Anyone says "hope".

Anyone says "change".

Anyone says "maverick".

Anyone says "deregulation".

Anyone makes chopping hand motions to emphasize their words.

If McCain looks constipated.

If Obama looks wry.  (Wry, republicans.  Looks it up.)

If McCain brings up the evil terrorist connections of a guy who once served Obama an espresso at Starbucks. 

If one of the "undecided voters" at the town hall style debate asks a clearly biased question.  (ex: "Obama, why do you hate pitbulls?  McCain, why such a douchenozzel?")

If McCain says, "I've been hit hard by the economy just like everyone else.  Why, just the other day I thought about selling my 13^th house.  And that one's my favorite!"

If McCain leaves the debate midway through in order to SAVE THE WORLD with nothing but goggles and a cape made out of a bed sheet.

All right, have fun!  Drink Responsibly!*

Love,

The Commuter

* If you're old enough to vote, you should be old enough to have a beer to lessen the pain of dealing with modern-day politics.  Just a thought.

We rode to Den Haag Centraal on our trusty bikes, something we are now old hands at.

Once we arrived at the station to park our bikes, we made sure to remember where we left them.

It takes about 45 minutes on a train to get to Amsterdam, so it's kind of like Sydney's equivalent of hopping on a train to the city from the suburbs...although the scenery on the way is a little more picturesque over here!

Hopping off the train in to Amsterdam is a realisation of "Wow.....it really IS big!". And it really was.

The buildings tower over you with their old sandstone faces, smiling with charm and flirting with their flowering pot plants sitting on their window sills.

People on their bicycles busily whizz around you and impatiently ring their bells. It's hard to remember to keep off the bike paths when you're in awe of a new place.

Kaushik and I spent most of the day just wandering around, following the canals and enjoying what was a beautifully sunny day. We also dropped by the local markets and marveled at how much cheese and meat is available. As always...I knew this already...but once you see it for real, it just confirms the ridiculousness of it all.

As always with us, food was on our mind. After walking around and browsing a few different cafe's and restaurants,  we found one which suited both our palettes. I had a goats cheese salad and Kaushik had some kind of pasta. Goats cheese is very popular over here, especially in vegetarian meals. Lucky I like the stuff!

Post lunch activities included looking for some second-hand clothing shops, which if you know me, is one of my biggest pleasures in life....how shallow. Kaushik managed to find a really great buy for 20 euros: a practically new blue woolen jumper which looks like it's from the marines.

We also walked through the red light district with the famous half-naked ladies in windows, advertising their goods. I giggled, they winked at me and Kaushik seemed a little flustered.

It was time to quench our thirst with a little pub-hopping. The photo below shows what a lot of the pubs looked like: old, dark and beautiful. I really need to take my slr next time so I can do these pubs justice.

After an hour or so of sampling the local ales, we could no longer ignore the fact that we were in Amsterdam. So yes, we did visit a coffee shop. And yes, I giggled a lot at anything Kaushik would say and then we ate our dinner which at the time we thought was one of the best meals of our lives.

The beer was beginning to play havoc on our bladders so we entered the first available bar and headed straight to the toilet. "No! No!" a frustrated man said as he pulled at our arms.
"What? We just need to go to the bathroom!"
"You can't just use our bathroom, you must pay!"

PAY? I thought. Pay? For such a "chilled out" place, I found it crazy that you have to pay some places to use their toilets! Although, as he explained, if you don't buy a drink at a bar, it is only fair to pay them a fee to use their bathroom.

It's experiences like these that remind you of the fact that you are in a different country and need to be aware of social mores and courtesies.

By now we were naturally sleepy and decided it was time to bid Amsterdam farewell. But before that, I stole a plastic tulip from a table decoration somewhere. I used it to hit Kaushik with on the train ride home to prevent him from falling asleep.

The life of a middle class youngster in India mostly passes through a predetermined track set by the society and the educational system in India. The Times of India reports that only 10% of the Indian students are able to get higher education. The statistics clearly states that the higher education system in India is inadequate to cater the needs of the millions of students of this country. This is the prime reason behind the difficulty level of entrance exams to institutions offering higher studies. We see news of youngsters with 97% being denied admission to institutions. What do these youngsters lack? Is it intelligence, hard work, perseverance or luck? I believe what they lack is the support from the government in the form of more educational institutions so that they are not denied the right to obtain good education. Till such time, the rat race that we all are part of shall continue unabated.

The path that a student treads in India does not differ a lot as a good portion of the youngsters are slaves to the norms of the middle class. This is very true in my case. When I was in 10^th class the most important thing in my life was to get a good percentage in the final exam. In 12^th the most important thing was to get a good rank in the entrance exam. Thankfully, my college allowed me to take a short break in the rat race, but by the end of the college days the most important thing was to get a job and so on. Now, when I look back at my life, there are  two events when I wish I was not just a stereotypical Indian who has the need to be financially secure and safe always running in the back of the mind at all times.

Event 1:

This happened back in college days. A couple of girls from my college and me were travelling back to the college from the nearby city. A drunken man was in the bus and while he was getting down at a stop, he brushed onto one of the girls. I should have reacted and should have broken his hand but I don’t know what happened to me, I remained stiff in my seat. Somehow it was like I didn’t give a damn what happened to my friend. Even today I cannot correctly place the reason for my cowardice. Maybe it was the fear of getting into a police case and ruining my career, I do not know. Although I do not remember the reason for me being a statue at the time of need, I would never forget the look that my friend gave me after the bus started. In my mother tongue we say “to melt down in shame”, I understood the exact meaning of the phrase that day.

