Welcome to Mile High

So much for the beer blog. I have tried no new beers since the last post.

I have, however, learned a whole lot about beer. I have decided to solicit Great Divide Brewing for a job. I'm aware that the odds of me being hired are quite slim, but I gotta try. I wanted to do some reading before writing my resume in order to make it sound like I know a lot about making beer. Great Divide (GD) is located smack downtown Denver. Easy bike ride from the duplex. GD knows how to make good beer. Typically they brew in a more traditional European style, but their beers are always high quality and some of them are quite big. Their Hercules double IPA is a huge beer, as are a couple of their other beers. When they want to brew west coast style, they do it well. Every year in the fall they bring in a huge shipment of fresh hops after the harvest season and brew up a pale ale using loads of fresh hops at the end of the boil, on the way to the fermenter as well as during fermenting (dry hopping). They know what they're doing and I want them to teach me. We'll see. My ass has to re-write my resume first.

Heather and I are settling into our new place nicely. The unpacking is finished. The one thing that we were desperately missing was a grill. I have been watching craigslist like a hawk, and this morning someone posted a basic weber kettle that was brand new in the box. Less than half the cost of new. I was all over that weber like a guy who really needs a grill.

Remember when you didn't know where you were going and you had to get diresctions from people? I ask for this guys adress and he asks where I am. I tell him, and then he starts giving me directions. I was like "hey grandpa, just give me your adress alright"? Google maps gives way clearer directions than some guy I don't know. Hell, I don't even use the directions. I just look at the map and write down whatever I think that I will forget. Of course, I am directionally gifted.

Got home and put together the kettle in a snap. There was a brief interuption when the maintenance man showed up to the duplex. Ya see, we have this slight problem. There's a hole in our garbage disposal. Neat, huh? We had the cabinet door open while cooking the other night to access the garbage when Heather flips on the garbage disposal and gets squirted in the leg. Oops. Come to find out, it leaks anytime the water backs up at all and pours out of the hole.

Then we got some rain this weekend. O.K.- we got a lot of rain this weekend. Turns out our skylight in the bathroom leaks. Drip drip drip into the tub is one thing, but drip drip drip on my head while I'm sittin' on the throne aint gonna work at all. I don't care how rarely it rains in Denver, that's gotta get fixed.

The maintenance guy was totally cool. We talked old houses and he made sure to let me know that he knows a lot more than me. That's fine. Know it alls like myself need to be put in our place from time to time. This dude was like a cowboy/hippie with a lazy eye. I don't know how else to explain it. Shoulder length red hair with earrings, but jeans with a denim shirt and a Chevy Tahoe. We hit it off instantly. I'm thinking about asking him out on a date.

The Dallas Cowboys played the Denver Broncos in a preseason matchup last Saturday at Mile High Stadium in Denver. Damn right I was there. Eric Engelbrecht, Scott Perkins and yours truly got together for some boozin' and grubbin' before the rain game 2008. It poured all weekend. Luckily it stopped in the afternoon on Saturday for a while. We didn't get rained on too bad until we were so drunk that we didn't care. I'm not even sure that I noticed.

Yates promised that he would hook us up with good tickets if we would wait till after kickoff, so we posted up at the hotel bar right next to the stadium. Kickoff, first drive for the Broncos, first drive for the Cowboys. Our faith was dwindling. We were wishing we would have scalped. Finally we went down to the stub hub room of the hotel and Eric went in to do a little Yandon Brates name dropping. About ten minutes later we were sitting 8th row on the 50 yard line. I never lost faith in Brandon- I swear. That man could charm the thong off a stripper. Better than you.

I haven't been out with guys like Eric and Scott in a while. We kinda got a little out of hand with the boozing. My condition Sunday would best be described as un-operational. Sometimes you gotta sacrifice a Sunday if you want memories like that. By that, I mean memories that you have to work for. You know, you're in the shower three days later and you remember why there was cream cheese in your shoe. Ah.... good times.

