Babes and Beer |
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Drinking beer, being married, and raising kids.  A Nosuch affiliate. 
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Saturday, January 27, 2007
I love to make "deals" with kids, like that old scam trading their small dimes for larger nickles... Currently, the kids have an 8 o'clock bedtime. At that point, I take them upstairs to get their teeth brushed, their jammies on, read them stories, put them to bed, and sing songs. The other week I made them a deal. If they'd put their jammies on beforehand, they'd get to stay up until 8:02. Heh, two minutes later in exchange for saving me 5 minutes. They love it, and they get to bed a few minutes sooner than before. The Burning Crusade expansion to World of Warcraft is pretty fun so far. Wednesday, January 24, 2007
The other night B picked me up a copy of "The Burning Crusade", the new expansion to World of Warcraft. It's pretty cool, a new continent, level cap raised to 70, new races, and new skills. Most importantly to me, the new gear that drops in the new continent blows away the old gear. An average magic item has stats that surpass older "epic" items, so people who spent 40-60 hours a week for years building up uber gear have now been completely ass-raped. Heh. Those of us who aren't so serious are just getting the epic items for dang near free. Woooo! Tuesday, January 23, 2007
D'oh! I forgot to mention yesterday that the kids had a blast skiing. At one point B got stressed out thinking that Harry was too tired and was falling down too much, so I skiied down to the bunny hill and watched them come up the magic carpet. Neither of them saw me but both had enormous smiles on their faces, which made B happy. Yesterday I went to see the hand specialist doctor. She ended up having my right index finger x-rayed from three angles, and basically ruled out everything. Of course, my finger IS much better in the past week since I made the appointment. She says if it's not healed in a month, come back for an MRI, but she's not hopefully that that will be helpful. Super. I think if I need help in a month I'll see one of the other docs LJ recommended. Glad to see that Studio 60 is back from hiatus. I ended up really liking the show. Monday, January 22, 2007
Yesterday we took the kids up skiing. This time we succeeded, having rented gear the day before and having the weather cooperate. There was only one other kid in their class. While they were in class B and I did three ski runs. I was damn rusty the first run after 3 years off, but shortly it all started to click again. Woooooo! B did OK, considering she only went 5 times total and hadn't skiied in the six years since she was pregnant with Isabel. We'll get her up to speed shortly. Afterwards we returned the skis to REI, got my bike out of the repair shop, and went home. I spent the rest of the day watching the two NFL divisional championship games. Sunday, January 21, 2007
Uff-da. Yesterday was busy. We had breakfast at 9am a friend's house. They'd recently adopted a little girl from China who was super cute and fun. My friend's mom had given her a DVD set of "The Electric Company", the originals from the early 1970s, the ones we watched as kids. I totally recognized the skits, it was pretty trippy. I did NOT remember that Morgan Freeman was on that show. The breakfast was an egg loaf (fritata, whatever, a baked loaf of eggs, cheese, sausage, and stuff) which was very good and some amazing waffles. The waffle batter had risen all night then they added egg yolks, and beat the hell out of the whites and folded that fluff in. They were so light you had to use one fork to hold them to the plate so they didn't float away. Damn good. Anyway, we ate far too much and talked far too long. Once we left, we went to REI to rent skis for B and the kids so we wouldn't have to wait in the insane line at the ski resort, I returned the padded-butt biking underwear I got as a misguided christmas gift, and I took my bike into the bike shop for service. The tranny wasn't shifting well and the front brake pad was nearly completely gone. The lines at the gear rental counter weren't terrible, but it still took three epochs to get through it all. Once we got home we had to immediately get Isabel dressed for her dance class. This time we all went, B dropped me and Isabel off at the dance studio and left to take Harry to a birthday party. I got Isabel situated then went next door to the Wedgwood Ale House for a damn nice pint of Stone IPA. My phone rang, it was B on her way back and she wanted a pint of Spire Dark-n-Dry cider waiting for her. Heh. I also tried the Lagunitas Stout which was quite nice. When Isabel's class