After that incident when I got back to my hostel, I felt so bad that I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t let such a thing happen again in my presence. Similar incidents took place in my college life and I had reacted upon the miscreants rather strongly. Whatever I do as a penitence for that day will not erase it from my life. Even today sometimes I think “If only...”.

Event 2:

The event above is the only instance in my life when some chemical imbalance in my head prevented me from thinking the right way and helping someone. After college when I got a job and was posted in one of the worst place in India, I came face-to-face with another face of the Indian society where women are treated like slaves with utmost disrespect. During that period another event happened that would leave a scar in my heart forever.

I had a small gang of friends in the project site who were as crazy as me about travel and tourism. The major coordinator of all these trips used to be a Bihari guy (B) who was 30 something, unmarried and desperate to have some fun. Some of the drivers and mechanics who worked in the company gave him a very beautiful picture of Nepal which had nymphomaniac girls waiting to fall on you in casinos, massage parlours and “cabin bars”. He was very enthusiastic about the trip and we made a group of 4 which included him a similar guy from Orissa (O), a senior from my state (K) who is one of the best human beings I have encountered in my life and myself. Details of the journey shall be told in another post. We went to Pokhra first, where my good friends B and O tried their level best to convince me and K to allow them to call call-girls to their room. We protested and he conceded, this sequence happened in every place we visited. K and me thought they were joking with us and playing pranks by asking us to allow them to go about their business. Finally, when we had some time to spare in Kathmandu after shopping, B wanted to visit a “cabin bar”.

I take a break to explain the picture of a cabin bar that the drivers gave to my good friend. They told him that a cabin bar is like a normal pub where sexy girls in skirts serve you beer and you can coochie coo with them without any problem and they will ensure you have a good time with the beer. In India we only have King of good times and the thought of girls of good times in plush bars where you have the privacy of cabins, looked very inviting to him.

He said he wanted to go to a cabin bar and O said he is game. K and me were totally against the idea and refused to jump into the bandwagon, and told them to carry on without us. This irked B a lot and he started saying we came together for this trip, till now I have listened to whatever you said now u have to come with me etc. The situation was getting bad and it seemed our trip would take a bad turn from there. Finally K and I reluctantly decided to accompany them to this cabin bar thing. After much searching and walking, B finally located a cabin bar in a poorly lit street off one of the markets in Kathmandu. He forced us to go through a door that seemed a lot like the doors of old barber shops in Kerala, multicoloured glass panes on a wooden frame. What happened next is best described in screenplay format.

Scene 1

B guides the travellers towards the cabin bar door and opens it.

TRINGGGGGGGG [shrill sound of alarm]

Me: What the Fuck. An alarm!!

K: Do we look that bad?

M[panicks]: Hello! This is serious. What if this is a trap?

K: Relax.

B: Chalo [come] lets go in yaar [friend].

O: Chalo [come].

The gang follows B’s lead and go into the bar. What they see is nowhere near the picture of a cabin bar given by the mechanics and drivers. It looks like a shabby toddy shop with small cabins. The bar was filled with a musky odour and looked damp and unclean.

M: Seriously! This place is bad. Coming here is not a good idea.

K: I told you. But you thought if we don’t come we may spoil this trip. You reap what you saw.

Once the sound of the alarm bell subsided, shabbily dressed girls rushed in from different parts of the bar and starts inviting us inside.

M[whispering]: Hey K sir, we both will sit in a cabin and drink beer. Let them sit in another cabin and do what they want.

K: ok

So K and M moves into one cabin and B and O to another. After a while 3 girls come into the cabin.

Girl 1[almost imitating Helen in mannerism and tone]: Kya Chahiye? [what do you want?]

M: Er.. Beer. Beer Chahiye. [want beer]

Girl2 [trying to lean onto M]: Offo! Beer peen eke liye aaya yehan par? [what? You came here to drink beer?]

M[to K]: Sir.. help. Please.

K: Sorry dude. You handle.

M: Yes yes. Ham beer peene ke liye aaya. [we came to drink beer]

All three girls starts laughing and mutters “beer peene ke liye aaya. Hee hee”

G1: Theek Hai. Bas beer chaiye? [ok. You want only beer?]

M: Yes yes. Two please.

M starts sweating and K seems to be enjoying M’s discomfort. The girls giggle and leave the cabin to get the beer.

M: K sir.. this is betrayal. You should help me.

K: Ha ha. You are handling it very well.

In the mean time muffled sounds of laughter and words like “oye kidhar ja rahi hai?”, “mere saath aaongi?” etc can be heard from the cabin of B and O. The girls come back with the beer.

G1: Khol doon? [shall I open?]

M: Yes yes please.

G2: Ab kya chahiye? [Now what will you have?]

M: K sir... Please ask them to leave.

K: You tell them no?

G1 [edging closer to M]: Aur kuch naheen chahiye? Eh? Eh? [sure you don’t want anything else?]

M: Naheen wo saab bathayenga. [no that sir will tell you]

K: What the...?

