Christmas Food: That is a tough one. Maybe this Chocolate Mint Dessert Cake? My mom makes it every year.

1 Thing I WANT for Christmas: Stem-less wine glasses.

1 Thing I NEED for Christmas: A new computer mouse. Seriously.

1 Thing I’m Excited to GIVE for Christmas: A Snow White doll to K.Lo. The dress is all sparkly, and she has a horse. I can’t wait to see the look on K.Lo’s face, although I’m imagining she's going to be quite overwhelmed in general this Christmas.

1 Thing I HOPE this Christmas: That each of my friends has a good Christmas, filled with a little magic, wherever they are and whoever they are with.

Random Christmas Item for the Bar: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is also one of my favorite, favorite movies to watch. However, the scene where Chevy Chase opens the attic door and the ladder flies down and smacks him in the face? It has made me secretly terrified of attic doors for several years running now. Even though most of them open with a simple fold-out ladder. I cringe every.single.time.

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid! 6:00 AM

Favorite Christmas Movie: As if you had to ask! I'm pretty sure I have pounded the point home that Christmas Vacation is my all time fave. Coming up a close second is A Christmas Story. Watching those two during the Christmas season is MANDATORY! Oh, and I'm pretty sure I have never seen Love, Actually. Will I be stoned to death?!

Least Favorite Christmas Movie: Perhaps I will be stoned to death again when I tell you that I really can't stand the claymation Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. Really.

Favorite Christmas Song: Gotta go with the other ladies... O Holy Night is pretty dang moving. I particularly like John Berry's version. And then other hymns. And then all of your other standards. (We have the Time Life Christmas Treasury which is fantastic, I must say!)

Least Favorite Christmas Song: Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer. Shot me now. And then turn your sights on that damn reindeer who ran over Grandma, without whom there would be no need for that blasted song.

Favorite Christmas Food: On Christmas morning I love to do as my mother, sister and I used to do and eat quiche and drink mimosas. I'm the only one that does it now, unless I'm with either of the other ladies, but I do it all the same.

1 Thing I WANT for Christmas: a new pair of running shoes

1 Thing I NEED for Christmas: a washer and dryer

1 Thing I'm Excited to GIVE for Christmas: all of the things Ella wants from Santa: a new bike, a shovel (for real!) and a Little Einstein's globe.

1 Thing I HOPE for Christmas: That during all of the bustling around we are able to stop and remember what it's all about.

Random Christmas Item I'm Going to Share with the Bar: I've got a few: Like Andi, I love to just sit and look at the Christmas tree and hang lights up everywhere. I also LOVE to go to a Christmas Eve night service and come out of the church right after midnight, relishing in the first minutes of Christmas day. And I like fruitcake. There, I said it. SO.... Am I the only one that likes both fruitcake and eggnog?!

Christmas spirit 11:58 PM

* Favorite Christmas movie I have to agree that Love, Actually is a great movie and makes me think of the holidays - or the holidays make me think of so many parts in it?

* Least favorite Christmas movie I like A Christmas Story, but my daughter is a Christmas baby and I still remember it playing on the TV All. Night. Long. in the hospital. So, I think it will be a while before I can sit through it voluntarily again.

* Favorite Christmas song Let me just preface this choice with the declaration that I love Christmas carols. I grew up singing them and loved going through the nursing home, or in groups (including Latin!) that went around neighborhoods singing - I can't deny my hippie roots; I'm just a Kumbaya kind of group singing gal, what can I say? I remember singing this particular song in Chorus class and really loving it because it was new to me and fun. I thought the Muppets version might win Pen over.

I have to agree with Tempe, that O Holy Night is a very powerful song.

* Least favorite Christmas song This is a hard one for me (see above) I mean, I get tired of songs quickly, too, or the overdone pop versions, but still love the sentiment of listening to or singing Christmas songs. Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer? And songs like that farce, I suppose.