Well, the breadwinner is home from work, so I'm gonna go enjoy a happy hour beer and some snacks with the little lady.

New Blog Purpose

Until I get a job, this is going to turn into a beer blog. Just what the blog world needs....

Today I had another fine brew from the folks at O'Dells brewing in Ft. Collins, CO. At least there's one good brewery in Ft. Collins. Seriously though, O'Dells is the shit. Clearly my favorite new discovery in the beer world. It's hard to put anyone ahead of Avery, but O'dells is gat dang good.

The stores in Denver get a larger variety of brews from Green Flash brewing in San Diego. I am enjoying a bomber of Imperial IPA as I write this. Wait........mmmmm that's good. Waiting for me at the liquor store down the street is a red ale from the flash, as well as a nut brown and a stout.

Denver distributors also boast a larger selection from Dogfish, Stone, Moylans, and of course Avery. The one brewery that I am already missing is Bear Republic. No more Red Rocket for me...... boo hoo. The beer guy at my local kick-ass liquor store tells me that Bear Republic was only available in bombers, and they didn't sell well at all. The distributor told him that Bear Republic was having problems with distribution. Bullshit. When I told him that Portland gets sixers of red rocket and racer 5, he was pissed.

You know what's funny? Well I do. Denver has every Bridgeport beer in sixers; even ESB. Portland stores don't even carry all the bridgeport stuff. I just assumed that they didn't bottle the ESB. Whatever- Bridgeport is low on the micro totem poll anyhow. Not as low as New Belgium.

Did somebody mention New Belgium? God I hate them much more now. Every place in Denver has god damn New Belgium. Me: "Hi there, what micros do you have? Server X: "Oh- we have all the New Belgium beers". What am I supposed to say? If I roll my eyes and then ask if they have any good micros- I sound like a beer snob/geek- which is so geeky. If I say nothing, then the server might think that I know so little about beer or my taste in beer is so unrefined that I actually like that crap.

Eric Engelbrecht just walked in- we're gonna take the dogs to the dog park I guess.

Happy drinkin

Back Online

Life without the internets? In 2008? For me, this was the reality for a while.

I left Atlanta and drove to Arkansas. I have no fancy smartphone to access either the fancy new 3g nor the snail like edge mobile networks. I landed at my grandpas house which happens to be right exactly in the middle of nowhere, USA. He is old. There is no internet connection available.

I end up spending the majority of the trip in the White County Hospital, where there is no available internet connection. After speaking with countless very nice but very redneck people, I finally learned that one can pick up the wireless network from one area of the hospital. I rushed to the "canteen" only to find that while there is in fact a wireless network connection, there is no internet connection.

You may be saying to yourself "what a dumbass, why didn't he just go to a Starbucks"? Well, dumbass, you've obviously never been to Searcy, Arkansas. Starbucks aint everywhere yet.

Back to Atlanta and a quick posting from the Simon house before coming back to Denver and moving into my new duplex with no internet connection. Yes, my neighborhood has an abundance of coffee shops with wifi, but one would be required to get out of bed and go to said wifi hotspot.

After moving all of our crap into our new duplex last Saturday, (thanks for the help Jen and Steve) Scott Perkins made a visit to the new place. Pretty god dang good to see that guy. I look forward to much Skitt time this year. Anyhow- crashed hard Saturday night after much hard work and several well deserved Colorado microbrews.

I awoke Sunday to a bit of grogginess. I didn't last very long on the old dog walk before I was freakin spent. I came home and sat down complaining of general puniness. An hour later I was running roughly the same temperature as my car pulling a mountain pass.

Fever, muscle soreness and joint pain racked me for two days. Man I was out. I kept thinking of the two ticks that I pulled off of myself the previous week in Arkansas. Guess I should have gotten some temporary medical insurance. Doh!

