NakedSushi

I drank my first Little Italy a week or so ago at The Tar Pit. It’s a Manhattan variation with more depth in the aftertaste thanks to the Cynar (Chi-naaaar). Because the drink is on the bitter side, it’s one to be sipped instead of gulped and might not be for everyone.

Cynar is an artichoke liquor that’s bitter-sweet, leaning more into bitter. It sounds gross, but it’s pretty good if you’re a fan of bitter liquors.  I think it knocked Campari out of its spot as my favorite bitter liquor. It has the bitterness of Campari, but is more syrupy sweet upfront. It’s good in mixed drinks because unlike Campari, it doesn’t have a distinct enough flavor that screams, “Hey look, I added some Cynar to this!”  Instead, it hangs around in the background waiting to be appreciated.

According to this post, the cocktail consists of:

2 oz rye
1/2 oz Cynar
3/4 oz sweet vermouth
2 brandied cherries skewered on a stick
flamed orange twist

The drink is made even better if Carpano Antica (the best vermouth evar) is used for the sweet vermouth. This sweet vermouth makes every drink magical.

I wanted to find a new friend for Sheldon after Gregory passed away since Sheldon seemed a bit bored. I contacted Family Affair Ratz, a rattery near my house after I found out they had some rats from a litter available.

When I visited the rattery, even though I planned on just getting one rat, I ended up getting two. They were just too cute to separate and it was hard for me to choose just one of them.

I present to you, Cecil and Holden! I’m not sure which one should be which yet, but we’ll see. The red-eyed one is more outgoing and social for now, but I’m hoping once the black-eyed one gets more acquainted with his surroundings, he’ll be more sociable. They’re both Siamese rats, but I think the black-eyed one is a Siamese Russian Blue.

This Lamy Al-Star actually belongs to the BF.  It’s fairly similar to the Lamy Safari except for two obvious things: the body, unlike the plastic body of the Safari, is aluminum and the section is a tinted, clear black, making the feed visible. He got his with a (M)edium nib.

The Lamy Al-Star still has its original Lamy black ink in it. Even though the nib is a M, the pen still feels a little scratchy on regular paper. I think it’s the ink.  The black ink goes on black, but dries to more of a dark grey color and doesn’t have as much saturation as the Noodler’s Ink Black.

For an extra $10, is it worth getting the Al-Star instead of the Safari? Depends on if you like the aluminum body or not. It does look more chic, but I’d rather save the $10 and put it towards buying another bottle of ink.

An easy thing to make for dinner is a plate full of roasted vegetables. Once the vegetables are washed and cut into bite-sized pieces, it’s only a matter of throwing them in some olive oil, seasoning, salt and pepper, and then letting them roast in the oven for 45-60 minutes.

This batch has sliced sunchokes, cauliflower, sweet potato, and kale. I put the cauliflower, potatoes and sunchokes in the oven first, then the washed and trimmed kale halfway through, on top to crisp. The kale turned out super crispy, like little kale chips. I enjoyed those, but the BF not so much.

In an effort to keep my penmanship from deteriorating further, I purchased a fountain pen and have been using it for a little more than a week.  I went with a fairly decent starter pen, the Lamy Safari, with a F (fine) sized nib.  In the spirit of writing by hand, I even wrote down part of my review.

For those who can’t read my writing, it says:

This is my first fountain pen that I use on a regular basis. The F nib is more of a medium than fine. It came with Lamy blue ink that I did not care for, so I put some Noodler’s Ink Bulletproof Black into a converter and now it’s much better.

It writes wet & smooth on this paper and never skips.  There is some nib creep with this ink but no drips & no mess.  It starts immediately and doesn’t clog the nib. Drying time on paper is okay, but not super fast.

One reason I chose this pen was because unless you’re looking directly at it, it just looks like a normal pen.  It’s utilitarian. I don’t feel like I’m writing with a gigantic quill dipped in an ink pot when I’m holding this.

Another reason is the price. Sure, $25 is a lot to pay for a pen when you think about an every day, normal pen, but it’s much cheaper than a lot of other fountain pens out there. And based on the reviews, it writes almost just as well.

I like the fact that the pen’s section (where you normally would grip the pen) is indented to be ergonomic for my fingers. This works for me since I have a standard pen grip, but I imagine it would be uncomfortable for anyone who holds their pen differently.

I’ve read that some people feel the pen is too heavy while posted (with the cap on the back), but the balance feels just right in my hand. Maybe all the years of mouse maneuvering has strengthened my hand muscles, who knows.  I do think most of the weight of the cap comes from the metal clip on the pen. It’s substantial and solid feeling. I can rest easy knowing that whenever I clip this pen on something, like the pocket of my messenger bag, it stays clipped.

One other useful feature of the pen is the ink window on the body of the pen.  I’m not sure if it’s possible to see the ink level with the included cartridge installed, but with the converter, which is clear, it’s easy to see the ink swishing around there and I can tell when it’s time to refill it with more ink.

A little nib creep with Noodler’s Ink, but good thing the nib is also black.

The Lamy Safari is such a pleasant pen to hold and write with that I’m sorry I didn’t look at it sooner.  Maybe my journal would have been filled with many more pages if I had gotten this sooner.