M: Ha ha.

G1 [now moving closer to K]: Haan to aapkpo kya chahiye tha? [what is it that you wanted to have?]

K: Kya milta hai? [What do you get here?]

G2 [Helen syle with fake shyness]: Sab Kuch [Everything]

K[looking at the menu]: Pakora milega? [Can I have pakhoras?]

G1: Kya? [what?]

M: What the? You were supposed to send them away.

K: I wanted pakora.

The girls giggle and leave.

M: This is too much. I will ask them if you can’t.

K: Go ahead.

After some time the girls come back with the pakhoras.

G2: Ab bataiye aapko aur kya chaahiye. [now tell us what else do you wish to have]

M[in a single breath]: Dekho behan ham yehan sirf unke saath aaye hai aur humko wo naheen chahiye jo unko chahiye. Hamko bas beer or pahkora chahiye aur kuch naheen. Isliye please aap us cabin mein jaayiye.

[Look sister, we just came here with them and we dont want to have what they want to have. We just want our beer and pakhora and nothing else. Please go to the other cabin]

The girls leave dumbstruck and slowly leaves the cabin.

M: See see. I told them to go away. Ha ha. I did it.

K: Ya I admire your courage. Finish the beer.

M: I feel like killing B for bringing me here.

K: Ya well it’s another experience.

The door to the cabin opens and G1 enters.

G1: Dekho sir. Aaapne hamein behan bulaya. Yehan pe first aadmi hai jo haemin behan bulaya. Aapke saath aaya aadmi humse bol raha hai ki uske saath sone ke liye hotel jaane ko. Main us type ka ladki naheen hoon. Ghar mein paisa naheen hai isliye haemin ye sab karna padta hai. Paisa hota to ham ye sab naheen karte. Kya aap hamara kuch madad kar sakta hai?

[Look sir. You called me sister. You are the first person who has called me sister here. The person who came with you is asking me to accompany him to the hotel to sleep with him. I am not that kind of a girl. At home we are short on cash that is why we have to do all this. If we had cash we wouldn’t do this. Can you help us in some way?]

I stop the screen play here.

Now the girl might have changed the tactic to extract some money from me knowing that K and I are not there for the usual business. But at that point I thought otherwise and I assured the girl that my friend was just joking and that he didn’t mean anything he said. I really wanted to shomehow help her and the rest of the girls out of there, but I didn’t know how to do it. I am no fictional hero of a bollywood movie who could take on a gang of ghurkas attacking with kukhri singlehandedly. All I could do was console her and give her some money and get the very drunk B & O out of that place with the help of K. When I turned back and looked, the girls gathered together and waved their hands saying bye to us smiling and I came out of that place thinking “If Only....”.

Once we got down to the Trop, Casey and I decided we wouldn't pay for parking so we parked in my secret spot. It is awesome if you don't mind a 3/4 mile walk. As soon as I walked I was consumed with jealousy that I was not wasted.

People were high fiving chanting "Tampa....BAY! Tampaaaa... BAY!" and "Let's go Rays". Goosebumps filled my arms and I felt like there was some actual spirit in the Rays. Only took a playoff game to get some fans.

All the sudden I realized that I have never been sober when I walked into the Trop, so I had no idea where I was going. Section 307. Has to be on the third floor, but where are the escalators? I didn't know where I was and neither did Casey. Only one solution to our dilemma.

I ordered two beers and a pretzel with cheese from one of the vendors. Once I sipped the beer, immediately I knew where to go. Funny how that works.

The game itself was great. Longoria hit two homeruns and I got to chant "White Sox Suck" and made everyone in my section follow suit. I booed every White Sox fan and told them that they were the third worst team, second only to the Red Sox and Cubs.

I got to meet Raymond and found out the best kept secret in Tampa. Raymond is a girl! We were in the elevator at the time, and I told every fan in the elevator that Casey was a Red Sox fan and he got harrassed. This made me happy.

Once I got back, I hopped in Paul's car and started to head toward Alabama, immediately I realized how hungry I was and complained until Paul stopped. He was mad that he had to stop 30 minutes into the trip, but who cares, I was happy.

Editor's note: Yea yea yea. Timeliness my rear end. This should have been posted Saturday, but Peter is really really lazy. Plus, his family was in town for family weekend. Excuses, excuses.

But where I last left off was last Sunday.  We had spent Saturday in Bend, and we woke up there Sunday

morning, ready to head back through Portland on our way up to Seattle.  Two pubs I had been told by friends not to miss were The Horse Brass and The Green Dragon, and I hoped we'd have time for both.  Turns out, we not only had time for those two, we hit up Belmont Station (a bottle shop/bar), and visited the Roloff Farm (at Melissa's request and my insistence after I saw how much Allie didn't want to go - sometimes that evil older sister instinct still kicks back in, despite the two of us both being adults now and her being my best friend).