I feel much better today, but still not 100%. At least the fever is gone. Feeling plenty good to go sample some more of that Colorado microbrew tonight.

Comcast showed up yesterday to finally hook up our internet. The tech ran all the cable and hooked up the modem, but he couldn't activate the service. Apparently the comcast software that activates new modems was down nationwide. No new internet for me yesterday.

Finally got hooked up today and spent the afternoon perusing craigslist for jobs. Man I don't wanna sell shit, drive truck or dispatch. Tell you what though; those are the good paying jobs that I am qualified for. Fuck it- I'm not gonna do it.

I'm gonna go find someone in Denver that makes really good beer. Then I'm gonna beg them to teach me how they do it. Yes, I will be their bitch: but I will not be selling shit, driving truck or dispatching. If I cannot find a brewpub that makes what I consider to be a high quality product, then I will solicit Avery for a job. It won't be a fun commute, but at least I wouldn't have to worry about traffic at the times they would likely have me start and finish my shift of doing all the gruntwork. If all these attempts fail, then maybe it's time to start looking at the retail end of things. Whatever it takes, beer industry- here I come. Eventually. It could take a while to sample all of these brewpubs you know.

This Land is My Land

10 States in 7 days. That includes a 2 day 3 night stop in Park City.

I went from coast to motherfukin coast.

Left the new home-base Denver and flew to the A-town where my pops scooped me up after a ride on the MARTA. Hit up El Azteca for loads of white cheese dip before heading over to Tony and Gia's for the night. Typical fun filled booze fueled evening at the Simon's.

Picked up pops on Thursday in the AM and started driving to Arkansas. Upon our arrival at Gramps house, we were informed by Grandpa that he has been experiencing chest pain and dizziness when he over exerts himself. Come to find out, over exert is being defined here as walking at a normal pace. Good thing he told us instead of a body mechanic.

We drug him to the physician kicking and screaming the next morning. He was given a heart monitor to wear and an appt. was made for the following Tuesday. The doc didn't see anything urgently wrong with him. This was Friday.

Saturday night we were calling an ambulance for an unrelated issue. Gramps landed in the critical care unit where they determined his non-heart problem to be no big deal. While we were sitting in the critical care room, me and pops informed the nurse of the heart problem. The nurse watched his heart monitor for a couple of minutes and was disturbed. He said (in a redneck accent) "well I'll be- I don't like this at all. He's throwing every type of arythmia in the textbook".

The nurse calls for a cardiologist on early Sunday morning. The heart doc arrives about noon on Sunday and examines Gramps for about 20 minutes before announcing that he is very concerned. Off to the cath lab for a look see inside the ticker. Major blockage in all but one opening. It was so bad that they called the surgeon in right then. They had to get all the people on his team in on a Sunday night. I wonder how many people had been drinking? They haul him in and do a quadruple bypass right then.

Gramps is doing pretty well I guess. How good can you feel 5 days after being opened up like a tin can. They saw right through that chest bone and peel ya open. They wire your chest shut when they're done, but there's just a bit of soreness going on there.

I drove back to Atlanta solo on Thursday while pops will be staying with Gramps for a week before catching a one way flight back home. Tony picked me up after I dropped off pop's car and we headed over to Charlie Mopps for a much needed beer. White County Arkansas is a dry county ya see. Back to the Simon's for a late night marathon Rock-Band session and a late morning into work for the Geester.

Tony and I are off to the Brick Store for some lunch. If you don't know- the Brick Store is the best pub in the USA. That's right- I haven't been to every pub in the USA, and you've never met any of the major gods. Faith.

I have developed a slightly dangerous driving habit. Boredom has led me to look for new viewpoints. I have started viewing oncoming cars by looking at the reflection from my sunglasses viewed via the rear view mirror. Think about it. Then try it.

Back to Denver tonight and moving into the new duplex tomorrow. My life moves fast. You probably couldn't keep up.