was over we all went to the birthday party where I immediately cracked into a Deschutes Inversion IPA. They had a smoked salmon slurm made up, you know a dip of smoked salmon, cream cheese, and capers in a food processor. Damn tasty. Like everything else that day, the party ran longer than expected. We were due at yet another friend's house in an hour for a dinner party, and we were on the hook for dessert. Lacking any useful ideas, I said I'd make up a batch of rice krispy treats. I drove to the store, got some RK and marshmallows, and called B to get the big pot going with butter. Just as I get the RKT finished, we get a call saying that the mom hosting the dinner party was on her way to the ER with her boy having a fever of 103F. Hopefully he's fine. We called the other couple who was supposed to be there and met at Jalisco, a mexican restaurant chain in Seattle. I used to go there on dates back in college, but long ago figured out it wasn't worth the price. The food was good, but the service was atrocious. We got there at 6pm and were basically immediately seated, but a waiter didn't come for drink orders until 6:20pm, and I didn't have my first beer until 6:30pm, right before the food showed up. We didn't get further wait service for another 15 minutes, and then when someone said they'd take my order for a second beer, it never did show up. I wasn't charged for it, but I was steamed. When I put the kids to bed at 8pm, I lay down on Harry's bed when I was singing their bedtime songs to them and proceeded to fall asleep. B fell asleep on the couch in the family room waiting for me, and finally got me out of Harry's bed into my own at 9:30pm. I woke up at 11pm with a little heartburn, had an alka-seltzer, talked with B for a few minutes, then slept until morning. 11 hours of sleep, uff-da! Saturday, January 20, 2007
I'm amused by the strange coincidences in life. After recently reading a number of post-apocalyptic novels ("Dies the Fire" trilogy by SM Stirling, "Day of the Triffids" by John Wyndham, and "Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank) when we went to Costco last week they were offering a 5 gallon plastic bucket with 275 servings of emergency rations for $100. shelf-stable for 20 years. With 5 people in the household that's just over 18 days food. I did not buy it. Last night was super fun. One of my friends from my "drinking club with an investing problem" was having a scotch tasting over at his father-in-law's place. It was supposed to be my fake "book club" meeting night, but I told those beer-bellied sneetches that this scotch-bellied sneetch was totally dogging them. It was really nice, I tried a number of wonderful rare cask-strenght whiskies, mostly a variety from Bowmore, but with a couple from Clynelish that were very nice as well. When I got home B was still having her mom party. There were five of the sitting on the floor in the family room around a spread of snacks and tubs of ice cream, clutching their appletinis and other boozy mixed drinks. There weren't even talking about gross female secretions or anything, and after a while B fired up the Wii, which had them rolling with laughter. None of them play video games, and all of them loved it, one said she's buying one for sure. Thursday, January 18, 2007
Let me first state that it's very nice to have all the snow and slush melted away. Last night we managed to get enough guys together for poker, and I won $35. Very nice! Very funny, as well. WOPR is a damn funny guy. Two weeks of Aleve haven't helped my finger at all, so I called my doctor back and she told me to make an appointment with a specialist at the Seattle Hand clinic. Got one for Monday. Hopefully someday I'll be able to use that damn right index finger again. Strange how I can do almost all my computing tasks with the middle finger instead, with very little reduction in speed. Apparently if they end up chopping off my index finger it wouldn't be a big deal quality-of-life wise. I spent some time yesterday researching stuff for our trip to Munich at the end of May. Turns out we can rent a Mercedes C-class for $366 for the week including taxes. Sweet! Autobahn! I also printed out the subway map for Munich, it's always easy to get around a city with a nice subway system like they have. Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Woo! Ok, my mother-in-law has been in Spokane for the past two weeks, helping B's sister and brother-in-law move. She got back last night around 6:15, and by 6:30 we had the kids with her up in her parlor, and we got in the van and took off. First we did some Costco shopping, I was hoping they had the new "Burning Crusade" expansion to World of Warcraft. We "accidentally" took too long so grandma had to put the kids to bed, so I asked B if we could go have a pint at the Wedgwood Ale House. She agreed, but on our way there I suddenly thought that maybe we should call my brother Kurt and go to the Elysian brewery next to his apartment instead. He said "sure", so we went there. It was a lot of fun. I had a pint of their cask-conditioned Perseus Porter which was really good, and two pints of their Stolen Fire IPA, which was frickin' awesome. Kurt showed up with two of the people who live in the apartment building he manages, it was fun talking to kids in their 20s. Tons of great stories, lots of laughing. Good times, good times. Did I mention that I LOVE having babysitting? Gah! The stupid pansy school district closed half day kindergarten AGAIN today. Schools are on a two-hour delay, which cancels half-day kindergartens. That makes this the 7th day in a row that Isabel didn't have school. Ludicrous. Yesterday the cold snap broke, it's like 36 out there and just slushy, absolutely no reason to delay school. Tuesday, January 16, 2007
I finished Pat Frank's "Alas, Babylon" this weekend. Written in 1959 during a particularly bad part of the Cold War, it's about a nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union, and surviving it in a rural part of Florida. Good book, if overly optimistic. Recommended if you're a fan of the post-apocalyptic genre. Yesterday B needed to get some picture frames at the craft store, and I ended up going with. They had a 90% off sale on their remaining christmas crap, and a nice 5' "entryway" pre-lit christmas tree for half off the original $80. We put up a second tree in our family room, and this would look better than the ratty one B's mom has that we used this year, so we bought it. When it rang up, it was 90% off as well, so instead of the $40 we expected to pay, it was $8. Eight bucks! Damn. We also bought some of those pre-lit outdoor cones for the front yard, one each of 5', 4', and 3'. 90% off. Slowly but surely my yard will approach National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. In the afternoon I met up with my friend Thom at the Wedgwood Ale house for some beers and cribbage. He claimed he forgot how to play, then proceeded to kick my ass, skunking me one game and beating me the next. Bah! We wanted to get Wedgwood Ale House t-shirts but they don't sell them at the bar, only online or at a t-shirt shop in Fremont whose business model is "make t shirts for all the local bars". We decided to head over to Fremont, but they only sizes they had in stock at the time were small, large, and triple XL. Uff. We needed to whet our whistles after that laborious shopping failure, so we went across the street to the Red Door. The bar had been around forever in Fremont right by the Fremont Bridge, but when Adobe and high tech took over Fremont they physically moved the building a block over instead of demolishing it. Crazy. Sunday, January 14, 2007
Brrrr! It's been consistantly cold for days now. The snow has stuck around, frozen solid. Normally, Seattle gets snow about once every other year or so, and it lasts a day or two max. This is our second snow of the year and it's been around 4 days, and is expected to last two more. My Seahawks took the Bears to OT in Chicago today before choking. Gah. We even won the toss. At least they didn't pull a Romo. We'll see what changes are made in the off-season. Thursday, January 11, 2007
We got two inches of snow last night, so they closed the schools. Crickey. It is dang cold, and supposed to be 18F tomorrow. Brrrr! I watched the movie Beerfest, it was kinda funny, but not great. While looking up some drinking games, I came across this gem: beer chess. I can't believe the morons who thought that one up didn't realize that light beer is light beer because it has less alcohol. I'm guessing white always wins and they never figured out why. Idiots. Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Last night I finished "The Hunters", the 3rd "Presidential Agent" book by W.E.B. Griffin. Awesome, I couldn't put it down. He's my absolute favorite author. The book just came out in hardback, which I'm not willing to buy or store, but a friend of mine buys them upon release every time. He reads slowly, so he just gives them to me first, I give it back to him in a day or two after I've chowed it down, then he leisurely reads it over the next month or two. The news was all in a panic last night predicting the storm of the ages, saying we'll get up to two whole inches of snow. Of course, the weather service said "anywhere from a dusting to two inches", and we got squat. It's not even below zero out there, the roads are just wet, at least in the city. Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Last night I was having a grand time on the couch, tickling the kids. They were taking turns getting the crap tickled out of them, but at one point when I reached for Harry, he puts up a hand and says, "No, I'm good." Ha! B and I nearly died laughing. On the football front, it was amusing to watch the Gators put on an advanced football clinic for the Buckies. I read some of the articles this morning in the Columbus Dispatch, and they were all saying the game turned on failing to convert a 4th and 1 in the 2nd quarter. Um, maybe they were high or drunk or something, but the Buckeyes only made 84 yards of offense in the entire game, with only 1 scoring drive. That one play meant nothing, they got whumped. Of course, that leaves Boise State as the sole undefeated team in college football, and their won a BCS game. We really really need a playoff in Division I football. Last weekend I finally got to see The Hidden Fortress. I'd always heard that Star Wars was just a cheap ripoff of Hidden Fortress, but I think anyone who says that is ignoring the fact that everything is based on something before it, nothing is ever totally original. The movie WAS very good, Kurosara is good. Sunday, January 07, 2007
Ok, that 21-20 win over the Cowboys yesterday was officially crazy. I'm not sure either team really deserved to win, but after all the raw deals the Seahawks have gotten over the years I'll certainly take it. This morning we got up early to take the kids up to Snoqualmie Pass for their first ski lesson, they are signed up for the next four Sundays. The weather forecast was 20mph winds and snowy, but the pass report said the highway was clear, no chains required or anything. We loaded up and drove up the pass through pouring rain and wind gusts. Finally just a few miles from the pass we could barely get AM 1610 tuned in for an updated pass report right as we encounter the sea of red lights of stopped traffic. The pass report says eastbound is closed while they remove vehicles, opening time was unknown and once it was opened chains were required for all non 4-wheel-drive vehicles. After 20 minutes I managed to pull over to the nearest offramp which thankfully had an underpass to the other side. B decided we should stop for a while and gear the kids up and let them experience skis while we were there, so we did that for half an hour. They loved it, even with the pouring rain, so we're pretty sure they're going to enjoy skiing. Thursday, January 04, 2007
I've had an issue with my index finger on my right hand for almost two months, so I finally saw my doctor about it today. She thinks it's just tendonitis, and gave me a splint to immobilize it and has me taking Aleve twice a day for two weeks, at which point we'll reassess. Last week I'd gone over to my friend's house to help with their new iPod, an we'd talked about sleeping pills and sleep disorders. He'd mentioned that Modafinil was approved in the US and available by prescription under the name Provigil. I'd read about it a number of years ago, and was facinated by the reports of a drug that seemed to eliminate the need for sleep for days on end, and 8 hours of sleep afterwards and you're caught up. I wanted to get something to help me sleep on the long flight between Seattle and London when we go to Munich in May, and modafinil sounded perfect for dealing with jetlag afterwards. My doctor agreed completely, prescribing xanax for the flight and modafinil for a few days afterwards both going and returning. Woooo! Little did I know they'd had that wonder drug at my local Safeway pharmacy. Less than a week after I found out I had some in hand. Expensive stuff, however, at $8 per dose. I'll report on it's effectiveness when the time comes. The Sugar Bowl last night was fun, I didn't realize that Notre Dame was on a NCAA-record 9-game bowl losing streak. Maybe it has something to do with their backdoor entrance to BCS bowls they don't belong in. I guess this year they belong as much as anyone, with a 10-2 regular season. Man, we need to toss the BCS for a playoff. Wednesday, January 03, 2007