* Favorite Christmas food Mema's Christmas cookies! The story goes, when my dad was little he embarrassed my Mema (his mom) so much at a party by eating so many of these cookies that she had to ask for the recipe. And now we have them every year at Christmas. My sister and I have taken over baking several batches as well and sharing with neighbors and co-workers (suckas! Let me go before the holidays!)

* 1 thing you WANT for Christmas A new bottle of perfume that I smashed in Italy?

* 1 thing you NEED for Christmas A job?

* 1 thing you can't wait to GIVE for Christmas I have something for my niece and nephew that I'm excited about, but just in case their parents popped in, I don't want to reveal. My cousins and siblings have decided to adopt a family instead of exchanging gifts, so that's been rewarding and fun to shop for as well.

* 1 thing you HOPE for Christmas The economy starts to rebuild?

* Random addition to the Christmas list of your choosing I love sitting up at night in just the glow of the Christmas tree. And the smell of a real live tree. One year, I thought I wanted a themed blue and white (silver) tree, and asked for ornaments and decorations only in those colors. I have since come to my senses and added color. I do still use just blue and white lights, though. I really like tin ornaments. Or wooden/carved. Or ceramic decorations. Rustic, I suppose. And I like Reindeer, Snowmen and Santa Clauses. I don't really get Nutcrackers.

making a list (and checking it twice) 9:18 AM

Favorite Christmas Movie: It's a tie between Love, Actually and A Christmas Story.

Least Favorite Christmas Movie: Home Alone. It was funny the first time, barely, but not the three thousand other times I've seen it.

Favorite Christmas Song: Another tie between Little Drummer Boy and O Holy Night by the Vienna Boys Choir. Little Drummer Boy reminds me of Season One of the West Wing (where Toby arranges for a homeless veteran to be buried at Arlington), and I dare you to keep the goosebumps from coming during the refrain of O Holy Night.

Least Favorite Christmas Song: Anything sung by a current pop star. I like the old school stuff...Dean Martin, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Anne Murray, Judy Garland, etc, etc...

Favorite Christmas Food: Steak and eggs on Christmas morning, like Mom does it (and now Chris and I have started our own tradition of the same).

1 Thing I WANT for Christmas: Money to remodel our bathrooms.

1 Thing I NEED for Christmas: Money to remodel our bathrooms (seriously).

1 Thing I'm Excited to GIVE for Christmas: Chris' gift...but since he is a occasional reader of this blog, I'm not giving away the surprise!

1 Thing I HOPE for Christmas: That I can find some time to actually relax and take it all in.

Random Christmas Item I'm Going to Share with the Bar: The original 30 minute program "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" holds several of my sorority secrets. Dr. Suess' wife was a Sigma Kappa...

Fight Nice, Ladies 11:09 PM

Oh hell, y'all.

Perhaps I am the only one who realizes the implications of the BCS Championship game, so I will refresh your my-team-didn't-make-it-so-I-quit-watching memories:

One very fetching barmaid who knows her football, Niki, is a Gator chompin' Florida fan.

One oh-so lovely and highly hilarious reader, Bj, is a Boomer Sooner Oklahoma fan.

Can Niki appreciate the Stoops visor, which is a direct descendant of her (one-time long ago) boy, Spurrier? Or will this get as ugly as I'm afraid it might? Fight nice, ladies, fight nice.

(PS: Not that I'm trying to start any shit, but... Nik, Bj said all she wanted for Christmas was some gator skin boots. I'm just sayin'...)

Niki on Christmas 6:08 PM

Favorite Christmas Movie: Love, Actually

Least Favorite Christmas Movie: It's a Wonderful Life. I don't do black & white movies, something about them doesn't translate for me. 

Favorite Christmas Song: "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy" from The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky

Least Favorite Christmas Song: Almost all of them

Favorite Christmas Food: Sausage balls, except now I'm a vegetarian, so pancakes and grits - our family tradition is Christmas breakfast/brunch in our pajamas instead of a grand Christmas dinner

1 Thing I WANT for Christmas: A trip to Africa

1 Thing I NEED for Christmas: A new battery charger for my computer

1 Thing I'm Excited to GIVE for Christmas:  A Zoobie Monkey (for my 7-8 month old nephew) - it's a stuffed animal, a pillow, and a blanket all in one! Also, it's really soft and cute.

