Otter Creek ESB

Nice coppery color with a good head of foam leaving a good lacing along the glass. I get a decent floral hop aroma, with the malt coming through as well.
The first sip brought me back to my last trip to England and trying the bitters there. Not the same thing though, I realize. The hops soon came through much more aggressively, with a good bit of a bite, but were well balanced all in all.
Overall Rating: 4.1

Otter Creek ESB

Nice coppery color with a good head of foam leaving a good lacing along the glass. I get a decent floral hop aroma, with the malt coming through as well.
The first sip brought me back to my last trip to England and trying the bitters there. Not the same thing though, I realize. The hops soon came through much more aggressively, with a good bit of a bite, but were well balanced all in all.
Overall Rating: 4.1

Ready to Feel Old?

Kids born in 1990 will be eligible to vote in next year’s Presidential Election. A couple of benchmarks to show you how long ago 1990 is:
Milli Vanilli won their “Best New Artist” Grammy.
Mike Tyson’s championship reign ended at the hands of Buster Douglas.
Marion “Bitch Set Me Up” Barry was arrested for drug possession.
The Soviet Union officially disbanded.
Germany officially reunited.
The Hubble Space Telescope was put into orbit.
The first World Wide Web page was written.
Margaret Thatcher ended her tenure as British Prime Minister.
The Gulf War started.
Super Nintendo was released.
The first episode of MTV Unplugged aired (trivia: who was the artist on this first episode?)
Farm Aid was already on tour #4.
Pearl Jam played their first show as a band.
Michael Crichton published Jurassic Park.
Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Wings, In Living Color, Beverly Hills 90210, America’s Funniest Home Videos and Law & Order premiered.
Home Alone, Ghost, Dances With Wolves, Pretty Woman, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the first one) were the top-grossing films. Dances With Wolves won the Best Picture Oscar. Back to the Future III also came out in 1990.
Sammy Davis, Jr, Jim Henson, and Roald Dahl (among others) died.
End nostalgia trip.

Take Brady Quinn, Please!

Anyone who knows me will realize that I despise Notre Dame. Hate em. So I laughed when Brady Quinn wasn’t taken by the Browns, as expected, at #3. I laughed harder when they showed him at age 4 in the Browns uniform. (I had the same thing for the Giants, and I think my brother had the Cowboys equivalent. We would play in the backyard in our “helmets” and “shoulder pads” until the days when we started hitting each other too hard. I think at one point one of us undercut the other’s legs while jumping for a pass, causing a scary moment of landing on one’s head.) But no way should he have dropped to #22. A travesty, I say. Clearly the Dolphins should have taken him (I feel a Dolphins draft mistake video coming on), but I even though the Jets (do you really trust Chad Pennington to stay healthy?), Jaguars (ditto re: Byron Leftwich) or Chiefs (Trent Green is 37 and you’re trying to trade him) should have pulled the trigger. Instead, those teams allowed Cleveland to make a deal to trade back up and get him. Even though it cost them their first rounder next year, you have to think that the Browns are one of the most improved teams on paper, adding a stud LT, franchise QB, and Jamal Lewis to their squad.
The Giants always frustrate me with their picks. Aaron Ross may be good, but they have failed in their DB picks in the past. Taking Steve Smith where they did in the second round was a good value, but they just took Sinorice Moss last year, and needed O-line help and more help on defense.
I had my second baseball game of the season yesterday and played 5 of the 8 positions, all three outfield spots and third and short. Solid game all around, and we are dominating this fledling four team league. I made a couple of easy plays in centerfield, and a good play on a slow grounder to my right at short, throwing out one of their fastest players by a step. My only bobble came at third base, when, with the bases loaded, I fielded a ground ball, stepped on third, and threw home. My throw was a little off, and the run scored. Still, it was already 21-1 or something at that point, but still. At the plate, I lined out weakly to short my first time up, victimized by the umpire’s shaky strike zone. Since I was the second guy up, I was surprised that fast balls at my ankles scooped out of the dirt by the catcher were called strikes, but the ump was consistently calling those and I adjusted later. The next time up, I fell behind by shaky calls again, and grounded to third, but hustled down the line enough to cause a low throw to first and I was safe. My last two at-bats were my best ones, against the other team’s best pitcher. The first time, I decided I was swinging at the first pitch and wouldn’t let him get ahead of me. He grooved me a fast ball, and I drilled it into the left field corner where it either hopped over the fence, or went through an opening for a ground rule double. The next time up, he got ahead of me, and I choked up on the bat to line a two strike single over shortstop. He made a nice pitch, putting a slider low in the zone, that the ump would have called a strike, so I had to swing, and got a good piece of it. The last two at-bats felt good, and got me off the schneid. Hopefully I can keep it going next week.

