January So Far.....

New Years Eve was quite the occasion here at Casa De Ben'n'Adie. Ian brought over a KILO of Kava to supply all of us with a taste of his Peace Corps Experience. And boy were we lucky that he imported this exotic treat. To begin the process we dumped the entire kilo into a huge bowl and added water until it was properly soaked. Once Ian was satisfied that everything had been brewed thoroughly he and Adie began the time consuming process of pouring all the mushy pulp into a brand new pair of ladies panty hose. Yes dear readers, you read that right. We were all about to drink some dirty ass water that had been strained through some knickers.

As per the traditions of the native people of Vanuatu, the person of the highest esteem in the community drinks the first shell of kava. Did I forget to mention that Ian brought his own set up of hollowed out coconut shells with their own bases to drink from. Well he did. As the male head of the house I was the lucky SOB that got to chug down the kava first. All along Ian made no attempt to lie to us and say that the taste was pleasant one. He did maintain that while the flavor was bad, the effects were well worth it. As I brought the first shell to my lips with everyone else standing around me all I could think was that I had to get it down no matter what. All was going well until the last chug, where all the soot that had collected at the bottom of the shell hit the back of my throat and I briefly gagged before completing my beverage. It seems that the panty hose had not caught all the kava flakes.

While I can confirm that this basically tasted like muddy ass water, the effects were interesting. Almost immediately your mouth starts to go numb. I could see if you drank maybe 4 or 5 shells you could get a very interesting numbness through your whole head and chest. While Ian and Joe had the most shells, most of us could only stomach one shell. But that one shell brought us all closer together.

The rest of the night was filled with regular booze and fucking around. Lots of Guitar Hero, a Godzilla Movie, and the shock and awe of the fact that Dick Clark was still doing his thing in Times Square.

Since the New Years Bash I have been doing my best to not do a whole lot. By not working I am living on a limited income. I have been stockpiling lots of movies and video games so that once it gets cold and I have no money I have things to do around the house. I have been playing a lot of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. It's like World of Warcraft for the Xbox 360. I can see how people get addicted to these types of massive worlds with non linear gameplay. But I am also quite content to play by myself without logging online and playing with other geeks.

I have managed to watch 7 movies since the first of the year. My goal for the year is to see 125 before the year is up.

For those that don't know of this years New Years bet, all that are involved drew lots and got to pick a challenge for the person they drew. Adie drew me and gave me the challenge of wearing a pedometer 3 times a week and recording my steps. For the first three months I have to average 5000 steps. The second three months it will be 7500. The last six months will be 10k steps.

I joined the Y this week and plan on going there at least three times a week to get my steps in and work out.

Last week was the first week of wearing the pedometer and keeping track. My recorded steps were 5500, 6060, and 4175. I achieved my average, but I would like to keep every day above my minimum. It was nice earlier in the week so I went walking outside. But now that I can go to the Y and walk in there it should be no problem through the cold months.