The Horse Brass Pub was by far my favorite of the day, one of the best good-beer pubs I've ever been to.  First of all, I loved the list!  They had, by my count, about 48 taps (36 domestic and 12 import) and 5 beers on cask.  They also had about 30 bottled beers (8 domestic, 23 import) and 3 ciders.  They also had a whole page of single malt scotches, not that I know anything about those, or that we'd be dipping into those at 11:30am when we arrived.  But, more important than quantity is the quality of the list.  The craft beer scene is at the point now that there's enough out there that places not interested in investing a lot of time and energy can have a huge list fill with a combination of absolute crap and mediocre ho-hum beers.  By contrast, The Horse Brass had a lot of seasonals (this being primarily fresh hop and oktoberfest beers at the moment), many of the harder to find beers from really respected Pacific Northwest and  California brewers, and beers from tiny local Oregon breweries.  I think the abundance and diversity of IPAs and Imperial IPAs didn't hurt my assessment of them either!  The whole list is two long for me to type up here, but to give you a taste, so to speak, of what's there, I'll list these IPAs:

Available when we arrived:

• Bridgeport's IPA
• Clinton Street Brewing's Captured by Porches IPA on cask
• Eel River's Organic IPA
• Full Sail's Prodigal Sun IPA
• Hair of the Dog's Blue Dot Rye Imperial IPA
• Hale's Mongoose IPA on cask
• Laughing Dog's Rocket Dog Red Rye IPA on cask
• Laurelwood's Boss IPA
• Lost Coast's Indica IPA
• Mt Hood's Ice Axe IPA
• Ninkasi's Mt. Hops Fresh Hop IPA
• Stone's IPA
• Terminal Gravity's TG IPA
• Walking Man's Homo Erectus Imperial IPA

Coming up next:

• Bridgeport's Hop Czar Imperial IPA
• Lagunitas' Hop Stoopid Double IPA
• Russian River's Blind Pig IPA
• Full Sail's Lupulin Fresh Hop IPA
• Bear Republic's Racer 5 IPA
• Ninkasi's Tricerahops Double IPA
• Hale's O'Brian's Harvest IPA on cask

While I might normally have gone for the Laughing Dog Red Rye IPA, being a huge fan of rye beers, and hoppy reds, and trying beers I've never had before, I decided to go with the Ninkasi fresh hop.  These beers are only around for a few weeks a year and I can get the red rye any time.  Luckily, I didn't end up having to choose, since Allie got the red rye.  Even better, Melissa got one of the other beers I had my eye on, the Willamette Brewing Espresso Stout.  My notes are very brief, and honestly, pretty predictable for a fresh hop beer: hazy light amber, lasting thin yeasty head, assertive bitterness but matched with floral perfumey taste, like having whole hops in my glass, juicy and green, killing my palate.

The second thing I really liked was layout, decoration, and overall feeling of the place.  It really looked and felt like an English pub plunked down in residential Portland.  The walls, counters, and mantles were covered with coasters, beer signs, and other memorabilia.  The wooden benches and tables were tucked around the room into cozy niches.  It wasn't very busy when we were there for obvious reasons, it being 11:30am on a Sunday, so I can't comment on the patrons or crowd.  But perhaps best of all, the owner Don Younger was hanging out at the bar, talking with two of the servers, neither of whom were very busy yet.  I didn't want to barge in on their conversation, or take up too much of their time, but I very much wanted to tell Don how much I loved the feel of the Horse Brass.  In retrospect, I wish I had come up to tell him earlier, because once Allie, Melissa, and I introduced ourselves, they immediately took us in like old friends.  Sit down!  Have a couple drinks with us!  Let us tell you about The Horse Brass!  I would have loved to, and we did stay and chat for a while, we had too big a day ahead of us to just stop for another hour or two.  You can bet though that next time I'm in Portland, I'm heading there and staying all evening.

Belmont Station was next, since it was just a couple blocks away.  It was an awesome beer store, with stuff I had never even seen in City Beer Store, Healthy Spirits, or Bottleworks (near my sister in Seattle).  Of course, there's some regionalism to all fo these places, and they have some beers that I'm sure Belmont doesn't have, but Belmont has the advantage of space on all of the other three.  It has two spacious rooms, one with coolers around the walls and room temperature shelves in the middle, and the other with their bar counter.  I loaded up with all kinds of beers I just couldn't pass up, but for every one of the beers I bought, there were two or three I wanted just as badly.  I couldn't afford them all, but here are the ones I did get:

• Dogfish Head's Raison D'Extra (malty, raisiny 18% brown ale)
• Jolly Pumpkin Fuego del Otono (belgian-style amber with chestnuts)
• Bridgeport Hop Czar (imperial IPA from a brewery that makes one of my favorite every day IPAs)
• Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast (oatmeal, coffee stout)
• Mikkeller It's Alive (Brettanomyces beer, a tribute to Orval)
• Hitachino Celebration (wheaty spiced strong ale with orange peel, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla beans)

The best moment of the trip to Belmont Station came as I rounded the corner and spotted a beer high up on a shelf that I knew was going to win me some major bonus points with Allie.  Grand Teton Brewing Company was one of the first breweries we together, the very first we visited together post-college, and we had a great time there.  On top of that, Allie has a special place in her heart (and her fridge) for fruit beers.  So, when we heard a month or two ago that in honor of their 20^th Anniversary they were making an imperial version of their original huckleberry wheat beer, the XX Mountainberry Double Wheat, we both knew that Allie would be doing anything she could to get her hands on a bottle.  First I emailed the brewery, before mentioning it to her, to ask whether it would be distributed in California.  They emailed back to tell me that unfortunately it would not be.  So, I let her in on it, and after flipping out she called the brewery.  It was either sold out or never available near her, I forget which, in any case, I know she was honestly considering spending a weekend driving to Jackson Hole and back (over 1700 miles and 25+ hours round trip) just to pick up a few bottles.  Luckily her common sense kicked back in.  So, this was all a long way of saying that when I spotted several bottles of it on this shelf, I knew she'd be ecstatic.  She was, in fact, I'd say she even yelped.

