foam alert

Okay, I cracked open a homemade beer, and the foam wasted half of it and made a big mess. I do believe the foaming calms down after a few weeks, so I shouldn't be tempted to jump the gun like that.

Yesterday was the first day of spring, as far as I'm concerned. Now it's warm (65-70?) today and sunny, too. wow.

I found a dead mouse in my hockey bag. I think it came from Erika's old garage before we moved. Oh my did my gear smell. It was too wet from the melting snow on the garage floor from a few weeks ago to wear, so some of it is being laundered, while the bigger stuff (pants, shin guards) will be hosed down and pumped full of febreze this weekend. This explains the chewed skate laces.

The wife likes her burgers well done, and it's cost me the timing on my own medium burgers when she doesn't eat with me. I've overcooked 2 in a row, although last night's only by a couple of minutes.

Some day I may play with the template on this blog. The white background and crappy font suck. I like Arial, among the major fonts. My old Mac Plus in college had lots of great fonts, including one that looked like overplayed stereotypical lefty printing (reverse slant to the letters). I had a left-handed professor, so I handed in a paper with that font to her once. Slight amusement, I believe.

Seussical the Musical

Apparently this is playing at the theater at UConn this weekend. My parents have gotten tickets for all of us...I've seen it but Erika and the kids haven't, so it should be good. I saw it at the former Oakdale (which car theater is that now? Oh yeah, the Chevy Theatre) a few years ago with tickets I snagged from a woman in my old hockey clinic. That production starred Sandy Duncan, so I'm sure I went out and bought some Wheat Thins afterwards.

That reminds me, I should get back to playing hockey on Thursday nights. 15 bucks for like 90 minutes of ice time, I think. It's so darn expensive compared to basketball (free), and I'm definitely not as good, although good enough to at least take my shifts regularly. It was weird finding a place to wedge my insulin pump in my gear, I had it pinned by the elastic waistband of my hockey undershorts (which have velcro to hold up the big hockey socks) without a clip, and as long as I didn't get hit or fall on it, there wasn't anything to worry about. My only time on skates this past winter (which I think ends this weekend, weather-wise!) was at Rockefeller Center in December.

And I'm stunned that Nabisco has discontinued Twigs, the sesame-cheese snack sticks. I checked with their customer service center online. The worst part is that they'd still show a box in the picture of all the flavor varieties on the back of kinds they still DO make -- chicken in a biskit, vegetable thins, sociables, better cheddars....I think they stopped making the Bacon crackers, too. But Twigs were freakin' awesome!

46 bottles of beer on the floor...46 bottles of beer

So I bottled the beer yesterday while watching playoff hockey. I only broke 1 bottle while operating my dad's old bottle-capper. I wonder how capping technology has advanced in the last 30 years. Anyways, when you break the bottle while capping, you pretty much crush the first inch or so of glass....so you can actually pour the beer into another empty bottle and try again. The beer probably won't be ready for another month or so, but I'm sure every week or so I'll check in with a bottle :)

Red Sox look good this afternoon (instead of morning, with the rain delay). I hate warnings to pitchers....I actually bet Ervin Santana left fastballs out over the plate partially out of fear of coming in too far on Sox batters. Anyways, the Vlad thing seemed to be an obvious accident, so what's the deal? Maybe the ump figured it was getaway day for the Angels after losing a couple...they might be short-tempered?

So after the monsoon on our wedding day at the house, we had Home Depot put a new roof on in January. Well they goofed. During yesterday's several inches, water was running down the wall in a couple of spots, plus a couple of drips. We're using it to water our herb garden before taking that outside for the spring (whenever THAT comes). It's all insured, so one guy came out yesterday...thought he fixed it (didn't), and now the project manager is coming tomorrow morning.

And now that I've bottled the beer, I was able to return my empties since I wouldn't need them....I had no idea that I had 102 bottles to return. That paid for half of a new beer for me to try tonight. Brooklyn Brewery's Pennant '55 Ale or something like that. Seems like a good way to honor Jackie Robinson? ha!