For some weird personal hangup, I alway forget that I always spend New Years Day watching bowl games for 13 hours straight. I do it every year, I don't know why it surprises me. While the Rose Bowl was pretty awesome, watching USC put on a football clinic for Michigan, it was the Fiesta Bowl that blew me away. That had to be one of the top 5 football games I've ever seen. I was rooting for those crazy smurf-turf lovin' Broncoes since I saw them put a thumping on Oregon State earlier this year, plus I spent 8 years of my life living in Boise. Watching Oklahoma recover from an 18 point deficit to tie the game with only a few minutes left, including the three attempts at a 2-pt conversion (failed but defensive penalty, succeeded but offensive penalty, then success) then Boise St throws an INT for a touchdown, then they march down and make a totally amazing 4th and 18 with only a few seconds left to go to overtime... THEN Oklahoma runs 25 yards for a TD on their first possesion, and Boise State takes all four downs each time to advance to a TD, and uses a trick play to successfully convert for 2 to win the game... Uff-da. It was a game for the ages. I spent the whole day playing World of Warcraft while I watched football. With the recent 2.0 patch, you now get 3-5x as much reputation for completing quests, and full rep for completing quests below your level, so it's super easy to rep up. I decided I wanted my 46 undead mage that I play on Sunday nights with my friends to have a Raptor as a mount instead of his undead horse, which requires getting a super high rep with the Trolls, so he ran through easy low-level quest after easy low-level quest. I don't want him getting experience or levels without the sunday night gang, so it was perfect. Yesterday B was down with a nasty painful sinus infection, she was in bed most of the day. I had to stay home to watch the kids. First I fed them breakfast, then I had to get them dressed, and get Isabel ready. She and I had to be at her kindergarten at 9:15am to do a make-up holiday event they missed due to the power outage from the huge storm, making graham cracker houses. After that was done Isabel and I decided to go on a little walkabout before heading to the car. When I got back from that, I had time for just a little Wii tennis with the kids, then feed them lunch and get Isabel to her bus, then take Harry to his preschool, then go to Safeway to pick up the prescriptions our doctor had called in for B, then take B's mom to the airport (she's going to Spokane for 2 weeks to help B's sister move), then it was time to meet Isabel's bus but she'd missed it so her teacher was bringing her home, then pick up Harry from preschool, then take the two of them to the library, the bank to deposit rent checks, and to Safeway again to buy stuff for dinner. Whew. Dinner was tacos. Mmmm, I love tacos, especially frying the corn tortillas in a pan with a quarter inch of fry oil. Thank glub B's feeling better today so I was able to go to work and get some rest. Monday, January 01, 2007
Last night we had a small dinner party for my friend who has cancer and his wife, the couple who's kids B watches, and another friend. My friend with cancer was feeling like crap, he's in his first round of chemo this time and can't eat or drink, and spends several hours a day at the ER getting IV fluids. Before dinner his wife took him home and our other friend brought her back. Our friends with the kid were planning on staying overnight in our guest room, we put all four kids down to bed before dinner. Dinner was our traditional prime rib, and once again I nailed it. It's super simple, using Alton Brown's method. Rub the meat down with oil, salt and pepper it heavily, and throw it in the oven rib-side down at 250F with a temperature probe in it. In 2-3 hours once it reaches 120F internal temp, pull it out, wrap it in aluminum foil, and set the oven to incinerate (my new oven does 550F, 500F works). After 10-15 mins of preheating put the meat in that blast furnace to get that yummy crisp crust on the outside. It goes in for about 10 minutes, then let it rest for 15 minutes or so and carve and serve. B had made a pitcher of appletinis, half vodka and half rose's appletini mix, and got the three gals pretty tanked up. After dinner we went to our friend Thommer's party, and the plan was I would drive everyone there, and B would stop drinking and sober up to drive us home. I knew I was hosed when all the passengers were going "Woooooooooooooo" on the drive over, we had critical party mass in a van, which was a good thing since the party didn't have it without us. B got seriously sloshed, having a huge comsopolitan, to the extent she was pulling up her shirt for photos of her bra. Ha! Needless to say, she NEVER gets that drunk, normally. The party was pretty fun but at one point my buddy who was going to stay with us got WAY too drunk and broke down crying about our friend with cancer. I'd never seen him cry before, neither had his wife. Another friend ended up taking him to his house, and I drove the drunk gals home, dropping off the one and taking the other to our place where her kids were asleep. Strange to feel totally non hung over this morning. B on the other hand... |
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