Not Your Usual Saturday Night

Being the parent of two kids under the age of four means that an exciting Saturday night usually involves a trip to Carvel or Blockbuster. There is no partying till all hours of the night in our house, and definitely no going out.
This Saturday night was perhaps a little bit too exciting for our suburban lives. It started early in the afternoon, when Lisa was out in the front yard gardening with Ellie and Max. One of the miniature Dobermans from down the street got loose and took off down the street, crossing several times, being fortunate not to get hit by a car. He eventually saw Max, and went over for a sniff allowing the owners to catch up and get him back home. It turned out they were having a birthday party, and one of the guests left the gate open.
That party went on throughout the day, into the night. Now, don’t get me wrong, we’re all in favor of parties. The whole day the party was going on, and we went about our own lives. But sometime after the sun went down around 8pm, the music got louder and louder, and Ellie’s bedtime was fast approaching. Lisa ended up calling the cops, in spite of the early hour, because the pounding bass line was shaking our window from a full block away. Play your music if you must, but it’s too loud if my windows are closed, they are shaking, and I can hear every lyric. (Even if I couldn’t understand them because they were in Spanish. Did I mention the neighbors are Latino? Yeah, more on that coming up. It’s called foreshadowing. For the record, we are equal opportunity complainers. Last year we complained about the white teenagers partying.) A few minutes later, the music was off. But, sometime before 9pm, it was back again. I couldn’t really hear it in Ellie’s room with the windows closed though, so Lisa tried to get Ellie to sleep, and I tried to get Evan to sleep.
This is where it started getting weird. I was about to call the cops again when the music stopped. Someone else must have called I suppose. Soon after the music stopped, an angry male voice started shouting. I couldn’t tell what it was, as I had the TV on, but Lisa came in and said, “Can you hear that guy shouting, ‘Latinos! Go! Home!’?” This could be a problem. Lisa called the cops for the second time, and they started getting worried that there would be a serious throw-down between the neighbors. At one point, they were in the easement area of our backyard with flashlights, apparently looking for one or the other neighbor. They never found anyone back there, if there was anyone there in the first place. We never found out who was shouting either, as the night settled down soon afterward, and Ellie was finally able to get some sleep. I think she was a bit freaked out by all the excitement.
So much for the quiet suburban life.