Lastly, sadness at Virginia Tech today. Kinda freaking me out if we're going to Erika's vet school reunion there in the fall!

The perfect complement?

So, remember that David Lee Roth video where the really fat guy offers advice to the up-and-coming singers? "Try the Quad Burger at Irv's...."

I thought of this as I mixed two beers together last night. Sam Adams Double Bock, which is strong and very "brown". And Smithtown Brewing's Double White Ale, which is extra-spicy and pale. Neither beer was terrific on its own, but mixed together, a worthy experiment. In any event, that would be a double-double, or a quad, of some sorts.

I drank it while watching American Idol with Erika. Egads, I sorta like that show now, and I *never* used to watch it. Also fun to try to play piano along with the band. Our piano needs tuning pretty soon. It was last done last summer, and although it's not as bad as it was then, it still could use the proverbial (and literal) tune-up.

Post-Easter ramblings

So....

My first chance to see NESN right now. What's the decorum for hanging the USA flag over the green monster? There were obvious flaps perforated throughout it, but that's gotta be necessary to keep the thing from getting caught in the wind, a flag of that size. Red Sox games never stream as clearly as other teams...must be the demand!

I don't blast the volume too loudly....and yet I still hear people's speakerphones over the broadcast. People are just f-bombing rude around here. Either pay for an office, or realize you're not the only one here. Some day (like when I'm in my 2-week notice period) I'm going to swear audibly into their speakerphones as a hint to pick up the damned handset.

My uncle's got a 50-inch HD set.....very nice for the end of the Masters Sunday.

Easter Sunday dinner was lamb. well done, it's not the worst meat in the world, but eesh. Mom wouldn't tell me, but there's always plenty of good stuff for options when my Aunt Beth cooks. I provided the dinner wine, a cabernet-shiraz combo that was good (maybe not $25.99 good, but whatever).

We're starting a stone walkway to our front door. 32 inches (4 16x16 squares) done, 32 feet to go. Hopefully Home Depot won't discontinue the stones before we finish, right?

Dice-K's okay

But did you notice the Red Sox get the leadoff guy on between innings 2 through 7? (Was it 8, too? I switched to the radio feed when MLB.tv took forever to stream...)

I don't like the idea of him not getting his run support! Greinke's good, but not that good....

On the bright side, no work today! Thanks, Jesus! (I will suck it up for the Saturday night vigil Mass in Oxford....oh please don't read all the Old Testament passages....some churches kinda pick and choose 'em. Although with this church, they sing everything, so I will block off a couple of hours of my schedule from 8 to at least 10 tomorrow night.)

The Dice-Man Cometh....

Check out this ad from Japan

This should be interesting....I wonder how much Wally got paid for his brief appearance. And what the Japanese people must think of the guy!

Anyways, I sent an email to Comcast last night....since they've just bought our cable company, I gave them the old "Hey, the Red Sox are the most popular sports team in New England, so when are you adding NESN?" line. Double that with the fact that MLB.TV blacks out the internet stream since most of Connecticut is in the Red Sox home territory, leaves me NO way to watch the game....unless I use one of those fancy IP re-router thingies to make MLB.com think I'm somewhere else besides home.

Anyway, the game will be on here at work at 2. So I'm eager enough!

Bosley's Law update!

So last night, having just finished providing my own yellow to an otherwise-clear toilet, I proceeded to spit out my Crest Pro Health rinse, a very pretty shade of blue, before flushing.

Anyways....planted some MORE grass seed last night. Good to see the robins this morning nibbling on a free meal, I suppose, huh? Sheesh. They can't eat ALL the seed, they'd grow grass out of their stomach or something.

