Binkomonster!

In Memoriam

One of our esteemed staff members passed into the great blue yonder today. Einstein is no longer with us. We suspect that he was suffering from calcium deficiency (as of late, his shell was looking brittle and starting to have *gaps*), and that he was also being helped into his grave by our two other staff members, Euler and Tesla (now rechristened "Search" and "Destroy"). We are greatly saddened. Einstein is most likely survived by some offspring somewhere in the Clement Avenue Aquarium shop, but also by the Binkomonster family. We have laid him to rest under one of our healthy blooming small spiky plants.
He was a great little snail.
Who will be missed.
Sniff.
You may be gone Einstein, but you certainly are not forgotten.

Of Travels and Travails

So. We lied. Well, maybe bent the truth a bit. We were back on Sunday um, a few weeks back. But upon touching feet to Binkomonster threshold, it seems that the tentacles of 'the man' had conspired to subsume the CTO until she was desperately clawing for breath. Only this week has the situation allowed for an ear to be perked, and eye to be raised, and the energy to put fingers to keyboard to type out a small missive on the state of the world. It has been, in a word, busy. We've been down to visit the Big Easy (known to most as New Orleans) to have a look-see at what the critters of the Oil/Gas and Geology anthill are doing. Not terribly exciting to 80% of the population we know, but the side benefit was being able to re-sample some of our early gastronomic stomping ground delights to see what had changed post-Katrina. The overall result? Out of 2 places we knew/loved and remembered, one (Emeril's NOLA) didn't quite matchup to the original assessment, and the other (K Pauls Louisiana Kitchen) has not wavered in overall quality and experience [great food/great drinks]. Oh and we almost forgot Mulate's. No change there. All good, and all just as it was. So 2 out of 3 is not bad at all considering the challenges faced in rebuilding post apocalyptic disaster. But enough about 'the man's' related activities. We've been busy assembling Halloween costumes, and buying sackfuls of junky sweets (ostensibly for any trick-or-treaters that may show up on our doorstep, but in reality, for our collective consumption). The formula right now boils down to: silly costumes + a few bowls of chocolate (kit kat, reese's peanut butter cups, snickers) + cupcakes + some ghoulish cocktail + scary movies playing on the flatscreen + Halloween decorations and candles all lit up = a castleful of very wired and loopy denizens. Oh and the cocktail? We've been thinking very hard on that one. Happened to be at our favorite sushi spot last night, and tried a 'zentini' (green tea liquer + citron vodka + lemon). Not a bad drink (but not great either). However the great tea spirit has an interesting enough taste, and gives us some nice ideas. Being that it is just that right shade of glowing green. We're angling for creating a drink that has an absolutely nuclear green glow and absolutely fabulous/fresh and zingy taste. Which may be a difficult proposition as everything we've investigated thus far on the alcoholic front that has the right color is usually loaded with sugar/corn syrup and of course, artificial color. We do have some Absinthe, yet while it does come close to our color desire, we're not quite sure we want to do a hallucinatory bender that evening. As a bonus, we'd like to try to figure out how to get tendrils of smoke too. You know, like the whole 'witches brew' kinda thing? Back to the cauldron to ruminate further....