Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

I’ve had a bajillion domains registered at GoDaddy for years, not because I particularly liked them, but more because it was easy. After my friend Dave died, I inherited all his domain names, and they were all on GoDaddy, so for ease I just transferred them to my account there.

But given their recent support of SOPA, plus their half-hearted retraction of same when they realized their posturing was not winning them any friends, was pretty disgusting. They backed down, but they won’t actively denounce SOPA. And they should.

So I started the process today to move all 46(!) of my domains to another registrar. (I inherited a LOT of domains from Dave!) But you can’t transfer a domain if it’s set to expire in the next seven days, so I had to renew six of them through GoDaddy before I could move them off. Here’s what happens when you renew domains on GoDaddy:

Click any of these for full size versions.

The first upsell. Notice all the disclaimer marks at the bottom.

The second upsell. This is just the part above the fold; about one third of all the “Special Offers” I had to scroll through before finding the “No Thanks” link.

LOLWUT??? I tried to renew ONE domain – faerytrail.com – for $8.99, and it tacked on 32 extra domains for a total of $293.44. Neato! All six domain names I tried to renew had at least one extra one tacked on that I didn’t want. This is, at the very least, highly immoral.

Last, but not least, the final upsell, after I winnowed out the chaff and bought the renewals for the six domains I wanted.

So, there you have it. Why GoDaddy sucks – and it’s not just because of SOPA.

I’ve been trying for some time to find the origins of our family eggnog recipe. My grandmother, who started the tradition within our family, and my mother, who took it over for her, are both gone, and I never thought to ask either of them while I had them.

If I had a dime for all the questions I have to ask the people who are gone, I’d be pretty rich.

Anyway, after my grandmother died 15 years ago, I came into possession of her recipe box. It occurred to me to look in there to see if I could find any clues as to the recipe’s provenance. Well, I found the recipe all right, and it was written in the same hand that my aunts told me was a cousin of ours who was known for their cooking. It was labeled “Mother’s Eggnog.”

So I looked up his mother. She was my great-great-great aunt, born in 1868, and she was the granddaughter of the last messenger from the Alamo.

This is some serious Old Family Eggnog, y’all.

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Dear friends,

For Christmas this year, I’m sharing with you a recipe that has never, to my knowledge, been shared publicly outside my family. I checked with my aunts several months ago and got their blessing to share it.

This is our eggnog recipe. Our family has been making it for at least 50 years. I have never been able to find anything like it anywhere at all. It’s decadent, it’s boozy, and it’s amazing. Enjoy!

14 Eggs
2 cups sugar
3 ½ cups bourbon (good quality)
1 pint whipping cream
1 pinch nutmeg

Beat yolks in sugar until smooth and lemon colored. Add whiskey. Beat whites to soft peaks. Whip cream. Fold all together and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Note: It’s important to fold the ingredients together rather than blend vigorously so that the character of the egg whites and the cream remains in the final product. You want to be able to taste little bits of all of the parts when you take a sip.

The nog may be made the day before.

Merry Christmas!

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• I hereby denounce unsalted butter. I say BRING ON THE SALT!! #