It all started when you woke up this morning...

Ouch. How is your foot? Did you need stitches?

It's fine, I put a band-aid on it. I considered disinfecting it with beer but thought better of it since that would be a waste of precious alcohol.

Consider disinfecting it with beer from the inside out.

Damn. That sucks!

Eh, it's not so bad. I can always use another excuse not to stand up.

This is why my house just uses mugs we find in freeboxes as ashtrays. No heartache when someone knocks them off the porch.

You know, I'm jealous. I wish I could make a post every day of the week that started "So I was on the porch drinking..."

And sorry about your foot.

Oh, backseatpilot, I could've done that when I was working, too.

Also, either the couch or me smells funny, kind of like Lawry's seasoned salt. Plus I think there should be a show like Iron Chef America, only with microwaves.

Sorry about your foot/ashtray. You got me thinking about "favorite ashtrays," and although it isn't really a "favorite," when I was around 10 years old, I was at a friend's house, and his dad had this ashtray. Made a real strong impression on me. I think, at the time, I thought, "that's a cool ashtray, but how can these people live together?"

I feel your pain, jonmc. I haven't had a smoke in more than a year, but I've still got a favorite ashtray. It's probably got a much longer lease on life, safe from accidental destruction, now that I'm not using it, again. I know it got very little wear during the 7 years I didn't use it, the last time I quit with any kind of resolve.

Little black ceramic thingy, I made for my Mom in ceramics class at summer camp, in second grade. She gave it back to me, when my Dad had to quit after a collapsed lung. It's survived 48 years, so far, and still works fine, as an ashtray, when called into service.

Damn, I could use a smoke. Got the matches, got the ashtray, would have to go out for cigarettes.

Nah. Maybe tomorrow.

What did the ashtray look like?

Mine or paulsc's? Mine was a black ceramic/glass one that i bought at some place in Forest Hills. It was a promotional one for a place called Duryea's Auto Parts. It was $5 and I thought it was neat so I bought it.

I never really had ashtrays (except the car one) when I smoked. That was largely because so much of my life was led in places you couldn't leave butts around - camps, schools, environmental centers, museums. Therefore I/we perfected the skill of holding the butt between thumb and forefinger while flicking the burning ember off the filter with your middle finger, thwick thwick thwick, and then stepping on the cherry to put it out and pocketing the butt.

Nothing smells nastier than a couple of pocketed cigarette butts left too long in a coat pocket.

IT cracks me up that ashtrays were considered excellent gift ideas when I was a kid. Whenever we did clay in school or camp, it was like a recommended project: "Why not make your parents an ashtray! A gift they'll use every day and love." Today that would be unheard of.

I don't miss ashtrays when I miss smoking. But I do miss my Zippo. I had a bunch of good Zippo tricks and I liked the smell of butane quite a bit.

Zippo fun fact: the liquid fuel ones caught on in WWII because the gas tank had a wide opening for rapid fueling and you could stick your whole arm down and dip the lighter in the gas to refuel it.

On a jeep that is.

Speaking of smoking, there is talk of making our entire workplace campus smokefree - no more butt huts. People are going to riot.