1 Thing I HOPE for Christmas: Not to gain more than 5 lbs from overindulgence and lack of exercise

Random Christmas Item I'm Going to Share with the Bar: I don't think I've ever had eggnog. To be honest, the thought of it grosses me out. I don't know what the real ingredients are, but the name makes me thing of raw eggs and alcohol. That makes me want to vomit more than the smell of tequila.

They're Making a List... 7:56 AM

And checking it twice.  You know the Smartini Barmaids have been naughty and nice. 

To help get our patrons into the Christmas-y spirit we'll be making Christmas lists this week.  So if you've got a Smartini girl on your shopping list, you'll want to play close attention.  You might not only learn what she wants this year, but also what gift will result in a pouting bartender and potential drink in your face. 

Runeth over 1:06 AM

We had a run-off election this week, so I didn't dare miss my opportunity to flash Megs my boob, er, sticker shot! I had a lot of look going on that day - I was clearly feeling vibrant.

They were kind enough to hand out stickers to my kids, too!

Bored? 12:41 PM

Try Bored.com
It's got pages and pages of games. And you can look by category for the types of games you like to play. I'll be honest, I haven't played many of them, but there are some that look pretty good. Going last this week, I had to come up with something that hasn't already been mentioned, but I do have one or two specific ones still up my sleeve.

Boomshine
It's additictively simple - you only click once on each level! Then, you just watch as your colored circles explode and try to catch as many bystanders in the color blob explosion - each level has a different number you have to collect, so trust me, it's addictive. When you start out, you'll feel overly confident, but once you get up there, it does get more challenging. And, thus, more addictive to get your one click right. It's so simple, you just can't walk away until you've beaten it. Which, it says only like 4% do, but I'm not sure. . I think there's some fuzzy math. Maybe on the first try, but you get to keep trying each level until you pass it, so it's not like you have to start all the way over (which I have done no less that 30 times already while typing this post to try to beat level 12. Damn this game!) Seems like I read a Georgia Tech email address on it when I used to play before, so I think the guy that created it went to GT?

Mahjongg
I'm still a fan, even though it's been around a while and has multiple versions now.

Alchemy
It took me a while to find it, but I used to play this game a lot and enjoy it. You have to match each tile either by color or symbol and try to fill out rows and columns until they disappear. Be careful putting colors next to each other, because if you have 3 around one square you can't play anything there, unless two symbols are the same. It's hard to explain, but it's fun and challenging. It's nice, because it will highlight tiles that will accept the symbol showing, but if you can't play it, you have to discard and your lava level rises until you can play again.

So, have fun not working this week!

More Wordplay 10:06 PM

Apart from the occasional game of Scrabulous Lexulous, I don't do much online gaming.  My primary online entertainment is the sport of gossip, at which I'm embarrassingly adept. 

I do, however, enjoy a good crossword from time to time, and I recently pledged to pick-up my crossword pen(cil) more often in order to sharpen the skills I learned in college.  Before the time of laptops in the classroom, we had to not pay attention the old-fashioned way - completing the Red & Black crossword. 

I used to be able to crack the puzzle in under ten minutes (which sounds impressive, but not really because once you did it so much the same esoteric clues repeated themselves so you just memorized them and deduced the rest of it).  Nowadays, though, I kind of suck. 

That's why I do the USAToday online puzzle.*  You can do it in "regular mode" or "the other mode I never do."  "Regular" allows you to see immediately if a letter you plug in is not correct; Read: you can guess all the letters of the alphabet until you get it right, thus you ALWAYS WIN. 

I don't know about you, but a game I ALWAYS WIN is a game I will play For.Ev.Er. 