Once we got back on the road, it was off to Green Dragon for more tasting and for lunch.  Much as I loved The Horse Brass, traditional English pub food isn't everyone's cup of tea, so we had held off.  Maybe we hit the dragon on the wrong day, or it suffered by comparison, but it was a little bit of a disappointment.  They had 18 taps, one of them nitro, and 2 beers in bottles.  Unfortunately, they had no beers were cask, and of the taps several were either from breweries that don't have a great track record for tasty beers in my book (Carlsberg, Widmer, Mad River), or were particular beers that I've had a million times or had just had (Duchesse de Bourgogne and Ninkasi Mt Hops respectively).  The list:

• Bridgeport ESB
• Captured by Porches Belgian Brown
• Carlsberg Export Lager
• Cascade Lakes 20" Brown
• Duchesse de Bourgogne Flemish Red
• Hale's El Jefe Hefeweizen
• Hale's Special Bitter on Nitro
• Leavenworth Oktoberfest
• Leffe Belgian Blonde
• Mad River Steelhead Double IPA
• Ninkasi Mt. Hops Fresh Hop Ales
• Paulaner Oktoberfest
• Pike IPA
• Roots Stout
• Sierra Nevada Harvest Wet Hop IPA
• Spaten Oktoberfest
• Widmer Oktoberfest
• Redstone Black Raspberry Nectar (Melomel: fruit mead)
• Full Sail Session - bottle
• Iron City Lager - bottle

I thought the Captured by Porches Belgian Brown sounded the best, and so I was disappointed when I asked the bartender about it and was told that though she was a big fan of this brewery in general, this was her least favorite beer from them.  Bummer, but I decided to give it a try anyway.  It wasn't the deepest or most interesting Belgian I've ever had, but it had a some really nice features.  It was light brown with a melon-y smell accompanied by a potent mixed-spice bouquet weighted towards a German-like banana-clove character.

I might have written more but this was when I was distracted by something horrific I witnessed.  Someone, please write in if this really isn't as bad as it looked, but here's what happened: a woman and her boyfriend had claimed a table outside on the sidewalk and she came in to order 2 Hale's El Jefe Hefeweizens.  The bartender started pouring one and it came out looking like a muddy gray milkshake of yeast slurry.  This wasn't like what you get if you agitate a bottle conditioned beer and pour it in a glass.  This is what you might get if you made a homebrewing yeast starter and drank it straight.  Everyone at the bar had a curled lip and was looking at the bartender like, "Whatever you do, lady, do it fast because if keep holding that in front of me, forcing me to contemplate drinking it, I might lose my lunch."  Yeah, yeah, I know yeast won't hurt you, but that doesn't mean I want a chewy yeast cocktail the color and texture of wet concrete with my pulled pork sliders (which, by the way, were my second choice after hearing they were out of my first choice, the pesto, fig, and goat cheese panini).  The bartender didn't really want to serve it either, but checked with a guy from the bar (The owner? Another bartender? Who knows!) who said, "There's nothing wrong with that. Serve it!"  It was truly vile looking, I have no idea why the customers accepted it.

And on a more humorous note, but in the same vein of grossness, was the chip incident.  We had ordered a crab and artichoke dip that came with chips.  We were sitting at the bar and at one point a chip or two had gotten knocked off the plate, over the bartender's side of the bar, and onto to the floor behind the counter.  As Allie, Melissa, and I were chatting, not really paying attention to the bartender, I noticed the other two of them start cracking up.  "What's up?" I asked them.  "Did you just see what she did? " they asked.  "Um, no.  Who?"  "The bartender - she noticed the chips on the floor and as she was walking by to take that other guys order she scooped them up and put them back on our plate."  "The serving plate???" I asked.  "Yup!"  Ewwww.  Food from the floor?  From behind the bar, where the tenders tread around in a thin, scummy, muddy layer of beer on the ground?  What restaurant employee puts food from the floor back on patron's plates?  I'm all for the 5-second rule (as long as the floor isn't particularly foul), but I think that's it's an individual choice, and not one I'd force on my customers as a waitress.

The last Portland-area stop was a non-beer stop.  You know, we let one of these creep in every once in a while.  I love my u-pick produce more than just about anyone except my dad (who once suggested, after realizing that I would leave for summer camp the next day, that I take the artichoke he had purchased at a roadside fruit stand to the camp and ask the cook to steam it for me, perhaps with a little melted butter - even as an eleven year old I knew this was batty).  However, I have no need to visit particular roadside farms or stands, whether they've appeared on cheesy TLC reality shows or not.  For Melissa, this was a bonus.  For Allie, it was an opportunity for potential embarrassment, should we try to tell the Roloffs that she sometimes watches their show, so she was against it.  But, Melissa and I dragged her off to Roloff Farms, owned by the Roloff Family, the stars of "Little People, Big World."  She got into the spirit though, when Melissa and I had each picked our pumpkins and told her she needed to get one of her own two.  She trudged off and staggered back under the weight of the biggest pumpkin in the yard.  Before the visit was up, we had been surprised to see all of the Roloffs actually on the farm, and Melissa had even introduced herself to Amy and told her she enjoyed the show.