House is always a good show that I never watch. Caught it last night. Everyone's got shows like that, right? They like them, but they're not addicted to them, so it's cool to catch an episode now and then without having to make the "investment" to watch them all. (For me, it's 24 and Lost....I watch all the Family Guys, but sometimes not until they pop up on adult swim.) Another good show like that for me is The Office. I've been watching that more on Thursdays, but it's not like an addiction, maaan!

Fantasy baseball team has the early lead this week over Mega. Looks like the Sunday night Mets-Cards stats DO count this week after all. That's a relief, since I have LoDuca and Eckstein. I had to swap Aaron Hill for Nick Punto, so that I could have a second 3rd baseman on nights when Chipper Jones isn't playing. Of course, the roster change is effective today, after the off-night for the Braves.

An announcing idea....2 main talkers, and then one guy whose job is to interject with all the factoids and stuff he can find online during the game. Like, if the announcers go off on a tangent discussing Chinese food, this 3rd guy can spot-check for highly reviewed restaurants in the city they're playing in.

Digging up dead grass

There's a fine spring tradition.....taking a metal garden rake, trying to rip up all of last year's dead crabgrass, and then grading the lawn and adding new grass seed. Apparently 12,000 sq. ft. of seed wasn't enough. Of course, I overseed like crazy, but we had to buy 2 more bags yesterday, and it started raining before I could finish prepping the area for it. Part of the time was lost when my 8-year-old thought she could help. But she doesn't have the strength to really chew up the stuff I'm trying to take up. Sure, she got some dead grass on the rake, but left plenty behind. Anyways, our whole back area needs to be re-seeded, and then the crabgrass-preventing fertilizer applied.

Meanwhile, the best sports day of the year, when you combine opening day baseball with the NCAA championship. I will have the mlb.tv package going strong!

Bosley's Law

Now, I'm not invoking former American League outfielder Thad Bosley.

I'm talking Tom Bosley. Everyone's favorite hardware store owner on TV. Howard Cunningham - Mr. C.

Specifically, those Glad commercials with the yellow-and-blue-make-green strips at the top so you can tell that the bags are locked shut.

I often make mention of Bosley's law whenever I find a freshly applied use of Tidy-Bowl or 2000 Flushes, or something like that in the toilet. Yesterday afternoon, they changed the hockey puck in the urinal at work to a dark blue color from the previous pinkish ones they had been using. So clearly, it was time to apply Bosley's law.

Dice....the Pedro, Roger treatment?

And by this, I mean....

Are the Red Sox destined to score only 1 or 2 runs every time he goes out there? Nothing worse than having an ace's performances wasted. Meanwhile, Wakefield will get 8 runs of support, and it'll be either an 8-7 win or 9-8 loss.

Dice went 5 no-hit today, the Red Sox have one hit so far in the 8th inning. Things you could see coming for $100, Alex....

Beer foam

So the instructions for the beer said to give it a week in the primary fermenter, and then move it after a week into the secondary bottle. That's a just-over-five gallon jug that I put an airlock on, after which the bubbles are supposed to SLOWLY escape through a small amount of germicide-treated water. Apparently I had some slow-awakening yeast at work. The stuff was bubbling out like a head, right through the airlock....after a couple of days it's finally slowed down so that I don't need to keep wiping the bottle off. I know this beer will need extra time, but I haven't had a situation like this. We shall see.

Oh, and Erika says the beer smells like pepperoni pizza. She's sorta right, too....the yeast I'm sure provides the dough smell, but the pepperoni *is* a bit odd.

Anyways, Kansas has kept winning for me....but I'm worried, there's another sheet with Kansas winning it all, and the guy's way ahead of me. March is a time for miracles, though.

