K. Was Here

Saturday.

Friday Beer Blogging

Sam Adams Winter Lager.

Miniature lights not included with six pack.

Home Early on a Friday

Time to uncork it!

Winter Storm Watch

I'm ready.
Bring it.

Update, December 1, 2007, 8:00 pm: The snow and ice have started. I do not recommend the Full Moon though. Weird, metallic aftertaste. Better options out there for hunkering down.

Hot Toddy

You can't see it, but there's a generous dollop of the cheapest Canadian whisky I could find in the tea, along with lemon and a spoonful of honey.

'Night y'all.

Product Review: Woodchuck Draft Cider Granny Smith Varietal

Yum.

Halloweeny Wine

I was intrigued by the bottle of this $7.99 pinot noir from Romania. Light bodied, very cherry-flavored, a little bitey with the alcohol. The red cork is probably the most notable thing about it.

Bad News for Beer Lovers

Poor hop harvests may increase prices.

Macrobrewery may be using genetically modified rice.

Headline writers everywhere fall into a cliché trap.

D'You Think I Could Get Someone to Mow my Lawn This Weekend?

Please? The push mower doesn't cut the tall weeds, the rip cord on the gas mower is evidently longer than my arms, and I don't have a boyfriend to do it anymore.

Also: WANT

Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest Lager from Leinenkugel's. A sweetish, malty, fizzy brew, admittedly not as delicious as the Sunset Wheat, but pours a lovely amber color and good enough to numb the pain inflicted by sportscasters who refuse to SHUT UP about Notre Dame.

Paul Maguire: They had a good drive there for one down!
Me: *throws yarn ball at t.v.*

And a frost advisory tonight...yessssss!

Matching Martini

Out of sheer laziness I purchased a cheap bottle of pre-made cosmopolitans. The vodka is so rough I had to add grapefruit juice and ice to make it more palatable. Remember kids, you get what you pay for!

Goodfellahs

I stopped at the party store around the corner after work today to pick up some Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat, which I had for the first time on the camping trip and has become a new summer favorite. Going to the party store in the early evening is better than going later. Later, I feel a little wary walking in alone, what with the random male loiterers around the door, and the two guys who run the place don't exactly put me at ease either. They look like, sound like, and project the auras of two men who know in great detail what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.

This evening a new, younger guy was selling the lottery tickets and working one register while one of the goodfellahs berated someone on the other end of the phone, per usual. He's the one who asked for my ID once when I paid for a bottle of Grand Marnier with a credit card. "How d'you say that name?" he asked me. When I told him, he gave me shit about it. "Cinco de Mayo! Cinco means 'five!' Cinco de Mayo! Hahahahahah!" I risked winding up under the 50 yard line at Soldier Field with Hoffa and unsmilingly said, "That's not an original joke."

But I digress.

Young goodfellah hesitated to ring up my $8 microbrewed six-pack. Because I didn't stick my ID in my pocket when I walked over, I got carded for the first time in about four years. Now, I knew I had a pimple on my forehead and a sparkly silver butterfly in my hair because I woke up at 8:26 and had to be at work by 9:00 and grabbed the closest barrette. But the Delaware Water Gap appears between my eyebrows when I make an expression and when I smile several crows stamp on the skin around the corners of my eyes. My hair is turning gray. I've the start of a pizza-fed double chin and some nice strega-style black whiskers. This kid thinks I'm not 21?

He wanted to consult with the senior member of the staff. Goodfellah held the phone away from his ear. "What do you want?" he asked me. "You want a bag? You want us to help you drink it?"

"I'm in here all the time," I said. "I just want to take this home."

"She's okay," he told young goodfellah.

"You still owe me $200," he said into the phone.

And Drink Some Cherry Wine, Uh-Huh

Me: 08:17 I am contemplating the cherry champagne
K: 08:17 Hit it. Give us a blow-by-blow account.
Me: 08:17 I dunno.
K: 08:17 Iz it chillaxin'?
Me: 08:17 Once it's open you gotta drink it all.
K: 08:18 True. true. Tomorrow's Monday.
Me: 08:18 Yez, been in da fridge since yesterday.
08:18 I don't do any officin' on Mondays.
K: 08:18 Troubles still far away, I hope? LOL
Me: 08:25 Hm. There is no cork.
K: 08:25 No corkage?
Me: 08:25 No.
K: 08:25 Huh
Me: 08:26 It's a white plastic cap of some sort.
08:26 I'm afraid.
08:26 Will it explode if I twist it off?
K: 08:26 Nah
Me: 08:26 It appears to be screw-cap champagne.
08:26 Sorry, "Sparkling wine"
08:28 Yep.
08:28 Screw cap
08:28 No pop.
08:28 That is high class, right there.
08:28 It has nice bubbles, actually.
08:29 Smells like malt liquor.
K: 08:29 Ew
Me: 08:29 Yep. Tastes like cherry.
K: 08:29 Cheery.
Me: 08:29 Nice fizzy.
08:29 Not a strong flavor. Not too sweet either.
08:30 It's pretty good.
K: 08:30 Good
Me: 08:30 I am pleased with my $9.99 purchase.
K: 08:30 Excellent

Failed Experiment

Home from vacation and no groceries in the house. This is my attempt at "Twisted Tea": Green tea mixed with orange-flavored vodka.

It is disgusting.

Vacation pix tomorrow.

Sangria

One bottle cheap red wine
3 cups club soda
3/4 cup Grand Marnier
1/4 cup sugar
Juice of one orange, one lemon, and two small limes
Fruit slices

Combine all ingredients. Let sit 2 hours. Pour over ice.

Sumer is icumen in

Lhude slurp your Oberon.

Welcome to Tropical Michigan

Already 78° and 60% humidity in my apartment.

So I made the cat a mojito.

She wanted fun twisty straws, but after wandering the aisles of Kroger for 15 minutes listening to the Strangest Song I Have Heard in a Grocery Store (Don McLean's "Vincent," which replaces "Poison Ivy," heard in a Big Bear in Columbus, as Strangest Song I Have Heard in a Grocery Store) I settled for the merely bendy straws.

Vinology

Guess This Beer

This is one I usually slug from the bottle, so I was surprised when it poured such a creamy (though quickly dissipating) head.

I hadn't logged into BeerAdvocate for a while, and when I did today, I saw I had missed this important e-mail:

Happy Repeal of Prohibition!
Sent: Sat Apr 07, 2007 15:33 UTC (3 weeks ago)
--

On April 7, 1933 prohibition was finally repealed and BEER was the first legal alcoholic beverage to start flowing again in the US; well at least 3.2 beer was flowing.

Sunday Morning Clean-Up