By then, I was all worn out (funny how a weekend of nothing but sleeping, drinking, and driving [not in that order] will still do that to you).  I slept the rest of the way back.  I really should go into describing Harmon's, a Tacoma brewpub we went to for dinner, but it's quarter till 1:00am now and I've got about 7 hours of driving ahead of me tomorrow, so that will have to be for another day.

There's a very cool place on the internets known as meetup.com. The idea is people meetup up over similar interests and thus having a simultaneous experience of meeting new people and discovering activities you may not have known existed. This is one of them.

Up until now, I've never heard of Science on Tap. However once I read about it I was struck by the genius of having, essentially, a free lecture with a handful of inebriants to choose from. College, schmollege. I don't know if they do these in other places in the world but the idea of getting buzzed while talking about science seems a very Seattle'y thing to do.

In this case the speaker was Phil Hurvitz and the topic was GPS. Now, I can't say that I took a whole lot away from this specific lecture other than an interest in taking a thing we take for granted and having a serious discussion about how it works and how it's evolved over a relatively short period of time. The thing that really interested me the most is observing the different ways people reacted. I'm more likely to think "well this guy knows what he's talking about and I'll try and absorb what I can," but these people would actually get engaged and passionate and demand to know just exactly how this device can find a satellite in the first place. Interesting stuff.

Of course my table and I chose to get really into the casual atmosphere of the place, taking and laughing quietly amongst ourselves, though I'm assured we did get shushed at one point. I wouldn't have ever known had the person not apologized afterward for said shushing. I will say that while the conversation was light we were discussing the subject at hand, no disrepect intended.

While this topic may not have been for me I absolutely love the concept of these talks and I will certainly be back for more. Hopefully with more to say. Hell, if I'm feeling very ambitious I'll bring the laptop for note taking/immediate blogging.

-Z

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Skinner comenta:

Al comprar esta cerveza pensé que era otra de la que me habián hablado (Cannabia), pero resulta que hay varias cervezas de cannabis en el mercado. Evidentemente, ninguna de estas cervezas tiene contenido apreciable de THC, así que la única motivación para beberla sería que realmente estuviese rica.

¿Es ese el caso? Realmente no está mal, pero la encuentro algo descompensada. Hace poco comenté la San Miguel XV, e igual que en aquel caso, Cannabis también me recuerda a la Voll Damm;. Pero esta vez es una Voll Damm dopada: más cuerpo, más alcohol, más oscura, más dulce y a la vez más amarga. Demasiado exceso. Aún así, no está mal, pero prefiero la San Miguel que he comentado: más compensada y con menos alcohol.

Recomendada para ex-jugadores de la NBA.

Valoración: 2-

Sirius has a copper pour with a creamy white 1 inch head.  The first hit is from the hoppy nose with definite fruit undertones... very nice.  The bitterness of the hops hits hard at first but immiediately mellows out and leaves you with a creamy middle and end.  The finish isn't too abrupt or mellow, though, as this fine brew leaves my tastes buds with a fine memory of its hoppy, bitter goodness.  7.0 ABV.

Good review over at men.style.com.

JBB6 Rating: For the Win

For real: (click here to go to google's blog)

New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret

Monday, October 06, 2008 6:25 PM

Posted by Jon Perlow, Gmail engineer

Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together. Gmail can't always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we're launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help.

When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?

By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you're most likely to need it. Once enabled, you can adjust when it's active in the General settings.

Hopefully Mail Goggles will prevent many of you out there from sending messages you wish you hadn't. Like that late night memo -- I mean mission statement -- to the entire firm.

For me, that often means I’m brought back to a favorite bar, with a perfectly poured pint of something cool and dark.  I’ve been daydreaming lately of, well, every beer I’ve ever enjoyed.  But more to the point, I’ve been obsessing over a pint of Minoh’s Valentine Imperial Stout.  Japan has many quality breweries offering many fine ales to be consumed, but the one I love more than any other has got to be the Minoh Impy Stout.  Its smooth, creamy body leads you willingly to rich roasted malts, chocolate, milk, coffee beans, and just the right amount of vanilla.  You’re probably thinking to yourself “Sounds nice, but isn’t that what makes up most Imperial Stouts?”  In a word, yes.  The reason this one blows all comers out of the water is that while it’s a seasonal brew released for the Valentine’s holiday, it goes just as well in the sweltering summer heat of a Tokyo evening.  Earlier this year I found myself in Thrash Zone, as I often do, and was blown away by that nights offering.  I have no idea what else the Master was pumping that night, but he had what had to be the last keg of Minoh’s Valentine Beer Imperial Stout on tap this year.  Being a work night, I had limited my intake to two pints, max.  Well, I tried to limit my intake.  The night became a blur after a few rounds and I remember narrowly making my train.  But what a night it was.  I’ve never felt so refreshed by a strong, dark, roasty beer in the middle of a hot summer night than I did that night.  No amount of hops, no amount of citrus, nothing has recharged my body and mind more than those beautiful beers did that night.  This is why, out of all the Baird, Hakusekikan, YoHo, Sankt Gallen, or myriad of other fine brewers well crafted beers, I do firmly claim the Minoh Imperial Stout as my favorite, and the king of them all.  Dry as we are, I remember that night (along with the pints I enjoyed in its proper season) and can feel its bounty energizing my body, and refreshing my mind.  I look forward to my next encounter with this ale, thankfully I have a good idea when it should be released…

The two landscape photo's are the sunrise outside my house. Just a few snap shots and reminder that I would benefit greatly from a telephoto lens, preferably one with macro. I don't know why the gallery is numbered as it was, but it's out of order, sorry about that. Hope you enjoy.

