my buddy is the vinter at vinoklet. one day my dude and i show up on a friday and pick some concord grapes that were just gonna rot anyway, maybe five buckets or so. i thought we were just gonna pick some grapes and eventually let them rot in them buckets but my buddy says "welp. see you back at my house." the realization hit me that i was going to sort through the grapes, the good and the bad, on a friday night. now granted i don't have a lot going on these days. i just turned 30 not so long ago and would probably be playing scrabble with my girlfriend, but you get us dudes together and the whole cocaine, ecstasy, cheat on your girlfriend, close the bar, punch a cop, mom bail you out, we're not too old for that. and so it goes.

sitting outside my buddies' house in the burgeoning colerain neighborhood on a not so warm fall eve, we sat across from one another upon iron latticed seats. a bucket for good grapes and a bucket for bad. we drank only the finest vinoklet wines. the hearty brother joe the dry and sweet tears of joy. we laughed and sorted and sorted some more. we cried, "we're almost done! that wasn't so bad." until we found a few buckets more behind our seats.

we frequently mentioned that we could be doing any number of things on this chilly autumn night. we could be in any number of bars with reckless abandon, but we chose to be here, sorting grapes and we wouldn't have it any other way.

a wash basin full of warm water was brought out for removal of chilly grape stained hands and that was a most welcomed respite. we had to quarantine the liquid inside (my buddy the vinter would crush the good grapes while my friend and i sorted. the sorting was easy. looked like the juicing was taxing). we left streaks of purple all throughout his house, but not on the carpet. we peed outside.

three friends sorting grapes on a friday night and it was every thing i thought it could be. the next day my girlfriend and i went over and helped can the jelly. if i didn't mention it, we were in the process of making jelly. my buddy had a sh!t ton of pectin that had manager's special, the defacto clearance items. he's always finding sh!t like that. he gets a barely worn pair of merrell's at the thrift shop for like $5. we make low sugar, regular sugar, no sugar and i guess what i'm trying to say is who wants some jelly? i got 10 or so jars i need to displace

Well...ok.

Has anyone else noticed the severe lack of Christmas movies on TV this year?

I haven't even seen Elf, Christmas Vacation or Home Alone yet this year.