Drowning my sorrows in gin

In seven hours I will be facing one of the worst demons I can imagine: a visit to the dentist. I gave up on dentists after the last final bout with the insidious Dr. K. Melanie has finally talked me into it, so all I can do is face the devil in the white coat.

I am not really drowning my sorrows in gin, but I did have two martinis tonight. I was only going to have one, but it was so good that I had a second. Here is the amazing thing: it was cheap gin. Really cheap gin. I tend to avoid cheap gin, because it usually is as nuanced as chewing a piece of cat-piss coated juniper, but on a lark (and enticed by the very low price at Trader Joe's), I chanced it. I have been enjoying cheap beer these days, and I figured that bad gin can be salvaged with more vermouth, or used in Venetian martinis or gin and tonic. I honestly did not expect to think that much of this gin.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good this stuff is. I am not so sure that I will be buying Bombay Sapphire with the frequency I used to. The stuff is called Rear Admiral Joseph's Original London Dry Gin. It is imported, but has the look of "cheap nasty stuff" all over the label (really bad graphic design), but inside is a gin worthy of my martinis.

So I am planning on rewarding myself for being a good boy and going to the @$##@$# dentist tomorrow. Come cocktail hour, I am going to fix a mighty fine martini!

On other fronts, we went to see the Lipizzaner Stallions tonight. The horses are gorgeous and the riding fantastic, but the show is quite dull, with most of it devoted to explaining the basics of dressage. The MC is pure cornball. I think that the used car lot might be missing him. He was sort of like the love child of Rodney Dangerfield and Regis Philbin.

However, even his cornball delivery could be salvaged with better writing. Why, oh why did they spend so much time talking about the brands? The history of the breed could have been cut in half at least, or put in the program and left at that. And having Mormon-style Americana stuff (arrangements that sound like the Osmond playbook) alongside this noble Hapsburgian tradition, complete with the work of the incomparable Mozart does not make "God Bless America" sound any better.

At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I also am perplexed by the need to have the "Star Spangled Banner" open the show. Is it out of some sort of guilt for indulging in such an aristocratic, European tradition? Am I to think that at home the Spanish Riding School plays the Austrian anthem at the start of their shows? I am not one for flag-worship anyway, but I sort of understand the tradition before baseball games. But before an evening of Austrian horsemanship?

Anyway, I have to admit to being a bit jaded when it comes to dressage. Every summer I see the exact same stuff, but done in front of a wild bull. These riders are good, but Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza could ride circles around them, placing bandarilhas in a bull at the same time.

Amalia had a great time, as did her friends who went with us, although she did ask twice were the bull was. That's my baby!