My fantasy roster

Joe Mauer
Gary Sheffield (had a glitch in the java applet that caused this to pick automatically, but whatever, maybe he'll go .300/40/115)
Tadahito Iguchi (second basemen are such an afterthought)
Larry Jones (where am I, Shea?)
Jhonny Peralta
Torii Hunter (my all-spelling team!)
Ichiro
Coco Crisp
David Eckstein (is plucky grit a stat category?)
Paul LoDuca (a 2nd good catcher...trade bait!)
Nomah!
Milton Bradley (Nobody named Hasbro available)
Orlando Hudson
Aaron Hill (not first, alphabetically, even)
Chris Burke (ya know, in case games go 18 innings)


Aaron Harang
Matt Cain
Josh Beckett
K-Rod
Scott Linebrink (holds are a category!)
Dan Wheeler (ditto...although he could be the Sox closer)
Tim Hudson
Mike Timlin
Greg Maddux

A good license plate

Saw "FENWAY" on a CT plate this afternoon....white jeep.

Once I saw Nomar-5 on a New York plate, even with the Sox logo on it. I didn't realize that would even be available. Good to see some states are a little more relaxed with their vanity plate options!

Got my first fantasy draft tonight. Gotta go sort players, I suppose.

I felt like giving the thumbs up to the driver of the jeep. The only time I did that was to a vehicle with a Sox decal in the back, the morning of game 7 of the '04 ALCS....like I was a giddy schoolkid playing with house money!

First communion

So, my daughter made her first communion yesterday..special Mass on a Saturday. As far I'm concerned, that counts as going this weekend! Nobody ever does anything for the 2nd communion though. I gave her a message to kids from the pope (JP2, not the new one), and a dictionary. Not sure what's appropriate as a present. I got, for mine, a history of lots of saints, from the nuns at the church. It helped out in Catholic school if we needed an odd biography looked up. I think I still have it somewhere.

My brackets are shot. I have 8 out of 16, but have lost Wisconsin and Louisville from my final four. My only hope is Kansas over UNC. Any game I don't have in between must be won by some random team, to prevent others from getting ponts I can't.

11 inches of snow. I shoveled the first 9 myself on Friday, only to find 2 inches of freezing rain the next morning, which takes more work than the first nine. Grrr.... Oh well, beats going to work. I got tendonitis in my right arm. It felt like I was throwing a baseball as hard as I could for half an hour, over and over. But with my opposite hand.

My Sunday morning hoops team won our "NIT" bracket championship this morning, rather convincingly. What a difference it was having all 7 guys show up during the playoffs. We play 4 on 4 on sideways courts. No worries about getting tired. My job morphed into being the defensive specialist on guards....even got a DJ-poke steal in the open court, but missed the putback on a rebound after the first shot by a teammate rolled off. One of our big guys owes me though, he blew 3 bunnies on great passes this morning.

17 for 17?!

Not me, but a guy (a Dartmouth guy, mind you) in my pool at work.

Here's the thing. I got Duke-VCU wrong. I had Duke in the elite 8. Now I'm in a weird position. I want Pitt to lose, because I figure I need VCU to go far to eliminate points from anyone who had the higher seeded Panthers into the sweet sixteen. If the team I picked isn't there, I need to eliminate all other possible point-mongers from the equation. Maybe 1 or 2 other people have VCU, but a few have Pitt, so Pitt has to lose to keep others' points to a minimum.

1 down, 63 to go...

Congrats to Niagara....now good luck against Kansas. People were saying Niagara shouldn't have been a 16 seed....and since Kansas has tanked two years in a row....who knows, could we have a 16 over a 1?

I had no idea Terry Gannon, ESPN's announcer tonight, played for the '83 Wolfpack from NC State. Of course, Steve Lavin kept mentioning it every 10 minutes throughout the broadcast.

Anyways, Gannon's voice sounds just like Mark Jones, another ESPN guy. I wasn't sure who was actually announcing the game for a while. Lavin is good, but Gannon doesn't click with him like Brent Musberger does on the Big 10 games on Tuesdays.