I want to get some real model shoot's in, to get my artistic idea's out. I want to play with angles like I used to, and I have a couple of idea's that need to be carried out, and naturally some great halloween idea shoots that I'd like to get done before halloween.

Problem being most models live in the metro-detroit area and I'm without transportation of my own. So it takes some connecting and a lot of moving things around... I hope to get some modeling shoots done in the back yard where all that junk lays. Stay tuned hopefully for some good modeling sets.

If anyone is looking to getting into modeling don't be afraid to contact me, we can work something out so you'll benefit for your portfolio as I will for mine.

Also anyone who has clothes, shoes, accessories that they no longer want or use I'd be happy to take them for props. Thanks.

Living near Wisconsin, I find pretty much every selection of Leinenkugel beer in my local store on a regular basis. This is my first tasting of any of the fine beers offered by the "7th oldest brewery in the United States" just to the north of Chicago. This classifies as a Belgian Wit in style, but is brewed with a lager yeast strain and a top-note of blueberry added (info directly from the Leinenkugel Bros).

Appearance: Yellow cloudy with a head that pours tall but fizzles fast.

Aroma: Citrusy(Orange?) and lemon with a hint of something a bit fruitier. It has a fresh smell to it, like a light cilantro and spice.

Taste: Fresh and crisp with citrus spice and lemon dominating this wheat beer. Overall very smooth on the palate.

Mouthfeel: Crisp and smooth. (This would go great with anything spicy like hot wings or bbq ribs) Decent amount of carbonation and light.

Drinkability: This one is great overall. Very easy to drink and refreshing to boot.

Serving Type: Bottle poured into glass.

Una kaming pumunta sa isang Chinese restaurant para sa laman tyan. Labo-labo na ang mga order namin: Crispy noodles, sweet and sour pork, lemon chicken, dimsum, jellyfish salad, yang chow rice, hakao, spicy squid at may ilan ilan pa. Nang tumayo kami, kasing tigas na ng tambol ang tiyan ko.

Sumunod naman kaming pumunta sa isang videoke center at umupa ng isang kwarto. Kahit siksik na siksik hanggang lalamunan ang kinain kani-kanina lang ay nakakanta pa ako ng "How did you know" ni Gary Valenciano. At para lalong sumwabe ang biritan ay tumungga pa kami ng ilang bote ng beer para authentic na authentic ang 'inumang-bayan' feel.

Matapos ulalulong ng mga kaibigan ko na parang aso, nagpasya na kaming lumipat ng lugar. Dahil medyo may tama na ang ilan sa amin ay nagpasya kaming mag"coffee" (pasosyal accent pls). Nagsiorderan kami ng maiinit na kape para mahimasmasan, kahit na halatang imbyerna na ang barista sa gulo namin sa pag-order. Sorry miss ha, lasing na eh. Ginawa naming bundok ang kapihan dahil nagsisigawan pa rin kami at nagkakantahan. Mag-aalas dos na ng umaga nung naisipan naming umuwi, sa takot na baka mahuli na paggising para sa trabaho. Pagdating ko sa bahay, konting toothbrush, konting hugas ng mukha at sumalampak na ako sa kama, parang nabaril lang uli si Ninoy.

Pagkagising ko kanina ay dumiretso na ako sa banyo at umupo sa trono. Gawain ko yun kahit hindi ako najejerbis, para lang masabi na binigyan ko ng 'chance' ang wet-paks ko na maglabas ng sama ng loob. Pero kanina pag-upo ko, bumuhos ang Bataan. Kalahating oras yata akong nakaupo at medyo namamanhid na ang mga legs ko. Pagtayo ko ay para na akong nanganak. Ang pinakamasarap pa noon, napadighay pa ako, at lasang Lemon Chicken. Ayos!

My dad and brother have raved about this place for years. It's been written up in the New York Times as a "critics pick." And tonight, I finally experienced it for myself!

It truly is a slice of the Ginza transplanted to West 49th Street in NYC. The food is Japanese "bar food" at its finest. We certainly made a feast of it, and had several rounds of drinks, for under $100. That's a deal by NY standards.

Over cold, draft Sapporo beer and dry, cold sake, we started with two rounds of sashimi, a plate of oshinko (Japanese pickles), and some Japanese cucumber slices with mayo and bean curd.

Then we moved to a selection of grilled skewers -- chicken meatballs, chicken thighs, bacon-wrapped asparagus, and ginko nuts -- all topped with a squeeze of lemon and pinch of salt. We also gave the chicken wings a try.

We finished by sharing this stir-fry/saute of pork, cabbage, and bean sprouts in a light miso sauce. Delicious!