Also, they have a two-week archive which means at any given moment there are 14 crosswords at your fingertips that you can ALWAYS WIN that are free.  It doesn't get much better than that.

*Ok, so I'll be honest. Originally I wanted to do the New York Times puzzle because it seems smarter, has a better reputation, and probably provides a better education.  Unfortunately, you have to pay for that one, and I'm just too cheap for that.  I'll take the somewhat inferior freebie, thankyouverymuch, because really, I'm probably not intelligent enough to complete a Times puzzle. Like, ever. 

Back in the day 10:00 AM

Um, like a have time to play games! Pshaw! I mean, other than Mario Kart and Lexu/Scrabulous. Since the aforementioned Penelope Time-Suckers have already been discussed, I’ll tell you about a highly addictive game I used to play at a job where playing games was totally acceptable (as it should be): Bookworm! It’s sort of like Boggle, where you create words by linking tiles. And it’s kind of like Scrabble, because the tiles look exactly the same. But every time you create a word and submit it, the tiles shift downward, leaving you with an entirely different set of word-combo possibilities. Things really start getting interesting when bonus tiles and fiery tiles drop down—let the fire hit the bottom, and you LOSE, suckah.

I highly recommend tapping into your Inner Bookworm as soon as possible. Have fun, and good luck.

kickin' it old school 5:51 PM

I wish I could say that I'm ahead of the times...but I'm not. I love a good game of solitare, y'all!

Proof: Here's what my screen looked like today:


Yeah, I'm a loser. I don't even know how to find other games online. So, I'm leaning on y'all, my fellow barmaids, to help me out here. I'm ashamed to call myself a procrastinator when all I'm doing is listening to Fiona Apple on Launchcast and losing terribly at Solitare...

Zuma! 7:15 AM

My sister introduced me to Zuma!, and now I can't. stop. playing. I mean, how could you stop playing a game where an ancient frog-like creature in a supposed Aztec-type temple is spitting what appears to be colored billiard balls at a zig-zagging line of colored billiard balls for points? Did I mention there are shiny coins, too?

I think that Zuma! achieves the perfect balance between ease and challenge. There are no secret codes or levels to unlock or complicated key sequences that help you skip levels. There are no additional components required. As long as you've got a mouse and a spacebar, you can be a winner! But it's not so easy that it bores me a level or two into the game.

The best part is when you complete a board, this tribal chant voice says "ZUMA!" I don't know what "zuma" means, but it sure does make me feel awesome.

Triple word score, I OWN you! 6:35 AM

Are y'all as big of a dork as I am? Because I know that Andi and Pen are, but are we alone in our love for Scrabulous (which has now been reincarnated as Lexulous)? Surely not, right?!

My husband and I have been closet nerds for a while now, playing Scrabble on the sly when no one was looking... but then Scrabulous came along and made Scrabble mainstream fun! And a Facebook application! Only cool people are on Facebook, right?

Even though this cool girl is not, in fact, on Facebook, Pen opened up the world of Scrabulous to me and I haven't looked back since. They offer games between you and your invited buddies! And via email! And a chat box during the game where you can talk all kind of Scrabble smack! How can you not love this game?!

I would be a liar if I told you that Pen and I have never played Scrabulous (Lexulous) online live, with our husbands, talking shit the whole time. I would be a BIG, FAT, LIAR if I tried to tell you that. Do you know how nasty it can get when four people are playing Scrabble with only a chat box between them? Yeah, it was ugly.

Since then, Andi and Pen and I have all been in a big Lexulous love fest playing via email, coming up with totally cheater words like ULAMA and QAT. Who knows those? Nobody but a looking-up-all-my-options cheater, that's who. Like me (I played qat).

If you are not in on Lexulous yet, you should be. And if you are, why don't you go ahead and send me an e-vite to join a game? I'll be happy to kick your ass, just like all the others. :) (See? The tough talking doesn't contain itself to the chat box! WHY MUST I PROMOTE MY DORKINESS?)