You can SO get too much

Yes, I inadvertently took an extended break, and I'm not even sure I can finish this and publish it before we leave for Hamilton (I did not), and no one remembers this anymore, BUT, my Vitamin-D warnings shall not be impugned, Vitamin D toxicity IS a thing. Is it rare? Yes. Do I gulp down Vitamin D supplements like candy without a care? Yes. Is the warning on the Corona Sunbrew bottle almost certainly an ass-covering measure that is nearly unnecessary? Also yes. And the treatment for Vitamin D toxicity, usually caused by taking too many Vitamin D supplements is to.... stop taking the supplements.

Drink responsibly - you won't get drunk, but you might get hypercalcemic!

Whew. Glad I got that off my chest. A couple other niggling details - the Corona sunbrews were being consumed not by people who don't drink alcohol, but by people who are endeavouring to drink less alcohol - my only quibble was that, if I was trying to drink fewer beers (I never drink a lot of beers because beer is so filling), I would probably sub in a different drink every beer or so, not a fake beer - but drinking less alcohol is never a bad thing (I often hesitate to put things in absolute terms, but I can't actually think of a case where drinking less alcohol would be a bad thing, except in that movie where people had to stay hammered to avoid being eaten by monsters, and that was fiction) so obviously I support this choice. 

I also can't really argue with the 'drinking group' designation someone gave us, but I feel like maybe 'bar night' is a bit of a misleading designation. One day, years and years ago, I said to Collette "You know in the movies or on tv where someone says 'let's go get a beer'? Is that only on tv? Why don't we ever do that?" A few days later she called me on her way home from somewhere and said "do you want to meet me at Johnny Canuck's for a beer?" Johnny Canucks was a little restaurant about a block from my house and a couple of blocks from her. So I met her for a beer, and I can't remember the exact progression from there, but the next time we brought our husbands, and then we invited the two other couples, and we settled on whatever night chicken wings were on special because nobody's kids had sports or activities that night. 

This was two days after Dave's bike accident and shoulder surgery and the same day Matt went to the ER and passed a kidney stone. 

As you may have noticed, we are a close-knit group, and I guess we didn't really need a weekly hang-out to stay that way, but it's nice. We complain about work, or talk over problems, or share information about our kids, or just discuss random, often very strange, topics in minute detail. We never run out of stuff to talk about, which is kind of cool. And does everyone drink alcohol? No, not every time. We had one abstainer, but she moved to Chicago (not because of us, I don't think, although now that I say this, I don't know for sure). Tony gives up alcohol for Lent although he's not Catholic. I don't drink much at all in the winter because it aggravates my seasonal depression. I also don't find that drinking alcohol relaxes me. To be perfectly honest, I enjoy getting a little tipsy now and then, but having one or two drinks on a random night seems like a waste of whatever subtle harm alcohol might do to me. 

Thus was born 'bar night'. We started when our kids were young enough that sometimes Eve demanded we get home before she went to bed, and now our kids are all in university or working. At some point one of the waiters asked us what kind of team we were, at which point we collapsed in laughter, but he started giving us a 'team bill' anyway, and when we found out Johnny Canucks was closing, we brought in all our receipts and they gave us a five-hundred dollar allowance for our last night before they closed. 

We had a bit of trouble finding a new place. We tried the Barley Mow, but they had live music and it was too loud to talk. I feel like we tried at least one more place, but I can't remember what it was. We settled on Broadways - still pretty close, although a longer walk if we want to walk now. We go on Tuesday which is wing night, and most of the other food is pretty bad, so we stick to wings or don't bother getting food. We had a really great waitress (the first time our waitress Bridget at Johnny Canucks said "do you want a Stella, Allison?" and I realized I had a 'usual', I was giddy) and probably will again - she went off on maternity leave and we gave her an envelope of cash and some baby clothes. We don't have quite the rapport with our new waitress, but we'll get there. 

Ergo, ipso facto, and various other possibly-relevant Latin phrases, we are not all alcoholics and I was not making up the fact that you can technically overdose on Vitamin D.

Ha ha, what a weird and random ramble for my first post in a million years. Do I sound defensive? I didn't mean to, I just don't want to be seen promoting weekly binge drinking in your fifties. Or forties, or perhaps late thirties I guess, can't remember, time's lost all meaning even when you're not marinating your brain in tequila. 

I had a wonderful March Break and an amazing first day back at work today, the time change knocked me for a loop as usual (at one point I went to clean up the kitchen and realized I had thrown a kleenex in the sink and was running water over it) but now it feels like we've turned the corner and spring is at least a possibility if not a foregone conclusion.