The Advil Calendar 2011: ONE: CUT A HOLE IN A BOX Edition

DECEMBER 24 - ROCK IT OUT

The funny thing about all this is I'm really more of a beer drinker.

I'll be drinking beer at the Browns game today. They're playing at M and T Bank Stadium, so I guess you'd have to call it the Ravens game, but my poor husband is a Browns fan so we're humoring him. Do you know how long it's been since any Cleveland team has won a championship? Here's a hint - you google "Cleveland championship" and the first link that comes back is the Wikipedia entry for "Drought (sport)."

The Browns won the NFL title in 1964, the year of my husband's birth, and before that had won the World Series just after the end of the SECOND WORLD WAR.

Miller Lite? Yeah I'll even go there.

But I'm no football fan. I don't hate it, but it's not my thing. My thing really is beer. I love a hoppy old I.P.A. like Dale's or the Green Flash or Long Trail; a caramel-y Belgian abbey ale like Corsendonk or Rochefort; Mexican lager, Sapporo at sushi, and Baltimore's own crap beer National Boh for when we have crabs.

Some of my favorite friends are the friends who homebrew - Lui, Charlene and Roy are automatically on my list of people who get hot sauce when I make hot sauce, just on the off chance they'll reciprocate with homebrew.

Speaking of Roy... Roy's in a band. It's called Pulaski now but it used to be called Sick, and when they were Sick they recorded a version of a traditional Christmas song that I think perfectly distills my reaction to the holiday. Roy has graciously agreed to... shit, graciously? no, not graciously. He's a punk rocker, he doesn't do graciously. And I respect that. Roy has said he doesn't give a shit if I put the song up on the Advil Calendar as the soundtrack to a montage to the greatest and/or most random images I have used this month in these posts. Yeah, that's more like it.

Enjoy.

And I'm working on an index to all the drinks featured in this year's and possibly last year's Advil Calendar - that'll be up probablyyyy.... well maybe by Christmas night.

Meanwhile, I know you're busy, god knows I am. I mixed up a batch of that Scrumptious Coffee featured on December 23, and my friends Paula and Cheryl helped me drink it. It's good. I might make more. The caffeine is helpful, and there's not so much sugar in it that you'll get that sick old sugar hangover. Hopefully.

Oh and one more funny thing courtesy of my high school classmate Mary Kay, former cheerleader and current competitor for Tim Riggins's luscious brooding love. This is John Denver singing "Please Daddy (Don't Get Drunk on Christmas)," a seasonal favorite in the Mary Kay household. Fat chance, Little John. I've got some good stuff lined up for the Big Damn Day.

Oh and Mary Kay - BACK OFF BABY, RIGGINS IS MINE.