Not Your Usual Saturday Night

Being the parent of two kids under the age of four means that an exciting Saturday night usually involves a trip to Carvel or Blockbuster. There is no partying till all hours of the night in our house, and definitely no going out.
This Saturday night was perhaps a little bit too exciting for our suburban lives. It started early in the afternoon, when Lisa was out in the front yard gardening with Ellie and Max. One of the miniature Dobermans from down the street got loose and took off down the street, crossing several times, being fortunate not to get hit by a car. He eventually saw Max, and went over for a sniff allowing the owners to catch up and get him back home. It turned out they were having a birthday party, and one of the guests left the gate open.
That party went on throughout the day, into the night. Now, don’t get me wrong, we’re all in favor of parties. The whole day the party was going on, and we went about our own lives. But sometime after the sun went down around 8pm, the music got louder and louder, and Ellie’s bedtime was fast approaching. Lisa ended up calling the cops, in spite of the early hour, because the pounding bass line was shaking our window from a full block away. Play your music if you must, but it’s too loud if my windows are closed, they are shaking, and I can hear every lyric. (Even if I couldn’t understand them because they were in Spanish. Did I mention the neighbors are Latino? Yeah, more on that coming up. It’s called foreshadowing. For the record, we are equal opportunity complainers. Last year we complained about the white teenagers partying.) A few minutes later, the music was off. But, sometime before 9pm, it was back again. I couldn’t really hear it in Ellie’s room with the windows closed though, so Lisa tried to get Ellie to sleep, and I tried to get Evan to sleep.
This is where it started getting weird. I was about to call the cops again when the music stopped. Someone else must have called I suppose. Soon after the music stopped, an angry male voice started shouting. I couldn’t tell what it was, as I had the TV on, but Lisa came in and said, “Can you hear that guy shouting, ‘Latinos! Go! Home!’?” This could be a problem. Lisa called the cops for the second time, and they started getting worried that there would be a serious throw-down between the neighbors. At one point, they were in the easement area of our backyard with flashlights, apparently looking for one or the other neighbor. They never found anyone back there, if there was anyone there in the first place. We never found out who was shouting either, as the night settled down soon afterward, and Ellie was finally able to get some sleep. I think she was a bit freaked out by all the excitement.
So much for the quiet suburban life.

Sam Adams White Ale

Orangey color, big white head which filled the hefe glass to the top, bubbles out quickly.
I smelled the glass more than anything else, not much aroma.
The flavor had a nice spiciness: coriander and orange dominating. This is a crisp beer, with a smooth wheat finish.
Didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but a pretty good spring beer.
Overall rating: 3.45

Sam Adams White Ale

Orangey color, big white head which filled the hefe glass to the top, bubbles out quickly.
I smelled the glass more than anything else, not much aroma.
The flavor had a nice spiciness: coriander and orange dominating. This is a crisp beer, with a smooth wheat finish.
Didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but a pretty good spring beer.
Overall rating: 3.45

Sam Adams White Ale

Orangey color, big white head which filled the hefe glass to the top, bubbles out quickly.
I smelled the glass more than anything else, not much aroma.
The flavor had a nice spiciness: coriander and orange dominating. This is a crisp beer, with a smooth wheat finish.
Didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but a pretty good spring beer.
Overall rating: 3.45

My Last Night

Very strange night last night. I got home and checked out the monitor. Here’s something I bet you didn’t know: if the backlight on your LCD monitor (or TV) goes bad, like mine did, you can shine a bright light at the screen and still see the outline of what is displayed. I did that with mine and saw the outline of the Windows login box. Freaky and cool.
Evan had his second “solid” food meal of bananas. I forgot how babies will try to suck on the spoon instead of eating from it like we do. It is awesome and I have 15 minutes of video from his first time.
Ellie fell asleep on the La-Z-Boy before dinner around 6pm, and we eventually moved her into her bed. She didn’t wake up until 6am when a thunderstorm rattled the windows. This was probably a good preview of her teenage years, though I expect the sleep window to shift more to midnight to noon.
After dinner, I went out to Staples and picked up this Acer 19″ widescreen monitor. It’s actually about the same height as our old 17″ LCD, but much wider. The HD looks sweet on it, and the price is pretty good for the specs it has.
I didn’t get around to doing any picture stuff, because Lisa had email and finance stuff to catch up on, so look for Disney stuff on Monday, conditions permitting.
After taking out the recycling, I went downstairs to watch TV since I wasn’t really tired yet and watched about the first hour of “Saw,” as edited for TV by the Sci-Fi Channel. Disturbing yet intriguing movie so far. I had no idea that Ben from Lost was in it though! And Amanda is Rhonda, the pregnant student from Summer School! I haven’t finished watching it yet, so don’t ruin it for me.