PSA: Sweet Tea Vodka 11:10 PM

Ladies, are you aware of Firefly’s existence? Distilled in South Carolina, it’s vodka that tastes like SWEET TEA. I’m drinking it presently, and it’s q.u.i.t.e tasty. The bottle says to serve it 1:1, water to Firefly, but I’ll go ahead and say more like 4:1… unless you’re interested in sprouting chest hair. If you go 4:1, it looks and tastes pretty well like sweet tea. Except with a mighty fine buzz to go along with the innocuous flavor.

Here’s to a headache-free Sunday morning, I hope!

 

 

Cleaning Up the Bar, Part 3: Charlie’s Soap! 9:30 PM

Regular programming on Pen’s homemade cleaners must be interrupted so we can discuss Charlie’s Soap. If you’re ever looking for a new laundry soap, one that’s relatively inexpensive, non-toxic, free of all the stuff that sometimes makes a sensitive girl such as myself break out all over, consider buying Charlie’s Soap. It’s made in NC, another bonus (buying local, or whatever), and they give you all kinds of deals on ordering and shipping costs. For instance, for my first order, which was recommended highly to me by a friend and neighbor, I selected one bag of the laundry powder (80 loads), and 1 small bottle of the all-purpose cleaner, which I’ll get to in a minute. They discounted approximately $2.50 from the order and shipping was free—via FedEx. Overall, I’d say the laundry powder itself is a pretty great deal. It works in high-efficiency washers as well, if you’re fancy enough to own one of those. The all-purpose cleaner, which claims to clean everything from dentures to diesel engines, doesn’t seem as a good a deal at first glance, but it turns out that you dilute it before using it, so it does stretch. And, it’s worked on everything I used it on so far: the shower, the carpet (my daughter pees on it), the stove, my false teeth (kidding, kidding), etc.

The Charlie’s Soap company also has A+ customer service. Because I’ll be honest, they kind of screwed up my order at first, sending me two bags of laundry powder instead of one bag and one bottle of cleaner. The company president emailed me back right away with the following message:

“Ooops.  I have yelled at the appropriate people with the required amount of vitriol! :)

Keep the extra bag or give it to a friend.  I'll send out your All Purpose sprayer right away.”

You know what? I totally appreciate that. Besides that the screw-up worked in my favor (BOGO laundry powder, woohoo!), she was totally funny and nice about the mix-up. And followed up… wrong, again. Two days later, I received yet another bag of laundry powder, delivered via FedEx. Yeesh! This time, I decided not to say anything because I had gotten more than my money’s worth, and well, they’re just so darn nice. But then, hours later, USPS delivered the cleaner. Huh! Talk about getting your money’s worth. I almost feel guilty. Almost. But see, I’m making up for it with this PSA: Buy Charlie’s Soap. Despite a little bit of flakiness (and hey, who out there isn’t a tad flaky every now and then), great product, great customer service. I highly recommend it.

And the laundry powder, by the way, is excellent. Making one’s own laundry detergent is actually rather *involved,” and seemingly not that cost-efficient. I say, just buy it. And you don’t even have to leave the house!

Cleaning Up the Bar: Part 2 8:30 AM

Vinegar! It’s one of those strangely versatile substances like baking soda. As part of my ongoing on Homemade Cleaners Series, I thought I’d go over my own uses for vinegar when cleaning up the bar:

• A spray-bottle cleaner where the ratio is 1:1, water to vinegar. Not a big fan of the smell, but it’s a good, effective all-purpose.
• In the dishwasher, use in conjunction with, or instead of, Jet Dry.
• For lingering odors, like when we fry up fish or whatever, I put out a small glass bowl of straight-up vinegar and leave it out until it’s evaporated. No more waking up to the smell of fish grease in the morning.
• Cleaning out the coffee machine. Brew a full pot. Your machine may have a “clean” cycle that you have to turn on specially for this process—I don’t know if that makes a difference. Either way, once your pot of vinegar has been brewed, your machine is good as new. No rinsing required.

*Bonus, not at all related to cleaning, but I can’t pass up an opportunity to make you even more Smartini: put a splash of vinegar in the water when you hard-boil eggs. They will be a lot easier to peel. It’s true.

For an additional laundry list on the wide world of vinegar, see The Vinegar Institute, which also informs us that May is National Vinegar Month. HOW did we miss this at the bar. Were we too busy celebrating Cinco de Mayo?

Mixology 10:33 AM

Ingredients:

1 small car

2 plastic trash cans

What kind of story can you create? Tell me the scene you imagine. These come from an actual observation I had and I'll give out more hints and some background knowledge each day and we'll see if we come to the same conclusion by the end of the week.

Ding, Ding, we have a winner folks. Well, hell, Tempe, you're too good and kind of jumped the gun there and I didn't get to post any more of my revealing observations:

*The trash cans are out in the street, not near the curb.

*There is a male drive and a female passenger.

*The trash cans are about a car length apart.

*The man is much older than the girl.

*The man is actually the girl's father.

I didn't expect to make it through all of these before someone got it, but. ..

It was confusing at first when I came around the corner and the car was there and tried to awkwardly pull out of the way and was angled toward the curb behind a trash can and I saw the trash cans and thought, "man, the garbage folks really left them way out in the street today" and it wasn't until I was past and looking in the rear view mirror that it hit me what was going on. I just thought it was a really cute moment and it simultaneously brought me back 15 years (yikes!) to learning myself and flashed forward 13 years to when Hubby will be pulling his hair out trying to be patient enough with D. I just remember how BIG those moments felt at the time and how monumental things are when you are 15. I was just a casual passerby, but it affected me when I realized what was going on. And I thought it would be fun to share and see what everyone came up with, because my mind was creating a lot of scenarios at first and then I was able to piece it together. Thanks for playing!

Expected Barroom Behavior 5:28 AM

Look for the Weekly Special to be posted on Sunday.
Regular Shifts: Megan works on Monday
Ashley & Tempe on Tuesday
Andi on Wednesday
Niki comes in on Thursday and
Penelope gets the crazies with the Friday crowd.
All barmaids pick up extra hours, so expect to see them during the week, not just on their scheduled days.

Tipping is greatly appreciated and dancing is encouraged. Megan has been known to show a little (or a lot - she's got more than most!) cleavage for excellent tippers. Grab a seat up close for a real show: Pen has some serious skills mixing drinks and has earned 32 pieces of flair. Dancing on the bar is allowed, but be sure to leave room for Ashley because she likes to shake her groove thang, and won't be outdone. Don't be shy - just know that if you challenge Tempe or Niki to a shot contest, you'll most likely end up passed out on the floor before they are even tipsy. We don't accept rudeness or poor attitudes, so if you can't handle your liquor, be prepared for Andi to throw you out on your ass.