Other good March announcers: Ron Franklin...always underrated. Fran Fraschilla, too. Surprised he works out west, with his St. John's ties. Of course, Bill Raftery is the best. He *should* be working with Sean McDonough, but CBS got rid of him a few years ago. And yet, Verne Lundquist is still a very good pairing for him...CBS must find a way to get Gus Johnson to do both of the first two weekends. I heard he's being replaced with James Brown, and that's unacceptable. Another example of networks thinking we care about their "big name" announcers, when we don't give either cheek of a rat's ass.

Anyways, with 3 points, I'm tied for first in my pool.

Weekend stuff

First things first, I'm cloning La Moinette Belgian Blonde Ale. Started the yeast proofing Saturday and added it yesterday to the wort while watching the NCAA tourney shows. I can't believe I go to pick what I think will be a light, spring ale, and it ends up listed as 8.5% alcohol. Not exactly the kind of thing you sip on a warm spring day. It takes 2 months to finish in the bottle, too, so it will be warm by the time it's ready to imbibe.

Love the NCAA tournament shows....Dick Vitale is probably still crying over (fill in this year's team whose bubble burst.....Drexel). Nice to see Jay Bilas get in a little dig at him in the segues. I will now collect $5 a head from anyone here in the building willing to contribute to the "Brian petty cash in March" fund. It beats hitting the bank....and if I win, like last year, then I don't have to scurry off to a bank to get the cash for the eventual winner. I do that because I've already spent the entry fees over the course of the tournament as cash on hand....using it to buy lunch, for instance.

Went to Beardsley Zoo Saturday with the girls....it had been a couple of years.....but March again, which again meant no alligators. Nice strong scent of indoor wild cat piss, though. I believe it was ocelot pee we were greeted with. The coolest animals they have are the foxes on stilts. I forget what they really were called, but the fox on stilts nickname for them was very apropos. I also commend their cafeteria. $21 got us lunch for four including hot chocolate. Burgers were cheap (3.75 for a double with cheese) so it made the skinny pressed-meat patties very forgivable. Fries and chicken tenders were good, too. I was expecting 35-40 bucks for all that.

Lastly, Sunday was my older daughter's last ever non-communion Mass, since she's making her first communion next week. I thought about coming back to the pew and showing her half-chewed host in my mouth, but that's considered sacrilegious, so I opted just to swallow politely before I returned.

Dirty-Joke Jeopardy!

Here's an idea I had a few years ago.

In terms of where it might play out, I'm not sure....maybe at a party, or if worse comes to worse, as a bit on the Howard Stern show.

A little mini-game show where the object of the game is to figure out the joke based on the punch line. The jokes would be famously dirty.

Answer: It's a ten-cent stamp, but if you want to lick it, it's a quarter.

And so, you've got to come up with the Question :"Did you hear the Post Office has a new stamp celebrating prostitution?"

Of course, that's pretty tame, but there are plenty enough famous dirty jokes with well-known punchlines. ...

Best beer ever?

So what is it?

I offer up Hop Devil, by the Victory Brewing Co. in Pennsylvania. Very tangy from the hops (duuhhhh), but enough malt body so that it's almost thick. I took a tour of their brewery/restaurant a couple of years ago. Tremendous food to go with their beer, that's why it was packed, I'm sure.

As for the worst beer....it would be cheap and easy to say Budweiser....so I won't. Actually, because Bud doesn't exactly try too hard, it ends up being harmless. The worst beer I've ever had may have been Hop Monster, brewed by Paper City in Holyoke MA. It tasted like paper pulp must. And the thing was, the first sip you're like, "wow..." and then you realize, "oh God! What the hell am I drinking?" And of course, I kept trying to fool myself later in the week, starting another bottle....getting fewer and fewer sips in before realizing I was in taste bud hell. Was it paper? Was it motor oil? Who knows....

I suppose it's easy, too, to offer up beer brewed with lemon ginger, or cayenne pepper in it. But those are an attempt to mingle flavors. More easy to forgive the attempt. Hop Monster really had no excuse for sucking so bad.