Nothing fancy at Sake Bar Hage, but it definitely lived up to all the hype. Off Times Square and West 49th, it's down in the basement on the south side of the street before 6th Ave.

The video entitled Guaranteed Cozy is now broken into seven parts corresponding mostly to the days of the visit.  I tried and tried to upload the very beginning with an introduction advancing through space, but for some reason YouTube didn't like the Star Wars-esque title and never completed processing it.

My camera handling skills could have been better, but the landscape speaks for itself regardless of how I'm shaking the view around.  Grab a Guinness and a toasty and settle in for the videos!

P.S. The link under Guaranteed Cozy takes the clicker to a playlist which can play the videos successively in the proper order.  Enjoy!

Justin and I made home made pizza last night! I have to say, Mr. Bahrs is right. You can improvise on just about any level when it comes to cooking, and sometimes you get something surprisingly amazing, and sometimes you mess up big time, but you never end up with something completely off the mark of what you were aiming for (usually) Baking is a whole other ball game. I am the queen of chocolate chip cookies, however it took a million different, ahem, experiments to get them the right way. Most of the time I ended up with a slightly edible mess, but I got it right eventually. I haven't ventured too far into the world of baking, but I generally fail miserably. I can't help thinking to myself ohh, more milk will make is softer....more yeast will make it rise quicker, I need more flour, it's not going to bake right..... etc. I should learn to follow directions, but it's just not in my genes. My dad always said I cook like his father, throw everything in that sounds good to me. haha I am not a baker, simply because I hate following a recipe when cooking, but there is a difference between baking and cooking. Thank God. We made homemade crust last night. I found a great recipe for beer crust, you can get the recipe here. We used AmberBock beer, in case you were wondering. We thought a dark beer would give it more of that beer type kick, oh, and Justin really likes it. I'm not much of a dark beer person, but it wasn't bad at all. It actually gives the dough a sweeter taste to it and really brings out the yeasty flavor. We also experimented with bread sticks, and used this recipe. For the bread sticks we melted butter and mixed in a good amount of garlic powder and parsley. It was soooo good. I might brave bread again to make those...or just buy the pilsbury dough packs ;) I have to state this again, I am so not a baker. I love cooking with Justin (and isn't he cute with the flour all over the place?) and making dough was kind of fun....but I'm not sure how much I like the extra effort. I was so afraid of adding too much of this or that, but still be able to manage the dough. I like being able to take liberties with my cooking, and that's just not something I can do with baking. Bread stuff is really testy too, you have to wait for it to rise and all that BS, I am also not an incredibly patient person, so baking is pretty much out for me. As you can see form the next picture, Justin is much better at beating it into submission than I am. You just can't ask for anything more than a man who can cook! ;) He's definitely my other half. He and I have more in common than any other person I have ever met. As much as I love to cook and control the kitchen, there's just something about cooking with someone and working together that makes for a wonderful night. (Not to mention inexpensive!) We even make a good team, although we do get slightly territorial. (Me: maybe add some onion powder to the sauce? Justin: No! Don't ruin the sauce! My sauce! Mine Mine Mine!!!) That may or may not be exaggerated =) One of my favorite saying goes Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne
Well, we do both very well. Actually, when we were first together, he took me up to the camp (as he was living at home at the time and I lived in a college dorm) and cooked me Chinese! He worked so hard to cook me a great dinner, he totally had won me over by then.

Next week is going to bring a huge change for us. Justin's new work schedule is going to be 9-5:30, while mine is staying 3:30-12. We're basically looking at never seeing each other during the week, except for that 2 hour overlap at work. He'll be asleep by the time I get home. One plus to this is that we will have Friday night off work, we're both off Saturday, and I only work until 4 on Sunday. So basically we have a long weekend of nights we can catch up on, but we're still looking at major change from Monday-Thursday. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. We (I) did come up with a new deal. Every week we take turns coming up with something new to do. Whether it's cooking something new, like the delicious looking dish on the right there, or, like next week, we're going to learn to brew beer! I just feel like we need to shake things up a little. Needing a change type of thing. Since we still have a couple months left on our apartment lease we can't jump right into buying a house, so we're saving and whatnot. Just need to keep ourselves occupied in the meantime. I was actually a little surprised how many things there actually are to do around here. Granted you have to be 21 for most of the things I found, so that wouldn't have done me any good this time last year...but I'm 21 now so yay for me ;) So yes. Next Saturday Brian, Brittany, Justin and I are going to an antique shop (which I'm sure Brian and Jut are thrilllled about) and then going to a beer brewing class. How awesome is that? Hopefully the guys won't hate us too bad for dragging them to an antique store if they get to make their own beer later. haha. Tricky girls. Another thing I found to do around here is glass blowing. Glass blowing! They even offer classes on it! It's not overly expensive either.  I guess it just goes to show you have to open your eyes a little to see what's out there.

The ankle and knee seem to be healed, so I will be trying them out tomorrow night at hockey. I'm just hoping that I'll be able to walk on Wednesday. A quick ride on the bike on Sunday didn't do any damage so I am cautiously optomistic. Games have been very good this year and I'll certainly be a step behind since I have't played much this year.

As an excuse for the lack of writing, a new computer is on its way to the Hill, and at that point I will be posting more often.